Edenton, N.C. - UND baseball sophomore Jake Magner is spending his summer nearly 1,500 miles away from his home town of Grand Rapids, Minn., on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Sioux slugger was picked to play in the Coastal Plain Amateur Baseball League and began his summer season this past week playing first base and batting clean up for the Edenton Steamers. Below is the first installment of a weekly summer blog that Magner will provide for Sioux fans on his experiences in a league that features wood bats and some of the top collegiate players in the nation.

Swinging on the Banks
My whole adventure out East started with a 25-hour drive from Grand Rapids, Minn., to Edenton, N.C. This sounds terrible and it pretty much was. I think I listened to every single song on my Ipod at least three times on the entire trip. It was cool seeing different parts of the country though, especially the mountains in West Virginia. You definitely don't see a lot of those in North Dakota! When I finally arrived in Edenton, I stepped outside and felt like i was actually standing in a sauna. The temperature and humidity is definitely something that I will need to learn to deal with. The sad thing is that it is not even that hot here yet!

Every player in the Coastal Plain League stays with a host family. I was a little nervous about this, but I felt at home the moment I stepped inside my new house for the summer. My host family has really helped make the move from Minnesota to North Carolina easy.

Another thing that I found out pretty quick is that people from down South have not met many people from Minnesota. I can't even count how many times I have been made fun of so far for my "northern" accent. Apparently I talk like Herb Brooks in the movie Miracle.

Last night we had our home opener and it was amazing! About 900 people showed up to the game. Edenton pretty much shuts down when the Steamers have a home game. It is definitely a small town that loves its baseball. It almost gives off an atmosphere like a Minor League game with between inning races and competitions for the kids. The game came down to a play at the plate, but we were successful in winning 4-3.

If all our games are like the home-opener last night, I know I will be in for a long, great summer of baseball.

Editor's Note: Magner humbly failed to mention he went 3-for-4 with a home run and scored the game-winning run in the 4-3 victory over the Petersburg Generals. The Steamers play six games a week through the first week of August and have every Sunday off during the summer.