Caitlin's Softball Thread (2012)

[Ksyrup]

Here's the first thread, for anyone who is interested:

My Daughter's Softball Thread (2011) - Front Office Football Central

And it starts anew, for 2012! Softball never really ended. Caitlin did something nearly every day - whether conditioning, strength training, pitching, hitting, or team practice for nearly the entire late fall and winter, aside from 2 weeks off during Christmas/New Years.

Middle school ball starts up February 13th. Before then, like last year, her travel team is playing an indoor tournament at the end of January. Same place as last year, the Sportszone in Indianapolis. We play this weekend. It's a huge tournament - 14 12U teams, from at least 5 different states, plus 6 16U teams that play throughout the night. This will likely be the most competitive tournament we play outside of our big tournaments in Tennessee in April and Panama City in July. I'm a little apprehensive because some of these teams have been playing non-stop throughout the winter, while we haven't played a competitive game since October. But we'll see how it goes.

This year's edition of the travel team is solid. We picked up 4 in total, and dropped 2 who moved up to 14U. I was a little surprised the coaches didn't drop anyone else, but I think relationships and stuff prevented that from happening. That said, we do have some weak spots, but they will be on the bench.

We've only got 2 pitchers, which scares me a little, given Caitlin's shoulder/back muscle injury last summer. She's been going to a weekly strength class run by a former pitching instructor/conditioning coach with several MLB teams, and it seems to be really helping. The last time she got clocked was in July at the Columbus tournament, where they had a competition. She topped out at 49, which was somewhat surprising/disappointing. Well, last night when we pitched, I broke out the speed ball and she was throwing between 55 and 59. THAT shocked me. I'm still not sure that's right, but I hope so.

The middle school team is going to be REALLY good this year. Caitlin's in 7th grade, and we have a strong mix of 8th and 7th graders. Four excellent pitchers, which is a luxury. The 6th grade class is sparse, so we expect to struggle next year when Caitlin's in 8th grade. But they should dominate this year.

And one final nugget - our little one has decided to play softball as well this year, so we'll now have 2 on travel teams. She's only 7, and her team is a brand new 8U team, so I think we'll likely play maybe 6 tournaments total this year. But it's likely that Michelle and I will have to split up for more than 1 weekend while one goes here and the other goes there. That will be very hard to deal with.

[Ksyrup]

It feels good to be a second year team, that's all I can say.

That was one of the most competitive fields of teams I've seen at a tourney in some time, and we finished runner-up. 14 teams from 5 states. At least 1 (or 2) of the top 3 teams in OH, TN, IN, and KY, plus a team from Michigan. If these girls can learn how to hit a change-up, we will be scary good. As it is, we have great pitching and defense that we don't even need to hit well to win. But when we do, we will click on all cylinders.

Saturday morning we had 2 pool games which determined our seeding for the rest of the single elimination tournament. We won the first game 3-0 against a fairly mediocre team - it was a good team to start with considering we hadn't played since October. We played a really good Indy team next and lost 1-0 - Caitlin pitched OK, but a lead-off walk, error, and single scored the only run in the 2nd inning.

So that put us as the 2nd seed in our pool, and a quirk of the scheduling was that we were the only team not to play again until Sunday. The bad part about that was we would have to play 4 games in 5 (2 back-to-backs with 1 game rest in between) to win the championship.

Looking at the schedule, we were just hoping to win the first elimination game that morning. The team waiting for us after that game was one of the best teams in OH, and a team we played in Columbus and lost to 5-0. But they lost some of their 2nd year players from that team, so they weren't quite the same team. We won the first game 2-0. Caitlin had an RBI single in the 1st inning. Next game was against the OH team, and we jumped on them early 3-0 and Caitlin did the rest. She pitched a 2-hit shutout with no walks and 5 Ks. Phenomenal game. That team was stunned.

So we sat a game and then played another Indy team we beat fairly easily 5-0. That put us in the championship game against probably the best IN team, the Gators. Not only are they good, but they play these indoor tournaments nearly every weekend, so they are in mid-season form. First inning went OK, but in the second, they got a couple of hits off of Caitlin, the defense made a couple of mistakes (twice tried throwing home to get the runner instead of taking the out at first), and then it just snowballed into an 11 run inning with hits and errors and more hits and more errors and we lost 11-1.

Sucked to end the tournament like that, but 2nd place in that tourney was way beyond expectations. Before that final game, we had given up 1 run in 5 games. We play like that this summer, we will be winning multiple tournaments.

So now travel ball gets put aside and we concentrate on middle school ball. The pitchers have to get adjusted to 43 foot mound from 40, which will take some time.

[Ksyrup]

Not really much of a surprise, but Caitlin made the middle school softball team. I expect she'll play mainly on the 8th grade team. Apriil is going to be fun - I think they have 22 or 24 scheduled games, something like that.

We live in a small county, so it's always interesting to see the disparity in talent and the pockets of talent and no talent at each age level. Between the current 7th-12th graders, we've got a ton of talent. Below 7th grade, the 6th and 5th grade classes are virtually devoid of players, let alone talented players. We have only 4 6th graders on the team, and only 2 of them can play. And even at the 7th grade level, once you get past the top 5, the coach took 4 beginners just to fill out the team. One of the coaches said it's like watching clown school and he's concerned someone might get hurt - there's that much of a drop-off in talent level between the travel team girls and the newbies. Although Caitlin will be in 8th grade next year, this is probably the last chance to win before she gets to high school. Next year's middle school team is going to have no depth - although we'll have 3 good-great pitchers.

This year's team is loaded, though. If we can hit even a little bit, we're going to be really good.

[Ksyrup]

Well, middle school season starts Monday! Unfortunately, Caitlin will have to miss the first game of the year, but it's for a good reason - she's been accepted into the National Beta Club. We've got 6-8 girls affected by this, but only the ones being inducted have to go. The others can participate in other ways. So that kinda stinks, but I'm happy she's getting the honor. Always good to have something like that for the college resume.

Not sure what to think of this middle school team. We've got 3 excellent 7th grade pitchers, plus a decent 8th grade pitcher who seems to have taken a step back (she takes off the entire winter from softball, and while I know that's recommended by doctors and such, the results don't lie - she regressed while our girls got better). The core of the team is split evenly between 8th and 7th graders, but we don't have much depth - the drop off between good players who play travel ball and the 7th/6th graders who are just learning the game is fairly steep. We've got 2 6th graders who are good (they play on our travel team), but the rest are literally beginners. We lost some serious power and experience from last year's team, so I'm not sure how good we're going to be. The pitching is going to have to do it for us, because I don't think we're going to hit as well as last year.

