My Daughter's Softball Thread (2011)

[Ksyrup]

So some of you might know from my postings the last year or so in the OT forum that my daughter Caitlin plays fastpitch softball. She's 11 and in 6th grade, so she's now in middle school. She'll be playing both middle school softball and travel team tournaments this summer, and I'd like to keep track of how she does and how the teams do, so I thought I'd start a dynasty/diary-type thread here to give me a place to document the year in real-time.

Last year, we finished the 10U travel team season with the team we joined in April, and because that team was half 9 year olds and half 10 year olds (not to mention, 3 of us lived 45 minutes away), the team split up after August and we went looking for a new team. Without going through the specifics of all the drama that goes along with girls softball, the gist of it is this: we had originally joined one team in September when our first choice team didn't look like it was going to add anyone. A month later, that team split up, and the coach (who coaches middle school in another county) joined forces with our middle school coach to put together a team with 5 girls from our middle school, 4 from his, and 2 from another county, so we bailed on the other team at the beginning of October before the "commitment" (i.e., money was due) deadline.

With 2 middle school coaches running the show, and a team full of solid players, the last few months of practice have been great. We went to Indianapolis 3 weeks ago and played an indoor tournament, where we finished 5th out of 13 teams. Not bad for a 1st year 12U team. We still practice once a week, but now middle school is starting so the travel team will go on the back burner for now. Our travel team tournaments start at the end of May, and we're shooting for 10 tournaments over the summer.

Middle school tryouts were Tuesday, and although nothing was official until the team was announced, we knew Caitlin made the team. The team has 22 players - 8 8th graders, 7 7th graders, and 7 6th graders. There are 'A' and 'B' games - essentially, 8th and 7th grade games - and some of the 6th graders will have to play since there aren't enough eligible girls to cover all positions in either game, but playing time is obviously an issue. Where Caitlin was guaranteed to play nearly every inning on the travel team, she'll have to fight for playing time in middle school.

Practices started yesterday - 6 days a week, 2.5-3 hours a day. Tough stuff. They actually run more than the basketball team (which is odd - the basketball coach rarely ran the team, yet when I played, all I remember about basketball was suicides!). I think we get the schedule tonight, but I believe first games are around March 15th (I think we have a tournament the weekend of the 19th).

Caitlin plays 1B and pitches. She's a big girl - 5'4", 145 lbs and turns 12 in August - so she doesn't move all that well and is pretty slow. But she can hit, she can throw a ball with as good mechanics and as hard as a boy, and she's really done well as a pitcher so far. I think she probably could have played baseball.

Anyway, my goal is to update this thread from time to time, especially when games start. I'm mainly doing this for me (and her, eventually) to keep a running diary of her season, but I hope it's interesting enough that you guys enjoy reading it.

[Ksyrup]

This past weekend we had 2 scrimmages, as softball season starts to get into full swing. The middle school team had an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday. On Sunday, our travel team scrimmaged a 2nd year 12U team.

Caitlin had a solid game on Saturday. She didn't start, but was the second pitcher to pitch on her team. She threw one inning, gave up nothing and struck out one. Very happy with her control - 12/18 pitches were strikes. She also had 2 singles and made a nice play at 1B.

Sunday's game was great. She went 2-2 with a double, triple, and HBP. Both hits were smoked grounders down the third base line. The double probably would have been a triple but the ball got stuck under the fence. Her pitching was even better, though. She threw 5 innings, gave up 1 hit, no walks and 6 Ks. She only threw 55 pitches in 5 innings (only 15 balls), which is phenomenal. We played 9 innings since the weather was so good and won 9-1.

This coming weekend starts the middle school season, although we play a tournament that is "A" team only (8th grade and a couple of 7th graders). 6th graders will play in the "B" games during the week. The travel team is scrimmaging a team from Louisville on Sunday. Starting next week we'll have 3 games a week, not including the weekend tournaments for the "A" team. Can't wait.

