It was actually supposed to be game three, but because of the rainouts last weekend, this Saturday turned out to be game one for our baseball team. Yes, my son would be back on the baseball field, and I would be back in the dugout, as we got ready for our Saturday afternoon matchup.
I had a ton of fun coaching again; a big part of that is watching my son play. Another big part is seeing all the other kids out there doing their thing. I feel comfortable; I enjoy coaching. This first game would serve as point A on the season, which will end at point Z some time a couple months from now. It’s all the points in between that will be where the real fun is at, but for a starting point, Saturday went really, really well.
Spoiler alert: we lost 8-6. So I guess it didn’t go THAT well, but I learned a whole lot about our team; I realized that we have a team that will be able to compete all year long. I don’t know how good all these other teams are, so maybe I’m speaking too soon on that one. Still, I like what I saw.
The part of our game that looks like it needs the most work, is our hitting; this makes sense being so early in the season. This is one part of our game that will most definitely improve. In general, all parts should get better, but the hitting… the more practice, the more batting cage work, the more ABs… yes, the offense should improve; 6 runs is not a bad starting point there. Pitching is another important area; I threw 3 kids in this game. These 3 kids will all pitch again. We have another 2 kids who pitch for their travel teams, plus at least 2 more on our team, including my son, who will pitch as well. To have half the team able to pitch is a good place to be. Next up, is the catcher’s position; had 2 catch in this game. I know of at least 2 others who can catch. In both cases, I’ll be checking to see who else I can add to this list of pitcher/catcher eligibility over the next couple weeks.
The best part of the game was our defense. We made 3 outstanding plays in the field. The first one was where my son, who was in center field at the time, gunned down this runner at the plate, trying to score from 2nd base on a single; it was a perfect line drive, one hop throw to the catcher who applied the tag. The second one, funny enough, involved the same 2 kids, just at switched positions. This time, the other kid threw to my son, who was catching, and tagged a runner out trying to score. The third one was our SS who picked up a ground ball that deflected off the 2nd baseman’s glove to get a runner at first, saving a run. In each of these cases, we saved a run; there were a couple other plays where we could have done the same… coaching opportunity!
So yeah, my son specifically, was great on defense; he struck out once and walked twice on offense. He’ll be pitching in one of the two games this upcoming weekend, after his initial mud-ball inning during the canceled game last weekend. Looking to get at least one other new kid to pitch, actually an old teammate, who hit a home run (triple with a throwing error to be technical), driving my son in from first, in the last inning, cutting the deficit to 2 runs, which would be the final; that was an awesome hit! Anyways, I have a bunch of notes written down, to be reviewed at practice this week. And away we go…
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