Warrior

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This weekend we were in Mansfield, TX (about 20 minutes due south of Arlington) for a baseball tournament.  Evan was playing with the "B" team which they call the "Blue" team.  After the third game today, one of the parents on the team came up to Evan and told him how well he played and he called Evan a "warrior".  I don't think there is a better way to describe how Evan played today.

The whole family drove up to Mansfield on Friday after Evan got home from school.  We went with two families to dinner at a pizza place.  The pizza was just ok, but we had a nice time with the two other families and all the boys got along well.

On Saturday, the games didn't begin until 3pm.  We just stayed at the hotel for most of the day.  I took the boys to Chick-Fil-A for lunch.  They also swam in the pool some with other boys from the team.

The games didn't go very well for Evan's team.  Evan personally played very well.  He was hitting the ball better than he has this season.  He caught the second game and had one bad call on a potential runner at third and the second baseman dropped a perfect throw where he could have thrown another runner out.  He was really throwing well.  They lost both games.

After the games, both teams - the 12U teams and 13U teams went to a restaurant that had arcade games and pool tables that I had found for all of us.  It was nice because all the parents could talk while the kids played.  Then the coaches and a  few parents took the kids out to laser tag.  Trent, the head coach, said while we were there to play baseball, the weekend is a team building event as well and he was ok with sacrificing Sunday in order to do laser tag with the kids.  Siblings joined so Noah went along.  They were out late, getting home after 11pm.  Both boys had fun though.  I think Noah likes to be included with the older boys.

Unfortunately, Evans team was cursed with an 8am game because of their poor showing.  We got to the fields at 7:15.  The team played much better.  Again, Evan caught and again he hit the ball well.  Today he ended up having 4-5 straight at-bats where he had an RBI.  The pitching was much better and Evan's team won.

We went back to the hotel and got Rachel and Noah.  Then we went with another family to brunch.

Evan started the next game at third base.  They wanted to use him as the second pitcher if they needed him so they didn't want to pull him out to pitch if he was catching.  The first pitcher only got one out and gave up 6 runs so they put Evan in.  Evan quickly got the next two outs.  Evan gave up one run in the next inning, although, if I recall, it was unearned. Evan's team then took the lead going up 9-7.  In the bottom of that inning as time expired, a poorly played ball in the outfield allowed two runs to score to tie it with the winning run on third base with two outs.  Evan set up make the next pitch and the runner took off for home to steal home.  In my experience, that's a very bush league move.  The idea isn't really to steal home, but rather to fluster the pitcher and cause him to balk.  Essentially the team was trying to win on a balk.  Evan, however, appeared unfazed, stepped off the rubber and threw home getting the runner out and sending the game into extra innings.  Extra innings begin with bases loaded and one out.  Evan's team erupted for 6 runs.  Evan came in to pitch for the bottom of the inning and quickly got the second out.  He gave up a fly ball to center for what looked like the winning out but the centerfielder dropped it leading to two more runs.  But Evan induced the next batter to ground out to win the game.

Evan was very efficient and only threw 40 pitches in that game.  The coaches came to me and said they really needed Evan, would it be ok if they allowed him to pitch 75 and let him start the next game.  Knowing he won't be playing next week, I said that was fine.  So Evan started the game pitching.  He gave up one run in the first (again with more poor defense) and no runs in the second.  His last inning pitched was his most efficient.  He finished with 69 pitches, 70% strikes.  The game was tied 1-1 after his two innings pitched.  Unfortunately, the next two pitchers could not keep the game close.  Evan played third base in the third inning and threw a runner out and he caught the final inning.  He looked exhausted in that final inning but he was still trying to give it his all. 

Some other highlights from today - as a pitcher, he picked off two runners at first.  He also recognized that a ball fielded to the first baseman's right, needed him to cover first.  It was going to be close so Evan caught the toss from the first baseman and then dove and tagged the bag to end one inning.

Meanwhile, Noah seemed to have a great time.  He worked the scoreboard in the second game today keeping the score, balls and strikes.  In the third game he was having fun with other siblings on the team.  It was fun to watch him have so much fun.

We drove home after that last game.  Evan was exhausted though he never actually fell asleep. He had his pillow with him and he just rested most of the way.  Both boys are in bed now.

Until next time...