2020 Little League Thread of Dominance

[jkates 316]

Who's gonna make the 2021 thread?

Little League / local leagues / select

2021 Youth baseball


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bschoolprof 6263]

8 hours ago, pepper brooks said:

Pepper Jr is playing Intermediate Little League (50/70) and school ball 54/80.  So far no issues.  LL thus far he is 2/2 at the plate with 2 walks, 1 double and 1 HR.  He actually hit 3 out of the park last night, but two went foul down the LF line.  The other was in the LC alley.  He's 1/2 for his school team with a single and a K.  the K was pretty rough at the 2 strike pitch was above his letters.  He shouldn't have swung at it since it wasn't close.  He's pitched from both distances at given up nothing so far.  Off to a good start.  

my kids aren't very good.  

Edited March 2, 2021 by bschoolprof

[kmac30 416]

Kids blew the first game of the year to a team we should have crushed. They were not listening and kept throwing behind the runner. That was turning into errors and runs. Son did well, 2/3 with 2 singles. He struck out on his last at bat.

Daughter is playing 8U softball. She had 2 games today. I missed the first and pitched for the 2nd. She hit a line drive that went to the wall for a home run. It was awesome. Her first legit home run (not because of errors).

[Huckleberry 32997]

First game of the spring season in 50/70 ball with 11-13 year olds. We won 16-1 with 7 hits because they walked us 13 times. Just painful to coach through but sometimes you're on the other end. Game only lasted 4 innings because of the run rule.

We gave up a run in the second on a walk and wild pitches when my starter just lost it briefly. But they didn't get a hit in the game. My #1 draft pick "ace" for this season came in in relief in the 3rd and had 5 Ks with one dribbler 2-3 putout and got through the 2 innings in only 23 pitches.

Now because we got the bye next week then spring break our weird schedule has us play our second game on March 23rd, 17 days after our first game.

[BrazilHorn 6612]

My older son is playing 14U and having a great season so far. Leads team in all offensive categories and is really starting to feel it. Just so much fun. It has been baseball mania between him and my 11 year old (playing 11U and doing well also).

Love these weekends.

Hope all the baseball mom and dads (and their players) are happy, safe and having a good time.

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

On 1/28/2021 at 2:12 PM, F250 said:

A lot of that depends on your son's skillset and what he will be displaying at a showcase event. If he is a pitcher, the worst could be his top speed is low and it gets logged. It's really position dependent. My first son was a middle infielder and contact hitter. It was his arm strength, fielding, and speed that was a focus. His brother was a catcher and power hitter but his pop time and hitting power was the most important aspect for him, same with my youngest.

Really you should figure out your sons position measurables and compare his stats to his age group ahead of time. Obviously all of the 5 tools will be evaluated but depending on position some will matter more than others.

1st PBR in the books. He did pretty good for a 2024 kid. He has some work to do on speed. 91 EV, 78 mph FB, 78 IF Velo, 7.95 60 time. He also just made varsity as a freshman (the only one to make it). Proud of the kid.

[F250 28779]

14 minutes ago, PassiveAggressiveCoach said:

1st PBR in the books. He did pretty good for a 2024 kid. He has some work to do on speed. 91 EV, 78 mph FB, 78 IF Velo, 7.95 60 time. He also just made varsity as a freshman (the only one to make it). Proud of the kid.

Congratulations! Be sure to track all of his peers in that class too for a better understanding of where he stands as a sanity check.

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

Just now, F250 said:

Congratulations! Be sure to track all of his peers in that class too for a better understanding of where he stands as a sanity check.

yep, I have been looking at the other PBRs of 2024's in the state. That's essentially why he did it.

[F250 28779]

On 3/2/2021 at 8:49 AM, pepper brooks said:

Pepper Jr is playing Intermediate Little League (50/70) and school ball 54/80

Public school baseball or private?

Comal ISD does 60/90 for 7th and 8th grade baseball and falls under NFHS standards. Granted, its been a few years so maybe the middle school rules have been modified.

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by F250

[bschoolprof 6263]

1 hour ago, PassiveAggressiveCoach said:

1st PBR in the books. He did pretty good for a 2024 kid. He has some work to do on speed. 91 EV, 78 mph FB, 78 IF Velo, 7.95 60 time. He also just made varsity as a freshman (the only one to make it). Proud of the kid.

