Little League

Yesterday was opening day for the little league that I am a part of. I coach a 11-12 year old baseball team and our team sponsor is Cracker Barrel (pretty sweet I know). After enduring a parade with the truck full of animals I had to wait through one rain delay and a huge schedule dilemma before my game even started. The game actually went pretty well, better than I thought it was going to go, that's for sure. The kid I had pitching lasted the whole game, all 4 innings of it until it started raining again and we just called that game. He allowed basically 1 run an inning which isn't too bad for little league. My team's hitting was the problem; with only 1 run in 4 innings our productivity was minimal at best. The first two guys got on and I was thinking, great, we are going to be just fine, and then the next 8 batters proceeded to strike out; so all 3 outs of the first 2 innings and the first two batters of the 3rd inning were all strike outs, and when that happens, it makes it kind of hard to score runs, although, our only run came in the 1st inning off of stolen bases and passed balls. The 4th inning was actually pretty good batting wise. We had the bases loaded with no outs....but...we didn't score. One kid got thrown out trying to go home on a passed ball. One kid was out on a force play at third. The last kid struck out, just following the pattern I suppose.

This year is looking pretty good though. I was without one of, if not the best, players in the first game yesterday so when he is there we will have a lead off hitter and a shortstop/pitcher/catcher. Also it looks like I have about 4 to 5 solid pitchers which is good because you usually need 2 to 3 pitchers per game and once they pitch in one game, for me usually on Tuesday, they can't pitch in the second game, Thursday, but they can pitch again the next week. So if I can get them on a 2 pitcher per game schedule with one pitcher available for relief I should be straight. Fielding also looks very good. Solid 1st, 3rd, short, center field, and catcher so my important field positions are covered. Hitting is my one concern this year though. Last year my team had a problem with striking out a lot and it looks like they will this year as well. As long as they go down swinging I am happy though. Better to swing and get out than stand there and look like a fool.