Baseball Saturday

By srlsfamily on April 21, 2012 • ( 1 )

This has been the week from heck but we are finally done. All of the kids had baseball games on weekdays and last night was the Opening Ceremonies and Carnival. We stayed out till nearly 10 and all of the kids were wiped!

We had two games today – the first one at 9 am – with the kids having to be there at 8 am. This was Riley’s team. At our last game, the manager told us that he and the assistant coach were going to be absent from the game because they were taking their Travel team to a tournament. This would take 3 of our best players too. So, we had only 9 players and the team was a little worried about it.

Riley saw it as his chance to pitch! He told me he was going to ask to pitch and then came up to me before it started and said he was going to …But, during the first inning, he was back at catcher. We were the away team and so we batted first and got a run in the first inning. Then the other team got up and scored 6 runs on walks. After our next ups, the coach said…Riley get your gear off – you’re pitching!

His first inning was a little rough. He clearly was nervous and walked 4 people before he found his groove. He then proceeded to strike out the next 5 people over the next two innings. Over the 3 innings he pitched, he gave his team a chance to get more and more runs until they were winning by 1 run going into the last of the 4th inning and the umpire decided that that would be the last inning based on the time limit. As he took the mound for the last inning with 1 run lead, I thought he looked a little sick. the first play, he threw a strike and the kid hit it right back to him on the ground and he easily got the out on first. He struck out the next two players and the game was over! He was ecstatic!

The only downside is that the coach told me not to let him throw – even in the back yard – for the next 3 days. He is moping around – stuck on the pitching high. (and he hasn’t gone a day without practicing – at least with matthew – for about 3 weeks).

Next up, Matthew’s game at 4:30. It was a real pitcher’s duel with neither side getting more than 2 hits over the course of 6 full innings. Their last pitcher was about 6 ft tall and 230 pounds (I can’t believe that he was a 10 year old) – and threw the ball FAST! All of the kids who were up on Matthew’s team, kept standing outside of the batter’s box. Matthew got up and stood right in there. He got one good bat on the ball but it ended up going foul. His team ended up winning in the last inning when the pitcher walked someone and they then stole second and third and scored to home on a wild pitch.

So, we had 2 wins! a good day.