91 EV for a freshman strikes me as strong, to quite strong.  But my benchmark is my own kids and they take after their old man unfortunately.  

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

13 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

91 EV for a freshman strikes me as strong, to quite strong.  But my benchmark is my own kids and they take after their old man unfortunately.  

that was his stand out stat. My rough judge by looking at probably 25-30 PBRs being conducted in the last 2 mos has that in the top 5%. The FB speed is slightly above avg (maybe top 30%) and foot speed below (bottom 30%). We are going to work hard on that.

Edited March 9, 2021 by PassiveAggressiveCoach

[pepper brooks 580]

On 3/9/2021 at 10:50 AM, F250 said:

Public school baseball or private?

Comal ISD does 60/90 for 7th and 8th grade baseball and falls under NFHS standards. Granted, its been a few years so maybe the middle school rules have been modified.

 

 

 

Private.  8th plays 60/90.  7th is 54/80

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

On 3/22/2021 at 10:54 AM, pepper brooks said:

Private.  8th plays 60/90.  7th is 54/80

that was also my son's progression. now this SOB made varsity as a freshman and is fighting for a starting spot at 3B. He just keeps surprising me. I thought JV for sure due to the talent on varsity.

Edited March 23, 2021 by PassiveAggressiveCoach

[F250 28779]

On 3/6/2021 at 10:27 PM, Huckleberry said:

First game of the spring season in 50/70 ball with 11-13 year olds. We won 16-1 with 7 hits because they walked us 13 times. Just painful to coach through but sometimes you're on the other end. Game only lasted 4 innings because of the run rule.

We gave up a run in the second on a walk and wild pitches when my starter just lost it briefly. But they didn't get a hit in the game. My #1 draft pick "ace" for this season came in in relief in the 3rd and had 5 Ks with one dribbler 2-3 putout and got through the 2 innings in only 23 pitches.

Now because we got the bye next week then spring break our weird schedule has us play our second game on March 23rd, 17 days after our first game.

How did your game go yesterday?

 

[Huckleberry 32997]

We won 12-5. Kids were not ready to play, but I don't blame them because it was an 8pm start and that's late for kids as young as 10 (my youngest kid doesn't turn 11 until August - terrible little league birthday). We fell behind 3-0 after two innings before rallying. We weren't very sharp but in the end got it done, and we had a kid hit his first career home run so in the end it was a good night. He had hit one in a scrimmage a few weeks ago but I told him after the game that now that he has one in a real game he can admit that scrimmages don't really count. He laughed.

After two scrimmages and one game our kids got used to the slower pitchers we'd faced and we finally faced a kid to start last night who had more velocity (I'd call it average for a 12-13 year old) and pounded the strike zone. Most of our kids were ready and aggressive but some were timid until they saw their teammates start making solid contact. Then that kid got tired and had to come out when we were up 7-5 so the last inning (the 5th before the time limit hit) we piled on 5 more runs to finish it.

Was a good game, falling behind always shows you what your players have mentally and they stayed in the game. It was also nice to have another team make us earn our runs by hitting the ball well. Their team is good defensively. Only one flat out error to allow a batter to reach base for them last night and they caught two pretty long fly balls to the corner outfielders which doesn't always happen, of course. They did have a few brain cramps throwing the ball around once we were on the bases, though. From talking to their coach after the game it's the first open bases season for lots of their younger kids.

Edited March 24, 2021 by Huckleberry

[Mez2 4023]

first game of our season - Oaks Dads Club in HTown - is this Saturday. My oldest is in his first year of coach pitch, 7/8U. He's 7 right now, should be better than our fall season. Looking forward to getting back out on the field with him and the rest of his team. Had a scrimmage on Monday and did decent, we didn't keep score but we put up 8+ runs, defensively got some work to do. Had a couple of innings we gave up no runs, but still got work to do. should be a fun season for us. 

[BrazilHorn 6612]

One bit of advice for LL dads that are coaching. Really get a good catcher. Someone who can throw to 2nd base with authority. Given that the runner cannot steal until the ball crosses the plate, a good catcher can get you a couple of outs a game easy. Don't be tempted to put the bigger/slower kid there. Put someone who is aggressive and will blast the ball out.