On the travel team front, we're practicing on Sundays (supposedly the only "off" day of the week from middle school ball) to get ready for a Tennessee tournament at the end of the month (1st weekend of spring break). Should be another very competitive tournament, with 18 teams from 6 states. Looks like we finalized our roster, with 2 girls quitting after the Indy tournament (due to lack of playing time, always an issue on a good team) and adding 1 girl (the 2nd 6th grader from our middle school team). I think this team is really solid, and we've only got 1 weaker, clearly-a-step-behind-the-others player - she's definitely #11 on the bench.

[Ksyrup]

Well, the season is underway... and brings with it the unfortunate reminder that not all teams are created even close to equal. First game of the season we played a team from a neighboring county just as a warm-up. Caitlin didn't attend because she was invited to join the National Junior Beta Club and had to attend the induction ceremony to get in, so we missed a 16-0 win. Apparently the other team's pitching was so bad it appeared they were teaching a girl how to pitch minutes before the game.

Last night we played the first game of our conference schedule and won 13-1 (and 11-0 in the B game that doesn't count). Caitlin had 3 hits and 3 RBIs. She hit a BOMB foul ball down the LF line that 3-hopped a 250 foot fence. I can't wait until she straightens one of those out!

She ended up pitching the 3rd (and last) inning of the A game - 10 pitches, 10 strikes, 3 Ks. They hit one foul ball on the 9th pitch and that was about it. She was dealin'. Of course, they weren't very good, but she was still hitting her spots with curveballs and dropballs, not just throwing fastballs up there. She finished the last girl off with a beautiful change-up.

I was standing close to the plate so I could see how the pitches were breaking and what-not, and after the inning was over the ump came back behind the plate and said to a bunch of us standing there, "That girl can pitch." So that was pretty cool.

We are hosting a tournament this weekend, but the 80 degree weather is supposed to go away and we're in for rain and storms starting tonight through Saturday. So it may be a wash-out, unfortunately. I think the best we can hope for is to get a couple of games in on Saturday.

Next week, they have 3 games and I'll be missing 2 of them. Then Spring Break starts and we go to Tennessee for a tournament with her travel team next weekend.

[Ksyrup]

Despite the rain, we managed to have a great tournament with not even one delay. It rained good on Friday morning, but cleared up nicely by the evening (despite a wall of water east of Lexington). And then we had a huge storm system come through overnight, knocking out our power for about 6 hours, but the fields cleaned up nicely and Saturday went without a hitch.

We finished second in the tournament. Basically, the middle school season looks like it is going to boil down to us and one other school, which happens to be coached by our travel team and has several of our players on it. We won our first 4 games 12-0, 15-0, 15-1, and 12-0 before playing them in the championship game and losing 9-5. That was the first game we played this season that went over 3 innings and wasn't run-ruled. We have 4 pitchers, and none of them are getting enough work because our games aren't long enough.

Caitlin had a good weekend - 5 or 6 hits and 3 walks batting. Pitching, she threw one inning Friday night and walked one and gave up a hit, but got out of it with no runs. Then on Saturday, she threw a (3 inning) no-hitter in the 12-0 win to get to the championship game. A guy from the other team had a radar gun so I was standing behind him while tracking pitches, and she was hitting a consistent 52-53 with most of her stuff, and mid-upper 40s with her change-up. She hit 55 on one pitch in the last inning. So she's up a good 4-5 MPH from last summer.

This week we play 3 games before heading to Tennessee for a travel ball tournament - 2 of the teams we run-ruled and the one we lost to. I will be interested to see if they start Caitlin against the team that beat us just because they didn't see her Saturday (although the coach knows her real well from travle ball, obviously).

[Ksyrup]

We won both A games the past two days, 7-3 and 15-0. The first game we played horribly against a team we beat this past weekend 12-0 and still won. It was cold and windy and the other team was up for the game since they were upset at how bad we beat them in the tournament, so they gave us a good game. But we played really bad. Caitlin started at 1B and had a single and flyout to LF. In the B game against that team, Caitlin walked twice and hit a 2-run triple. She started the game at pitcher and gave up a bunt single to the first girl and then struck out the next 6 batters. She finished the game at 3B.

Last night we played the team we beat twice during the tournament and again it wasn't a contest, 15-0 and then 13-1 in the B game. I couldn't make either game due to a work commitment. Apparently Caitlin pitched the last inning of the first game and the first inning of the second game. They also had her try slap hitting just for fun and of course, she struck out. I wish I had seen that.

Tomorrow we play the team that beat us in the tournament. Big game. Then it's off to Tennessee for a huge tournament this weekend with the travel team. I like the way the tournament is set up, like a mini-MLB season - there are 2 divisions of 8 teams each, and you play all 7 teams in your division, with the top team in each division playing for the championship. I think that's a much better format than the typical single or double-elimination style, since it guarantees more games for each team.

[Ksyrup]

Quick update before we head off to Tennessee... we avenged our tournament loss with a 1-0 win, then our B team won 3-2. Both good games. Caitlin pitched the final 3 innings of the first game, giving up no hits or walks and striking out 5 to get the win. We got a sacrifice fly to, um, SS (!) in the bottom of the 5th for the walk-off win. Coach put in the smallest, fastest girl on the team to pinch-run at 3B and sent her on a pop-up to deep SS. The throw was high and we scored.

[Ksyrup]

Wow, what a weekend!

Got back a few hours ago from Franklin, Tennessee, where we played in a really fun, tough 16-team tournament and finished 3rd overall with a 6-1 record.

As I mentioned above, the tournament was set up with 2 8-team divisions, and each team played the other 7 teams with the 2 division winners playing for the championship. 7-8 games is a lot in 2 days, and with the way our middle school games play out - basically 3 inning run-rule wins - and having 4 pitchers on our middle school team to spread innings around, we knew that pitcher fatigue was going to be an issue this weekend.

The other problem with middle school ball - at least in this area - is there are precious few good teams, and even fewer good pitchers. So for 2.5 months, our girls see crap pitching, then go play travel ball and have to get adjusted to really good pitchers who throw fast with good accuracy and secondary pitches. So we struggled hitting the ball a bit.

First game Caitlin started pitching, and we were up 2-0 with 2 outs in the last inning when we had a dropped 3rd strike that would have ended the game but kept it alive. The next 2 girls got hits to score a run, and then the game was seemingly over when the next girl hit a slow roller to 1B. But our 1Bman went for the tag and got hit/pushed hard by the runner, dropped the ball, and they tied the game. Caitlin struck out the next batter to get out of it, and we scored 6 runs in the top of the next inning to win it 8-2.

Second game we didn't hit at all, but gutted out a 1-0 win over a team that finished near the bottom of the standings.

