May 14th recently served as the date for Mother's Day, a day when most of us thank the ones who brought us into this world and who do so much for us with a gift, a card or some flowers.

But for Virginia Tech baseball player Chad Foutz, he'll remember this Mother's Day more than anyone.

It was the day he lost his.

After a series of doctors' visits, after a round of nauseating chemotherapy and after a dreaded bone marrow transplant, Carrie Foutz - the mother of three boys - succumbed to a year-long bout with leukemia. She not only left behind Chad, Matt and Scott and husband Richard, but she also left behind a team. A team of many players who considered her as a second mom.

In baseball, perhaps more so than any sport, the players and their families are ... well ... like family. Parents and siblings often make the trek to Blacksburg and other venues for their weekend ritual of watching baseball games. And afterwards, they congregate, talking about what else - baseball.

So when Carrie Foutz passed on, it affected more than just her immediate family. It hit the Virginia Tech baseball family. Harder than a Jason Bush fastball.

Chad Foutz, the youngest of Carrie Foutz's three sons, knew his mother was very sick and hitched a ride home with a parent after the final game of the La Salle series in Philadelphia. Once he got home, he found out the news.

Not that bad news was anything new for the Hokies. In a season filled with strife, Tech endured a century's worth crammed into three months.

It started last fall when star pitcher Pat Pinkman failed to take care of business in the classroom and was ruled ineligible for the season. Then, All-American pitcher/first baseman Larry Bowles tore a ligament in his knee, which cost him the entire season.

Tech still figured to be in good shape, with three solid pitchers (Jason Beale, Jason Bush and Joe Saunders) and a ton of young talent in the fold. But Beale, the new ace of the staff, spouted off to head coach Chuck Hartman during a game at James Madison and Hartman kicked him off the team.

Shortly after that, Chris Hutchison, Tech's top power hitter, broke his hand after being hit by a pitch. That injury cost him six weeks. Second baseman Christian Simmers missed six weeks too because of a shoulder injury.

Hutchison and Simmers came back near the end of the season and things started to look brighter. But someone seemed to be playing a cruel joke on the Hokies when Saunders, Tech's first-team All-Atlantic 10 pitcher and the team leader in wins with nine, contracted mono and went home before the tournament.

And finally, there was the death of Foutz's mother.

"You know, you sit there and you think 'When's it going to end?'" Hartman said. "With us, it just never seemed to end. I can't ever remember going through a season like this."

The baseball team had planned to travel directly from Philadelphia to Boyertown, Pa., for the upcoming Atlantic 10 tournament. Instead, the team hopped on the bus the next day and made the six-hour drive home.

"There wasn't any discussion about it," said Bush, Tech's ace hurler. "We all knew her and we were going to the funeral to be with Chad and his family. There was no question at all that's what we were going to do."

The entire baseball team went to Rocky Mount, Va., for the funeral of Carrie Foutz held that Wednesday. After the funeral, the team got back on the bus and headed to Boyertown for preparations for the tournament.

The funeral cast a pall over the team as it headed north. Normally, a bus ride is filled with laughter, telling jokes and card-playing. This one was filled mostly with silence.

"I think a lot of guys didn't handle it well," Bush said. "I know I didn't. Things like that really bother me.

"I kept thinking about that all the way to Boyertown, 'What if it had been my mom or dad?' I think a lot of guys were thinking that."

No one really expected Chad to play in the tournament. After all, baseball seemed secondary to the death of a loved one.

But just a few hours after laying his wife to rest, Richard Foutz put his three boys in a vehicle, threw their bags in the trunk and - along with high school and current teammate Gray Hodges, who provided moral support - headed north.

"I wasn't surprised at all," Tech left fielder Addison Bowman said. "He [Chad] showed a lot of heart by doing that. You can teach people a lot of things, but you can't teach heart. That's something you're born with. That's something he got from his mom."

Though unexpected, Foutz's appearance came as no surprise to those who knew him. In fact, he, perhaps more so than any other player, symbolizes the heart and soul of this Tech team.

"It's what his mom wanted," Hodges said. "She knew what was best for him and she wanted him playing baseball."

