RL: Softball Dynasty

[primelord]

I liked reading AE's softball dynasty and I thought I would write one of my own. I don't know how in depth I will be. We'll just see how it develops as I go. I will be keeping track of my "batting average" here. For the sake of simplicity I will be counting any time I hit the ball and reach safely a hit. No worrying about whether or not the defense made an error or not. I have learned over the years that hitting the ball hard right at the 3B is very viable strategy for reaching safely. :)

I am currently playing in two leagues. A Tuesday night single game league on a buddy's work team and a Sunday double header league which I am the "coach" of. FOFC's own WSUCougar also plays on that Sunday team. We will likely also be adding another night in the 2nd session soon. If it were up to me I would play softball every night.

We are a few weeks into the season so I will get everyone caught up to where we are now. Hopefully it makes for an enternaining read and as always suggestions are welcome.

[primelord]

Before we get into the game results I wanted to take a moment to proudly show off our bat arsenal. :) At one point I posted a thread here asking if anyone had any advice on a decent softball bat. Since then I have done a lot of research and my buddy and I have gone a bit bat crazy. We now own 6 top shelf softball bats. We are insane.

Here is the lineup:

2004 Easton Synergy 2
http://www.softballfans.com/reviews/images/2004_easton_synergy2.jpg
This is the original bat I bought. Like all composite bats it takes some breaking in before it really gets hot. Myself and most of our team have become much better hitters since I first bought this bat so I don;t think we full appreciated how good this bat really is. It has a knock for having a smaller sweet spot then a lot of the top quality bats and the fact that we weren't hitting the ball hard enough to really brake it in led us to believe the bat was not that great. I have recently been hitting with it a lot in batting practice and it is starting to open up and may be my 3rd favorite bat now.

Miken Maniac 585
http://www.softballfans.com/reviews/images/2005_miken_585.jpg
I bought this bat at the beginning of our 2nd season after I decided I didn't like the Synergy 2. This one quickly became a team favorite. It has a more end loaded feel than the Synergy 2 and has a bigger sweet spot. Combine that with the fact we had begun learning to hit better and we had some real success with this bat. It developed a surface crack right above the handle early this year and it has been sent back for replacement. Each of these bats have a 1 year warranty on them and can be retuened once if cracked.

2006 Easton CNT Flex
http://www.softballfans.com/reviews/images/2006_easton_cntflex.jpg
Despite the fact the Maniac was going strong I decided to buy this bat because we play in a fall league that goes loosely by ASA rules. It is not techinically an ASA league, but if someone wanted to challenge the legality of a bat they would go by ASA standards. The Maniac was not an ASA approved bat (it is approved in our other leagues.) The CNT Flex was the hottest ASA bat you could buy at the time. (Some people still like the Synergy 2 better for ASA play and techincally the Freak 100 is the best ASA bat, but it is hard to find now at least at a decent price). This bat has a huge sweet spot on it. Up until recently it was my favorite bat and several of our players still use it. However it has a very balanced weighting to it and I have grown to like end loaded bats much better.

2004 Miken Freak Plus
http://www.softballfans.com/reviews/images/2004_miken_freak_plus.jpg
This is the point where my buddy started getting interested in the bats too. I was originally going to buy this bat, but could not find anyone who had it in stock and ended up buying the Synergy 2 instead. When my buddy wanted to buy a bat I suggested he look into this one. It's one of the hotter bats that have ever been made. You will find plenty of people who will even argue it is the hottest bat you can find that is still legal in any association. To ease the pain of buying this bat I agreed to split the price of it with him. I used this bat for the first few weeks, but have moved on to some other ones in our arsenal. This bat doesn;t get much use now which is ironic because it might be the best of all the ones we have.

Worth May120 Mayhem
http://www.softballfans.com/reviews/images/2005_worth_may120.jpg
Before the Freak+ was even shipped to us, my buddy was back jabbering to me that we should buy another bat. He liked what he was reading on the Mayhem and wanted to buy it as well. I am a sucker for softbakll bats so I again agreed to split the cost of this bat with him and we had it bought before even swinging the new Freak+ we bought. Like I said we are crazy. This is currently my gamer. It was the first 26 oz bat we bought. All the ones previously were 27 oz. I really like the lighter bat much better actually and this bat is heating up quite nicely now.

2006 Easton CNT Plus
http://www.softballfans.com/reviews/images/2006_easton_cntplus.jpg
This is the most recent addition to the bat rack. Ironically after buying the Freak+ and the Mayhem my buddy didn't like either of them. His favorite bat was still the CNT Flex. He preferred the balanced feel of the Flex and even liked swining the Synergy 2 better than the other bats despite the fact it is slightly end loaded. So he decided the CNT+ was probably the sweet spot for him. It is essentially the non ASA version of the Flex. It feels a lot like the Synergy 2 to me when I swing it, but it has a much bigger sweet spot. It has only seen one games worth of action so far and I may have been the only one to even swing it in a game so far. It has also seen a few BO sessions, but still has a lot of breaking in to do. The ball already really jumps off this bat though and it wouldn't shock me if it was my regular choice real soon. I will say I drew the line at this bat and told my buddy if he wanted it he would have to buy it on his own. :)

So there you have it. We aren't as carzy as it gets. There are guys on some of the softball forums that have far more bats than this that they use exclusively. All of our bats are for the team to share. So we aren't as crazy as it gets, but our wives would be thrilled if we didn't buy any new bats.

The 07 Easton Synergy Stealths are out now. I can't make any promises. :)

[WSUCougar]

Boo-YA!

[primelord]

Also a quick note on WSUCougar. We had never met in real life before I asked him if he wanted to join our team. He and I had always gotten along well on the boards and I figured it was a fairly safe bet that as in to sports as he is he would be at least a passable softball player. It looked like we needed one more regular to play so I took a shot.

Let me just say I have been more than pleasently surprised. Chris can really play ball. He has great range and hands in the outfield, has a strong throwing arm and can hit real well too. He is a very complete player and has been a huge addition to our team. On defense our OF is really the strength of our team and he is a major part of that.

[primelord]

Boo-YA!

Heh I was just talking about you. :)

[Dutch]

Wow, that's not fair, ya'll can just chill out and talk about IHOF whenever you want. I'm jealous.

[primelord]

Game 1: Tuesday night league

This team is an interesting one. They really don't have a ton of talent on the team and have trouble getting guys to regularly show up. Which is why I am playing with them. My bat crazy buddy plays on this team and the left center fielder (who is very good) also plays on my Sunday team. The team fits well in the league they are in though. There isn't a ton of talent on the opposing teams (at least the ones I have seen so far). They are all good guys, but on the field I think our SUnday team would have no trouble with them.

The first game was a wild one. We were the home team and we managed to give up 10 runs in the first inning. Now I am all for just going out and giving your best and having a good time, but if this was a glimpse of things to come this could be a VERY long season.
However we managed to put up 11 runs in the bottom of the 1st and we were back on top. I have been in some fairly high scoring games, but I have never been involved in a game with 21 runs in the first inning.

Things settled down on both sides after that. We put up a pretty decent effort, but the other team had perfected hitting the short line drive right over the infield. They just kept playign station to station ball and we couldn't keep up

I had a fairly good day. In my first at bat a roped a very hard line drive down the left field line for a double and ended up scoring on hit by the next batter. In my second at bat the defense shifted me way to the left. I decided if I got an outside picth I would try to drive it the the other way. The first pitch I saw was on the outer half and I hit it hard, but I got bit too much under it and the right center fielder was able to run it down. In my final at bat of the day I hit a ball right off the handle that managed to float over the short stops head and fall in for a single.

Tuesday Team Record: 0-1
BAtting Average: .667 (2/3)

[Poli]

Need a player for say...next year?

By the way, it looks like I'll be finishing this season with a perfect 1.000 batting average....2 for 2.

Unless I get into a game next week while I'm on the base. Not sure I'm going to, but I'll probably be bored sitting around the base while I wait for Africa.

[Dutch]

I hope you have enough folks in Africa to play. We played in Saudi all the time after work. Of course, the field, including the outfield was make out of hard dirt and rock which makes ESPN catches and slides kind of tricky.

[primelord]

Games 1 and 2: Sunday Afternoon League

I am of course a bit biased, but I think our Sunday afternoon team is awful good. We have 12 guys on the team and with the exception of maybe one of them they all hit well. Our outfield defense is fantastic. They all have great range and good to great arms. The infield defense (where I play of course:)) is not quite as stellar, but certainly good enough to get the job done. Our picther is very good at consistently throwing stirkes too. Walks will kill you in slow pitch.

We led off the season against the team that finished in 1st place last year. The top of their lineup well and their SS and LC are very good defesively. We don't get along with this team really at all. They seem to complain to the umps every time a call doesn't go their way and they just carry themselves in a really cocky way. We exchanged heated words with them multiple times last season. Their pitcher was convinced one of our better hitters was trying to hit him when two straight hard line drives went back up the middle. We ended up losing all 4 games to this team last season, althugh they were all close. I was really looking forward to beating this team.

We came out firing in the first game. It has been a few weeks so I don't remember exactly what the score was, but we put up several runs early in the game. Coug can correct me if I get anything wrong. The other team came back strong and we spent the last couple of innings trading the lead back and forth. We managed to take a one run lead in the top of the 7th and headed into the bottom of the inning with a chance to start the year off 1-0. In the bottom of the 7th we quickly got two outs, but the other team was able to put several runners on. They had 2nd and 3rd with two outs when the guy at the plate hit a hot shot to short. Our SS made the play and came up firing. The throw was a rocket right at our first basemans feet. Our first baseman made a fantastic dig and the throw beat the runner by a heart beat and we won game 1!

I however did absolutely nothing to contribute to our teams' victory. I made my only contribution in my first at bat of the day when I hit a medium depth fly ball to left that scored a runner from 3rd. So I got a sacrafice in that at bat. In my next 3 at bats I grounded out weakly to short and 3rd and flew out to left center. So I took an 0/3 collar in game one.

Game 2 was a different story. Our 3B, who may be our overall best offensive player, had to leave and we seemed to fall apart on offense. The defense still played well, but the other team was very surgical with their hits. A lot of hard line drives right over the infield, lots of hard ground balls up the middle and some occasional deep shots that got over the OFs heads. There really wasn't a lot we could do to stop them. We needed to slug it out with them and our bats just went to sleep. I believe the fional score was something like 15-3.