Third game we beat another low-placed team 5-1 in a game Caitlin came in to finish out with 2 runners on and 1 out.

Fourth game of Saturday Caitlin started against a solid team that pitched its 2nd best pitcher, and we quickly put up 5 runs on them to coast to victory. We were up 6-0 in the last inning and Caitlin tired some, allowing 3 runs but finished it out before things got too tense.

On Sunday we played 3 of the best teams in our division. First game was a grudge match with a team out of Louisville that we are not fond of. Our other pitcher started, gave up 2 runs early, and they brought in Caitlin to get us out of a jam and shut the door. We rallied to tie it at 2-2 and won it in the bottom of the 5th with a run. Caitlin pitched the final 3 scoreless innings.

Next game was against a really good Alabama team, and just like last game they jumped on our other pitcher for 3 runs early and we brought Caitlin in to keep them in check. We finally rallied in the 4th inning for 1 run, and with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 2 outs, Caitlin crushed a double to left-center about 10 feet from the fence to tie the game. Both teams held in the 5th, Caitlin shut them out in the 6th, and we again won it in walk-off fashion with a run in the bottom of the inning. Caitlin pitched 4 scoreless innings for her second "vulture win" of the day.

So we were 6-0, and that set up a de facto playoff game to get to the championship game against another 6-0 team, a Class A team out of Knoxville that had absolutely destroyed every other team in our division. In 6 games, they had outscored their opponents 49-3, with 5 shutouts. I watched 2 of their games, and they were unreal - every girl, 1-10, could hit. They were so confident/cocky that they won the coin toss and elected to be visitor because they thought they would score enough runs to essentially finish the game before we ever got to hit. Caitlin pitched probably her best game ever - through 4 innings, she had given up 1 hit, a line drive off her glove, and that was it. They were completely frustrated, angry, dumbfounded, etc. We scratched out 1 run in the 2nd and held a 1-0 lead going to the 5th. Caitlin got the first out, but then began to tire and left the ball up. The next girl got just enough of one to single over the 2Bman, then the next girl hit one up the middle that the 2Bman stopped, but couldn't flip to SS in time to force the runner. Then the next girl hit a looper over the 1Bman just inside the line to tie the game. Finally, Caitlin left a change-up over the plate up in the zone and the next girl crushed it into LF for a single and 2 runs scored. At that point, we were toast and they pulled Caitlin. They ended up scoring 3 more runs off our other pitcher and that was it. So close to beating a team that talented.

The 2 undefeated Class A teams in each division played for the championship and we took 3rd. Great tournament all around. I think Caitlin ended up pitching 21 innings, and eventually not being in tournament shape caught up to her at the end. But she's shown that she can dominate even the best teams. Just have to be a bit better conditioned. Hitting-wise, she was up and down, like the whole team. She finished with 5 hits and a walk, with 4 strikeouts.

So that's it for travel ball until mid-May. This week is spring break, and the wife and kids are in Florida for the week. Next week we get back to crappy middle school ball. Yippee.

[Ksyrup]

Middle school ball got started again this week. Tonight's game was canceled by the other team due to a conflict for their coach. We played Tuesday and Wednesday, winning 12-2 and 13-1. This shit is so boring I can't be bothered to write much more about it.

[Ksyrup]

On a related note, I am thinking about starting a thread in the off-topic forum about an impending decision our travel team players are discussing - whether to scrap school ball totally and just concentrate on travel ball. It's an itneresting topic and one we've indirectly touched on here over the years in a few threads.

[Izulde]

I would say just based on the lack of competition at the middle school level to just do travel ball. No one's going to get better playing that inferior a competition.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm seeing more & more top players around here - softball & baseball - drop school play entirely & focus on travel ball instead.

[spleen1015]

There's a big tournament here this weekend. Any chance you guys traveled to Fishers, Indiana this weekend?

[Ksyrup]

hey thanks for the comments guys - and no, we didn't play Indiana. That's the problem - after the Franklin TN tournament at the beginning of April, we're done with travel ball until mid-May.

There's lots of stuff going on both with Caitlin and with my personal job situation (you might remember me posting about an opportunity not so long ago) that I've hardly had a chance to be on the board, let alone type it all out. I'll eventually get some time and explain it all.

[Ksyrup]

So here's the deal, in a nutshell - the combination of doing so well in Tennessee, playing great competition, and talking to some of those folks about how they handle the school/travel stuff and the absolute mind-numbing experience that middle school ball has been this year, got the coaches and number of the parents talking about some things.

First, we've thrown out to the girls the idea of dropping school ball altogether and playing year round as a travel team. Personally, I love the idea, but we're letting the girls make that decision. Playing for your school was a big deal back when I was a kid and travel ball either didn't exist or was secondary, but times have changed. Because we've got kids spread through 3 grade levels (one 8th grader skipped a grade, then we've got mostly 7th graders and 3 6th graders), this would require a commitment from the whole team to not play high school ball, because when most of our girls go to high school, there are still a few who will be in 8th grade and they obviously would not be welcomed on the middle school team. So it's a team decision, all or none.

Second, there are 2 extremely advanced 6th graders who we've invited to join our team. We need another strong pitcher and catcher, and those are their main positions. The pitcher throws a few MPH faster than Caitlin, but is a year younger. And they both can hit. Complicated issue, but they are still with their other team for the time being, but are going to play with us in May at a tournament and then in Panama City for the World Series. We hope they make a a full commitment before Panama City, because I don't like picking up players just for those kinds of tournaments, but we think they will. And truthfully, I kinda hope them playing with us in May forces the issue. But anyway, that's in the works as well.

The reason for both of these things is that we want to step up to the next level, to play the best competition in the southeast and midwest and get regionally and then nationally recognized so that we can start playing the types of tournaments that the D1 coaches scout. And we've already had the UK and Alabama coaches tell us that high school ball doesn't matter - they don't have time to scout during the spring because they are playing then, so it's pretty much only travel ball tournaments during the summer that matter to them. So that's where we are focusing. If we fail, then so be it - if our girls end up at regional/small colleges, they still get to play a game they love and we'll know we did everything in our power to try to get them to those top levels. The worst thing for us would be looking back on missed opportunities because we weren't brave enough to try something outside the box and push the limits of what's typically done around here. So that's what we're aiming for.

[Ksyrup]

Oh yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention is that our middle school team played a high school freshman team on Monday night and won, 6-5. Caitlin pitched the final 2 innings and had 2 hits, including the go-ahead 2-run double in the top of the 5th. Unfortunately, I was out of town so I missed it, but I had one of the parents texting me the play by play. According to several people, Caitlin's double was an absolute monster smash to dead center field that hit the dirt on the warning track and short-hopped the fence. Wish I could have seen it. And my wife didn't go, either, because the little one had soccer practice.