[Ksyrup]

We hosted a pre-season tournament this weekend and had a blast. Started the tournament against a big rival and co-favorite to win the tournament and lost 5-4. Blew out the next 2 opponents and set up a rematch of the first game in the semifinal.

We had a slew of injuries that forced the coaches to mix-and-match a bunch of girls in different positions. We were down 4-3 in the last inning when our best pitcher/SS got hit on her pitching hand by a line drive. We were running out of girls in the bottom of the inning, so the coach was forced to hit one of our 6th graders to lead off the inning, and she got a single. Next girl walked, then a girl popped out. The injured pitcher's spot was next, and Caitlin got the call to pinch hit! She was asked to bunt, and when she square around, I was shocked. She's a big girl and NEVER is asked to bunt, and had never bunted in a real game in her life. Well, she laid down a perfect bunt between 3rd and pitcher, and they had no play at any base. Next girl hit a SF to tie the game, we held in the top of the next inning and scored 1 to win in the bottom of the inning. It was an amazing game, and even better that the coaches had that much confidence in her to put her in that kind of situation - and she came through.

Championship game was no contest. We won 15-2.

Tommorrow we have our first real game, at home. I'm hoping Caitlin gets to play some.

[Ksyrup]

Caitlin started at 1B for the 7th grade team tonight. First pitch she saw, she rocketed down the LF line for a HR (inside the park). She pitched the 2nd inning and struck out the side. Walked her second time up. We ended up run-ruling them 12-0 in 3 innings.

[Ksyrup]

Had a tournament yesterday in Berea. God awful conditions - upper 30s/low 40s, cloudy, and 20 MPH winds. Played 4 games, but the competition was actually pretty good, so Caitlin only got to play in 1 game. She struck out and hit a single, and started at 1B. Our team won the tournament championship. Last inning of the last game, it was 37 and raining/sleeting.

We've got games Monday through Thursday this week before spring break next week. We'll likely play 8th and 7th grade games, so Caitlin should get to play a good bit.

[Ksyrup]

Played a game last night in Scott County. 8th grade won their game pretty easily. Caitlin started at 1B for the B game. Went 1 for 3 with a single. She pitched the 3rd and 4th innings and was awesome. She gave up a single to the first batter on a nice change-up that got the batter off-balance (she had rocketed 2 fouls down the LF line), then struck out the next 3 in order. Next inning, she got swinging bunt out to start, then struck out the next girl but a PB and error on the catcher put the runner on 3rd. She struck out the next girl as well, but the following batter, their best player (a catcher who plays up on the 8th grade team), rocketed a triple into left-center for a run. Last girl grounded back to Caitlin to end the inning.

In 2 innings, she threw only 2 balls. The rest were strikes, fouls, or in play.

[Ksyrup]

Ugh. I guess the only thing worse than sitting in 40 degree weather watching 2 softball games with a combined score of 34-2 would be ending up on the wrong side of that score.

8th grade team won 17-2; 7th grade won 17-0. Caitlin finished the 8th grade game as pinch-runner for the 1B and playing 1B in the last inning, then started at 1B and pitched the 2nd inning in the 7th grade game. She had 2 singles in the 1st inning alone. Struck out the side in the 2nd. It got to where our coach was having girls leave bases early to get called out so the innings would end.

Tonight and tomorrow are going to be some real competition, though. But it'll be colder. At least they are home games.

[Ksyrup]

Tough night last night. We played our biggest competition for the conferenece title, a team we lost to by 1 and then beat by 1 in the pre-season tournament, and they spanked us, bad. 8th grade team lost 12-5, 7th grade team lost 8-3. Caitlin hit a triple in the first inning, then grounded to 3rd and flew to RF her next two times. She struggled on the mound, though. This team - both teams - hit the ball incredibly. Two years ago, as a 10U team, a travel team from this county won the NSA World Series, and most of those girls (now 12U) are on this team, so I guess it's not surprising they are good. Caitlin pitched 1 2/3 innings and gave up 4 runs. Most have been 3 errors, not counting a terrible misplay on a ball down the RF line that turned into a HR. Two different RFs made errors or misplayed 3 balls that became "HRs" (at least the way they score games at this level).

