The weekend started off on the right note with a convincing 18-3 win on Friday and so many of us were excited about our chances to take the tournament the next day at Mellis. However, those thoughts all came to a halt on Saturday when the team was swept out of the tourney 0-3. Everyone had an opinion about why we lost, especially when we were ahead late in all 3 of those games. There were plenty of errors that helped contribute to our demise, but the one thing that sticks out to me the most is not being able to put away a good team in the first game that we played, and allowing them to score 7 unearned runs after taking a 5-0 lead to start the game. I can't say we didn't get off on the right foot because we did this time around. It was our inability to make the routine play that costs us the lead and eventually the tournament. Although we can blame the errors all we want, their was on thing that was not mentioned and it was by far the most important thing..... our offense was shut down. Game 1 (18-10) loss(we were leading after 5), Game 2 (10-9) loss (walk off), Game 3 (11-9) loss(walk off HR). You cannot average 9 runs a game in a tournament without being shown the door early. Although this all sounds like an uphill battle, it isn't impossible to understand. For starters, the pitching that we saw was very tricky especially in game 1 when we jumped out to a 5-0 lead and our opposition switched pitchers. They brought a new pitcher in because the other kid was giving us too much arch over the plate which is what were used to seeing at Rainbow fields and Beyer. I did not catch on to the fact that we were being quick pitched with flat little league fast balls. It was to throw our timing off because we had been teeing off on them. More evidence to this fact is how well the baseball players on this team did and how hard they connected when they swung the bat. Mitch, Jared, and Joseph all have a baseball style approach when they come to the plate and they had a field day when they were quick pitched. For the rest of the team, it quite simple, we start whatever timing mechanism you use in your head just a little faster when you see it coming. I don't expect to see much of that on Friday nights, but its good to always look out for it. Overall, these guys should be proud for being in every game right down to the wire. They always do a good job of putting themselves in a position to win any game they play and that's speaks volumes about their individual character.