We sleptwalked through 2 games Tuesday night, winning 10-0 and 12-0. It was so bad that at one point one of our girls hit a shot into left-center and the CFer came over and was at least close enough to try to catch it, but at the last moment covered her head instead to avoid getting hit. So... yeah.

We play a team that got BEAT by that team tonight, and then we have a tournament this weekend. What will be interesting is that our 8th graders will not be there because they are leaving today for their big 8th grade trip to Chicago. So we'll be playing tonight and this weekend with just the 6th and 7th graders.

[Ksyrup]

I keep missing all the good stuff. While I took Mackenzie to her travel team practice, Caitlin's team beat the crap out of a sorry team that drove way too far for the beating we gave them. Totally non-competitive. Caitlin hit 2 inside-the-park HRs and a triple (the coach held her up but she said she could have scored) and in the second game pitched a 1-hit shutout in 4 innings. We beat them 12-0 and 10-0.

Tonight we'll see at least one different team, so hopefully they'll be decent. Plus, we don't have out 8th graders so that should present some challenges as well.

[Ksyrup]

Because I'm lazy, I'll just repost what I posted in the main forum last night:

We're playing a middle school tournament without our 8th graders, who are on a class trip to Chicago. So we've got just 12 or 13 6th and 7th graders to play this weekend.

First game, we won pretty easily 7-0 against an overmatched team we had run ruled earlier in the season. Caitlin hit a double and single.

Second game, we played a really good team that was made up of half a 14U team. The entire team was huge and started 7 8th graders. Caitlin gave up 3 runs in the 1st inning, a combination of good hitting and 6th graders in the OF, but we came back pretty strong to take a 5-3 lead into the 4th inning.

We scored 1 to make it 6-3, and with 2 on and 1 out, Caitlin came up and jacked her first out of the park HR to RF. It was an incredible moment, one I will never forget. She absolutely crushed it, about 210 feet. The entire stands erupted, and most of her teammates from her travel team got to see it because their middle school game had just ended on the field next to us. We were able to find the ball and she got to keep it. It took her a few pitches to settle down, but she finished out the game in the top of the 5th and we won 9-3.

I'll be going to sleep with a tear in my eye and a smile on my face tonight!


It's been raining all morning so we're delayed about 2.5 hours at this point. We'll see if we get any games in today. Even if it stops raining, it'll be in the 40s, maybe hit 50, at best. Hate this weather. I won't let Caitlin use her good bat, either. Too cold and it could break.

[Ksyrup]

Well, I haven't updated here much because (a) I don't give a crap about school ball, and (b) apparently neither do the 8th grade "leaders" on the team, as we've run into a couple of decent teams and lost 4 games the past week. Poor Caitlin has pitched all 4 of them since she's our strongest pitcher and has lost all 4 of them. She hasn't given up more than 3 runs. The last 3 were particularly brutal - 1-0 on a walk-off hit to CF with a runner on 1st where the CF inexplicably decided to dive for an uncatchable ball that got past her, allowing the winning run to score. Then a 3-2 loss in extra innings on another walk-off hit in the 6th inning. Then a 2-1 loss Saturday where the winning run scored on an attempted fake throw to 2nd with a runner on third by our catcher to the SS, who is supposed to cut it off and gun the runner on 3rd out. Only she went to the bag instead of cutting toward the mound, and the run scored. That turned out to be the game winner.

Caitlin's been hitting pretty good. Most of the team is really struggling. There's no fire at all, and no leadership from the 8th graders. They are really all about being cool teenagers instead of ball players.

Anyway, 2 more weeks and it'll be over. We're almost certainly going to drop school ball after this year and concentrate on the travel team full-time.

[Ksyrup]

So yeah, another HR out of the park for Caitlin. We won the game 8-2. The second game got stopped after an inning due to lightning/storm.

We're supposed to play tonight and then Thursday. Tonight is looking iffy with the weather. After Thursday, it looks like we're done until the conference championship tournament next Monday through Thursday (both A and B teams, which I think Caitlin will be playing both if they don't conflict), and then the state tournament the 11th and 12th. And then school ball is done. Yay!

[Ksyrup]

Played a horrible team 50 minutes from home Tuesday night, beating them 16-0 and 9-0. The coaches didn't attempt to coach and they did stuff like not attempting to throw out base stealers. Total snoozefest, not worth the gas.

Last night we played the team that beat us 2-1 last Saturday morning. This is a team from the county over that was our biggest rival last year but is not in our conference this year. No one could believe we lost to them last weekend. Last night, we put up 15 runs in the 1st inning before they got the 2nd out! Caitlin hit 2 doubles to left-center during the inning and drove in 4. We won 15-2 in 3 innings.

Next week is the 8th and 7th grade conference tournaments (Caitlin may end up playing in both), and then Friday and Saturday is the state tournament. And after that, middle school ball is all over.

[Ksyrup]

Well, we won our 2 8th grade tournament games 12-0 and 3-0. Caitlin pitched the 1st 4 ininings of the 3-0 win. Then last night our 7th grade team won 9-0. So tonight both teams play championship games against the 7th and 8th grade teams coached by our travel team coach. We're clearly the best 2 teams in the conference, so this was expected. They've beaten us 2 out 3 games this year as far as 8th grade team, but our 7th grade team beat them twice and only lost once all year. I think Caitlin will probably pitch the 8th grade game and then play 1B during the 7th grade game.

Then we have the "state" tournament on Saturday. It's a voluntary tournament and only has 7 teams in it - 5 from this area - so winning the title sounds more impressive than it actually is. There are 2 pools, and they grouped all the good teams in 1 pool and the bad teams in another. The sister of the head coach of one of the bad teams runs the tournament. Hmmm. I wonder why those pools are the way they are.

[Ksyrup]

So, a disappointing end to the conference season. Both teams lost - 7th, 3-1 and 8th, 2-0. Caitlin pitched the 8th grade game and did well, but gave up 2 runs and we didn't score. 7th grade game, I have no idea how we didn't win. Caitlin had a single and double and we hit the ball, but mostly in the air and unlike 90% of the teams in our conference, this team can catch. They gave us no freebies.

Saturday is it - a minimum of 3 games, maybe more if we actually win. I don't see us beating the couple of good teams in it, though - including the team that just beat us last night.

[Ksyrup]

OK, so reposting this from the Proud Parent Alert thread in the OT forum...


State tournament champs!!! As badly as this team has underachieved this year, I really can't believe they won state.

