Weekend of Baseball

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This weekend was the first tournament of the spring for the Bucs.  We had games scheduled for 5:45 and 7:30 last night.  Unfortunately, all the games were running behind.  The first game didn't start until 6:30 and the second game didn't start until after 8:15.  The Bucs won both games and Evan did really well.  In fact, in the first three games of the tournament, he went 7 for 9 hitting.  He made several good fielding plays at second base, third base and center field.  So we didn't leave the fields until 10:00 last night.

The reward for winning both games last night was to play as the 4th seed at 7:45 this morning.  The tournament was in Round Rock which is 45-60 minutes away.  So we got home around 11pm last night and I woke Evan up at 5:45am this morning to get up there.  The tournament had 18 teams in it and after the results yesterday, they broke up the teams into three brackets.  By winning both games, the Bucs ended up in the top bracket with teams that are classified as AAA and Majors.  The Bucs are classified as a AA team.  In fact in the top 5 teams, the Bucs were the only AA team.

The game started at 7:45 and immediately, the Bucs jumped out in front.  Evan hit the ball well.  And he made a sliding catch of a ball in center that was tailing away from him.  The Bucs were winning by 2 going into the top of the last inning.  The other team scored 3 runs to take the lead.  The Bucs came up in the bottom of the inning.  The first batter laid down a great bunt which surprised the other team and he beat it out for an infield single.  Evan came up and laced a ball towards second which ended up hitting the runner so Evan took first and the runner was out.  Evan stole second.  The next batter struck out.  So now there were two outs and the tying run at second.  The next better got down 0-2 and swung at strike 3, but the ball got away from the catcher.  The batter ran to second and the catcher threw to first but the first baseman dropped it.  The runner was safe and Evan came around to score to tie the game.  The runner on first stole second.  Then the batter hit a single to right and the runner from second came around to score and the Bucs won the game.

We were then scheduled to play in the semifinals at 1:15.  So we all went to lunch at Rudy's.  It was a nice time.

Noah and Rachel stayed home.  Rachel was not feeling well.

After Rudy's the team played again.  The Bucs jumped up 5-0 in the top of the first.  But the other team matched with 5 runs of their own.  No matter, the Bucs came right back with three in the top of the second.  Unfortunately, the other team matched again.  In the top of the third, Evan led off the inning.  The other team put in what appeared to be their best pitcher.  This kid could throw really hard.  I'm guessing he threw 55-60 mph.  His first pitch got Evan right in the thigh.  You could hear the ball hit.  Evan was able to make it to first, and to show the other team, that it didn't bother him, he stole second on the first pitch.  The pitcher settled down and struck out the next three batters unfortunately.  The Bucs didn't give up a run in the bottom of the third.  In the 4th, which was the last inning, we got a runner to second against the kid, but no further.  The other team scored a run in the bottom of the fourth to win the game.  The Bucs played their hearts out this weekend.  I was really proud of them.

Evan ended the weekend 7-10 with one hit-by-pitch, and no strikeouts.

Noah had a birthday party in the late afternoon.  With Rachel feeling badly, a mom of one of Noah's friends took him to and from the birthday party.

We tried to take Rachel to an urgent care facility to test to see if she has strep, but apparently, urgent care facilities close to us are closed on Sundays or close early.  We would have had to drive across town.  We'll probably go in the morning.

For dinner, Evan and I picked up Chinese food.

The boys are in bed now.

Until next time...