Rather than my bat going to sleep, it just stayed asleep. In my first at bat I again grounded out weakly to the SS. I finally hit a ball hard in my final at bat when I saw the RC playing me very shallow (and rightfully so). I took an outside pitch the otehr way and hit a hard line drive, but it was right at him. So I finished the day a combied 0/5.

The seocnd game was a bit unfortunate, but managing to at least split the first two games was huge for us. The other two teams in our division are both new. I watched them play int he games before ours and one of them looked really good and one of them looked really bad. So assuming we can play with that other good team I think we will have a real shot at first this session.

Sunday Team Record: 1-1
Batting Average: .250 (2/8)

[Poli]

I hope you have enough folks in Africa to play. We played in Saudi all the time after work. Of course, the field, including the outfield was make out of hard dirt and rock which makes ESPN catches and slides kind of tricky.

I'm bringing my glove. I may bring a ball, a bad ball.

I've already loaned out my bat to a friend for the summer.

[primelord]

Game 2: Tuesday Night League

So coming off of my terrible Sunday performance I was really looking to get back on track in this game. There are a few key differences between the Tuesday and Sunday league. The Tuesday league is a called strike zone with a 12 foot max arc. Our Sunday league is a carpert league and has a 10 foot max arc. I am used to carpert leagues so adjusting for what the ump calls as a strike and the higher pitches has been something I have had to work on. In general I am not a very patient hitter. I will take pitches that are very obviously balls, but if it is close I am hacking.

This was another back and forth game from the beginning. One problem with this team is they throw the ball around too much. They try to make very difficult throws and catch guys who are mere steps from the base. It's kind of surprising that they do that since they have been playing together for a few years now. We gave up several extra runs in this game by doing that. Still going into the top of the 5th we were only down by 2 runs.

The 5th is when it all fell apart for us. The other team had spent most of the night nickle and diming hits on us. They were hitting a lot of ground balls through the infiled and little flairs into the OF. If they were doing that on purpose to draw the OF in then more power to them because they spent the entire 5th inning crushing the ball. Two guys hit home runs over the 302 fence and several others hit one hoppers to the wall. In total they put up 10 runs that inning and we couldn;t recover.

I again had an awful day at the plate. I had a sac fly in my first at bat. After that I had two more flyouts and a ground out to short. I was really having trouble with the higher arc on this night. At this point I wanted to hang myself. I had just gone hitless in 3 straight games in slow pitch softball.

Tuesday Team Record: 0-2
Batting Average: .182 (2/11)

[Poli]

Not sure where you're standing in the box, but to adjust for 12 foot I usually try to get as deep as I can in the box. Heck, sometimes I'm in the far corner.

From that spot, especially in 12 foot, I feel I have a better shot at the ball...and if it even looks close to inside I can let it fall. I do like to hit to right field and if they pitch outside I can take a step to right field and drive it that way.

If they pitch a nice flat ball you can always "walk the box" and mash the ball that way as well.


By the way, I like the bats you're using...it's a pretty darn good collection. I did get a homerun last year...and it was with a Freak. Incredible bat.

[primelord]

Games 3 and 4: Sunday Afternoon League

We were rained out of what was supposed to be our first match up against what appeared to be the bad team in the league. So that matchup gets moved to the end of the season and our 2nd set of games was against another good team. When I watched them play before our first week the one thing that was clear was that they could hit. They had one guy who hit home runs over the 300 foot fence in consecutive at bats and they were constantly peppering the gaps. I figured if we could hang with these guys we would be in very good shape this season.

We were the away team in game 1 and we really put the pressure on in the first inning. Everyone was hitting the ball hard. Even the outs that were made were hard line drives that were unfortunately hit right at someone. When it was all said and done we batted around in the first inning and put up 7 runs. In the bottom of the first the defense was great. We had one miscue when our SS threw an easy double play ball into RF and that led to a run. He was gone the first week and I think nerves got to him a bit there. That first inning foreshadowed how the rest of the game would go. We never let up on the gas and when the dust cleared we won 23-6. One thing that wasn't very clear when our opponents were playing the bad team was that they couldn't field real well. We hit very well this game, but they helped us out as well by booting some very playable balls on the infield etc.

So we were feeling pretty good about ourselves after game 1 and were ready to put a beating on our opponents in game 2. Things didn't quite work out that way though. Just like the previous week our bats went to sleep in the second game. Overall we didn;t hit the ball that poorly, but most of the good hits we did have were right at people. We also had multiple innings where we got 1 or 2 runners on and then the next 3 batters would fly out. The other team remebered how to hit as well. We still played well defensively, but they were doing a good job of hitting low line drives and just kept putting the pressure on up and down the lineup. We ended up losing this game 20-3. I have never seen such lopsided scores with each team winning one game before.

The good news for me was that I had a great day hitting the ball. Coming into the game my confiudence was quite low, but I was determined to do better today. In my first at bat I hit a rope over the 3rd basemans head for a single. In my second at bat the outfield was playing me in and a crushed a line drive in the left center gap that went to the fence for a double. In my 3rd at bat I heard the left center fielder tell the OF to play deep and I ended up hitting a low line drive that dropped in front of the OF for a single. Again the defense adjusted to my last at bat and were playing me shallow when I came up for the 4th time and I ripped a ball over the left fielders head for a double. So I ended the first game 4 for 4.

In the second game I kept my hitting streak alive with a single between short and 3rd and I only got one more at bat in the second game and again I got a single down the left field line. So 2 for 2 in the second game and 6 for 6 total on the day. I can't tell you what that day did for my confidence.

Sunday Team Record: 2-2
Batting Average: .471 (8/17)

[primelord]

Not sure where you're standing in the box, but to adjust for 12 foot I usually try to get as deep as I can in the box. Heck, sometimes I'm in the far corner.

From that spot, especially in 12 foot, I feel I have a better shot at the ball...and if it even looks close to inside I can let it fall. I do like to hit to right field and if they pitch outside I can take a step to right field and drive it that way.

If they pitch a nice flat ball you can always "walk the box" and mash the ball that way as well.


By the way, I like the bats you're using...it's a pretty darn good collection. I did get a homerun last year...and it was with a Freak. Incredible bat.

Obviously I haven't gotten there yet in my posts, but FWIW I actually made that adjustment last night. I generally like to stand up in the box because I like to hit the ball high in the zone. In the 12 foot league though it was just way too high in the zone up there. So I did move to the back of the box and had some godd success with it. I appreciate the tip.

One thing I have never been able to do is "walk the box". I see a lot of guys do it and be very successful with it, but every time I have tried I fail miserably with it.

[Poli]

Obviously I haven't gotten there yet in my posts, but FWIW I actually made that adjustment last night. I generally like to stand up in the box because I like to hit the ball high in the zone. In the 12 foot league though it was just way too high in the zone up there. So I did move to the back of the box and had some godd success with it. I appreciate the tip.

One thing I have never been able to do is "walk the box". I see a lot of guys do it and be very successful with it, but every time I have tried I fail miserably with it.

I don't seem to generate the power I see others display by walking the box, but I have hit some very hard line drives with it. The key is getting your weight level again, IMO. That said, if I walk the box once, I usually end up screwing the rest of my at bats. I know on more than one occassion I've chopped my feet when I had no intention of moving anywhere.

Good job in those last at bats.

[primelord]

Games 5 and 6: Sunday Afternoon League

Between rainouts, bye weeks, and Mother's Day weekend it had been a couple weeks since we last played softball. I had been hitting in the cage a lot between then so I was still feeling good though. These games took place just this past Sunday so we are almost up to today. We were up against the same team we played in week 1 and 2. They put a beating on us last time and we were once again without two of our better players because they were out of town. Picking up two games from them today would be huge. IT would give us a fantastic chance to win the division.

Game 1 started out in similar fashion to the last game 1 we had against them. Their starting pitcher is frankly just not very good. He throws probably 65-70% of his pitches short of the plate and throws a lot of pitches inside as well. Overall we are a pretty aggressive team so that can actually hurt us when we aren't patient and swing at bad picthes. In game 1 we did a great job of taking walks when he wouldn't throw a strike and hammering the picthes when they actually were strikes. Several things went very right for us in this game. Everyone was hitting. I don't think there was a single person on the team that didn't have a multi hit game.

The key to our opponents defense is their SS and left center fielder. Both of these guys are very good defensively. Everyone else on the team is average at best. Unfortunately for them their backup pitcher is also their SS when it became very obvious their picther was not going to be able to throw strikes they moved their SS in to pitch. The guy that replaced him at SS was not very good and at one point they moved their LC in to play SS. These defensive changes ended up giving us multiple extra opportunities. We steadily socred all game and played great defense. The game was called after the 5th inning with us up 18-6.

Game 2 started out as much of the same. In both games the defense was playign us ridculously shallow. I am a firm believer in positioning the defense to force the other team to try and hit it over your head, but the depth they were playing was assinine. We have several guys on the team who can really hit it deep. In the first couple of innings we took advantage of that positioning and had several balls hit over their heads. MY favorite moment of the day was when I pulled our left fielder aside before he went to the plate. He probably has the most pure power on the team and I pointed out to him that they were playing him insanely shallow and he should just unleash one. He hit the first pitch over the fence about 320. It didn't really matter where they were playing him with that one. :)

Also in the first inning it should be noted that WSUCougar made a spectacular sliding catch in the OF that saved at least one run. After two innings we were up on them 8-0 and it appeared we were cruising to another 10 run rule game. For some reason we lost our hitting mojo again though. Guys were gitting on here and there but we couldn't string together a series of hits and we just stopped scoring. However our defense kept playing very good ball and the other team was failing to take advantage of opportunities when they did have guys on. At one point they suddenly claimed they scored a run in the 1st inning. I am 99% certain they didn't score that run, but I wasn't interested in getting into a huge fight over something that was going to be very difficult to prve so I conceded the run to them. So we went into the bottom of the 6th up 8-1.