Man, yesterday would have made a great TV show with all the plots and subplots that played out. But here are the highlights:

The 2 best middle school teams in this area are ours and one from a neighboring county. Both teams are coached by Caitlin's travel team coaches. Three travel girls play on the other county middle school team and 5 play on our team.

There are also two 6th graders on the other county middle school team who are phenomenal. Probably can play high school ball right now (although with the general quality of middle school ball around here, that's not saying much). Anyway, one's a pitcher and one's a catcher. We need depth at both positions and were hoping to put together a "super power" that can challenge on a coastal/national level. They both play on a decent team that's never going to be more than just a vehicle for them to be the stars. We offered them spots on our team - understanding that they would come in and take playing time, but wanting to build a great team - and after a bunch of discussion, they turned it down. The catcher's parents wanted to do it, but they are lifelong friends and joined at the hip with the pitcher, so when her parents said no, that was it. Basically, he's all about his daughter being the star and not wanting to share the spotlight (or mound time).

So this year, we've lost to them 4 out of 5 games, including both the 7th and 8th grade championship games this past Thursday. Caitlin's pitched well in 3 of the games, but lost to this girl. We just can't hit her. Between losing directly to her and them declining to play with us, it's become personal for Caitlin (and most of us parents).

So yesterday was the state championship tournament. The pools were rigged to put all the good teams in one pool and the bad ones in the other, to help the bad ones advance (the tournament director is the sister of one of the bad teams' coaches - go figure). First game, we came out terrible and were down 7-1 after an inning. Tied it up in the 3rd, then went to extra innings and gave up 4 in the 6th to lose 11-7. Caitlin didn't pitch, and didn't hit very well either.

So we start looking at the brackets and realized that if things play out right, it would be better to come out of our bracket as the 4 seed rather than one of the top 3 seeds. If we're 4 and our coach's team is the 1 seed, we wouldn't see them until the championship game. Otherwise, we'd have to face the girl that owns us early in the elimination bracket. So we literally tanked the next pool game. We pulled most of our starters, played 6th graders, bunted with 2 strikes, etc. And lost 4-2. That put us in the right side of the bracket, away from the better teams.

Funny thing is, we weren't the only team that recognized it. So basically pool play was a race to the bottom - everyone trying to lose on purpose. Another team pulled everyone and played 6th graders, having them bunt every time up, and they run-ruled the team they were trying to lose to because that team couldn't field bunts and they reached base 20 times on bunts (either hit or error). It was like that South Park episode where all the kids are trying to lose so they don't waste a summer playing baseball. The tournament director really mucked things up by rigging the pools because all of the good teams would rather have played the best teams coming out of the weak pool and did what they could to get there.

We get to the elimination bracket and Caitlin pitched the 1st 3 shutout innings of an easy win - 8-1 I think it was. Next game we played the team that beat us to start the day, and Caitlin pitched again. I knew warming her up that she had dominant stuff, and she did. But in the 1st inning, just like the 1st game, we blew up defensively. They had 2 bunts, 2 errors, and got 3 runs without putting a ball out of the infield. After that, Caitlin just mowed them down. We were down 3-1 into the bottom of the 5th (last) inning when we started to rally. We got 1 run to cut it to 3-2, then Caitlin came up with the bases loaded and 1 out and hit a single through the SS to win it 4-3. That put us into the championship game against our coach's team.

Meanwhile, his team used only the one pitcher all day. By the end of the day (including our game), she had pitched 19-20 innings. During their semifinal game, it started raining. Luckily, it never poured, but it was a steady rain for the rest of the night.

In the championship game, we gave up a cheap run in the 3rd thanks to some bad OF defense (nice hit, but a horrible angle by the CF let a ball go all the way to the wall to score the 1st run). We also threw 2 out at the plate, though. We were down 1-0 into the bottom of the 4th when the other girl started to tire. We finally got to her, scoring 5 including a solid shot into right-center for Caitlin. Top 5, and Caitlin's getting tired now, going into her 13th inning pitched in about 5 hours, 10 straight with only a 10 minute break between games. They quickly score 1, then Caitlin gets an out, then another solid hit and an overthrow scores 2 to make it 5-4, runner on with 1 out. And the two girls we wanted to pick up, the pitcher and catcher, next up. Caitlin got the pitcher to ground out to 3B and with the tying run at 2nd, got the catcher to line softly to SS and that was it.

[Ksyrup]

This weekend, with school ball finally over, we're getting back to travel ball. Had practice last night and it was beautiful to watch. This weekend we play a 10-team tournament in Cincinnati. We don't know any of the teams, but from the looks of it, I don't think these are the strongest teams from the area, so we have high hopes for the weekend. We'll see how it goes.

[Ksyrup]

Well, I think it was an understatement that those weren't the strongest teams in this weekend's tournament. I started doing some research and found that 2 of the teams in the 14U tournament were 12Us playing up, and I knew we were in trouble. In trouble of falling asleep during our games. We played a 5-game pool and then the best team from each of the 2 pools played the championship game. I really like that format, better than the 2-3 pool games and single or double elimination bracket format. Gets all teams more guaranteed games.

Anyway, on Saturday we won our 3 games 7-0, 10-0, and 17-0. Caitlin pitched the 10-0 game and was a single deflected off the 3B glove from a perfect game, then had a no-hitter in the 17-0 game (1 walk and 1 error on the SS). In the first game, which I missed because the wife and I stayed at home for our youngest girl's soccer game, Caitlin hit one about 200 or so feet over CF (these fields were 250 to the fence) but tripped coming around 2B and fell flat on her face at SS, barely making it to 3B. It was caught on tape, too. Poor girl is so damn big she's not exactly smooth on her feet.

Yesterday we won our first 2 games 17-2 and 17-0. Not happy about giving up the 2 runs, frankly. We finally got to play a decent team for the championship, with actual pitchers. I think we were bored from the 1st 5 games and also not ready for decent pitching, because we struggled to hit the ball. Caitlin pitched great, but they got 1 ball off the end of the bat that hit the LF line for a double and a single that bounced up the 1B line over the 1B glove to score that run, then a couple of innings later a ball hit the RF line and took a right turn to the fence for a triple, and a groundout later and we were staring at 2-1 deficit going into the bottom of the 6th.

The first girl grounded out, but then the next 2 got on for Caitlin, and she singled up the middle to tie the game, then the next girl hit a triple into right-center to give us the lead and scored on a WP, and we took a 5-2 lead into the 7th. Caitlin set them down in order and we won the championship. She threw 65 pitches in the game, and only 9 balls. She was totally dominant.