Our 11 year old LL team has a real good catcher and through one scrimmage and one game he has already thrown out 5 kids on the base paths.

It messes up a lot of the coaches that are used to the looping throw from the catcher to 2nd base.

[Huckleberry 32997]

14 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

One bit of advice for LL dads that are coaching. Really get a good catcher. Someone who can throw to 2nd base with authority. Given that the runner cannot steal until the ball crosses the plate, a good catcher can get you a couple of outs a game easy. Don't be tempted to put the bigger/slower kid there. Put someone who is aggressive and will blast the ball out.

Our 11 year old LL team has a real good catcher and through one scrimmage and one game he has already thrown out 5 kids on the base paths.

It messes up a lot of the coaches that are used to the looping throw from the catcher to 2nd base.

Completely agree, but in our 50/70 open bases league it's basically impossible to throw out the faster baserunners. The ratio of distance the ball has to travel versus the runner is quite a bit larger than a regulation field (about 2.5 versus 2.3). If the runner gets an adequate jump and has average speed it's going to be very hard to throw him out. Plus lots of the kids are much closer to their eventual peak running speed than they are to their throwing velocity.

I still have my catchers throw it low and hard to practice it because someday they'll need to do it and the infielders need to practice positioning and technique on receiving those throws.

Back to your point on closed bases I would actually have a good arm back there and then have him kind of throw an easy one down to second when the pitcher was finished warming up. Just to get a free out the first time an aggressive team had a runner on 1st. 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Huckleberry

[BrazilHorn 6612]

39 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Completely agree, but in our 50/70 open bases league it's basically impossible to throw out the faster baserunners. The ratio of distance the ball has to travel versus the runner is quite a bit larger than a regulation field (about 2.5 versus 2.3). If the runner gets an adequate jump and has average speed it's going to be very hard to throw him out. Plus lots of the kids are much closer to their eventual peak running speed than they are to their throwing velocity.

I still have my catchers throw it low and hard to practice it because someday they'll need to do it and the infielders need to practice positioning and technique on receiving those throws.

Back to your point on closed bases I would actually have a good arm back there and then have him kind of throw an easy one down to second when the pitcher was finished warming up. Just to get a free out the first time an aggressive team had a runner on 1st. 

It has been interesting to see on the select team that our catchers throw more kids out at third base that are overly aggressive with their lead off/post pitch than they ever get at 2B on a steal.

Since there are no lead offs in LL the kid needs to be able to boogie to get to 2B before the ball does for WHLL. (if you have a catcher with a gun). Bulk of kids playing catcher cannot get the kid out at 2B to your point.

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

1 hour ago, BrazilHorn said:

One bit of advice for LL dads that are coaching. Really get a good catcher. Someone who can throw to 2nd base with authority. Given that the runner cannot steal until the ball crosses the plate, a good catcher can get you a couple of outs a game easy. Don't be tempted to put the bigger/slower kid there. Put someone who is aggressive and will blast the ball out.

Our 11 year old LL team has a real good catcher and through one scrimmage and one game he has already thrown out 5 kids on the base paths.

It messes up a lot of the coaches that are used to the looping throw from the catcher to 2nd base.

LOL just find a good catcher. 

[BrazilHorn 6612]

6 minutes ago, PassiveAggressiveCoach said:

LOL just find a good catcher. 

I know, easier said than done. I think though a lot of coaches tend to put a better arm at 3B when they in many cases can short hop on a good bounce the throw to 1B vs putting the kid with better arm at catcher.  Also there are a lot more plays the catcher can make than the 3B.

 

[PassiveAggressiveCoach 118]

37 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

I know, easier said than done. I think though a lot of coaches tend to put a better arm at 3B when they in many cases can short hop on a good bounce the throw to 1B vs putting the kid with better arm at catcher.  Also there are a lot more plays the catcher can make than the 3B.

 

I tried to make my 3B son a catcher once upon a time. He hated it. You gotta be programmed different. 😂

[jkates 316]

My son hit one out for the first time on Sunday in intrasquad action. He's the smallest guy on his team, but only 2 others have taken it deep, and they are the 2 biggest, so he felt pretty good about it.

