By Courtney Handley

With the Indiana Wesleyan University baseball team’s recent success, some standout players have been recognized not only by the school, but also by the entire Crossroads League. One player in particular, Bryan Beachy (so), was recently named the Crossroads League Pitcher of the Week.

Beachy earned the title for his performance at Marian College March 22. The team won both games in its league opener, with Michael Caley (sr) pitching the first game and Beachy pitching all seven innings of the second game. Beachy allowed only two runs throwing eight strikeouts and just one walk.

“Every member of the team contributed to that game. I had a good game, yes, but it is always team effort,” Beachy said about the team’s clean sweep of the Marian Knights.

Caley agreed with Beachy.

“Pitching really takes a toll on our arms,” Caley said. “We can’t pitch the whole time, for both games, and we have a great pitching team and we are confident in whoever goes up to the mound.”

“I’m more of a finesse pitcher,” Beachy said. “I don’t throw as hard or as fast as some of the other guys.” When he practices, Beachy said he works on his placement and style rather than speed.

“He has done extremely well this year. He’s very competitive, wants the ball and when he goes out there, I feel like we have a really good chance to win,” coach Chad Newhard said about Beachy. Newhard also said he feels that way about all the starting pitchers on the team.

“They are a very tight-knit group; they have a desire to win and compete every time they go out,” Newhard said. “It definitely gives our team confidence.”

Beachy’s brother Brandon is a pitcher for the Atlanta Braves and played for the Wildcats from 2005 to 2008.

“I don’t ever compare myself to my brother. My parents are proud of all their kids and we’re all different from each other,” Beachy said. “They don’t expect me to be like him or anybody else.”

Beachy has six siblings, almost all of whom play baseball or softball. He said he feels no pressure from the fact that his brother plays in the major leagues.

“I just focus on improving my game and getting better so I can contribute to my team,” Beachy said. Beachy added his favorite part of playing baseball at IWU is the camaraderie with the players.

“I’ve made some of the greatest friends on the team and we all just love hanging together and goofing off,” Beachy said. “And playing baseball, of course.”

It seemed there was no better title for what I wanted to tell you about.

Other sports.

Really, that’s what I want to talk about: Sports that maybe you haven’t heard of, are not interested in or didn’t know were real.

I am well aware that American prefer baseball to cricket. We also enjoy people getting tackled in football more than seeing 11 people kicking a little white ball around. And in Indiana, if you don’t love basketball, you might as well leave.

I understand that some of these are cultural differences. I actually don’t know of one cricket team in the United States. But that’s because we don’t play that here. We play baseball, which I like to call cricket’s figurative younger brother (Cricket was developed first in the 17th century with baseball coming around shortly after).

But I don’t want to talk about cricket. At all.

I went to the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis a few weeks ago and watched the Monster Energy Supercross. When I explained it to people, I was met with a lot of blank stares. Or the cordial, “Oh, that sounds fun” and quick topic switch.

So I see it as my duty as sports editor to entertain you … and also educate you every now and again.

So consider this your sports education of the day, week or semester if you haven’t learned anything at all this year. That would be pretty sad, but I digress.

My Google search of “not well known sports” provided a large number of hits.

So we might as well get started.

Gaelic football. This is real. And it sounds real medieval and intense. My research tells me this is a cross between football and rugby. Two 15-person teams face off and attempt to score points through goals on a rectangular grass field. It’s actually the Irish and Australian way to play football. They just have different rules and positions.

Team handball is up next on the list. I actually knew about this before I Googled it, but I thought it was more or less a game my gym teacher had invented to keep us busy. Apparently it’s a real sport. Who knew?

This game includes full-body contact, which my gym teacher did not allow.

Contact is only allowed when a defensive player is standing directly in front of an offensive player. Any side contact or contact from behind will result in penalties. The goal of this game is to try and get the ball in the opposing team’s goal. It is more popular in Europe, but the U.S. has a team that plays in the Summer Olympics.

Team handball is a mix of rugby, basketball and soccer.

The last new sport I’m going to introduce you to is MotoGP. This happens to be one of my favorite sports of all time.

It’s the premier class of Grand Prix motorcycle road racing. I’m talking prototype motorcycles worth millions of dollars (not kidding) that can reach speeds of 215 miles per hour flying around hairpin turns. It is gaining popularity in the U.S. and in 2013 there are three MotoGP races in the states: one in California, one in Texas and one in Indiana.

So feel educated. I’m betting you were unaware of at least one, if not two, of those sports.

Do you know of any odd or unpopular sports? Let me know.

Here’s a look at the printed page honoring the Wildcats’ 2013 NAIA DII Championship. These photos celebrate IWU’s return to campus Wednesday, March 13, the day after winning the title.

If you’re anything like me, filling out your March Madness bracket can be one of the most nerve-racking moments of your day.

If you’re not like me and you think that’s weird, you must know some calming techniques that I should learn. Or you hate basketball, one of the two.

And as if going through the painstaking process of choosing your teams and getting your bracket just perfect weren’t stressful enough, now you sit and wait. Literally. Sit on your bum and watch your bracket either fall apart or be so wonderful people will think you somehow cheated.

You can’t hurry the process of March Madness.

Oh, it is indeed a process. A stressful, wonderful, heart attack-inducing process.

First, you wait for the highly anticipated Selection Sunday. The final rankings of teams have been released and games have been decided. Now the fun can begin – filling out your bracket.

After that, it’s all chance.

I personally used to get really upset when my bracket would get busted. Now I like it. I’m all about the Cinderella stories that take place.

If you didn’t know, I’m a huge Butler Bulldogs fan. Official underdawgs (see what I did there?) of the tournament.

Now while they haven’t won a championship yet, it’s coming. I can feel it. But that’s beside the point.

But it never fails. After I fill out my bracket and the games start, I immediately freak out and think I’ve picked the worst teams possible. Honestly, when I watch games, I don’t yell the typical fan things like, “Are you blind?! So-and-so was open!”, “Ref! Bad call!”, or “You call that a travel?!”.

First round I usually end up yelling things like, “OH MY GOSH I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE YOU GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR. WHAT WAS I THINKING?” which gets me some pretty interesting looks when I watch games with other people or in crowded places.

I like to call this bracket anxiety, which I am convinced could be a real medical condition, but doctors would probably challenge that.

I get so nervous checking scores and comparing it with my bracket, which is slightly ridiculous but, it’s what happens. With March Madness comes brackets, with brackets, come bracket anxiety.

By the time you read this, I probably will have filled out three brackets out of nerves and (hopefully) will have settled on one.

Yes, I fill out multiple brackets at first. Don’t judge me. But I do end up picking my final bracket, and I live my basketball life by that bracket.

I am Erin Alberding, and I am a bracket anxiety survivor.

If you want to compare brackets or judge mine or just take a peek at mine, come find me. I like to fill out my brackets by hand, I have no idea why, personal preference I suppose.

SPOILER ALERT: I will have Butler University winning the championship on every bracket. Call me an optimist or a dreamer or just plain crazy, but the Butler Bulldogs are going to win a championship … someday.