By my numbers, Caitlin finished the tournament with 16 IP, 5 hits allowed, 1 walk, 19 Ks and 2 runs. Scoring hits/errors is always tricky at this level, but I think she went 8-15 with 10 RBI, 4 doubles and a triple.

Next weekend is going to be a step-up in competition - a 16-team tournament on our home field. My youngest is playing in the 8U tournament as well. And we have to work concessions/fields. Should be a normal summer weekend for us. Ha!

[Ksyrup]

We played at home in a huge early season tournament, Memorial Madness. 51 teams in 8U - 14U. We had 16 teams in 12U, biggest of any of the divisions.

There were 4 pools of 4 teams each, 3 pool games on Saturday, and then single elimination tournament on Sunday. We got in a fairly tough pool, especially since one of the better teams requested to be in our pool because they knew we were both good and wanted to be separated in the elimination brackets (since you play out of pool for the first 1 or 2 rounds in the bracket).

First game we played a 1st year team that was decent, and we didn't play very well, but we easily beat them 5-0.

Second game was against the team that requested us, and we started slow. Caitlin pitched, and by the 3rd we were down 5-0 on a variety of hits, bunts, and sloppy D. But we pulled it together, finally woke up, and scored 4 in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 5-4, and Caitlin kept them in check until the bottom of the 5th. We were down 2 outs and none on when we drew a walk, got a hit, and with runners on 2nd/3rd, our CF laid down a beautiful bunt single between pitcher and 3B to score the tying run. Then we went to extra innings (international tiebreaker starts with a runner on 2B). They bunted for a hit, then Caitlin gave up a bomb to left-center and they scored 2 runs, but she closed out the inning without giving up another run. Bottom of the 6th, we scored a quick 2 runs and had 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, so they intentionally walked Caitlin to load the bases, and then threw a wild pitch to allow us to score the winning run, 8-7.

Final game of the day was against a normally solid team that played awful all day, and we beat them 8-2. This team would end up in the championship game with us.

Sunday morning we played a terrible 4th seed from another pool, so we pitched our SS and caught our CF to rest our pitchers/catcher and still beat them 13-1. Caitlin pitched the next game against a decent team, but they just couldn't touch her. She walked one in the 1st, gave up a solid hit in the 2nd followed by a bunt that should have been an out (3B looked to 2B before throwing late to 1B), and that was all the runners they had. We won it 6-0.

That put us in the semifinal against a good team from Louisville who beat us 8-5 last year and hit our other pitcher pretty good. And they did it again, too, except most of them were hit sharply right at someone. They scored one run, and in the 3rd, the coach told me to warm up Caitlin and that she was pitching to their 3/4/5 hitters no matter what the situation. So of course, #3 comes up with bases loaded, 2 outs, and us up 3-1. Caitlin struck her out on 4 pitches, we added another run, and ended up winning it 4-1.

In the championship game we played the team from our pool that played poorly on Saturday but made a run on Sunday. Unfortunately for them, that meant using up their best pitcher, so we faced their #2. Caitlin started and was about as bad as I've seen her in a long time. She gave up 1 in the 1st, then grounded out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 1st, which of course she took to the mound in the 2nd. With her emotions up, she really struggled and gave up 2 more. After 2, we were down 3-0. At that point she settled down, we timed their pitcher, and got 2 back in the 3rd, 3 in the 4th to take the lead, and once Caitlin shut down their 2/3/4 hitters in a row in the top of the 5th, we finished off the game with a 6-run 5th to win it 11-3.

Really a great weekend for the team, 7-0 and the championship. That's 2 in a row for the team, and 3 straight weekends Caitlin has won a championship (including the state middle school tournament).

She's really making a name for herself around these parts. It's funny how many people come up and say hi to me now, people I don't know. They don't know me either, but they know her!

We're off this weekend, and then host a tournament the following weekend. Plans for the next 2 weekends after that are up in the air as we decide what to do to prepare for the big state tournament and then the world series. I'd like to travel to find some serious competition, but money is always a factor. Especially with a trip to Panama City coming up in just over a month.

[Ksyrup]

Well, we made a decision today that I don't really agree with, but it's done. We decided to move up in class to play in the USFA Class A world series the week after July 4th. We've been signed up to play the Class B world series - currently there are 132 teams. Class A has 21. It's not that I don't think we're good enough, I just don't think we've prepared for it. We haven't played that level of competition in a tournament yet. We've played 2 of those teams, and won 1 and lost 1. But we haven't played 6 of those teams over the course of a tournament.

And the other problem is we don't have enough pitching depth. Caitlin is clearly our #1, but our #2 struggles against good hitting teams, and often Caitlin is brought in to get us out of jams and finish games. She wears down when she has to both pitch her games and finish the others. The #2's dad told me as much today - she's not a Class A pitcher and we need another one to really make a run.

But, regardless, we're going to give it a go. I just wish we had made this decision in January and put together a schedule that really prepared us for what we'll see down there.

[Ksyrup]

This weekend we hosted a tournament in conjunction with the NSA, 42 teams in all. It really went well. Unfortunately, although we got 11 teams in the 12U pool, none of them were very good. We walked through our 2-game pool on Saturday 10-1 and 13-3. Caitlin hit 1 inside the park HR and should have had another, but stopped when she mistook the coach saying "easy up" for "hold up" as she rounded 3rd. Or something like that. We played on huge men's softball fields, and the OF was on a downward slope, so if you got one in the gap or beyond the OFers, they were literally running downhill chasing the ball. I lost track, but I'm pretty sure we had 7 or 8 HRs this weekend.

Sunday morning we played a terrible team and beat them 15-0. Caitlin ended up playing CF (and caught a ball!) in what we jokingly refer to as "victory formation" - and she even batted lefty and slap-hit her last time up. The next game was actually competitive, but we won it 5-1. That set up a championship game with an overmatched team. They held us for the first 2 innings, but Caitlin lead off the 3rd with a HR to the left-center gap, and by the end of the inning, we were up 9-0 and finished it 11-0 in 4 innings.

Awesome to win our 3rd title in 3 tournaments this summer, but the competition was not good. The real test begins next weekend in Indiana at the USFA state tournament. 28 teams, about 10 or so really good ones. We need to see some good teams in the next 3 weeks to prepare for Panama City.

[Ksyrup]

Man, I haven't updated this in awhile. Just so busy with a new job and a ton of traveling (most for pleasure though). We're in Florida getting ready to head to Panama City this coming weekend for our World Series tournament.

[Ksyrup]

I suck for not updating this. Everyone's asleep and I'm bored so I'm out on the balcony overlooking some Jack Nicklaus golf course and an inlet on the Gulf of Mexico to update the 1 or 2 people who read this (ha!).