In the 6th our pitcher ended up on 2B with one out. There was a groundball hit in front of him and when the SS made the throw to 1st he took off for 3rd. The 1B made the out at first and fired a high throw to 3B. The 3B jumped to catch the ball and brought the tag down square on our pitchers head right as was coming into the bag. I saw the ump make the call for the 3rd out and looked back down to continue stretching my calves. That is when I heard our pitcher start to scream.

We all rushed over to the bag and the first things I heard were the other team's pitcher say he heard a loud snap and our pitcher say I broke it. Apparently the tag on the head knocked our pitcher to the ground and the 3B landed on his wrist. It was very obvious from looking at it that he had broken his wrist. We ended up calling an ambulance and after getting him taped up in a splint they took him to the hospital. To be honest I don't know exactly how to put the scene in to words. You never want to see anyone get hurt like that and it's that much harder to see when it is a good friend of yours. I'll go a little more into his condition now at the end of the post.

So once the ambulance arrived the ump had us go back out to finish the game. It was the top of the 7th we were up by 7 runs and we just needed 3 outs to win the game. Unfortuantely we were down to 9 players now and our pitcher had not pitched a game in well over a year. He is actually a pretty solid pitcher, but coming in cold like that it was expected he would probably struggle a bit to find the strike zone. That is exactly what happened. His first few pitches were off the mark by quite a bit and the entire opposing team decided to take the approach that they would not swing at a pitch until they had seen at least one strike. Due to some cramps in my calves I was catching the last couple of innings and sitting there watching them take close pitch after close pitch and keep walking I was getting very angry. It's one thing if the opposing pitcher just can;t find the strike zone, but given the circumstances of why we had someone else in there pitching I thought the least they could do was swing at pitches that were just barely balls and try to hit to actually beat us.

In the end it didn't they scored 4 runs to close the gap to 8-5, but their best hitter came up with the bases loaded and two outs and flied out to RF to end the game. So we took two games from a good team who we don;t get along with. THat was obviously a great feeling, but the injury to our pitcher dampened that quite a bit.

I continued to hit well in these games. MY first at bat I hit a rocket line drive right at the 3B which actually hit him in the glove, but he dropped it and I reached safely. I walked in my second at bat. My first walk of the year. :) In my third at bat I hit a sac fly to left. And in my final at bat of the first game I hit a hard line drive right back up the middle to go 2 for 2 for the game. In the second game I got a single between SS and 3B in my first time up. In my second at bat I hit a hard ground ball to short and as I was running up the line I felt my calves start to cramp up. This happens to me a lot when I get dehydrated. I was thrown out at first and I went back to the bench to start heavily drinking fluids and stretching hoping to get through the game. However when I tried to run it was pretty clear to me that if I went hard they were going to knot up. So I was essentially shot for the rest of the day.

I told Coug as I was coming up for my final at bat that if I got on I would need him to pinch run for me. I don't think anyone on the team really understood the situation though. I hit a rocket into the left center gap in my last at bat. IN a vain attempt to cut the ball off the left fielder dove for it but missed and it went to the wall with no one anywhere near. I am probably the slowest guy on our team, but I think everyone thought I would have a shot at a triple on that hit. Unfortunately when the left cewnter fielder picked up the ball and threw it back in I was still hobbling to 1B. :) If I tried to run at all I would have just collapsed to the ground. So I ended up with what will liekly be the longest single of the season. :) Still I finished the day 4 for 5. Not too shabby.

Sunday Team Record: 4-2
Batting Average: .545 (12/22)

[primelord]

Sorry for the book like length of the last post. A lot of things happened this past Sunday. :)

As for our picther Bill I talked to him this morning after he got out of surgery. The damage to his wrist was a little more severe than they initially thought. If I understood him correctly the radius bone snapped right at the wrist and the ulna was fractured. The ended up having to put a metal plate and 9 screws into his wrist this morning. The good news is he is actually in good spirits all things considered. He will be in a hard cast for the next couple of weeks and then soft cast for 4 weeks after that. The doctors told him they expect it will be 3 months before he can play softball again. That hopefully means he will be able to join us in our fall leagues. I know he is already ready to get back out there and we are all hoping he has a speedy recovery.

[primelord]

Game 3: Tuesday Night League

We had a bye week and then two straight rainouts so it has been a month since we last played in this league. We are playing the same team that we played in the first week. I forgot to mention that almost the entire team is made up of guys I went to high school with. Over the last few years I have constantly run into teams full of guys I went to high school with. It seems guys in my high schoo and specifically in my graduating class don't like to move out of St. Louis. :)

This game started out in similar fashion to the last one we had with them. They put up on 9 runs on us int he first inning. UNfortunately we didn;t respond and by the 5th inning it was 12-0 and we were on the verge of having the game called. We came roaring back in the bottom of the 5th though and put 9 runs on them to make it a game again. Both teams traded runs in the 6th and we went into the bottom of the 7th down by 5.

In the 7th we managed to get two runs in and had 1st and 3rd with two outs and my bat crazy buddy up at the plate. He is really a very good hitter and the guy behind him is a very good hitter too so we were in very good shape to tie the game. Much to everyone's shock my buddy fouled two pitches straight back and struck out to end the game. Talk about anti-climactic. :) He actually did the exact same thing in his first at bat which led to one of the strangest lines in softball history. He hit tow balls that were both a couple feet of going out of the park. One led to a triple and the other was a double only because the guy running in front of him missed 2B and had to go back to touch it. So he had a double and a triple both one hopping the wall and two strike outs. :) That is just odd. Generally someone capable of striking out twice is not capable of crushing the ball tot he wall and vice versa. :)

I had a pretty solid night overall. I had actually decided to make the adjustment that AE was talking about above and I moved farter back in the box. In my first at bat the picther served up the mother of all beach balls to me. It was right at letter high, dead center, and right at the back of the plate. My eyes lit up... and I hit a towering fly ball that dropped right into the left fielders glove. I can't believe I missed that pitch. :) In my second at bat I hit a real hard ground ball that the SS made a pretty great play on and threw me out. So I was 0 for 2, but I felt like I hit that ball well. In my 3rd at bat I hit nice hard line drive double over the 3B head and in my final at bat I again hit a hard line drive right past the 3B for a single. So I finished the night 2 for 4 and hit the ball well 3 times. I vats improvement for me in this league.

Tuesday Team Record: 0-3
Batting Average: .538 (14/26)

[Travis]

Great read so far man, nice to see the batting average skyrocketing up the charts ;)

If you find yourself ever looking at picking up another bat, I'd highly recommend the Anderson line. I've got a Rocket Tech and the thing was on fire straight out of the wrapper, and if I can ever find a Rocket Tech Composite Killer it will be added to my collection immediately. Both are ASA approved if you enter into any tournies that require that.

I'm curious to know though, in a self analyzed style, what you think of your batting stance/swing. I've played with a lot of different approaches since making the switch from baseball to slowpitch and have settled on two different styles depending on what I'm looking to accomplish at the plate. But always looking for more ideas, I always like hearing other people's approach, what they focus on for their own style and how they try to implement their own strengths and cover any potential weaknesses.

[Poli]

After watching my church get lit up last week, I was thinking about my own softball progression.

I was a baseball player before, but hadn't played competitively in about 6 years before I started playing with them. I had a few pick up games in Harrisburg, Arkansas (very interesting how those games come together) and I found hitting a softball to be incredibly hard.

Simply put, my baseball skills made me a good fielder but a horrible hitter for some reason. Turned out I had been so out of the game my hitting mechanics were all out of whack.

I split time with another guy in right field and usually batted at the bottom of the order. It was frustrating, because I knew I was much better than that.

It wasn't until I was playing ball for my ship and church in Norfolk that people started helping me with my hitting mechanics. I was literally swinging flatfooted and just trying to push the ball to third. I was fast enough pre surgery to just beat out a ground ball to the 3rd base side...regardless of a bobble or not.

I don't know why or how I picked that up.

That and other advice really helped me get my swing back in shape. Last year and in my short season of this year I've hit the ball better than I have ever in my life.

[primelord]

I'm curious to know though, in a self analyzed style, what you think of your batting stance/swing. I've played with a lot of different approaches since making the switch from baseball to slowpitch and have settled on two different styles depending on what I'm looking to accomplish at the plate. But always looking for more ideas, I always like hearing other people's approach, what they focus on for their own style and how they try to implement their own strengths and cover any potential weaknesses.

Essentially everything I have changed to better my softball swing has come from www.swingmechanics.com

That's a dedicated site specifically for the softball swing and the differences between it and a baseball swing. Most of our team has migrated towards hitting that way. I still haven't incorporated all the things he suggests into my swing, but I have made 3 changes that have made a tremendous difference.

1) My grip was completely wrong. A lot of former baseball players grip the bat with the middle knuckles on their top hand in line with their top knuckles on their bottom hand. This will cause you to cast in your swing and will rob you of a lot of your power. It forces you to roll your wrists over too early. By lining the 2nd knuckles of your top hand up with the 2nd knuckles on your bottom hand you will be able to create a whip motion in your swing that will generate far more power. This grip felt very uncomfortable for me the first few times out, but now it feels weird holding the bat the way I used to.

Another thing I do in my grip is I drop my pinky over the knob of the bat. This also was quite uncomfortable at first but it is a key change to the swing. When you release the top hand (which I will get to next) it allows your hand to work as one with the bat and for your wrist to roll over much easier right after you make contact with the ball.

2) Releasing my top hand from the bat right before contact is made. Any time you see someone somplete their swing with both hands on the bat they robbed themselves of bat speed. The onger you make your swing arc the more bat speed you can generate. If you keep the top hand on the bat then the length of your swing is limited by your back shoulder. By releasing your top hand right before you make contact you can continue to accelorate the bat through the ball.

3) Throwing my hands at the ball. There are two ways to swing a bat, casting and whipping. In order to hit the ball as hard as you can you want to whip the bat. When you cast you lead with your bottom hand and drag the bat at the ball. To whip the bat you want to use your top hand to throw the barrell of the bat at the ball. A good way to practice how this should feel is to turn your top hand upsaide down in BP and just push the handle of the bat with your top hand as you swing. You will immediately see what the whip is supposed to feel like.

Those are the 3 big changes I have made and they have made a world of differnce. They do take some time to get used to though if you don;t already swing like that. There are some other things I still don;t do well. I don't get my hands back far enough before the swing which would again help me to lengthen my swing arc and generate more bat speed. I also don;t use my lower body enough I don;t think in driving into the ball, but just those 3 changes alone have helped me a great deal.