So with thoughts on anything but baseball, Foutz and his teammates took the field for the first game. Despite all the adversity of this season, the Hokies, to their credit, continued to play hard and play consistently. Tech relied on its pitching and defense, and though the squad lacked power, the Hokies put enough runs on the board. By playing solid baseball, the Hokies won the Atlantic 10's West Division title. But few expected them to win the tournament.

And things looked bleak for a moment. After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first game against UMass, Tech seemed to be on cruise control until Bush, Tech's outstanding right-hander, gave up back-to-back homers in the sixth inning, which tied the game at 3. Coming back to the dugout after the inning, Bush, normally a quiet, reserved young man, was quite distraught.

Until Foutz pulled him to the side.

"He told me, 'Don't sweat the small stuff,'" Bush said. "And I knew exactly what he was talking about. Baseball's just a game. Sure, you want to win. But there's other things in life. Chad understood that.

"I thought to myself, 'You know, you're right.' I was just going to go out and relax and do the best I could. I had to let that inning go. Some of the other guys heard that and I think it helped everyone just stay relaxed."

Bush allowed just one base-runner the rest of the game.

The game came down to the final inning. Pinch-hitter Brian Copeland, one of the unsung heroes on this squad, led off the bottom of the ninth with a single. Hartman inserted Hodges as a pinch-runner and Nick Perlozzo sacrificed Hodges to second. Spencer Harris then hit a long fly ball to center that nearly went out. Instead, the long out allowed Hodges to tag up and go to third.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game, Chad Foutz stepped to the plate.

Except he wasn't alone.

Heart still heavy with grief, Foutz, a left-handed batter, engaged in a classic battle with UMass' left-handed ace Travis Veracka. With the count 3-2, Foutz hit a bouncer to the right of second baseman Shaun Skeffington. Skeffington, one of the best in the A-10 at his position, got ready to field it.

But at the last moment, the ball took a quirky hop and bounced off Skeffington. Hodges scored from third with the winning run and Foutz looked up in the air after crossing first base as if to thank a higher authority.

Not a single soul met Hodges. Instead, the entire team swarmed Foutz, who didn't record a hit or an RBI on the play because the official scorer's ruled it an error on Skeffington.

It didn't matter.

"Had some help with that one," Foutz said. "All I wanted was a chance because I knew I had some help. She gave all of us a lot of strength. She instilled those qualities in me and all I wanted was a chance.

"My mom said she would never leave me. There's no doubt she's still with me."

Tech went on to win the Atlantic 10 tournament in three games, beating UMass 9-6 in the championship game. After the final out, the team once again swarmed Foutz, who was named to the all-tournament team, and he shed a few tears once the tournament ended.

"For these guys to show up at the funeral, that meant so much to me," Foutz said of his teammates. "I didn't expect it and I can't begin to say how much that meant to me."

Maybe those tears inadvertently reflect an inner peace within Foutz. After all, he himself knows all about adversity. One of his best friends died in an automobile accident several years ago. And as a junior, he tore a ligament in his knee while attempting to field a grounder at shortstop, which cost him the majority of that season. If that weren't enough, his grades suffered horribly, and like Pinkman, he had to sit out the following season.

But none of that compares to losing his mother.

"Her goal was to come to Senior Day [against Campbell] and she did that," Foutz said. "That was important to her. Going home, she told my dad that was her last goal.

"My mom knew what was happening. She never once complained, never once asked why. She just enjoyed what little time she had left and I think that her strength makes me stronger. If I could be half the woman she was, I'd be a helluva man."

Foutz and the Hokies will be heading to Fullerton, Calif., for NCAA regionals. Tech plays Southern California in the first round on May 26, with Cal State Fullerton taking on Loyola Marymount in the other matchup. No doubt, the trip serves as a tremendous reward to a team well deserving of it.

"We've gone through all this together," Hartman said. "All this adversity has made us come together.

"I really think this has made all of us stronger individuals. In 10 or 15 years, when these guys come back for the alumni game, they'll be talking about everything that happened to them this season and what they were still able to accomplish."

And no matter what type of adversity Foutz faces the rest of his life, it certainly won't compare to what he's already faced.

"I take my hat off to him," Hartman said. "He's had some tough lessons on life, but I think he'll be better for it. He'll go on and get his degree. And he'll be a good citizen too because he knows how to handle adversity."

Which actually surprises no one.

Because after all, Carrie Foutz taught him that.