So, now we're off until April 11th for spring break. Bummer way to leave things.

[RPI-Fan]

FYI, I'm reading!

[Ksyrup]

Thanks! We've got about 10 days until they play again. I started looking at our calendar, and between middle school and travel ball (rain outs/cancellations not included, of course), from the weekend of April 16th through the beginning of August, we're going to have only THREE weekends without a tournament!

[Ksyrup]

So we're back after a 2-week hiatus. Game on Tuesday got rained out, but they played under beautiful conditions last night. An away game, out of conference, against a team about 45 minutes away.

8th grade lost 5-4, partly due to 2 of the shittiest calls I've ever seen. 7th grade game, we won 7-3. Caitlin hit a 2-run single in the 1st inning, walked in the 2nd. She pitched the 2nd inning and did OK, especially since she'd only thrown for 30 minutes in the past 2 weeks. It showed. She gave up 3 hits, 1 walk, 1 K, and 1 run. Only one of the hits was well-struck, though. One was a full-swing spinner that died between the plate and mound, and the other was a grounder to the right of 2nd that was stopped in the IF, but no play was made.

We are supposed to have a tournament on Saturday, but we've got a huge storm rolling in tonight, so it's doubtful we play. Sunday may be a scrimmage with the travel team - if not, then just practice. Then next week we've got 3 games and another tournament the following weekend.

[Ksyrup]

Played a couple of games this week so far. Tuesday we played a decent team that actually has 3 members of our travel team on it. 8th grade won 6-4 - they were shut down and losing 2-0 until they scored all 6 runs in the 4th inning to take control. In the 7th grade game, Caitlin started at 1B but didn't pitch. She went 1-3 with a single and scored what would have been the winning run, but the other team scored 4 in the top of the last inning to beat us 6-3.

Great night last night. Played the team we got embarrassed by right before spring break, our toughest competition for the conference title, in a game we had to have to keep up with them. This was the team that roughed Caitlin up a bit, too. 8th grade won 9-4. In the 7th grade game, Caitlin started at pitcher and had 2 solid innings, giving up 2 hits, striking out 3, walking none, and giving up an unearned run on a dropped 3rd strike baserunner and a bloop single the RF probably should have caught. At the plate, she went 1-2 with a double. Game ended tied 3-3 after 4 innings because the field didn't have lights and it got too dark to continue.

Tonight we play another away game. Like last weekend, we're supposed to play in a tournament Friday/Saturday, but we're forecast for up to 4 inches of rain, so I don't think it's going to happen.

[Ksyrup]

Solid games last night. Another win for the 8th grade, 10-7 - was 10-2 going into the final inning when the coach decided to let one of the other 6th grade pitcher pitch, and it got a little hairy for a while until they finally ended it.

7th grade game went well, too - 6-3 win. Caitlin had a walk, single, and double. She pitched the final 2 innings and had a strange game - first inning, she only threw 5 pitches in a quick 1-2-3. Last inning, she got hit pretty hard for 5 hits and 3 runs before getting out of it. She had 2 batters that she grooved a fastball to on an 0-2 count, and we talked about not giving the hitter anything to hit in that situation. We also talked about hitting with a 3-0 count - she hit an infield single with the bases loaded on a 3-0 count on an outside strike, and we talked about picking one spot for the ball to be in and only swinging at that pitch, even if the pitch is a strike but not where you want it. Gotta be picky in those situations.

So we're supposed to have a tournament tonight and tomorrow, but the rain, I think, is going to wash it away. And that sucks, because one of the teams pulled out so our coach entered the 7th grade team as a replacement, which means Caitlin would actually get a chance to play a good bit instead of mostly sitting and hoping for an 8th grade blowout. If we can get in 1 game, I'll be surprised.