[Travis]

Good stuff man, I'm going to take a tour through that site after work tonight (well okay, maybe during intermissions), but it's nice to see that I'm already doing two of those three (knuckle lineup and the top hand release). I had a few *discussions* with some batting coaches along the way in baseball about the release, but strangely enough, the part about the knuckles is how I've always been taught to hold a bat. Never specifically explained that well, but it gives me some ideas on how to possibly help a few players on my team now who are rolling their wrists way too early (or at least one more thing to look and see if it's part of the problem).

Again, this is without looking at that site, so I'm not sure what they suggest for incorporating your lower body into your swing more, but a few things to try would be starting with more weight on your front foot when you set up, forcing yourself to get your weight back as you prepare to swing which should result in more drive through as you swing, or to even try alternating your stance from what you're using now to the opposite style (ie: if you stand spread out, try standing more straight up with your feet close together ala Ken Griffey, of if that's how you stand now, spread it out and see how that works). I've been experimenting with three styles personally, I call them my Molitor (feet quite far apart, front foot picks up and sets back down in the same spot), Bagwell (shoulder width apart, front foot has a small stride) and the Griffey (nearly standing straight up, quite a long stride during the swing). I've found each gives me a lot of different things I can do while still letting me be pretty solid against any pitcher type. I generate the most power from my Bagwell stance for hitting home runs, the Griffey is 90% line drives with the occasional moon shot or sky fly ball, while the Molitor is one I can pretty much place things for a single if that's what the situation calls for.

Some food for thought, and definitely something to try in practice for a while first.

[Icy]

Sorry for threadjacking but what are the main differences between softball and baseball?

[primelord]

Sorry for threadjacking but what are the main differences between softball and baseball?

Are you asking what the difference in the swings are or just the sports in general?

[Icy]

Are you asking what the difference in the swings are or just the sports in general?

Sports in general, of course i know about baseball and i have heard about softball before but never saw a game myself and don't know the differences between them.

[Travis]

Biggest difference is diamond dimensions and pitching style. In softball, there are different variations with anything from full windmill style pitching, to modified rules where it's still underhand, with no full windmill, to slowpitch which has two different pitching styles, a strikezone or mat. Pitching in this is an underhand lob that generally has to reach at least 6 feet in height, and each league has their own rules on maximum height, usually ranging from 12-18 feet if it's not unlimited. Strike zone leagues require the ball to come down through the classic strikezone while mat leagues are just that, a mat placed behind home plate, and the ball must land on the mat (in some leagues home plate is considered a strike, in others a ball) to be a strike.

Field wise, I'm not sure what most softball leagues are, but for any slowpitch league I've been in, it's 60 feet to each base with the mound anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 of the way between second and home.

There are lots of rule changes from baseball/softball to slowpitch (mostly safety related and to avoid collisions), but I'll leave those out of here for now ;)

[WSUCougar]

Of course the ball is much bigger in softball. And the defense fields 10 men rather than nine, moist commonly four outfielders or a "short fielder" who usually plays short left center.

As a generalization, slow-pitch softball emphasizes hitting and defense. Although there are definite exceptions, the main goal of the pitcher is to get it over the plate where it's hittable.

[Travis]

Of course the ball is much bigger in softball. And the defense fields 10 men rather than nine, moist commonly four outfielders or a "short fielder" who usually plays short left center.

As a generalization, slow-pitch softball emphasizes hitting and defense. Although there are definite exceptions, the main goal of the pitcher is to get it over the plate where it's hittable.

And when playing co-ed, some leagues/tournaments use a different size ball for female hitters than they do the guys to even out the hitting a bit.

[Dutch]

Wow, I'm gonna try to work with some of those batting suggestions. I've never considered that stuff before. Thanks Primelord.

[Vince]

Excellent idea -- I had considered doing this for my softball league, but our team has been so horrible that I shudder to think of what the recaps would look like. Imagine the frustration of relaying a perfect throw from the outfield to home plate as a cut-off man, only to have the catcher be standing in the completely wrong place, and missing the tag completely even though the throw beat the runner by a good 5 or 10 feet. We've won 1 game and lost 5 -- and each of the 5 losses were by the 10-run mercy rule. Last Tuesday, however, I was 4/4 with a triple, a three-run HR and some fantastic defensive plays at 2B...made me think about starting it up again :)

As for the changes between a baseball and softball swing...Rick, have you noticed that it really makes THAT much of a difference? I still bat exactly the same way I did in hardball back in the day, and I'm a pretty good softball hitter. I can hit it out (~300 foot walls at our complex) occasionally, and am also able to push it to Right Field (I bat righty) if I need to. I'm always looking to make myself better, though -- and I definitely don't hold the bat like you describe. Imagining it now (I don't own my own bat yet...only recently started playing softball regularly), and holding an imaginary bat in that grip feels awkward as all heck. I might have to try it in the cage next time I go.

[Dutch]

You may not be in need of any more assistance, Vince. Sounds like you have tremendous bat speed as it is. And if you are hitting HRs and going 4-4, chances are something in your mechanics is working just fine and shouldn't be messed with.

My problem is that I tend to hit line-drives or grounders somewhere in the 3B/SS range. But my intent is to drive it in front of the LCF.

If I am batting opposite field (when I believe the gloves are too good or the RF is really bad or I get a really juicy outside pitch), I tend to bloop it over the 1B's head. But it's not uncommon for the ball to be within range of a shallow RF or a quick 2B.

I find limited success either way. I've never been a distance hitter.

[primelord]

As for the changes between a baseball and softball swing...Rick, have you noticed that it really makes THAT much of a difference? I still bat exactly the same way I did in hardball back in the day, and I'm a pretty good softball hitter. I can hit it out (~300 foot walls at our complex) occasionally, and am also able to push it to Right Field (I bat righty) if I need to. I'm always looking to make myself better, though -- and I definitely don't hold the bat like you describe. Imagining it now (I don't own my own bat yet...only recently started playing softball regularly), and holding an imaginary bat in that grip feels awkward as all heck. I might have to try it in the cage next time I go.

The changes really do make a very significant difference. A baseball swing is all about quick movements and a good deal of the power is generated from the pitch speed. In softball you are having to provide all of the power. Now there are certainly guys, like yourself, who hit just fine using a regular baseball swing. If you are comfortable and happy with the way you are hitting then you certainly don't need to change anything.

However I will say that making these changes will lead to you hitting the ball harder than you do now. I think the goal whenever you get up to the plate in softball should be to hit the ball as hard as you can every time. When you hit the ball hard good things happen. If you can hit a home run now I think you will find that if you made some of these changes you would be able to do it more consistently than before.

With that being said only make the changes if you are going to actually commit to doing it. The grip is going to feel weird at first as will releasing the bat with the top hand. When you first hit in the cgae like that it is very unlikely you will hit well and you will be tempted to ditch the new changes. It takes some time to get used to it, but I really do think it is very worth it even for guys who already hit well.

[Icy]

Ok thanks guys, i underestand now. It reminds me a variation of baseball we played in spain when i was a kid. Not sure who imported that to my city as nobody here plays baseball in Spain. The thing is that the pitcher threw the ball without any speed, just a lob over the strike zone. Years after that, when i learned about baseball, i always asked myself why we played with that pitching rule of slow pitching. Now i think i know the answer, whoever imported the game to Spain, imported Softball not Baseball.

[primelord]

Need a player for say...next year?

Sorry AE I meant to respond to this and forgot. Are you going to be back in the St. Louis area next year? If so get in touch with me. We play in a lot of leagues. So I would imagine we could use you.

[Poli]

Sorry AE I meant to respond to this and forgot. Are you going to be back in the St. Louis area next year? If so get in touch with me. We play in a lot of leagues. So I would imagine we could use you.

Yeah, absolutely. I should be closer to the city than I currently am as well.

[Vince]

The changes really do make a very significant difference. A baseball swing is all about quick movements and a good deal of the power is generated from the pitch speed. In softball you are having to provide all of the power. Now there are certainly guys, like yourself, who hit just fine using a regular baseball swing. If you are comfortable and happy with the way you are hitting then you certainly don't need to change anything.

However I will say that making these changes will lead to you hitting the ball harder than you do now. I think the goal whenever you get up to the plate in softball should be to hit the ball as hard as you can every time. When you hit the ball hard good things happen. If you can hit a home run now I think you will find that if you made some of these changes you would be able to do it more consistently than before.

With that being said only make the changes if you are going to actually commit to doing it. The grip is going to feel weird at first as will releasing the bat with the top hand. When you first hit in the cgae like that it is very unlikely you will hit well and you will be tempted to ditch the new changes. It takes some time to get used to it, but I really do think it is very worth it even for guys who already hit well.

I think I'll definitely try it. While I can and do hit the ball quite well as is, I'm not as consistent as I was when I was playing hardball. For instance, before last week's 4/4 game, I was something like 2/14 on the year (yes, we are so bad we only get about two at bats per game). Thanks for the tips (and that website, I'm going to have to bookmark that) -- I'll have to let you know how the changes go.

[Travis]

Just as an attempt to clarify (in case I'm the one going totally off the mark here), I'm associating the actual dynasty going on with slowpitch, not softball. Am I correct in this reading or are you playing a form of softball (and if so, what pitching style)?

Reason I ask is because the swing difference between baseball and softball would be minimal, while the change from either to slowpitch will be much more pronounced, and from the contents of Vince's post, I'm assuming he's playing softball, not slowpitch, as most slowpitch leagues that I've heard of don't allow tags at home plate.

Please let me know if I'm way off base on this as I'm going to be following along and want to picture the right style game in my head ;)

[primelord]

The leagues I play in are all slow pitch leagues. Most leagues you know of don't allow you to tag someone out at home plate? How would you evre get them out?

[Poli]

I've seen the site you mentioned before as well. I should probably go to a cage and try the grip out. I've only seen one guy use it before, and he wasn't a very powerful hitter.

[Travis]

The leagues I play in are all slow pitch leagues. Most leagues you know of don't allow you to tag someone out at home plate? How would you evre get them out?