He's still 10, playing 11U ball. 200 ft fence.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Jshep34 2316]

Lilshep played his absolute best 4 games. No errors at 2nd. Laid full out on few line drives. Threw a kid out from his butt after diving to stop a grounder. Hit his first hr Saturday then proceeded to hit a walk off single to right in 2nd game. Elimination sunday he hit a walk off triple in first game. Lost second game but team was positioning thier hitter to keep ball away from him. After each game opponent coaches came up and to our coaches offering kind words about his abilities. He also threw out 2 kids at home from outfield. Catcher never had to move.

As a dad/parent just want your kids to achieve great things in what sports/hobbies thier passionate about.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[F250 28779]

On 3/24/2021 at 2:51 PM, BrazilHorn said:

I know, easier said than done. I think though a lot of coaches tend to put a better arm at 3B when they in many cases can short hop on a good bounce the throw to 1B vs putting the kid with better arm at catcher.  Also there are a lot more plays the catcher can make than the 3B.

 

 

Captain Obvious: "The most athletic players make for the best catchers." Youth baseball isn't the time to settle players into position specific types. That comes later in post-12U baseball. F1, F2 and F6 are usually the most athletic kids and can rotate through those positions at the youth level.

The catcher is the glue that holds a Little League team together. A good catcher can compensate for a not so good pitcher if he is proficient at blocking. Always draft a catcher and make sure your own can catch if you are a coach.

Something I used to do when I coached Little League was hold separate practices for catchers that were basically catching lessons. I also had a dedicated drill sessions for catchers during practice. By midseason our catchers were regularly throwing out runners because we drilled that a lot.

It's important to have multiple players that are competent at this position so you don't just have a primary catcher always doing bullpen duties in practice and not working on his own skillset. Or even worse the primary isn't available and you have to use someone with little experience and no practice behind the plate. 

Long story short, you can always find several kids that are athletic enough to catch, just put in the time to adequately train them in the necessary skills.

 

[F250 28779]

On 3/24/2021 at 2:24 PM, BrazilHorn said:

It has been interesting to see on the select team that our catchers throw more kids out at third base that are overly aggressive with their lead off/post pitch than they ever get at 2B on a steal.

 

Probably because picking off a runner stealing 3rd is a lot easier than one stealing 2nd. The movement from receiving the ball to throwing to 3rd is very fluid and the distance is shorter.

[F250 28779]

On 3/24/2021 at 1:43 PM, Huckleberry said:

Completely agree, but in our 50/70 open bases league it's basically impossible to throw out the faster baserunners. The ratio of distance the ball has to travel versus the runner is quite a bit larger than a regulation field (about 2.5 versus 2.3). If the runner gets an adequate jump and has average speed it's going to be very hard to throw him out. Plus lots of the kids are much closer to their eventual peak running speed than they are to their throwing velocity.

50/70 allows for a pitcher to pickoff and check a runner. A lot of runners are sloppy with their first and secondary leads at this age and are good candidates for pickoffs. Add in a catcher that can quickly throw to 1st and its like shooting fish in a barrel. Do that enough and the runners will hesitate enough to slow down the stealing. Granted, if your pitcher messes up when checking the runner it can turn into a circus. LOL

 

[Huckleberry 32997]

1 hour ago, F250 said:

50/70 allows for a pitcher to pickoff and check a runner. A lot of runners are sloppy with their first and secondary leads at this age and are good candidates for pickoffs. Add in a catcher that can quickly throw to 1st and its like shooting fish in a barrel. Do that enough and the runners will hesitate enough to slow down the stealing. Granted, if your pitcher messes up when checking the runner it can turn into a circus. LOL

 

None of my catchers are good throwers. I still have them make the throws so they can become good, but it can get frustrating, that's for sure.

We took our first loss on Saturday. Unsurprisingly we weren't sharp with an 8am start time. But the major issue was one of my pitchers just fell apart on the mound. He's my 10 year old (11 year old league age) and he just got into his own head too much once someone got on base. He'll learn but he allowed 5 runs without getting anyone out with walks and wild pitchers and we lost 9-7. My ace was also not sharp in relief after we'd come back to tie it at 7 after being down 7-1.

