Around this time last year, State College Spikes left fielder Nathan Southard and his fellow Tulane teammates were preparing to start class at Texas Tech University because Hurricane Katrina had destroyed the city where their school stood.
But one year later, the Louisiana native is hitting almost .290 and was named to the New York-Penn league all-star team in his first professional baseball season.
For Southard, this year has been an interesting one.
"It was a crazy experience with the hurricane," Southard said. "To get here, to get drafted, it was like a dream come true."
That dream continued when former collegiate teammate Mark Hamilton was called up to the Single-A Swing of the Quad Cities, and Southard was thrust into the role of run producer.
While playing at Tulane with Hamilton, he was known as a contact hitter with good speed, more of a top-of-the-order run-scorer than a middle-of-the-order keystone of the lineup.
Now, for the first time in his career, Southard is the "man."
"Everyone wants to be that guy," Southard said. "Hopefully, I can continue that for the rest of my career. It was definitely a good experience all the way around."
Southard, arguably the team's MVP, had a rather average second half of August, but that didn't stop the Spikes from going on a tear, almost clinching a playoff berth. When the month ended, State College found itself in the thick of a pennant race.
But when the calendar changed to September, tropical storm Ernesto had eliminated the Spikes from playoff contention. The powerful storm wiped out two games, washing away a doubleheader against Batavia, ultimately eliminating State College from the race.
"It's been crazy [with the rain]," Southard said "We had, what, eight games in the last five days? It was tough knowing we couldn't control our destiny because we were done playing Auburn, and they keep winning and winning."
That three-week period was a turbulent one for the Spikes.
Starting with a victory on Aug. 9, State College won eight of its next nine games, which saw it pull within a game of first place. Then the Spikes old nemesis -- inconsistency -- reared its ugly head as they went 4-5 in the next nine.
In that same time period, the Spikes saw shortstop Jose Salazar leave for and return from Single-A Quad Cities. Then State College watched helplessly as clean-up hitter Allen Craig's season was ended by a knee injury. But through it all, the Spikes stayed in the race until the red-hot Auburn Doubledays finally reached their magic number.
"[The playoff race] was exciting," Southard said. "It was fun to see the team want to win. It was tough to get out of the race. But it was fun here for a long time."
Despite falling short of his goals for the team, Southard still found this season as one he'll carry with him for the rest of his career.
"I just learned the system," Southard said referring to the ever-present movement that takes place in the Minor Leagues. "I learned what the organization was going to do. Understanding why, and knowing that you can go up and down at any time. Just being consistent and understanding how the game works was very important."
