Weekend Baseball Recap
We had a busy baseball weekend, with practice on Friday and games on Saturday and Sunday.
I missed the practice because (a) it was starting to rain and (b) it wasn't my Friday night to go over to the East Bay to collect Emmett. So, I bailed and then it stopped raining and they had practice anyway. Minor twinge of guilt over missing that practice, but I was so fried that week anyway, I just wanted a break. I hadn't anticipated how much extra commuting my coach commitment would be. I'm pretty well adjusted to my regular load of getting Emmett back and forth across the bay, but need my nights and days off to recuperate. Now - NSM.
We're afraid Ellen has quit the team without telling us. She blew off practice and both games. It saddens me to think that she just let her fear of the ball get so big that it ate her up. It's something Tim and I had discussed and were planning to address with her specfically, slowly working her back to being comfortable catching the ball with baby-step drills etc. I really like Ellen personally too. She's bright and cheerful and game and attentive and coachable. She and Emma (other girl on our team) had bonded too. It leaves our team very short now as well. We were already down one player, now this and John doesn't play on Sundays. Usually with a 12 person team you're lucky to get 10 for any particular game. Now we're down to a 10 player roster, 9 on Sundays.
Saturday's game is a bit of a blur in my memory. We were extra short on players because it was Passover (no Eli, Noah or Josh GW). We wound up borrowing one player from the other team, and even then only had two outfielders. Albert and John played a lot of outfield in this game and they both hustled hard to chase down balls that scampered into the outfield. John caught a flyball in the outfield! I wish I could tell you how unlikely that was at the beginning of the season, what an excruciatingly suspenseful moment it was as he teetered and wobbled under the ball, and what a beam of pure giddy accomplishment he had when he came off the field.
First inning the other team scored the maximum 5 runs (that's an automatic inning ender at this level, whether you get to 3 outs or not). After that, though, our team really settled down and began chipping away at the score. One of their pitchers was particularly wild and hit Nathan and Emmett back to back, drawing tears from both of them. Nathan got nailed in the thigh, and Emmett looked like he had been hit in the back, but actually caught the ball high on the muscle of his forearm, just under the elbow. I walked each of them down the right field line until they could master their tears and they were each able to run the bases. Which was good because (a) we were so short handed and (b) Emma came out of her season long hitting slump and smacked a line drive into rightfield scoring both of them.
Emmett finally started coming out of his hitting slump. He beat out a dribbler in his first AB, then got nailed, then he finally (after hours of coaching from me at home, hitting tennis balls) drove a hard grounder up the middle. He got on all three times and scored twice.
We had last ups and scored one last run to bring the score to 5-4. We even had the tying run at third, and made some contact but they made the play at first and won the game. It was the kind of loss that still felt pretty good because everybody had to scrap so hard and come back. Nathan got hit three times in that game! Aiyee. Fortunatly only the first one hurt. The second hit him in the cleats and the last was a soft plop in the middle of the back.
One of the key plays in the game wasn't even an out, but it just looked so much like big league baseball that it was thrilling to watch. Nathan was at catcher, and their baserunner was at first. Nathan came up with the ball, and the runner danced off the bag, getting a third of the way down to second. Nathan threw to Emmett at first, who caught the ball and wheeled and threw to second, where Aidan caught the ball and put down the tag. We didn't get the out but it was damn close and it was beautifully executed.
Sunday's game was our best team effort all season. Noah and Eli rejoined us, and we were still short so the other coach and the umps let us borrow Emmett's classmate, Preston, for the game. This elicited a howl of protest from the other coach's son, Alex, who is also a classmate of Emmett and Preston and knows that Preston is a very good baseball player.
During the warmup, we do a round of whiffleball hitting in the outfield just to get everybody's swing in order. At this time, we discovered one of the problems with Emmett's hitting this year. His bat. He was using the same bat he had used in Single-A and had completely outgrown it. It was too short and too light and he's much stronger now so he was overswinging, and also missing pitches on the outside. He borrowed Noah's bat during whiffleball practice and was spraying line drives around like he normally did last year.
We totally pounded on the other team, which was exhilarating for us, but sad for them. I don't think they've won a game yet this year and they were getting so down at the mouth. I heard one kid gripe on the bench, "We're the worst team ever." It sucks so much to be in that situation, I know.
Everybody on our team hit. Emma hit another high pitch for a liner to the outfield. Emmett was scorching the ball (finally) including a hard shot that almost took the shortstop's head off, and his first line drive to the outfield. Mostly we scored so much because the other team was playing terrible defense and every groundball shot through to the outfield.
But our defense? Oh it was glorious. Albert fielded the ball at third and threw somebody out at first! He was grinning madly after that. Nathan threw somebody out at first from rightfield! And it wasn't even close - it was a gorgeous bit of Roberto Clemente in Little League. Emmett also threw somebody out from the outfield, nailing a runner at second who was trying to stretch a single. We nailed a baserunner trying to steal second. Aidan is getting very comfortable at first and made several good scoops and stretches. Eli knocked down a ball hit to him while he was pitching and he threw the baserunner out at first from his butt. Preston fielded a grounder and made a force out at second.
It's funny how inverted Little League is to Major League Baseball. By the majors you're supposed to be reasonably competent at fielding, and hitting is really where the differences in ability assert themselves. But in Little League executing the ordinary plays will let you win most of the time. And that's something you can teach and it's so incredibly gratifying to watch players improve and really get it.
Noah only pitched one inning this weekend, and Emmett didn't pitch at all. They're our two best pitchers so I think we might even have a better game in us. But it won't feel like such a breakthrough as Sunday's game.