[Ksyrup]

Well, it seems like forever since we've been able to play, thanks to all the rain and severe weather. Finally played Friday night - very rusty. 8th grade team was down 3-1 and pulled out a 4-3 win in the final inning. 7th grade team won 3-1. Caitlin pitched the final inning and got the "save" (I guess). She also struck out and walked.

Yesterday, we played a round-robin tournament with 3 other teams about 90 minutes away. Our little one had a soccer game late morning, so we decided to both go to her soccer game and then get to the softball games late instead of splitting up for the day. The tournament was for the 8th grade team, so we figured Caitlin wouldn't play much. Turns out she was the starting pitcher in the first game! First time she's pitched in an 8th grade game. Sucks we couldn't be there to see it.

She pitched 4 innings, gave up 3 hits, 1 walk and 2 Ks. They won 7-1. Team won the last 2 games 7-6 and 18-5 to win the tournament. Caitlin hit a double in her last AB, but struck out a couple of times earlier. Definitely rusty with all the time off.

So we're supposed to play Tuesday and Wednesday before the conference tournament next weekend. Tuesday could get rained out though.

[Ksyrup]

After yet another rainout last night, we've got one more conference game tonight before the conference tournament this weekend. Unfortunately, because there have been so many rainouts, a couple of different teams are coming tonight to try to get in multiple games that were missed, so we're only playing the A (8th grade) game tonight. And this weekend's tournament will obviously only be for the A team. I think we're going to reschedule a couple of non-conference games for next week, and then the following weekend is state tournament. So the bottom line appears to be that Caitlin probably won't be playing much from now until the end of middle school ball.

Our first travel team tournament is the weekend of the 21st. I'm already starting to shift my focus from middle school to the "real season."

[Ksyrup]

We had the first game of our conference tournament this morning. We're the #1 seed. First inning, the other team came out rocking and put up 4 on us and they were playing some inspired ball the first couple of innings. We were down 4-1 going into the 3rd when we started to put together some hits. It was 4-3. bases loaded, and the coach's daughter coming up to bat when he pinch-hit for her with Caitlin! His daughter is a slapper/bunter and he wanted some power up there in that spot. And Caitlin delivered a 2-run single to right to give us the lead. We ended up putting up another 7 runs that inning and cruised to a 12-5 victory.

Pretty awesome that the coach trusted a 6th grader to pinch hit in that situation. Very proud of her. i probably would have shit the bed in that situation.

We play again at 4:30 and if we win, play for the championship at 9.

[Ksyrup]

Well, we just got back from the end of the tournament about 30 minutes ago. I'm still a little bit in shock at what happened.

So we won that first game, which put us in the 4:30 winner's bracket game against our biggest rival and the 2nd best team in the conference. We've played them 4 times this year, each winning 2. We've lost 1 other game all season. We get up quick 5-2, they come back to lead 6-5, we tie it at 6, and it goes to extra innings. They score 2, but in the bottom of the 6th, we score 3 to win 9-8. That puts us in the championship game.

...and, of course, we have to play our rival again. They just came off beating a team and are rolling, and they absolutely tattoo our 2 best pitchers for 10 runs in 2 innings. Since it's double elimination, if we lose we play a rematch. It's 10-2 in the top of the 3rd and we know we're going to lose, so they bring in Caitlin to pitch the final 3 innings and save the arms. And she absolutely shuts them down - 3 innings, 2 hits, no walks, 3 strikeouts. She's so good, they decide to start her in the championship rematch.

Second game (which started at 11:15), we bat first and score 7 on them. Caitlin pitches great again, we add 4 in the 3rd and 1 in the 4th, and we win 12-1. Caitlin pitches 4 innings, gives up 5 hits, no walks and 4 strikeouts.

So we won the conference championship, and Caitlin was named to the All-Tournament team. I just flippin' can't believe it!

[Barkeep49]

Congrats to her on a fine end to the spring season.

[Ksyrup]

Well, the season's not quite over yet. We've got games this week and then the state championship tournament this weekend.

