5/14/2012 – Baseball vs Delano #2
After the schedule for the game finally got decided, the boys took the field against the Delano #2 team Monday night. We started the game with Kyle Strader on the hill. He pitched a solid 2 innings giving up a few runs. Next up was Bryce Ziemer on the mound. He struggled a little with control but fought through it and kept us in the game! We finished the game with JJ on the mound figuring the change in speed and his typical accuracy should seal the deal as we entered the fifth all tied up at 7-7. And…
It wasn’t to be… JJ struggled with control walking 7 (this was a coaching mistake… when it was obvious he was out of it we should have pulled him… but we left him in to work through it… right time of year to try, but his head was way too far gone). In the end JJ gave up 7 runs. Leaving us in a 14-7 deficit. We took our at bats in the bottom of the 5th and pulled to within 3 as the bats came to life.
Ok, we still have a chance here at 14-11… then something strange happened at 8:25 (after the bottom of the 5th) the umpire called the game saying it was too dark to continue. The league rules are no innings to be started after 8:30. So, the boys got robbed of their chance at a comeback. Ah… the joys of youth baseball.
No more games this week, practice Tuesday and Thursday and I’ll have JJ out pitching probably every night this week.
The biggest pitching problem I saw for JJ was that he got lazy on the mound. Not focusing in and pulling every pitch down with a strong follow thru, essentially just winging it. As a result high high high = walk walk walk. A game killer for sure particularly against a team where 80% of the boys didn’t look like they broke 4ft tall (not kidding here, it was like pitching to a tee-ball team).
It was a good wake-up call for the boys, as they are going to see even stiffer competition yet this year.
Go Rockets!
~ Rod
5/8/12 – Baseball vs Delano #1
The boys took the field for the first time this year against the Delano #1 team. JJ started on the mound and threw 3 strong innings striking out 4, walking 3, hit one batter, had a half dozen wild pitches, and still managed to only give up 5 runs. The fielders did a GREAT job of keeping the runners off the bases. Next up was Wyatt Shober, threw an inning and a third before tweaking something in his arm. No runs given up. Kyle Strader finished the game for us also giving up no runs. On the base paths we had the boys on “high alert” basically running on every pitch until the catcher proved he could throw them out… which, he never did. I lost track, but we had to have had nearly 20 stolen bases. That in combination with some timely hitting, patience at the plate (lots of walks in our favor) and past balls/wild pitches pushed us on to our first victory of the season 15-5 in 5 innings (10 run rule).
Practice Thursday, and our next game next Monday (rescheduled due to conflicts for the Delano #2 team).
~ Rod
2012 Baseball Update
Practices will be every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. When we have a game on any one of those days we will simply replace practice with the game instead.
The official game schedule is available here.
I will be keeping that updated with results and other pertinent info throughout the season.
~Rod