The leagues/tournies up here for the most part use a commitment line. Usually 1/3 to 1/2 way from home to third, and as a runner, once you cross that line, you're committed to going home. To score a run, you're not allowed to touch home plate, instead you cross the plane by running behind the plate. The catcher has to possess the ball and touch home plate (not including the mat) prior to you crossing the plane to get you out. Regular run downs can occur prior to the commitment line.

Just to cut down on potential collisions at home plate and to get a bit of seperation between where the throw is going and where the runner is with none of the leagues or tournies I've been in requiring you to wear a batting helmet, so coming home is usually your most vulnerable time from any angle to see the ball come at you.

As an additional question, I don't suppose you guys (or know anybody) who comes up for the Edson Slow Pitch tournament in August? It's the biggest tourney in North America for Slow Pitch, and there are always a bunch of American teams up for it. If any of you are, we'll have to meet for a beer or two.

[Poli]

The leagues/tournies up here for the most part use a commitment line. Usually 1/3 to 1/2 way from home to third, and as a runner, once you cross that line, you're committed to going home. To score a run, you're not allowed to touch home plate, instead you cross the plane by running behind the plate. The catcher has to possess the ball and touch home plate (not including the mat) prior to you crossing the plane to get you out. Regular run downs can occur prior to the commitment line.

Just to cut down on potential collisions at home plate and to get a bit of seperation between where the throw is going and where the runner is with none of the leagues or tournies I've been in requiring you to wear a batting helmet, so coming home is usually your most vulnerable time from any angle to see the ball come at you.

As an additional question, I don't suppose you guys (or know anybody) who comes up for the Edson Slow Pitch tournament in August? It's the biggest tourney in North America for Slow Pitch, and there are always a bunch of American teams up for it. If any of you are, we'll have to meet for a beer or two.

Interesting idea on the committal line...though it appears to take what little strain I've seen in catching out of the equation.

Part of my first softball dynasty was an inept catcher. You simply could not hand him the ball and expect him to hold on to it. I think he was afraid of a collision and would almost always miss the tag and or the ball.

That first season I also knocked over a catcher who was in fact blocking the plate.

Last year, I played some catcher for the first time in...years. One game was particularly crazy in that I made three outs at the plate. Knowing I shouldn't stand in the basepath I took different stances depending on the throw.

From left or center, I put my back to right and tried to catch the ball at the basepath in front of the plate. On a throw from the right, I adjusted more to my right and was about parallel to the basepath.

It worked for me. I didn't get run over.

[Travis]

As the threadjacking continues ;)

I should also clarify that any slowpitch leagues I've been a part of have been coed, and usually either a 6 male/4 female or 7/3 split, and 95% of the time, it's the weakest female playing catcher, so I'm guessing that's a large part of why the rule was brought in. I've never played in any men's leagues, so I don't know if it's a common rule around here or if it's not heard of.

[Poli]

Mixed leagues...yech. Saw a few mixed league tournaments in Wisconsin. Not a fan.

Guy walks, the girl behind him walks. Puts a runner in scoring position automatically. Not a fan.

[Travis]

Mixed leagues...yech. Saw a few mixed league tournaments in Wisconsin. Not a fan.

Guy walks, the girl behind him walks. Puts a runner in scoring position automatically. Not a fan.

There's some variations for that rule. Generally the situation you describe requires the male batter to be walked without getting a strike. I've played in some tournaments where any male being walked with a female following gets to go to second, while only if it was 4 straight balls does the girl get the option of hitting or going to first. Personally, I like the rule if it's 4 straight balls to get the option for the girl, and as a coach on my team, I encourage the girls to hit rather than take the free pass.

Essentially mixed leagues come down to the home runs rules (cap/differential and what happens when one or the other is reached) and how good your girls are. If you have a bunch of home run mashers, that can make up the difference in itself, but most leagues/tournaments have some sort of limitation rule to even that up some. Having 3 solid girls rather than guys dragging out their girlfriends gives your team a big edge.

[primelord]

Ah I have never played in a coed league before. In all the mens leagues I have played in you make the tag at home. However there is a rule in plce that you either slide or give yourself up. There is no running over the catcher or they will throw you out.

[Poli]

Ah I have never played in a coed league before. In all the mens leagues I have played in you make the tag at home. However there is a rule in plce that you either slide or give yourself up. There is no running over the catcher or they will throw you out.

I was surprised that I stayed in the game where I knocked the catcher over. As I was running home I figured he'd eventually get out of the way. I knew there wasn't much of a chance he was going to make a play on me...but he was planted there. I really didn't have much of an option to slide around him.

[Vince]

Yeah, I'm playing slowpitch too -- but there are tags at the plate. As a matter of fact, last week I juked the hell out of a catcher who already had the ball and made a pretty impressive dive across the inside part of the plate to score :)

We're also allowed to have collisions at the plate, you just can't lower your shoulder (I've never seen a collision at this place, and I don't know how exactly it would work without lowering your shoulder, but...it's supposed to be legal). Co-ed leagues are also make-the-tag-at-home leagues at this complex -- my mom was a catcher, and was taken out more than a few times at the plate (by men as well as women). I don't think she ever dropped the ball, and she's 5 feet nothing, 130 pounds dripping wet :)

The commitment line thing sounds exactly like what we used in intramural softball at UCSB -- no sliding allowed at any base, and at home plate there were no tags.

Interestingly enough, our men's league has a cap on HR's -- 2 per team per game (and that's more than the league we were in in the Fall, where you only got 1 per team per game). After that, any HR is an out for your team, and a run for the other team.

[Poli]

I'll stop with this story, I promise.

Hit one over the centerfielder's head and to the fence during a tournament last year. Went sprinting over to third figuring I had a triple. Base coach waves me through and I take off for home.

You know it's bad when you hear the other team saying "we got him!" before the ball is at the plate and you're halfway there. I get close and the catch gets the ball on the fly.

I haven't slid face first since sometime in the late 80's. I pinched a nerve in my neck when I did it and I don't think I'll ever do it again.

Anyhow, he's blocking the plate and has every right to do so, but I'm not going to walk into a tag either. It's too late to turn around, I've got too much momentum. I dove out into the field and slid my right arm on the ground around the catcher to touch the plate. He gets my side on the tag as he dives out to get me, but his body blocked the umpire's view.

I got called safe. :)

[Vince]

Beautiful :)

[primelord]

Game 4: Tuesday Night League

We were short handed tonight so two of the guys who play on my Sunday team filled in. We were playing the same team from week 2. This team showed us last time they can hit low line drives and hit for power if they want to. We were goiing to have to be very tight on defense in this one.

Things started off fairly well. We got up 5-3 after the first two innings and we were playing very solid defense. The otehr team was doing us some favors too. It looked like they were trying to hit the long ball from the beginning and several of their better hitters popped up early and often. Unfortunately after the first couple of innings we had a real tough time hitting their pitcher. He was throwing balls very deep and the ump was calling some awful deep strikes. We had 3 straight innings where we went 1-2-3 with fly outs to the OF. Not good.

Along the way the otehr team tied the game up, but we were really holding their offense down. We went into the top of the 7th tied at 5. We got the bats going a bit in the 7th and ended up putting up 4 runs. With the way our D was playing things were looking good for our first win of the season.

The otehr team came out in the bottom of the 7th with a clear purpose. Don;t swing until you have been thrown a strike. Unfortunately this tactic worked well and we quickly found ourselves with the bases loaded and no one out. A base hit scored two runs and the score was 9-7. A double by the next batter sent two more runners home and suddenly the game is tied with only one out and they have the winning run in scoring position.

After walking the next batter our 2B (my bat crazy buddy) made a great snare of short line drive and fired over to 3B to get the lead runner. He was kicking himself after the play for not trying to turn two, but that play ended up being a pivotal one. With 1st and 2nd and two outs the otehr teams clean up hitter laced a hard line drive into left center field. Our LC (who also plays for my Sunday team) came up firing as the runner on second headed for hoime. He threw a perfect one hop bullet to the catcher and nailed the runner at home by 3 steps. To extra innings we go.

In the 8th we quickly put up 3 runs on them, but again ran into a case of the pop ups and couldn't tack on anymore despite having multiple people on with no outs. In the bottom half of the innign things started off well. The SS made a great play in the hole and fired ove to first and we nabbed the runner by a step. The second batter took a strike and then pulled the second pitch left of the 3B bag to foul out. We had two outs and we were up by 3. Unfortunately the otehr team found their hitting stroke. They laced together a series of hits and suddenly it was tied up again. With the bases loaded and two outs we got the final batter to pop out to the picther and the game was called a tie. In this league if the tie ends up affecting the standings they play an extra game to break the tie after the fact.

SO we got our first non loss of the season. :) MY performance at the plate was a bit of a mixed review. In my first at bat a took a hiigh deep strike and on the second pitch tomahawked a very high pitch into left center for a single that drove in a run. In my next at bat I hit a screaming line drive, but it was right at the left center fielder and I was retired. I contributed to the pop up brigade when I flew out to left in my 3rd at bat. I drover in two runs with a double right down the line in my fourth at bat.

My fifth and final at bat is the one I really have an issue with. I came up with two outs int he top of the 8th and we had runners on first and 3rd. I noticed that left field was playing me exceptionally deep and I decided I was going to try to rope a line drive right in front of him. The first pitch I saw was considerably high and inside. I recognized it as a ball and even was going to let it go, but at the last minute I remembered my tomahawk hit in the 1st and decided I was going to try to do that again. Unfortunately I got under the ball. I hit vert hard and it was very deep, but given where the left fielder was playign he easily settled under it and I finished the day 2 for 5.

Tuesday Team Record: 0-3-1
Batting Average: .516 (16/31)

[Poli]

4 for 5 today for me.

Ground out to 2nd. I netted a RBI.

Looper to right for a base hit.

Line drive to center for a hit.

Another line drive to center for a hit.

Final at bat: Leading off the inning, I hit a guesstimated 300 foot shot to right field...guessed 300 due to the 280 sign at the fence. It went a ways over it.

Man, did that feel good. My final at bat here at this base and I crushed the ball.

For the year I was 6 for 7. 1 run, 2 RBIs, 1 HR.


Edit: It netted me an invitation to their tournament team and town league team. Too bad I'm heading to Africa.