The games this week don't mean anything, though. Last night we played a really crappy team as a favor to them to get them some experience. We only played 6th and 7th graders and beat them 12-0 and 14-0. Caitlin went 2-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs. Tonight we play a good team so they can have an 8th grade night (since there were so many rainouts, the schedule didn't go as planned). Tomorrow night we play another crappy team so we can have 8th grade night - coach had to apologize to their coach in advance for using his 8th graders for 1 inning so they can be recognized, and then the 6th and 7th graders will play.

Of course, we've got the threat for rain the next 5 days, so we'll see what actually gets played.

[Ksyrup]

Played a good team last night as a tune-up for the state conference this weekend. 8th grade won 2-0. 7th grade played 3 innings and lost 8-1. Coach played a bunch of girls in different positions and it showed. Caitlin pitched the 1st inning and gave up 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk and 2 Ks. Only one hit was legit, and the second run scored on a dropped pop-up by the SS. She threw pretty well. Also had 2 line-drive singles to CF.

Funny scene: three of her travel team teammates are on the team we played, and one of them led off the game. Caitlin struck her out on a change-up that was so nasty, she swung so hard she lost her balance and fell across the plate on her face into the other batter's box. Even she was laughing about it when she got up.

[Ksyrup]

Here's a pic of Caitlin's travel team from the UK softball game they attended on Sunday. Caitlin is on the far left.

[Ksyrup]

Had a crappy end to the middle school softball season. This weekend was awful, weather wise. Upper 40s, lower 50s and rainy. The state tournament got cut short - we won our first game 9-1 on Saturday then rain canceled the rest of the day, then on Sunday, we played the best team we've played all year, and lost 3-1 in 9 innings. Caitlin got a PH opportunity to win the game in the 8th and struck out. She was really upset about it. But we had plenty of chances to win and couldn't do it. After that game, they canceled the rest of the tournament and we finished in second place.

First practice for the travel team was supposed to be tonight, but...yep...it has been rained out. We have a scrimmage on Thursday night. Supposed to play a tournament on Saturday, but it might only have 3 teams in it, which kinda sucks. But hopefully it provides an opportunity for an easy tournament victory.

Memorial weekend is going to be the monster tournament - already 17 teams signed up! Coach said if we finish in the top 5 he'd be ecstatic. We will likely run into some powerhouse 2nd year 12U teams.

[Ksyrup]

Our travel team played its first tournament of the season on Saturday, and it was definitely an up and down day.

This team has practiced once together in over 2 months, and thanks to the rain, didn't get to practice at all leading up to this weekend. Of the 11 girls, 7 are on middle school teams, so the majority of the team has been playing softball, but not together as a team.

We played a small 3-team, double round robin tournament. First team we played, we beat in a scrimmage back in March 9-1. But we came out flat and rusty, and got beat 6-3. We had a pop-up drop between 3 players, 2 collisions, and a bunch of mental mistakes. Terrible game. Caitlin went 0-2 and played 1B.

Second game we played against a pretty mediocre/bad team (the team that beat us beat them 7-0 and then 6-1). Caitlin pitched and completely dominated them - 5 IP, 2 hits, 1 walk, 11 strikeouts. We won 8-0. She went 1-3 with a single.

Third game we played the team that beat us again. We smoked them 11-1 in 4 innings. Caitlin went 1-2 with a single and a rocket into left-center that the LF made a great play on.

...and then the rains came. At this point, only the team that beat us got in all 4 games, and they were 3-1. We were 2-1 and had yet to play the 0-3 team that had scored 1 run all day. In the event of a tie, the tiebreaker was runs allowed, and we were ahead by 7 runs. But the tournament decided to cancel the final game, and they were going to award us the championship but the other team bitched and the tournament relented and gave them the trophy. Yes, they won 1 more game, but that's only because they got to play all of their games and there was no way we were going to either lose to that other team, or win but give up 8 runs. I don't blame the other team for bitching, but the tournament should have done something about it.