So backing up a bit... We went to Indiana 3 weeks ago to play some stellar competition and had a decent tournament that (a) proved we belong and (b) proved we still are a bit behind the best of the best. We played a 27 team state tournament and finished 4th, losing only to the teams that played for the championship. We beat the teams we should have and competed well against the Class A teams we want to compete with. The first game we lost we should have won. Caitlin pitched an unbelievable game but we lost 2-1. Our hitting is definitely our weak point, at least against the best teams. The game went 6 innings and Caitlin threw 5 perfect innings, but the 5th inning we gave up an error on SS, a fisted looper over a drawn-in 3Bman, a sac fly, a swinging bunt single that Caitlin dove for but couldn't catch, and a ground out. That's how they scored 2 runs. That knocked us to the loser's bracket, and by the time we ran into another Class A team, we were cooked and lost 5-0.

Last weekend we played the Kentucky state tournament and had the same experience. Beat 3 good teams but lost to a Class A team (well, an A masquerading as a B - they are the best team in western KY) 2-1 again. So we finished 3rd. The game we lost was really the championship game, but we just ran into that team in the semifinals since they were on our side of the bracket. The game went the full 7 innings before 75 minutes were up, so it was a really great game to watch.

We just don't take good ABs against good pitchers. Once these girls figure out how to construct an AB, they will be deadly. But it's not there right now, and we will struggle for runs, expect pitching and D to carry us, and hope we don't run into any bad luck on bounces or crappy 3 foot hits, etc.

So now we're in Panama City playing the USFA Class A world series. We played 4 pool games the last 2 days - none of them count, as seeding for the double elimination tournament is based solely on USFA points accumulated during in-season tournaments - and went 3-1. We beat 3 solid teams and then just pitched our SS in the 4th game and lost pretty good. We were only supposed to have 3 games but one team didn't show for pool play so they gave us a 4th game and we didn't really try to win because we were being scouted by the 2 teams on our immediate side of the bracket (the team we play first today and the team we will play if we win that game). So hopefully we looked like the worst team in the tournament and they pitch their 3rd best pitcher saving their best for the next game. SUCKERS! Ha!

Caitlin is dealing with a lower back muscle pull/strain, so she hasn't been herself. But she's still pitching pretty well. This coincided with her "becoming a woman" a couple of weeks ago. All of this is new to me, so it's been difficult to deal with for not just her but me as well. She literally has no control over her body right now. I've heard from other softball players that their bodies are out of whack for 6-12 months until they adjust to it. Definitely not something I ever had to deal with, that's for sure! Also, this marks the unofficial one year left of growing she has, so I hope she adds another 2-3 inches by next year this time. She's just about 5'7" now, so if she can get over 5'9" that would be great. We'll see.

[Ksyrup]

Well, it's Friday morning and we're done. Damn.

We played two great games real close and came out on the wrong end of both. But I think the girls proved to themselves that they belong at this level and that it's better to be challenged and lose than to skate through a bunch of glorified rec teams and go far in a tournament where you are better than 95% of the teams.

First game we lost 3-2 on a disputed call. We went down 2-0 early, but tied it at 2 on a single by Caitlin (one of the few hits she had this week). The next inning, they had a runner on second with no outs and a girl hit one to SS, we threw her out at 1B and Caitlin made a great throw back to 3B to get the advancing runner - the ball and runner got there at the same time - but neither umpire made a call. They just looked at each other, finally the home plate ump called her safe. She might have been safe, but neither of them saw the damn play, which is what upsets me. Anyway, next girl hits one to 2B, they score, and we can't answer. Ball game.

Last night's game got delayed by rain, and then we ended up playing an 8 inning game, losing 7-5 and finishing at 11pm. We went down again 2-0, then tied it, then took the lead 3-2 in the 4th. Top 5th, we were one out from winning when an error at 2B tied the game. Top 6th in tiebreaker rules, they scored 2 but we tied it on a 2-out error on their SS. We actually held them without a run in the top of the 7th, meaning we could win it by just getting the girl on 2nd home, but she got doubled off 3B on a short fly to LF. Inexcusable. But that basically did us in, they scored 2 in the top of the 8th and we couldn't answer. Tournament over.

Sucks, but the winner of our game played at 9:30 this morning so I'm not sure how much we'd have in the tank for that game plus up to 3 more today anyway. Loser's bracket is a bitch.

[Ksyrup]

So...

We've been off since the Panama City World Series. The weekend after we got back, we (the team) put on a 60+ team baseball tournament for boys teams aged 5U to 11U. It was a phenomenal success. But it was just us, so it pretty much required all of us (parents, kids, grandparents, other relatives/friends we could rope into helping us) spending 14-16 hours a day at the fields. Luckily, the weather was good and things mostly went off without a hitch. Oh, and we made about $21K! This is going to help with tournament fees and travel expenses for the next year.

We're moving up to 14U, so we've decided to make the move now. We play in a local tournament this coming weekend. Should be interesting to see how we compete as the young kids again. At least one of these teams will be moving up to 16U next year, but is still playing 14U. So we'll be playing some girls 2-3 years older than ours.

The week of the 18th we're having tryouts. I think we are looking to pick up at least 2, maybe more if we get some quality girls to show up. That means 1-3 girls currently on the team could be on the chopping block. That would be tough. One could still play 12U next year and probably should stay down, so she wouldn't be a big loss, but either of the others I think are next in line to be cut would be difficult moves to make. We'll see. In a way, it's good to have to be in that position, because that means the team is getting better. But the human side of it sucks.

[Ksyrup]

This past weekend we played in a local 14U tournament, our first as a rising 14U team, and finished tied for 3rd out of 13 teams. The team that beat us in the semifinals is a 2nd year 14U team that is moving up to 16U. And we only lost 3-0. So we held our own against a bunch of 9th and 10th graders with 7th and 8th graders. They had a really solid and promising start to their 14U careers.

Caitlin wasn't too sharp pitching - some of that may have to do with the move from 40 feet in 12U to 43 feet in 14U - but she went 8-for-14 hitting. Really hit the ball well. That extra 3 feet is a 2-way street - a lot more hitting and scoring in 14U than 12U most of the time, thanks to the increased distance the ball travels from the pitcher to the batter.

We moved up our tryouts to this coming weekend. One of the girls I think we're going to pick up played with us this weekend and did really well. We'll see how many others show up for tryouts.

[Ksyrup]

Beautiful weather weekend, nice and cool. I wish we had played a tournament. Looks like the same thing next weekend, and we aren't playing until the 25th. I'm sure it'll be 95 by then...

Anyway, we had tryouts Saturday and added 3 girls. Well, technically 2, since we added the girl that played with us last weekend to the team during the week. Biggest surprise, by far, was picking up a catcher we didn't think would come to the tryouts. I think I discussed her and her best friend/pitcher back in a couple of April and May posts.