[primelord]

Should be an interesting game pair of games today. Our pitcher has a broken wrist, our backup pitycher has been vomiting all night, Coug sent me a message that he is sick, and two of our other very good player are in Europe. So as I am getting ready to head out to the fields we have 8 guys. MIght get ugly. :)

[primelord]

Games 7 and 8: Sunday Afternoon League

So we went into these games very short handed. We were missing 4 of our best players and our regular pitcher was out with his broken wrist. We ended up having a buddy of mine fill in and our 10th was a guy we picked up at the game just looking for a team that needed players. I showed up early and saw the end of the games in front of us. The first place team split there two game set so if we won both games today we would be tied for first heading into our match up with them next week.

The team we were playing had not won a game all year so despite the fact we were short handed I was confident we could still take both games. In the first game both teams were trading runs early. They scored 3 in the first and we followed up with 4 in the bottom of the first. They got another 3 in the second and we had 3 of our own in the bottom of the inning. They were hitting better than I had expected. They had multiple guys who were real punch and judy type of hitters that really weren't much of a threat, but mixed in were a few guys with some real pop. We went into the 4th tied at 8. In the top of the 4th we had a disasterous defensive inning. One of the real strengths of our SS is that he has a good strong accurate in arm. In this inning he alone threw 3 balls out of play on throws to first. We also had a ball thrown out of play by the pitcher and from the OF. In told we gave up 6 runs in the inning and they were all unearned. We closed the gap to 14-10 going into the top of the 7th. This whole time I was fairly certain we would come back and win, but in the top of the 7th the otehr team loaded the bases and with two outs one of their bottom of the order guys hit a grand slam. That kind of drained the life out of us. We went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 7th and lost 18-10. Very frustrating.

We started off very cold at the plate in the second game. The irnoy is only the LC could field his position well on the otehr team and we were drilling the ball to him all day. I decided to implement an OF rover in the 2nd game. They had been pulling almost everything and beating us with a lot of short line drives. The defensive switch worked very well. We have a very good RF so when the other team tried to take advantage of the huge gap in right they were hitting lame ducks that he had no trouble reeling in. Our bats finally woke up in the bottom of the 5th and we scored 4 runs in each of the last 3 innings to win the game 12-3. A very frustrating day because if we had been full strength we would have absolutely crushed these guys. As it was it could have been worse I guess. The split keeps us one game out of first so we can still take first place with two wins next week.

Unfortunaately I had a fairly miserable day at the plate. In my first at bat I took a flat pitch that was well under the 4 foot requirement, but it hit the mat and the ump called it a strike. That kind of threw me off my focus and I swung at a bad outside pitch that I grounded back to the pitcher that turned into a double play. In my second at bat I was ready for the flat pitch and hit a hard line drive into center that I stretched into a double when the throw went in to third base. I hit the ball very hard in my 3rd at bat, but I got under it a bit. The left fielder caught the ball about 3 steps from the fence. I crushed it, but in the end it was just a long fly out. IN my final at bat of the game I took two very inside picthes to start the at bat. The 3rd pitch was again inside, but looked to be a strike and I turned on it. I hit a hard line drive, but pulled it well foul of the 3B bag. With two strikes I was going to protect the plate. Again the next pitxh came well inside I was concerned about pulling it foul again so I tried make an inside out swign and ended up fouling it straight back for a strike out. Fantastic! :)

The second game was a bit more the same. I really drove the ball my first time up, but I hit the left center fielder dead in the chest. Not content with just one of those I did the exact same thing in my second at bat. Both times I hit nice hard line drives, but they were right at him. In my 3rd at bat I got on top of a pitch and the ball fairly had, but right on the ground at the SS. He scooped it up and threw me out with no porblems. In my final at bat I finally got anotehr hit as I hit a hard ground ball inbetween 3rd and SS. SO I finished a very uninspiring 2 for 8 for the day. Other than the strikeout and the ground ball back to the pitcher I hit the ball well every time up. I just unfortunately hit them at people today. I guess that is the way it goes sometimes.

Sunday Team Record: 5-3
Batting Average: .462 (18/39)

[WSUCougar]

Sorry to hear of the team's woes, Rick, but at least we salvaged a split. I know I didn't give you enough time to react to my absence - it won't happen that way again, I promise.

Now if I can only get healthy...:(

[SFL Cat]

Sorry to hear of the team's woes, Rick, but at least we salvaged a split. I know I didn't give you enough time to react to my absence - it won't happen that way again, I promise.

Now if I can only get healthy...

Slacker...put in an IV the night before and get your a$$ to the field on gameday. ;)

[WSUCougar]

I'm not quite dead. Feeling better, actually. Should be good to go by Sunday.

[primelord]

No worries. We are still in good shape. This is a huge week for us. We take two from the 1st place team and we are virtually a lock to finish in first. If we split we are going to need some help.

[primelord]

FYI. The Tuesday team had another bye week this week, which is why there was no Tuesday update.

[Poli]

I got an inning in on the base here...it was just a pickup game and I showed up way late (was at the rifle range all day).

[primelord]

Game 5: Tuesday Night League

We got rained out this past Sunday. So this was the next game up for me. We had not yet played the team we were facing tonight, but had heardthey were tied with us for last so we were optimistic about our chances.

We only had 9 guys to start the 1st inning as the 10th was running late. It didn't matter though, we set them down 1-2-3. After getting a look at the other team's pitcher my eyes lit up a bit. Everything he was throwing was flat and over the middle of the plate. I love me some flat pitches.

We started off strong in the first inning and got out to a quick 4-0 lead. They battled back a bit in the top of the 2nd and made it 4-3. We scored two more in the bottom half to make it 6-3, but they cored 3 in the top of 3rd to tie it.

From there though we took control of the game on both sides of the ball. The defense locked them down and we scored 10 more runs over the next 3 innings and the game was called 16-6 in the bottom of the 5th. A guy throwing flat pitches like that is just going to get killed every time. I am not sure why they don't have someone else pitch.

So the team had a good night offensively, but I was virtually the only one to not contribute. I had another awful night at the plate. In my first at bat I caught the ball on the handle and hit a weak grounder to 3rd. My second at bat I had a perfect flat pitch right over the heart of the plate and I got under it and flyed out to left. I got my only hit of the game on a weak grounder that went up the middle and just managed to get through. I came up in the bottom of the 5th with a man on 2nd and no one out and one more run won the game for us. I figured I could redeem myself by going 2 for 4 and driving in the clinching run. I let the first pitch go and I thought it was awfully deep, but it was called a strike. The second pitch was a ball inside and I ended up swinging at the 3rd pitch that was way inside I couldn't keep it fair as it hooked left of the 3B bag and I fouled out. :(

I am really in a funk these last few games. I came out of my last funk by consistently hitting at the cages through the week and I haven't been doing that lately. I need to pick that up again. We have two games against the "cupcake" team on Sunday. I am hoping I can regain my form a bit then.

Tuesday Team Record: 1-3-1
Batting Average: .442 (19/43)

[WSUCougar]

Rain outs suck, by the way. I've truly hated them since Little League. What a complete and utter downer, to be "up" for playing ball and then watching the day get washed out. UGH

[primelord]

Rain outs suck, by the way. I've truly hated them since Little League. What a complete and utter downer, to be "up" for playing ball and then watching the day get washed out. UGH

Without question. It really worked out for the best since Stan and Brian were going to be gone for the game. It helps to be fully loaded when going against the first place team, but I was ready to play on Sunday. Hopefully the rains hold off this weekend. The weather was fantastic last night. I would take that on Sunday for sure.

[Poli]

Looks like I may have softball after all. A woman's husband got back from there just a month before she was told she was going to Djibouti. He said they now had softball out there.

Glad I brought my stuff.

[primelord]

Games 9 and 10: Sunday Afternoon League

Well the weather reports on Friday and Saturday strongly suggested we would not get our games in this weekend. The softball gods smiled on us though and the weather held out and was actually quite nice. This was our second matchup with the last place team. They are 1-7 on the season. With their lone win coming against us. :(

We were fully loaded this week though and I didn't think we would have much trouble with these guys. We started off game 1 pretty slowly. Neither team scored in the first inning, but the other team took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. That was the only time they led in the game however. There really wasn't many remarkable things in this game. We turned 3 double plays in this game none of which were your traditional DP. The best of the 3 was a groundball to me at 2B. I gave an under hand toss to the SS and he threw the ball past our 1st baseman. The ball was on it's way out of play when it hit the other teams first base coach in the ankle. The runner, assuming the ball was out of play, was slowly jogging to 2B. Our 1B picked the ball up and we got the guy in a run down and tagged him for the DP. :)

We hit pretty well in that second game. Played good defense and Graham pitched very well in his first full game pitching in a long time. They never were a threat to us in this game. It was called in the 5th 12-2.

The second game actually ended up being a far closer game. It was still very obvious that we were the better team, but we had trouble stringing enough hits together to go on a real scoring run. They also hit much better in the second game. Unfortunately I am a little fuzzy on exactly how the scoring went.

A few things of note. One of our OFs made one of the most ridiculous catches I have ever seen in softball. The other teams best hitter hit a towering shot into RF. The wind was blowing in a bit in and from LF to RF. So balls hit to RC were really hooking and wrecking havoc with the right center fielders all day. So Nick initally broke towards LF and saw it was hooking back towards right. He was on a dead run right at the fence and laid full out to catch it right at the top of his glove. It's hard to accurately describe, but it was an unreal catch. There were also two runners on with two outs on that play so that catch saved a few runs.

Overall we played a very solid game. The fcat we just couldn't string together a ton of hits is what really kept us from pulling away in this one. We got an 11-5 lead about halfway through the game and from there it was essentially over. They amde a bit of run late, but when the dust cleared we won 12-9.

I had a pretty solid day at the plate. In my first at bat I took only my 3rd walk of the season. I got some crap from the ump and from the other team because the ball I took for ball 4 missed the carpet by centimeters. The problem was the picth started off way inside and the wind brought it back. At the point I would have made contact with it I almost certainly would have pulled it foul so I really had to take and hope for the best. It worked out. :) I only got one more at bat in the first game and I laced a hard single into left center. 1 for 1 in game 1.

