UNTI FAMILY

Happy Mothers day!

posted by The Pants @ 3:39 PM Comments: 0

Baseball 2008

It's baseball season. I think it's going to be a very long one. Both teams combined have only won one game. Max's team had a heart breaking defeat this week. They were up the entire game and in the fifth inning the opponents pulled ahead by one run. In the top of the sixth (the last inning) our guys tied the game but in the bottom half of the inning they gave up a walk off home run. A couple of the kids were so disappointed they broke down into tears.

This is Max's first year of kid pitch. He played 5 Kid pitch games last june but only got one at bat in each of the games and did not get a hit. Max has been making good contact in the last three games. He has only struck out twice in six at bats. He did get a hit in those six and one ground out. The other two at bats were walks. There are some really good pitchers who are a year ahead of him in school. They are tough for him to hit. Usually once a game a hitable pitcher for Max comes into the game. The other night Max fouled three balls off before he drew a walk. He has made some pretty good plays at second. He caught a fly ball diving back toward second base. He has also made some diving stops of ground balls. That's not to say he has not had the occasional error.

I am also coaching Jake's team. We have 6 first graders and 3 second graders on the team. I will get the first graders back next year and half to draft the incoming kindergardeners. We have had few rough games but we are fielding better. Learning who's responsible for covering second base is important. Sometimes we catch the ball when it's thrown to first and sometimes we don't. We need to work on making good throws too. All my kids can hit. We play coach pitch and the kids have to hit on a "t" if they can not get a hit after 5 pitches. It's rare we have to go to the "t". Jake has made some pretty great plays in the field this year. Once Jake was playing second when a ground ball was hit to third. The third basemen scooped up the ball and threw a bullet to second. Jake was quick to cover the bag and made a great catch to get the out.

Max and Jake both tried out for travel soccer. There are two teams at Max's age group and Max made the higher ranked team. Jake made a team as well. He will be playing up a level this year. He is on a lower level under nine team. The coach wanted to get a group of kids to start playing together earlier. This of course will mean lots of traveling in the fall. But I have to admit I enjoy it a lot. May be even a little more than the kids.

posted by The Pants @ 5:40 PM Comments: 0