Learning experience, though. Nobody in the league is undefeated after 3 games so still a long way to go in the 12 game season. My kid pitched the best he's ever thrown and now wants to focus on it in practice with me. He threw one inning before the younger kid came in because it's early in the season and I'm giving everyone a chance to pitch who wants to and has shown aptitude in practice. My son faced 4 batters, struck out 3. The third batter he faced made good contact but reached on an E6, stole second, stole third, and scored on an error on the second steal. A bit frustrating because my son struck out the batter who was at the plate two pitches later with no wild pitches but oh well, it happens. His pitching form is atrocious despite all the work I've done with him so he's hoping he can become consistently good for this league with some more focused work.

[F250 28779]

Good for letting them throw to get the game repetitions in so they gain experience. It shouldn't be disastrous as long as your middle infielders are backing up the throws. That's actually a good way for them to develop a good habit of backing up and it keeps them moving and involved in the game.

Once they improve they will be a real threat to runners and then it's time for the 1st and 3rd situation trickery that's common at the 11/12 age group. One of my son's pulled it off in 16U Summer ball one time. He signaled to the infield and faked a throw to 2nd. Runner on 3rd took the bait and took a huge lead and got thrown out. What was funny was you could hear "What are you doing!" coming from his teammates in the dugout right as he realized he was in no mans land. Runners should definitely not be falling for that by 16U. lol

 

 

[Huckleberry 32997]

Yeah, that was actually the issue on the error to the run I talked about. The catcher threw it short to third and the 3B got out of the way and tried to stab at it instead of blocking it. Shortstop and left fielder were both hustling to back up but that's a long distance to cover. Left side of my infield let us down that inning, and they're there because they're better than that.

[Wulaw Horn 19096]

On 3/24/2021 at 8:53 AM, Huckleberry said:

We won 12-5. Kids were not ready to play, but I don't blame them because it was an 8pm start and that's late for kids as young as 10 (my youngest kid doesn't turn 11 until August - terrible little league birthday). We fell behind 3-0 after two innings before rallying. We weren't very sharp but in the end got it done, and we had a kid hit his first career home run so in the end it was a good night. He had hit one in a scrimmage a few weeks ago but I told him after the game that now that he has one in a real game he can admit that scrimmages don't really count. He laughed.

After two scrimmages and one game our kids got used to the slower pitchers we'd faced and we finally faced a kid to start last night who had more velocity (I'd call it average for a 12-13 year old) and pounded the strike zone. Most of our kids were ready and aggressive but some were timid until they saw their teammates start making solid contact. Then that kid got tired and had to come out when we were up 7-5 so the last inning (the 5th before the time limit hit) we piled on 5 more runs to finish it.

Was a good game, falling behind always shows you what your players have mentally and they stayed in the game. It was also nice to have another team make us earn our runs by hitting the ball well. Their team is good defensively. Only one flat out error to allow a batter to reach base for them last night and they caught two pretty long fly balls to the corner outfielders which doesn't always happen, of course. They did have a few brain cramps throwing the ball around once we were on the bases, though. From talking to their coach after the game it's the first open bases season for lots of their younger kids.

Once upon a time August was the premier little league birthday. As a July birthday with a younger brother 13 Months behind me I was always jealous that he was 1 year younger than me but 2 years in league age. What is the birthday cut line  now? 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Wulaw Horn

[BrazilHorn 6612]

A dad was banned for the season on Monday for an expletive laden tirade. I am sure it was his 11 year old's proudest moment.

11 year old baseball.....Serious business. I am competitive and of course I want my boys (14 & 11) to do well and hate when umps play an outsized role in the games but jeez, keep it the fuck together.

[BrazilHorn 6612]

Good LL week for team with the boys going 2-0 on the week with only allowing 1 hit across two games and out scoring opponents 21-6.

It has been great to see some of the kids at bottom of order start to find some confidence at the plate and start to score some runs out of the bottom part of the lineup.

Both my boys have tournaments this weekend nowhere near to one another but I have to tell you, I love watching my kids play baseball and I love being at the ball field.

