Monday's game...

was rained out! More of my journalistic abilities on display over here.

Jim

Softball update.

I haven't blogged about this till now because we haven't won yet, or we have been rained out. But, now we have won and we have games every day except for Wednessdays and Sundays for the next 3 weeks, so I guess it's time. You may get lucky and get a game recap almost everyday.

We can start with a few pictures. Here we are playing the other Decatur team. I'm coaching 3rd this year, and keeping my own book. My good buddy David Minor is the coach in the blue, leaning on the dugout. This is the first time in 3 years his team has beat ours. Lightning is taking her lead off of 3rd and Lilly is watching the pitch.
Lightning's real name is Alexis, but it says lightning on her jersey. She has become a very gritty player this year. She is the only one with 3 hits in one game, this game as a matter of fact.




There is Natalie stealing home, something we have to get used to now that we are playing 12 and under. That is the reason that I am coaching third base now. Natalie Carter was, but I'm more aggressive, and I like it that way. Hailey McDaniel is trying to get the ball and tag Natalie out, but it doesn't happen. Hailey played with us last year in the tournament. For some reason, everybody calls her Inez!





Natalie "Coach Carter" Carter. My assistant for the past 3 years. Angie are close with her and her husband Steve. The boys are buddies and the girls are pals as well.












Natalie at the plate.












Brianna Carter, the assistant coach's daughter, ready to blast one.










Ok, We tied our game on Friday night, 24-24. On Saturday Natalie and I got up at 7:00 am, headed out to Bridgeport, and played a little game in the rain. I must admit, we stopped for breakfast at a little cafe on the square, downtown Decatur. Talked about softball, talked about other things, ate and had a blast. I love one on one time with each of my kids, but it seems to be hard to come by these days. Anyway, after a 22 dollar breakfast, yeah 22 dollars for 2 plates of eggs, biscuits, gravy and hash browns, 2 milks and an orange juice. @WOW! We headed to the park, where I thought the game might get canceled because of the rain, but thankfully it didn't.

We were up to bat first, and we were about to experience the worst kind of coaching mistake you can make, not once, but twice, in the first inning. Yeah, I F'd up a little, because something didn't register about their ballpark. Anyway, you will figure it out soon enough. Natalie up to bat. Their pitcher is fast, but not too accurate, and if you remember our team from last year, we can kill you either way. These girls can hit anything you can throw, no matter the speed, and they don't chase junk, for the most part. Natalie walked on 4 pitches. Stole second, on the first pitch to Dawn. Stole third on the second pitch to Dawn, then was caught stealing home on the third pitch to Dawn. What?! She got caught? How, must have been a fluke. Dawn walked, stole second, third, and home on a past ball, no problem. Laura walked, stole second, third and was caught stealing home!? WTF? How does that happen, it was a passed ball, how did the catcher get it back so quick. I was screaming at myself inside. 1 run, 2 outs out of the first 3 batters!
Jesus we were in trouble if this kept up, they weren't throwing enough strikes for us to knock in anybody. Anyway Brianna walked, stole her way around the bases, plowed over the pitcher at homeplate, she dropped the ball, and the run counted. Good girl, just what I told her to do. Kristina walked, and Haley struck out on a called third strike, that was a ball. The inning was over with us only getting 2 runs. I thought, I hope Haley is on today, we are going to need her.

They came up and Haley delivered, strikes, and they knocked the hell out of them too. Natalie dropped a fly to deep center field, allowing 3 runs, but she has never played that spot before and I was amazed that she even got her glove on it. If she would have caught it, it would have been a sure triple play, because they were way around the paths and our girls have learned quite a bit about where to go with the ball when it is hit. All in all, they scored their 6 runs in the inning on 9 batters, the only out was a strike out of the 7th batter of the inning. Not too promising for the good guys at this point, but walking back to coach third base, I realized what I had missed in the first inning that cost us those first 2 outs. #1: Their catcher was a girl named Bailey Spurgeon, outstanding catcher and the daughter of a friend of mine , and #2: their backstop was about 15 feet closer to home plate than ours is.

OK, now armed with this new information, I was determined not to give them any cheap outs. That means there were a few more collisions at home plate than were necessary, but whatever. I still have the team that looks like they walked to the game, found a uniform in the ditch somewhere, maybe held up a liquor store, got in a fight, then decided to play the damn game. My kind of kiddos.

Inning 2. Alexis came up and stung one, right to the first baseman, for our first out. Then Gabby, Madison, and Jac (jaclyn) walked. Gabby stole home, then Letty knocked in Madison, but was caught at second for our second out of the inning. Natalie came up and singled in Jac, stole second, the scored on a blasted double by Dawn, who stole third, then home before Laura, grounded out to end the inning. 5 runs later it was 7 for us and 6 for them.

Now, you can score up to 6 runs an inning, and mostly we do, and usually we have been allowing 6 runs per inning. We moved up a very young team this year, we went from an 11 inch ball to a 12 inch ball, and now we pitch from forty feet instead of thirty five feet. We now can steal home also, so lots of rule changes and just changes in general have lead to a not so stellar start. Haley and the girls just changed all that, and let me off the hook for my first inning screw up too. Here's how it went, ground out to first (DAWN), single, but almost thrown out by BRI the third baseman. Then ground out to third, BRI to DAWN. Then the old K. Haley struck out the fourth batter of the inning with the girl who hit the single still on third. ZERO runs for them, keeping the score 7-6 us. All we had to do now was score our 6 and it was ballgame!

Inning 3. Brianna walked, stole second, the scored when Kristina singled to right field. On the next pitch, Haley helped herself with a booming double, sending Kristina to the plate. two runs. Alexis "Lightning" Downe, walked, stole second and third, then scored when Gabby singled her in. Gabby stole second, third and home with a little bit of a collision. If you know Gabby, nothing little about her, not size, not personality, not nuthin, she flattened the pitcher at the plate. I love her, have to knock her smart mouth down every once in a while, but really a good girl. 5 runs for us. Madison walked, stole second and third. Jaclyn walked, stole second. Then, Letty singled in Madison and Jac, but only Madi counted, because we had our six and secured our first win of the year. Just the formality of finishing the inning, which the umps didn't have to let us, but they did.

Haley struck out the first 2, although one reached on a dropped third strike, another new rule this year. Haley walked 2 more, all three of them would score on passed balls or a groundout to first, where Natalie was lurking, waiting for a little redemption for her dropped fly in the first inning. She got it, and as irony would have it. The game ended on a deep fly ball to center, where Laura snagged it for the final out of the game. Not a bad way to spend a rainy Saturday morning. Eagle Xplosion 13 Bridgeprot Extreme 9. 1-4 on the year, with games on the 7th, 8th, 10th, 11th and 2 on the 12th. Then the same the following week.

Later,

Jim

I didn't spell check this, hope it is readable.