My first at bat in game 2 was my only really bad at bat. I swung at the first pitch which was inside and short of the plate and I hit a weak fly ball to LF. In my next at bat I hit a hard line drive into LC that netted me a double and 2 RBIs. My 3rd at bat of the game I hit the ball hard, but I hit it right at the left center fielder. In my final at bat I again hit a hard line drive into left center for a single. So 2 for 4 for game 2 and 3 for 5 on the day.

A couple interesting notes about my first at bat. After I got the single our next hitter hit a line drive into RC. I saw the RC bobble the ball so I started for 3B. I get about 1/3 of the way there and I see the 3B coach frantically yelling for me not to run. :) Now to call me slow is a big understatement. So at that point I am figuring I am dead. However my only chance is to keep going and hope the throw is bad, so I put my head down and ran. As I come into the base I see the 3B leap in there air and he brought the TAG down right on my head. This is exactly how our pitcher broke his wrist. I thought for sure I was destined for the same fate, but I kept my feet and the 3B dropped the ball on the tag so I was safe. The very next pitch there is a ground ball to 3B. Instead of just running on contact I take a few steps towards home and wait to see what happens. The 3B bobbles the ball and for some reason I decide to go. I was thrown out fairly easily. Not my best moments on the base paths. :)

So we are in great shape to win our division. Going into the last week we will be at worst 1 game out and will be playing the 1st place team. If they lost both of their games we will be 1 game up. We again should have everyone for that game so I am very optimistic about our chances. Huge week for us.

Sunday Team Record: 7-3
Batting Average: .458 (22/48)

[primelord]

Game 6: Tuesday Night League

This was the first time we had faced our opponents, but I over heard a few of them before the game saying they hoped they would score more than 4 runs this game so I was hopeful for our chances. Unlike the last few weeks we actually had 11 players to start the game and we were even short my buddy who got me on the team.

We were the home team and the first inning went well. They got a few men on base, but we were able to get 3 outs without a score. We got on the board first in the bottom of the inning with two quick runs. The defense broke down a bit in the 2nd (I say it was because I was on the bench that inning :)) and they scored 4 runs.

The score remained 4-2 until the top of the 4th. We gave up another run and they had runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs. I was playign 1B and the batter hit a short flair over my head towards right field. I turned with the intention of making a basket catch over my shoulder. I misjudged my line though and the ball was off to my left. So in a last ditch effort I threw my arm out blindly to the left and I'll be damned if the ball didn't fall into my glove. :) I got a lot of compliments for that play, but really it was dumb luck. I had lost sight of it and only had a general idea of where it might be and things just worked out. It's better to be lucky than good. That catch saved two runs.

We scored two runs in the bottom of that inning to close the gap to 5-3 and momentum seemed to be in our favor. After that though we stalled out a bit. Our opponents put up 4 runs in the 6th and despite chipping away a bit in the bottom of the 6th, we couldn't mount enough of a come back and dropped the game 9-5. This team is really just a few players away from being very competitive in this league. They have a few very soft spots both in the field and in the lineup, but still are able to keep most games close. A few upgrades or a few players improving next season and I think they will have a shot to win that league.

I had my best hitting day in a long time in this league. My first at bat was not a good one though. I came up with one out and men on 1st and 2nd. I got a belt high pitch right over the center of the plate and took a viscious swing. Unfortunately I hit on top of the ball and actually just barely skinned it and sent an amazingly weak grounder to short. If there is an upside to that hit, I hit it so softly that they couldn't turn two one me and only got the out at second. :) So I started off 0-1.


After my last few performances in this league I was feeling pretty down about that at bat. However my defensive play in 4th energized me a bit and I decided to stop worrying about it. I am certainly not the best hitter in softball, but I know I can hit so I decided to just go out there and do that. In my second at bat after taking a ball I hit the next pitch absolutely on the screws and sent a screamer into left that drove in a run. In my 3rd at bat I didn't hit the ball quite as well, but I still roped a hard line drive into left, that again drove in a run. Both at bats felt very good to me and did wonders for my confidence. I suspect I will start having better results in this league. SO for the game I finished 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs.

Tuesday Team Record: 1-4-1
Batting Average: .471 (24/51)

[primelord]

Just looking at my average between the two leagues:

Tuesday Night: .409
Sunday Afternoon: .517

So I am really not hitting THAT poorly in the Tuesday night league. Although it took the 2 for 3 tonight to bump me over .400. However I have hit far better on Sundays. I am pretty impressed with the .517 when you consider included in that is an 0/5 game. Since the first weekend I have hit .625 in that league.

[WSUCougar]

So balls hit to RC were really hooking and wrecking havoc with the right center fielders all day.
:o *cough*

And that was indeed one helluva catch. It reminded me of a soccer goalie saving a penalty kick diving to his left.

Big games tomorrow!

[primelord]

Big games tomorrow!

Big games indeed! I just got off the phone with the softball director and he confirmed for me that we are currently tied for 1st place at 7-3 with Gaffneys.

So here are how the tie breakers work. The first tie breaker is head to head, but we split with them in our first meeting so obviously if we finish tied after tomorrow we can't use that tie breaker. The second tie breaker is margin of victory in the head to head games. Well we beat them in our first game 23-6 and they beat us 20-3 so currently the margin of victory is tied as well. The 3rd tie breaker is total runs scored. Here is where we are screwed. They currently have 141 runs scored and we have 108. So if it falls to that tie breaker we are done.

So the key is if we lose a game tomorrow it needs to be by less than the one we win :)

[Logan]

Just out of curiousity (getting into this thread for the first time)...how did you introduce WSU to your friends/teammates? "This is my internet friend?"

[primelord]

Just out of curiousity (getting into this thread for the first time)...how did you introduce WSU to your friends/teammates? "This is my internet friend?"

Honestly most of them didn't ask. :) Everyone on the team has a tie to me in some way so it isn't strange for me to bring new people to the team. Still I just introduced him as my friend (which he is). I think a few asked how we knew each other and I told them. No big deal really.

[primelord]

Games 11 and 12: Sunday Afternoon League

So today was the big day. We found ourselves tied at the top of the standings and we were playing the other first place team. We had two situations in which we could win our division. The obvious one was if we won both of our games. However if we split with them today it would go to tie breakers. The first tie breaker is heads up play, but we split ouyr first meeting with them so that would still be tied. The second tie breaker was margin of victory in the heads up matches. After our first matchup we were tied in margin of victory. So today if we split we would need to beath them by more then they beat us. If we still remain tied the 3rd tie breaker was total runs scored and they had a large lead on us there.

So we go into game 1 excited and ready to put a major beating on this team and essentially wrap things up from the get go. We start off as the home team and manage to get them out 1-2-3 and things are going well for us. In the bottom of the inning we got a run across and we took the field in the top of the 2nd up 1-0. Things began to fall apart for us from there.

One thing that is for certain is this team can hit. All but maybe two guys can consistently make hard contact with the ball. In general they don't beat you much with the deep ball. They hit lots of low hard line drives into the short outfield and play a lot of station to station ball. They got into the full swing of things in the next few innings. Overall we didn't play horribly on defense although we had a few miscues, but they were placing the ball very well. Things were looking bleak as we went into the bottom of the 5th down 11-1.

So we needed at least one run to keep on playing. More importantly we needed a few runs to try and keep the margin of victory close. In the 5th inning we finally got the bats going. Most of the guys in the lineup hit that inning and we put 4 runs up to cut the lead to 11-5. We were back in the game. This team is capable of putting up some big numbers in an inning so 6 runs down was not looking at all out of reach.

We held them scoreless in the 6th, but failed to score anymore runs of our own in the bottom half. In the top half of the 7th our opponents put 3 more runs across and had a fairly commanding 8 run lead. If we couldn;t win this game we at least needed to try and get that score a little closer going into game 2. It wasn't meant to be as we went 1-2-3 and dropped game 13-5. So we needed to beat a team that had scored 40 more runs than us in the previous 5 weeks by 9 runs in the second game. We weren't ready to toss in the towel, but that is a pretty hefty task.

Game 2 started off in a very similar fashion to game 1. We were retired quickly in the top of the first without scoring any runs and our opponents were retired just as quickly. So it was 0-0 after 1. We had another hitting outburst in the 2nd. Two of our best hitters had really been struggling the last couple of weeks and they both got going in this inning. When the top of the 2nd was over we had scored 4 more runs and were feeling pretty good about our chances. We were even more jazzed as we hald our opponents to no runs in the bottom half as well. 4-0 after 2.

That score remained the same until the top of the 5th. We had another big inning with contributions from our usual big bats and took a commanding 9-0 lead in the game. We were playing very well on defense and the other team had just been unable to make any real head way even when they would get a runner or two on. We had the lead we needed and just had to hold on for 3 more innings.

The bottom of the 5th started out very well for us. We quickly retired the first two hitters. However aftera two out walk the next batter got a base hit into left. The LF came up and threw ahead of the lead runner into 3B, but unfortunately threw it over the 3B head and out of play. The runner on second scored on the two base error. We retired the next guy and the lead was 9-1.

After failing to score in the top of the 6th we had a very big defensive stand in the bottom half of the inning after they got two runners on with 1 out. We went into the top of the 7th needing at least 1 run if we were going to win this thing. Another bout of very timely hitting netted us 4 runs in the top of the 7th and we were in fantastic shape going into the bottom of the 7th up 13-1. As long as they didn't score 4 runs we would win our division.

The leadoff batter walked which is never a good thing, but the second batter grounded to 3B and we got a force at 2B for out number 1. The second batter grounded back to the pitcher and again we get a force at 2B for out number 2. So they are down to their final out. The next batter hits a sky high pop up in very shallow left center field. I immediately hear our LC call for the ball, but from my view it didn't look like he could get there. He came tearing in on the ball and made a sliding catch on his knees to secure the victory. Cue the music. We are the champions! :D

I didn't play exceptionally well in the field, but I had a very solid day at the plate. The pitcher we were facing was throwing a lot of balls inside and short. That meant I was going to be hitting a lot of balls at 3B. In my first at bat I did exactly that and hit a fiarly hard groun ball right down the line that shot under the 3B glove. My 2nd at bat was by far the worst of the day. I hit a weak groundball to SS that ended up getting Coug forced out at 2B. I did manage to go from 1st to 3rd on a hit from our next batter and score a run. So I didn't get a hit, but I did at least contribute. My 3rd at bat I hit a very nice hard line drive, but it was right at the 3B chest and he caught it easily. My final at bat of the game I hit a hard groundball again at the 3B and he couldn;t handle it and it went into the OF. I was very proud of myself for stretching that into 2 as the 3B chased the ball down in the shallow OF. :) So I finished game 1 2 for 4.