Great weather, great days, good group of kids on both teams. Loving it.

[F250 28779]

On 3/30/2021 at 5:35 PM, Wulaw Horn said:

Once upon a time August was the premier little league birthday. As a July birthday with a younger brother 13 Months behind me I was always jealous that he was 1 year younger than me but 2 years in league age. What is the birthday cut line  now? 

It was changed to August 31st a couple of years ago.

 

[BrazilHorn 6612]

Fun weekend at the ball fields. Younger son (11U) lost in semis, older son (14U) ended up winning the championships!

Long day but great time. The team my older son's team beat in championships were definitely loud, not very sportsmanlike and it was nice having the team put a beat down on them as the other team's parents were chippy.

 

[Huckleberry 32997]

On 4/11/2021 at 6:12 PM, F250 said:

It was changed to August 31st a couple of years ago.

 

Was August 31st for most of LL's history, then changed around for a while, now it's back where it belongs. Of course having a September 1st birthday might make me biased.

My team won the regular season championship so the kids are pumped about that. My son is in a mini-slump the last few games but he'll be fine. The league does recognize the regular season champs so that will be fun for the team. We're much more set up for the regular season than the double elimination tournament by virtue of having one ace. But in tonight's regular season finale we threw 5 pitchers (different one each inning) to prepare for the tournament since we already had the regular season clinched. They all did very well, lots of strikes.

[F250 28779]

6 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Was August 31st for most of LL's history, then changed around for a while, now it's back where it belongs. Of course having a September 1st birthday might make me biased.

My team won the regular season championship so the kids are pumped about that. My son is in a mini-slump the last few games but he'll be fine. The league does recognize the regular season champs so that will be fun for the team. We're much more set up for the regular season than the double elimination tournament by virtue of having one ace. But in tonight's regular season finale we threw 5 pitchers (different one each inning) to prepare for the tournament since we already had the regular season clinched. They all did very well, lots of strikes.

Two of my kids had May and June birthdays so they were in the sweet spot for the previous age cutoff. One of them drilled a baseball into a metal scoreboard behind center field in an All Star game, dented the hell out of the scoreboard. He had just turned 13. Those 13 year old All Stars needed to be nerfed.

 

Congratulations on winning out the regular season. That is cool that the league recognizes the winner. Most only use it to seed the Tournament of Champions and recognizes the ToC winner as the league champion. The week of the tournament was always exciting. 

Since your team is seeded 1st have you decided what pitching strategy you are going to use? Use your ace for the first game so that he will be eligible for the end of the week?

 

[Huckleberry 32997]

The league split the Intermediate division into two subdivisions, so we only have 5 teams

 

Being #2/3 would have been better for the tournament for a team with a clear ace because of the 4 off days between the first two games. That's like a free ticket to the championship round.

But my plan right now after how well the other guys threw last night is to start my #2 guy in the first game (Game 3) and try to keep him and the ace to 50 pitches each so they can throw Game 5. Then if that works in Game 5 try to keep them both to 65 pitches or fewer so they'd be available for Game 9 if necessary. And basically use everyone else in Game 8 and if we can win it then okay, but if not then we're back with the two best guys for Game 9.

Forgot to mention, the league said they're getting championship rings for the regular season winners and the tournament winners will get trophies.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Huckleberry

[F250 28779]

Damn, by giving #1 seed the winner of the 4th vs 5th game they made the 2/3 seed a plush spot. Your plan is sound, assuming you win that first game, game 8 will be against a depleted team coming out of the losers bracket.

 

[BrazilHorn 6612]

Son’s team win regular season but lost in championship game in playoffs. 
Bittersweet end to a great season. 
 

My older son threw a complete game this morning in a win for his 14U team. Was a great outing. 

[Huckleberry 32997]

On 5/9/2021 at 12:10 PM, BrazilHorn said:

Son’s team win regular season but lost in championship game in playoffs. 
Bittersweet end to a great season. 
 

My older son threw a complete game this morning in a win for his 14U team. Was a great outing. 

