The weather was beautiful even though the UMBC baseball team suffered an unfortunate loss to their local rival: The Maryland Terrapins. The Retrievers fought hard until the end of the game when the score was left at 7-5, this past Wednesday evening in College Park, Maryland.

The Retrievers had several players who played well during the game. Sophomore Max Himmelstein led UMBC with three hits, and one of Himmelstein’s hits also batted in a UMBC player.

Following Himmelstein, Junior Bryan Russo hit an RBI to score Himmelstein in. After Russo’s RBI, Sophmore Curtis Schickner hit two balls which led to two more runs for UMBC.

Defensively, Junior Marty Zawacki started for the Retrievers by striking out two Maryland opponents. David Davita also pitched well and struck out two Maryland players as well. Finally, Ed Bach and Sean Swetnam each contributed their own single strikeout.

The Retrievers showed quite an effort despite their loss. UMBC will play again this Friday when they will host Navy at 5 p.m. The two teams will also play again in Annapolis, Maryland, on Saturday and Sunday.

College sports are incredibly popular in America, sometimes even more so then the pros. People everywhere can name where their favorite football and basketball players went to school which only helps popularize those sports. But when it comes to baseball , many of the top athletes did not go to college which really doesn’t help the sports popularity. This also hurts the popularity of college baseball as well.

Of course that is not the only reason why college baseball has become lost in the mix as far as college sports go. The Major Leauge Baseball (MLB) draft is nowhere near as exciting an event as the National Football League (NFL) or the Naational Basketball Association (NBA). That is because when you watch those drafts you know you are going to see those top picks as soon as the next season begins. Unless your dealing with a mega-star that is not going to happen in baseball. The players have to go through the minor leagues and aren’t even guaranteed to ever get a spot on the MLB roster. Take Matt Wieters of the Orioles as an example. Wieters was a stand out catcher at Georgia Tech, yet know one in Baltimore really knew who he was until the Orioles drafted him and talked him up for weeks after. Then when everyone was excited he spent about a year in the minor leagues. So it’s not really a wonder why no one pays much attention to college baseball.

Having said that I’m hoping college baseball becomes more or a standout sport. We’re just a few weeks away from the start of college baseball season and it’s something I for one am looking forward to. Everyone loves March Madness and they should because it’s an exciting event where anything can happen. No one’s forgotten George Mason and their run to the final four as the 11th seed. Even last season in hockey’s NCAA tournament, 16 seed Bemidji State made a run to the frozen four taking out top seeded Notre Dame. College baseball is no different. Just two years ago in 2008, the Fresno State Bulldogs claimed the championship as a region four seed. That’s about the equivalent of a 13 seed winning the NCAA tournament. Yet fans would rather see the end of the NCAA football season which is decided by polls and computers rather then a playoff system and what happens on the field.

Of course I could just be wrong in all aspects and maybe baseball in general is just not as popular as it used to be. Even in the pros there have been rumblings that the NBA and NHL are getting bigger then baseball. Then of course the NFL is just miles ahead of them all. But with the impending NBA and NFL lock outs who knows where we’ll be in a few year and there are still many cities that idolize baseball as the number one sport. In New York, the Yankees are clearly the most important team in an area with around ten professional sports teams. In Boston the Red Sox are a standout favorite when they still have a team representing every other major sport. Yet in Baltimore, we have the Ravens and the Orioles and  the Orioles have had declining fan numbers for years. Sure it’s been awhile since they’ve had a winning season but do we really want to be known as a band wagon city? The Birds could use our support this season especially as they begin to turn it around and could very soon be a threat in the American League (AL) east.

Just like with the Orioles, college baseball needs more support, and I can’t speak for any other school but UMBC’s baseball team is kicking off their season on February 26th and look to have a good season and build upon last year. Army comes to town on the weekend of the 26th and hopefully UMBC baseball and college baseball in general will gain more popularity as their season kicks off.