Anyway, a downer way to finished the day, but on the flipside, we really pulled it together and showed how good we can be. This coming weekend is a HUGE tournament 5 minutes from our house - 16 12U teams, including a number of excellent 2nd year teams. One of the teams won a national title as a 2nd year 10U team 2 years ago. Our coach is shooting for top 5. The weather doesn't look like it is going to cooperate, so we may not get any practice in this week, either. Fun.

[Ksyrup]

We have our first huge tournament of the summer this weekend. And the weather will be nice for a change. Hot, but very little chance for rain. This is probably going to be one of the most difficult tournaments of the season - we ended up with 18 12U teams, including several from Louisville/Indiana making the trip to play here (it's actually 3 miles from our house, which is nice).

We've got 2 teams from the Louisville area and a local team we have a history with in our pool play games on Saturday. Dude who "runs" the local team team (as CEO, so to speak) is a self-made millionaire who basically buys a team every season for his daughter to play on. He pays for everything - uniforms, equipment, you name it - and has hired the coaches from a local small college to coach the team. But the price you pay is, there is no loyalty, he's constantly looking for better players to replace you with, and parent involvement is not only not welcome, but actively discouraged. In short, the guy's a tremendous dick.

We played them at the 10U level 3 or 4 times, and lost each one. A couple of were heartbreaking losses. So Caitlin's always hated that team and wants to beat them. And coach said she's getting the ball for that game. We've got 3 games Saturday, and then single elimination starts Sunday morning. This is going to be a big test for this team, but I'm hopeful they will do well.

[Ksyrup]

Man, what a long day yesterday.

We went 1-2 against some tough competition. It was both frustrating because we had a chance to win all 3 games and lost them with mistakes, but heartening because this team has some tremendous talent and we're gonna be REAL good next year. With only 2 second-year players, this year is about the learning experience and next year is/should be about kicking ass.

First game, we lost 5-2. All 5 runs scored on errors. We finally started hitting in the last inning and had a runner thrown out at home to end the game. Caitlin went 0-2 but made a couple of diving catches on line drives at 1B.

Second game, Caitlin pitched against the team everyone hates. We have personal history with this team, as they beat our previous team in the last AB 3 times last year. And they did it again. Caitlin was not sharp at all - part of it was nerves, I think. She walked 2 in the 1st inning and gave up 3 hits and they scored 2, then added 1 more in the 3rd. We were down 3-0 going into the bottom of the 4th when we finally started hitting. Caitlin came up with the score 3-1 and a runner on, and absolutely jacked one down the LF line within about 5 feet of leaving the park to knock in a run. The field we were playing on was a baseball field, so they had a temp fence up and the ball got stuck in it, so instead of a triple, she had a ground-rule double. We ended up scoring 2 more to take a 4-3 lead. All we needed was 3 outs.

I knew we were in trouble when Caitlin struck out their best hitter on a change-up in the dirt to start the inning, and it got away from the catcher so she was safe at 1st. Stole second, then baited our catcher into throwing at her and she stole third and scored on a bad throw. So now we're tied. Then they got a couple of hits, scored again, and finally an error on our SS on a routine play scored the 6th run. We put up a rally in the bottom of the inning but only scored once and lost 6-5. Caitlin was devastated. Not exactly sure of her stat line, but I think it was 5 IP, 7 hits, 3 walks, 9 Ks, 6 R, 4 ER.

Third game we finally got to have some fun. We scored in every inning and won 8-1. Caitlin had a single and 2 walks.

So we finished 1-2 on the day, which was good for third seed in our pool. We play at 1:30 in the single-elimination tournament. Gonna be a hot day.

[Ksyrup]

We had a disappointing Sunday - lost the first game in the elimination part of the tournament, 5-2. Just didn't hit enough, and the pitchers were wild. Caitlin only came on as the game was ending and gave up a walk and double before time ended the game. She's struggling to hit - biggest adjustment she and some of the others have to make from 10U is that the older pitchers are making fewer mistakes down the middle, so you can't just sit around waiting for a perfect pitch to hit and take strikes on the corners. Caitlin's been caught looking all 3 strikeouts this summer so far. She's too good to watch 3 strikes go by.