Ultimately, because the best friend's dad was the coach and wanted the spotlight for his daughter, they turned down playing for us. However, we really needed a back-up catcher for the world series in Panama City, so we asked the catcher if she would go and she said yes. The coach gave his permission but didn't think they would do it. He was wrong. Her dad gets it - he understands what we're trying to do with this team, how you've got to keep egos in check to build an awesome 12-girl team. He and his wife wanted to join immediately, but the friendship thing got in the way.

So they played with us in 2 tournaments, but after the WS, she went back to the other team and we basically started looking elsewhere, thinking they had moved on and weren't going to make the jump. That changed about 4-5 days before the tryout, when the dad called our coach and told him they'd be at the tryout. The other coach... not so happy. But this girl is a phenomenal athlete; she's a year younger than most of our team and looks a year older.

So we picked her up and a good friend of the other girl we picked up. Both of them played on a team in Louisville, so it's good that they have a "travel buddy" for the 45-60 minute drive to practices. That puts us at 13 girls. I think ideally we'd have no more than 11-12. This is where I'm glad I'm not a coach. Not sure how things are going to work out, but eventually they will.

The plan for fall is to play tournaments August 25/26 and Labor Day weekend, then probably 4 during September/October. We're gearing up for a Premier Girls Fastpitch qualifier in Indianapolis on September 22/23, then probably a couple of ASA regional qualifiers in October, since we're aiming for the ASA 14U A nationals next summer.

[Ksyrup]

We start back playing this weekend in Elizabethtown in a decent 9-team double elimination tournament. Only really one below-average team and only a couple top tier teams, but everyone else is good and can win a game, so it will be a challenge.

And boy do we need a decent challenge, because the next 2 tournaments are going to be awesome. Labor Day weekend, we're playing in Indianapolis at a benefit for a softball player who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer. The talent in this tournament so far is off the charts - about half of our losses this year have come to teams in this tournament, and the other teams are all 2nd year 14U teams that are really good. Gonna be tough.

The weekend of the 22nd, we're playing in Columbus, OH. The cool thing about this one is it's an invite-only friendly tournament of some of the best teams in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. So it's really cool to see our girls getting that kind of recognition - our name is getting out there as being among the best teams in this region.

After that, I think we're playing an ASA northern national qualifier in Bowling Green in mid-October, then likely shutting it down for the winter - which means just practice and conditioning a few times a week, but no tournaments until January when we'll find an indoor tournament or two to play.

[Ksyrup]

Well, we finished 3rd out of 9 in this past weekend's tournament. And really, it came down to one 2-1 loss in the winner's bracket championship game that screwed us, because it put us in a rematch with the other top team we had already beaten. Because Caitlin had just pitched 6 innings in the 2-1 loss, all we had left was the girl they saw for 6 innings 5 hours earlier (who beat them), or our 3rd-best pitcher, who used to play for that team and had some hard feelings. So, neither option was great. We went with the new girl, she blew up, we brought in the girl they saw earlier in the day, it got worse, and we went home with a 10-0 loss. Just bad circumstances.

But otherwise, we had a really solid weekend. Won our first 4 games, played well, and Caitlin finally started pitching better. The 2-1 loss was her best game in over a month - they just got one more hit than we did when it mattered.

This coming weekend is a tournament in Indianapolis, but because of Isaac, it remains to be seen how much of the tournament we'll get in. We're supposed to play at 9:30am and 11am on Saturday morning, then wait for bracket play to start later in the afternoon. But that all depends on how much rain we get. It's going to be a tremendously difficult tournament, though. Most of the teams are 2nd year, and all of them are good-to-great.

[Ksyrup]

So we ended up pulling out of the Indiana tournament because of the weather and going down to Nashville for a tournament. We knew weather was going to be an issue anywhere we went, but Indy was in the bullseye of Isaac, so we went south. The good news is we won the tournament. The bad news is we only played 2 games on Saturday before they canceled the tournament early Sunday morning. I think we gave up the fewest runs and scored the most, but we won based on 2 coin flips. Ha!

We next play the weekend of the 22nd in Columbus, OH at an invitation-only tournament. Should be a great one. Then it looks like we're going to play a college showcase in Chattanooga the weekend of October 20th. Exact details are a little sketchy, but we may have to play up in the 16U division. There are 2 websites showing the tournament, and both have different info. Right now there are 43 teams and 22 of them are 14U, so even if we have to play up, there are a lot of teams our age in it.

[Ksyrup]

Here's a video of highlights from several of our last tournaments - IN state, World Series and first 14U tournament.

http://

[Ksyrup]

This is pretty cool - Caitlin was asked to pitch with the high school team tonight for an intrasquad game and then again on Sunday for a scrimmage. She'd probably be playing high school ball this coming spring even as an 8th grader, but we've decided to play travel ball instead. Not sure whether we're going to do just one year of that, or two, but eventually she'll pitch in high school. But they've been lobbying for her and her other pitching teammate to play up this year. Not gonna happen though.

[Ksyrup]

Guess I need to update - should be the last update for a month or so before we play in Chatanooga.

Two weekends ago, Caitlin played with the high school team and did pretty well. The A game, she got to pitch the final 3 innings and gave up only 1 real hit (but a few infield hits that exposed a pretty average D, a couple of walks, and as a result, 3 runs). But she held her own against a team loaded with juniors and seniors. In the B game, the other high school we played apparently only had 1 decent pitcher (who pitched the A game), and we destroyed them 15-2. Caitlin didn't pitch but had a couple of hits.

This past weekend, we played the invite-only friendly tournament in Columbus and went 2-4-1. Games were drop-dead at 80 minutes, no matter the score or situation. We played pretty well even in the losses, but just didn't put it all together enough to win more. We either didn't hit but pitched and played D well, or hit but threw the ball around a bit.

On the mound, Caitlin was inconsistent. But we've completely revamped her pitching motion in the past 3 weeks, so I expected it. We're trying to get more power out of her legs and completely changed her wind-up. She needs more core and leg strength to really see major results. And that's only going to come with time - and the maturity to want to put time into working out.

At the plate, she was as on fire as I've ever seen her. She went 10-for-16 for the weekend. 3 times she came up with a hit to score a runner from 2nd with 2 outs in an inning. Unfortunately, she was our only consistent hitter this weekend and we largely struggled to score. But against good teams, that's what happens. You don't get the walks and errors to score 5 runs in an inning of maybe only 2-3 solid hits. 2-3 hits nets you 1, maybe 2 runs depending on how productive your outs are.