Yep, it can be tough but at least they got the regular season title. My team caught a slight break with the weather tonight. Because they had to push back the first games they had to reschedule the second games because it was too late to start them. So now the above schedule has changed a bit. If we win tomorrow night there is an extra day between the next game and the third if we keep winning. So the second game I would be able to basically just use my ace. Tournament sets up very well for us now if we win tomorrow night. But it will be tough, our opponent is 7-2 in their last nine after an 0-4 start and is truly the second best team in the league despite the #4 seed.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Huckleberry

[BrazilHorn 6612]

8 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

Yep, it can be tough but at least they got the regular season title. My team caught a slight break with the weather tonight. Because they had to push back the first games they had to reschedule the second games because it was too late to start them. So now the above schedule has changed a bit. If we win tomorrow night there is an extra day between the next game and the third if we keep winning. So the second game I would be able to basically just use my ace. Tournament sets up very well for us now if we win tomorrow night. But it will be tough, our opponent is 7-2 in their last nine after an 0-4 start and is truly the second best team in the league despite the #4 seed.

Good luck to you and the team. Moving on to All Stars now. Practices start in a couple of weeks. I am enjoying the years I have of my boys playing ball.

[kmac30 416]

We ended season 3rd. First week got us, started out 0-3. Ended up 10-3-1. Won’t turn down a 10 game winning streak.

Started tourney last night. Best player was a no-show. Thanks mom. We kept it together and won. Play a tough team tonight. We are 1-1-1 against them this season.

Side note, my kid is one of those who over thinks batting in games, so he has had struggles. The other day he was trying to knock over a coffee cup while practicing. He was crushing balls. So he gets up to bat last night and I call out (from 1st base coach) “hit the coffee cup”. He gets a big smile on his face and cranks a double. So I did that the rest of the game. 3-3, double and two singles, 4 RBIs. Other coaches were like “wtf is the coffee cup”.

[Huckleberry 32997]

Team got it done tonight. My #3 pitcher pitched so well tonight. Got through 4 innings with only 47 pitches. Threw strikes and our team made plays behind him. Won 7-3, now I am set up with pitching. My ace actually struggled with control to start his first inning tonight. 2 walks and a base hit to load the bases. Then struck out the next three on 10 total pitches, then mowed them down in the last inning. 7-3 win.

My son saw the ball better but is still pressing and not letting the ball get deep enough. Had a double and HBP tonight, double was pulled down the line then in his last at-bat he pulled two more foul down there. Just trying a bit too hard instead of letting it come to him, he'll be alright.

[Huckleberry 32997]

Well it's worked out so far. We're into the championship round and my pitching is as set up as possible. I haven't even used my #2 pitcher in the first two games. #3 did so well the first game I started him this morning again and he pounded the zone again. Starting to second guess myself but think I'm going to stick with using #4/5 to start the first championship game. I can bring in the top 3 for a max of 20 pitches each. If they pitch well that would actually be an inning each, of course. So if the others can get me through 3 innings then time limit would enable the top 3 to finish the game off. Either way I absolutely want them available for the if necessary game when the other team should be depleted.

[BrazilHorn 6612]

Really bummed out. My youngest fractured his wrist off a freak foul ball (he plays catcher).

He is besides himself. Going to ortho Monday to see how long he’ll be out. 
 

 

[bschoolprof 6263]

2 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

Really bummed out. My youngest fractured his wrist off a freak foul ball (he plays catcher).

He is besides himself. Going to ortho Monday to see how long he’ll be out. 
 

 

Boo.  That sucks.  My middle son is a catcher as well. 

Would a wrist guard have helped?  My son started wearing one this season after a nasty bruise from blocking.  

[BrazilHorn 6612]

35 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

Boo.  That sucks.  My middle son is a catcher as well. 

Would a wrist guard have helped?  My son started wearing one this season after a nasty bruise from blocking.  

Probably. Once this heals that’s a definite purchase. Just a crazy, one in a thousand hit. Ball came down at perfect angle to hit wrist. You can see seam of ball where it tagged him. 

[Huckleberry 32997]

That's awful, man. Good luck to him, hope he gets as good of news as possible.

[Huckleberry 32997]

Well this was supposed to be a super busy week with the playoff tournament finishing up and all star practices starting but the forecast says heavy rain every day through Thursday. We'll see what happens.