Anyway, it was a disappointing 1-3 tournament, but the good news is we played 3 tough teams and only lost 5-2, 6-5, and 5-2 without any practice. We eliminate the errors and start being more aggressive at the plate, we'll do better. We came back later and watched the championship, and wow - we have a long way to go to get to that level. But those are 2nd year teams, too. Hard readjusting to being the low man on the totem pole - our girls look like 8 year olds compared to the beef on some of these teams.

We practice a couple of times this week and then another tournament this weekend. Gonna be hot as crap, too. Ugh.

[Ksyrup]

We played a one-day round robin on Saturday - only 5 12U teams signed up, so we didn't have an elimination tournament, just each team played the other 4 once. And it was just as well, as everyone knew coming into it who was going to win it all. There's a second-year team from around here that is probably the best team we're going to see all season - 2 years ago they won a national championship tournament as a 10U team. They have a couple of girls on the team who are about 5'9" 160 lbs. And nearly every one of them can kill the ball - and they have 2 of the fastest pitchers we'll see all year. And yeah, they killed all of us and won it all. They also won the 18 team tournament we played last weekend, beating a really good Louisville team in the championship. So this was a fight for second place...

...and our girls got it! We had a really good day, despite a poor start. We played that great team first, and they started Caitlin pitching. She actually pitched very well, as good as you can possibly pitch and lose 11-1. We made 9 freakin' errors in the field! Coach of the other team said the score should have only been 5-1. They hit her pretty good, but she also struck out 8 of them, which was great. Second game we really struggled, too, but won 5-4. This was the team we beat 8-0 2 weeks ago. Way too close.

Third game we played a local team with a few of our middle school teammates on it that several of our girls used to play on. So for some of the parents, they really wanted to win it badly. We got up 4-0, then let them tie it at 4, and we went into extra innings. Top of the 6th, we scored 2 and held them to nothing, and won 6-4. That was a big win - that team is pretty good.

Last game was the second-toughest team in the tournament, another second-year team. And Caitlin got the ball again. We got up on them 4-1, but in the fourth they started hitting her pretty good and scored 4 to take the lead. That team could hit. Caitlin only struck out 4 in 5 innings, which is really low for her. Anyway, she came up big at bat (finally, she had a pretty horrible day otherwise) with a long flyball sacrifice fly to LF to tie the game, and we scored 2 more to go up 7-5. Bottom of the fifth, Caitlin got 3 flyball outs to end it. We played some strong defense finally, and we needed every bit of it.

So, we finished 3-1 and in second place. We've got little margin for error, though, as a few bad breaks or a lapse here and there, and we could have easily been 0-4. That's how it is going to go this year. Nothing easy. But we did really good considering 3 of the 4 teams were second-years, and we held our own.

Caitlin's hitting is really bad right now - not sure what her deal is. She's like Adam Dunn without the HRs - she had 3 walks, 4 strikeouts, a single, and a sac fly. She'll figure it out eventually - I hope!

Next weekend is a tournament we're hosting. 8 teams in it already, so it should be a good one.

[Ksyrup]

We hosted our first tournament this weekend, and it went great. It was a long weekend, because in addition to being there for the girls, we had to run gate, pick-up trash, etc., the whole weekend, but everything worked out. Out of 10 12U teams, we finished 3rd.

Saturday, we played 1 warm-up game before the elimination portion of the tournament began. We ran through a way-behind 1st year team 18-0. Wasn't even fun. I spent the whole time talking to one of their parents about what they needed to do to get better - they were a first-year organization straight out of the rec leagues. At the 8U and maybe 1st year 10U level, that's doable. At 12U, you're probably hopelessly behind if you don't start doing some serious coaching. I'm talking, on stolen bases, no one was even covering 2nd. Stuff like that.

