Champions

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

I just noticed how long it's been since we wrote the blog.  It's been a busy few weeks.  Two weeks ago, Rachel was at a conference for most of the week.  Last week, I was in Philadelphia and then Richmond for work.  And this past weekend, Evan and I were in Dallas for a baseball tournament.

Rachel enjoyed her conference.  She feels like she met some good people and made some good contacts.  We'll see if anything comes out of it, but it seems promising.

My trip to Philadelphia and Richmond was good.  I went to Grandmom's retirement party.  It was nice and some really nice things were said about her.  It was also a super productive time at the office.  I think it went really well. 

Evan and I left for Dallas on Friday afternoon.  We were able to get out before the big rains came.  Rachel and Noah went to Panera and on the way home, they saw police cars.  It turns out there was a water rescue not far from Panera because of the floods caused by the heavy rains.  Luckily our house was good and the lighting which was close did not affect Rachel, Noah or the house.

Evan and I went out to dinner with all the families that had made it up to the hotel.  Then the boys went swimming at the hotel while the parents are sat out and talked.

Evan played on Saturday late morning/early afternoon.  His team won both games.  He caught the first game and threw out a runner at second.  He almost threw out another runner.  The throw beat the runner but the umpire said the tag was too slow.  The team won the second game as well.  Evan had a key hit in the game and played third base.  He was also involved in a controversial rundown where the umpire said that the fielder interfered with him and they said he was safe at home.

Noah had a football game in the afternoon.  Rachel didn't think it would happen based on the amount of rain the night before, but they were able to play.  Noah had two QB sacks and caused a safety.  It seemed like he had a good time.

Saturday night in Dallas, we went to a sports bar for dinner.  There is a pool table and arcade games for the kids to play.  The parents all ate together.  Then the kids went to a laser tag place with the coaches while the parents stayed at the hotel.  Evan came back into the hotel with his arm around his friend Elliot.  They seemed to be in a really good mood. 

On Sunday, Evan's first game was not until 11:30.  He was named the starting pitcher for the first game.  The other team showed up late, but they still played.  They did shorten the game.  Evan pitched two innings of no-hit shutout baseball.  The offense took over most of the game and took up the rest of the time.  Evan had a hit and scored a run.  The final score was 7-0.

We wen to lunch and then played the second game.  Evan caught in that game.  He played very well at catcher.  The starting pitcher also pitched well.  The team won that game 6-0.

In the third game - the championship - the team faced a pitcher who was 6'5" or 6'6".  He seemed about as tall as Evan's coach who is 6'6" but we didn't see them exactly together.  This boy was 13.  But Evan's team did not seem intimidated.  Evan had an RBI ground out, knocking in the first run and a well hit line drive that was right at the shortstop.  The boys threw hard, probably in the mid 70's.  But the pitcher on Evan's team was even better.  Evan made three very key plays at third base including two in the final inning.  He looked really good there.  They won the championship, 4-0.  So for the day, they didn't give up any runs.  They allowed two total hits in 11 innings with 17 strikeouts between the three pitchers.

We got home a little after 10pm.

Today, the boys started their 3rd-to-last week of school.  It was a fairly uneventful day.

Until next time...

Nationals - Game 1

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning was a normal morning.  Both boys were behaved and we went to school without incident.

Neither Rachel, nor I, had meetings or anything like that.  We stayed home most of the day.

Rachel and I picked the boys up from school.  It was very nice so we walked today.

I could not find Evan's red belt that he wears for the Nationals.  I looked everywhere.  So when I ran out to pick up his pants that were hemmed, I picked up a new red belt at Academy.

When I came home, we had dinner.  Then Rachel went to tutoring and Evan, Noah and I went to the Oak Hill fields for Evan's first game.

This was the first time either boy had a game at the Oak Hill fields since before the flood.  Their last game was on October 6 there.  We were excited to go out and play.

Evan led off the game with a hit.  Unfortunately, he did not the first run as he was forced at third.  In the second inning on a ground ball up the middle, Evan came over from shortstop and fielded the ball in front of second base and threw a bullet on the run.  It was a really nice play.  In the third inning, Evan was playing left center.  There was a boy on first.  There was a pop up that dropped into shallow right center.  Evan raced up fielded the ball and saw the running rounding second.  Evan turned and threw a bullet to third base which was caught by the third baseman.  Unfortunately, the third baseman didn't realize it was not a force and stood there with the ball in his glove not even attempting to apply the tag.  The throw reached third base when the runner was not quite half way to third base.  Inexplicably the runner, who was safe since he was not tagged, overran third base and then the third baseman tagged the boy.  Evan's team ended up winning the game.

We are home now and the boys are in bed.

Until next time...