Baseball Season Comes To A Close
June 17, 2008
Well, its been a good, long, hard ride, but Sean’s baseball season has come to a close. The boys had a great year, finishing the season with a very nice record of 15 – 2. If you ask the kids, they will say it was 15 – 1 since they don’t count the loss to the State traveling team, but I do.
They were supposed to have had one last game on Friday, but neither team could come up with enough players, so the game was canceled. With school out and what not, a lot of families have already gone on some Summer vacations.
They do have the State tournament coming up at the end of the month, but unfortunately, Sean and the rest of the team will not be able to participate. The state moved their tournament up a week, so all the local tournaments are also moved up a week. Several of the boys, including Sean, will be out of town the week the tournament starts which leaves the team short of the required 9 players. We will be attending a family reunion. While Sean would have loved to compete in the tournament, I think he is happy to put the season behind him and would rather visit his cousins that he doesn’t get to see enough.
The team officially concluded its season tonight with a big pool party. The boys had lots of fun and got to go crazy. After their rough opening season loss by a score of 7 – 0, the season looked long. They turned it around quickly and definitely earned the pool party tonight.
We did receive some sad news this past weekend. The son of the President of our baseball association was killed in a car accident. He was only 19 years old and playing football for Eastern Arizona University. He was also involved very much with our kids football program, serving as an assistant coach on Sean’s football team two years ago. He even umpired a few games of baseball this past season. We will be attending a memorial for him this coming Saturday.
Now, we get get ready for football season. I think Sean is still planning on moving up an age group above his so that he can play with his friends if the league will let him play up a year. He has a late birthday, which puts him in a younger age bracket. Practice starts in August.
Sean’s Team Loses Tough Scrimmage
June 5, 2008
Sorry to do another post about Sean’s baseball team, but quite frankly, it occupies a lot of our time right now. You will get a break from it with the Alma Dolores International Dance Studio Summer Recital coming up this Friday and Saturday. Sean will miss one baseball game because of that and that doesn’t exactly excite me.
Anyways, yesterday Sean’s team had a scrimmage against a regional travel team from Southeast Arizona. These kids have to try out for games, pay the coach and play all over the state. I say it was a scrimmage but it was essentially played like any normal game except for a few exceptions.
- It was agreed to play 9 innings – our games usually end at 6 innings
- Pitchers were limited to 3 innings
- All players batted – not just those in the field
This was the most enjoyable game of the season to watch. The other kids were bigger than our and I think they could be 1 year older. It was obvious they were well coached and organized. I had said in a preview post about this game, I didn’t expect our team to fare to well.
Despite coming out on the short side of a 6-5 loss, I was wrong. It was a close game and our kids hung with them the entire way. In fact, we outplayed them and probably should have one if not for one sloppy inning in the field.
Through the first six innings, both sides chipped away at the plate and scored a run here and there. They were up on us 4 – 3. In the seventh, we got sloppy in the field and made several errors on quite easy plays. The errors allowed them to score 2 runs and take the lead 6 – 3.
They took that 6 – 3 lead into the bottom of the ninth when we started a rally. With one out, we had runners on 1st and 3rd base. Our batter hit a looper to right field. The right fielder charged the ball hoping to catch it but it bounced in front of him and got by him. The runners easily scored and the batter ran to the third as the ball was relayed back to the infield. The coach had a tough decision on whether to hold the runner at third or try to have him score. It would have been a very close play with a good throw.
With only one out, I think the coach did the right thing and held the batter at third. It turns out the throw home was a bit wild and he would have scored, but playing the percentages was the right call. Unfortunately, the new two kids struck out and we stranded the tying run on third base.
It’s amazing how enjoyable (and faster) a game can be when both sides throw strikes and swing the bat. In too many of our games, the other side can’t pitch well and doesn’t like to swing the bat. That makes for long games. We usually end up mercy ruling them.
Hats off to the kids for playing a very good game against a very tough team. While it officially was a scrimmage, I still count it as a loss which makes Sean’s teams’ recored 14 – 2 this season. This game will only help with the state tournament coming up at the end of the month.
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