I got off to a good start in game 2. In my first at bat I hit another screaming gound ball right down the line for a single. My 2nd at bat came in the inning where we stretched it to 9-0. I was up with 1 out and men on 2nd and 3rd. No matter what I wanted to ensure we got at least 1 guy home so I was determined not to hit a ball right back at the pitcher or a hard ground ball to 3B. So I decided I was going to massively over swing. When I swing as hard as I can 1 of two things happen. About 15% of the time I hit a huge fly ball that goes either in the LC gap or over the LF head. The other 85% of the time I fly out to LF. That would be good enough in this situation. So the pitch came in and I took a mighty cut and flew out to LF. :) I accomplished my goal though and the runner easily tagged and scored from 3B. So a sacrafice for me. In my final at bat I hit a nice hard ground ball between 3B and SS and I finished the game 2 for 2. I had 2 or 3 RBIs on the day and 3 runs scored so overall it was a very good day for me. Most importantly though the team got the win it needed and we take home our first division championship in this league.

So we have next Sunday off because of the 4th of July weekend and we start back up from scratch in the 2nd session the following Sunday. The top 3 teams should all remain int his division, but I would expect that the other team that finished 1-11 (again they're only win coming against us) will be moved to the lower division and the best team from that division will be moved up. I think we have an excellent shot of winning another divison in the upcoming session.

Sunday Team Session 1 Final Record: 8-4 (1st place)
Batting Average: .491 (28/57)

[WSUCougar]

WOOT!!!

[Poli]

Right on!

[primelord]

Woot. I just found out we get team t-shirts for our division championship. :)

Also I will unfortunately have to miss my first softball game of the year tonight. I am on call tonight so I am tied to the house. :(

[WSUCougar]

Woot. I just found out we get team t-shirts for our division championship.
I hope they're not white. I look fat(ter) in white.

[Poli]

Played some baseball with the boys orphanage just outside the base. By the hype, I was expecting to have a somewhat competitive game.

Turned out the pitchers just lobbed the ball to the plate, and we made our own diamond out of the dirt...no fence, no lineups, no teams, no worries. I batted 4 times, once with 13 players in the field.

Good times.

[Dutch]

Cool!

EDIT: For the division champs and also African baseball.

[Vince]

Congratulations all!

I just joined my second softball team, and am incredibly excited about it. It's a church league, and they play double-headers every Saturday morning (so I don't have to worry about it interfering with my work schedule). There's also something nice about knowing that I will probably be one of the best players on the field at all times, if everyone is close in talent to the 20 or so people that were on the field at the practice yesterday :)

[Poli]

I would have provided a photo, but when I looked over the shots they took of the baseball game, there was exactly 1 photo, and I wasn't in it. :)

[primelord]

So I got an interesting phone call today. The softball director called me to let me know when our first games were this Sunday. He is a little behind on sending out the schedules for the new session. Our games are at 1 and 2 on Field 1!!!!! Field 1 is the top division. It seems our division championship earned us a promotion that I have mixed feelings about. There are some scary boys that play in that division.

It also doesn't help that we are losing two of our best players for the upcoming session. Still we have a lot of talent left on the team. So I guess we are going to find out what we are made of. :)

[WSUCougar]

So I guess we are going to find out what we are made of. :)
I'm about 74% french fries.

[DanGarion]

So I got an interesting phone call today. The softball director called me to let me know when our first games were this Sunday. He is a little behind on sending out the schedules for the new session. Our games are at 1 and 2 on Field 1!!!!! Field 1 is the top division. It seems our division championship earned us a promotion that I have mixed feelings about. There are some scary boys that play in that division.

It also doesn't help that we are losing two of our best players for the upcoming session. Still we have a lot of talent left on the team. So I guess we are going to find out what we are made of. :)
Ouch, yeah some of those higher level guys are scary. But I've only played in E and D leagues, so you are a bit above us :)!

[WSUCougar]

Primelord is in Vegas playing poker, so I'll provide a quick review of our team's initial venture into the top "competitive" division.

We lost twice.

Overall, however, I don't think we were out of our league in terms of competition. We just didn't play very well and it cost us.

The first game was fairly low-scoring. The other team - which was apparently the division winners from the previous session - has a bunch of good hitters and busted a pretty big inning at one point, but defensive mistakes cost us quite a few runs. At the plate, we hit far too many meager pop-ups as a team. We had one good rally in the final inning, but I flied out to left to end the game, losing 13-8.

The second game was worse. We struggled to get anything going, our pitcher couldn't find the plate, and the other team hit some absolute BOMBS out of the park. We got mercy ruled in that one.

We'll see if we can pick it up next weekend.

[primelord]

Games 3 and 4: Sunday Afternoon League

Thank you Coug for giving an update for the games I missed due to my Vegas trip. I really hated missing those games. (Not enough to skip a trip to Vegas though :))

So it has been 3 weeks since I have played softball and I actually felt quite rusty getting going this week. Things got interesting right off the bat as we only had 8 players initially show up. We only have 10 regulars this session and one was out of town and WSUCougar was noweher to be found. :) A guy on our team was able to get a buddy to play though on short notice and I actually ended up having one of the park grounds keepers fill in as our 10th.

I think the near 100 degree heat and massive humidity fried my brain a little because I am having trouble remembering many exact details from this game. I will just have to do my best. After going scoreless in the top of the first we took the field and I witnessed something I had never seen before in slow pitch softball. The first 3 batters on the other team all fouled out. It wasn't like they fouled out on long bombs they just pulled too much or anything. They all fouled out straight back to the catcher. I didn't think that was possible. So essentially our pitcher struck out the side. :)

This game brought up one of my biggest pet peeves in slow pitch softball. I absolutely can not stand a team that refuses to swing the bat. I know taking repeated walks is a perfectly valid strategy to win and you even occasionally face pitchers who miss by so much that you really have little choice. However if the picther is around the carpet get the freakin bat off your shoulders. It's slow pitch softball for crying out loud. Who the hell shows up to take a walk every at bat?

So the other team started their walk brigade in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Any time a team does this they are going to hear about it from me. They may not be breaking any rules, but I am going to let them know what pansies I think they are for doing that. I think my repeated taunts served their purpose as the other team started to get visibly pissed and they started swinging the bats. We took an early lead in game 1, but the bats went to sleep after about the 4th inning.

We held on to a lead for most of the game, but ended up giving up a big inning in I believe the bottom of the 5th that allowed the other team to take a one run lead. (At some point in here WSUCougar showed up. I blame the loss of the lead on him. ;)). So after failing to score in the 6th we came into the top of the 7th down by 1. Our leadoff hitter promptly doubles and it looks like we are in business. However the next two batters both make outs and fail to advance the runner so it is up to me with two outs and the tying run on second.

I scan the field and notice the left fielder is playing ridiculously deep. If I can get a ball past the 3B we are gold. So I am just looking for a nice fat inside pitch that I can line into shallow left. The first pitch I get fits that exact description and I take a mighty cut.... and hit a soft groundball to 3B. The 3B easily scoops the ball up and throws me out by 45 steps. Game over. I suck.

The one thing that was very clear to me after game 1 was that we were a much better team than our opponents. We let that one slip away, but we really should be stomping them. The 2nd game pretty much confirmed that theory for me. Nothing really spectacular happened in this game, but we were quite clearly the dominant team throughout. We played very solid defense and pretty much everyone on the team contributed offensively. Coug crushed a ball that would have been a home run, but ended up hooking just left of the foul pole.

In the end we put away a decisive 10-2 victory. The next time we play these guys I will be very surprised if we don't take both games from them.

Like I said I felt very rusty after not playing for a few weeks and it showed at the plate in the first game. Sue to rain outs and byes we had a 3 week stretch earlier in the year where we didn't play, but a buddy and I were going to the cages a lot in between so I still felt sharp. This time I hadn;t touched a softball since our division winning games.

In my first at bat I swung at a ptch that was at least 3 feet over my head. Somehow I made slight contact but no sane person would ahve ever swung at that pitch. Now with one strike I was protecting the plate and I took a hack at a short outside pitch that grounded weakly to 3B. I only reached safely on a fielders choice because I hit the ball so weakly that the 3B couldn't turn two in time. In my second at bat I put a much better swing on the ball, but I got well under it and a hit a useless fly to LF. As documented above I grounded out to 3B in my final at bat as well to go 0-3 in the first game.

Things went much better for me in game 2. I got a single on a hard line drive off the 3B's leg in my first at bat of game 2. My second at bat produced another single as I put ball through the hole between 3B and short. I did it again in my final at bat of the day with another hard ground ball through the hole for yet another single. 3 for 3 in game 2.

So on the day I finished 3 for 6, scored 3 runs and drove in a couple runs. Not too bad all told, but I am really still kicking myself for not getting in that tieing run in game 1.

Sunday Team Record Session 2: 1-3
Batting Average: .492 (31/63)

[WSUCougar]

We only have 10 regulars this session and one was out of town and WSUCougar was nowhere to be found. :)
Au contraire, mon Capitan! I could be found at The Elephant Bar restaurant, consuming jambalaya for my birthday lunch. Actual comment to my wife on the ride home: "Man, I'm stuffed, but I should be good to go by game time at 3:00."

Oops.

Game time was 1:00 & 2:00.

I felt like a stuffed alligator out there. Plus Rick throws me in at my absolute worse frikkin' position: first base. What, is that my penance for being late?!? So of course I get two tough throws from our SS that inning, and miss both of them. Plus my hitting sucks. I am not contributing much right now...:o

But the jambalaya was tasty.

[primelord]

I felt like a stuffed alligator out there. Plus Rick throws me in at my absolute worse frikkin' position: first base. What, is that my penance for being late?!? So of course I get two tough throws from our SS that inning, and miss both of them. Plus my hitting sucks. I am not contributing much right now...:o

How can first base be anyone's worst position? :)

Chris is being modest. He played fine. You hit the crap out of that ball that hooked foul.