Season Over

We were ousted in the first round of the 5 year old post season tournament last night.  The Pirates took it to us pretty good, defeating us 16-9.  None of our players, however, should hang their heads.  We made a couple of plays in the field and everyone got a hit - which is huge given that two and half month ago I didn't know if some of them would ever get the chance to run to first base.  I'm not sure how many times we struck out last night, but we went through the order three times (30 at bats) in four innings. By comparison, we only sent 23 batters to the plate in our four innings last Saturday.  We struck out 13 times in our first game (out of 15 outs) over the course of about 25 at bats.  I bet we didn't strike out more than 5 times last night.

I'm proud of all the kids, but since this is my blog, I'll brag on Jack a little. He absolutely CRUSHED the ball last night.  This from a kid who only swung a 'real' bat for the first time in January and spent the first two-thirds of the season just 'dropping' the bat through the zone, not really 'swinging' the bat.  Well, we had a come to Jesus talk about effort and desire and WANT TO on Easter Sunday and, since he decided that he was tired of striking out and tired of the pitcher picking up all of his 'hits' and tagging him out on the way to first, he has been swinging the bat as well as anyone in the league.  He hit a grounder in the hole between third and short that went to the fence and drove in two runs, then he hit a line drive that almost knocked the shortstop's glove off.  I was proud of him, and I told him so.  I told him so many times that he asked, "Why do you keep telling me how proud you are?"

Good job, son.  We'll get 'em next year.