Anyway, second game counted and we played a decent 1st/2nd year mixed team. Caitlin pitched, and did really well. We put up 5 runs in the 2nd inning and cruised to a 6-1 win. She pitched 5 innings, gave up 5 hits, 2 walks and 6 Ks.

Last game of the day, we faced the team with a bunch of our middle school teammates on it from our home town. We beat them in extra innings last weekend. This time, we couldn't touch their pitcher - she'll be our starting 8th pitcher in middle school next year. We were down 3-1 and gave away 2 runs in the top of the 5th on a couple of sloppy plays, and it looked about over. Bottom of the 5th, we had 2 down and 1 on and started a comeback. Got a couple of hits, a walk, and an error on a bunt and it was 5-3 with runners on 2nd and 3rd when the girl hitting in front of Caitlin unleashed a bomb to right-center to tie the game at 5. Caitlin came up with a runner on 2nd to win the game, but she walked instead and the next batter hit a single through the left side to win the game. It was crazy.

That put us in the winner's bracket and a late morning game yesterday. We started shaky, but put up 9 runs in the 2nd and cruised 14-5. that put us in the winner's bracket championship game against the best (biggest and oldest) team in the tournament. Caitlin got the start. She actually pitched pretty good, but this team could hit and we made several errors, couldn't get the bats going, and lost pretty easily 9-2. I think Caitlin ended up giving up 8 hits, 5 earned runs, and only 2 strike outs in 4 innngs. They just flat-out could hit the ball.

Last game of the tournament we played the winner of the loser's bracket, the team we came back to beat 7-5 in last weekend's tournament. It was another tight game - they were up 5-4 with a chance to close us out when one of our girls hit a HR to tie it. Went to extra innings, and they scored 1 in the 7th, we tied it, and in the 8th, we got absolutely screwed on a non-call on a foul ball that went for a triple, and from there the flood gates opened. They scored 5. We scored 2 in the bottom, but just couldn't match them and we lost 11-8.

Caitlin continues to hit like Adam Dunn or something - one of those "3 true outcomes" hitters. She went 4-10 with 2 doubles, 4 strike outs, and 7 walks for the weekend.

Pretty good weekend all around, though. We're already looking forward to next year when we'll be a 2nd year team. As well as we're competing and as young as we are, we're gonna win a whole bunch next year.

This coming weekend is our last tournament until after July 4th. We're doing a yard sale/car wash the following weekend, then taking July 4th off, then starting back again to make the push for our world series in Columbus OH at the end of July.

[Ksyrup]

I forgot to update this after our last tournament, since we left for vacation right after it happened and rain wiped most of it out.

Two weekends ago, we played in a tournament but only got 2 games in. Won the first one, 3-1, with 3 runs in the bottom of the 5th, and then lost the second, 5-4, in extra innings. Caitlin pitched the second game - had a 2-0 lead after 3, then gave up single runs in the 4th and 5th to tie it. In the 6th, each team scored 1, and in the 7th, we scored 1 but they scored 2 in the bottom to win. Caitlin was really upset. I told her I could sense she had little confidence she was going to close out the game (she had 3 separate opportunities in the 5th, 6th, and 7th), and it ultimately showed in the outcome.

After that, we were supposed to play single-elimination on Sunday, but it got rained out.

Had to by her a new bat because her other one cracked hitting a line drive in the first game. That was the second bat (total: $375) that cracked in the past 2 weeks. She finally got to hit with the new one at practice last night and was hitting pretty well. I just hope it stays in 1 piece for a few months...

[Ksyrup]

Played our first tournament in a couple of weeks this weekend, the Blue Grass State Games. This is a huge, olympic-style event in more than 2 dozen sports for KY residents. We had 13 teams in our division; at the 10U level they had twice that.

Looking at the teams entered, we figured there were 3-5 teams with a legitimate shot at winning it all, 3-5 rec all-star teams with no shot, and a couple we knew very little about. As luck would have it, we drew one of the tougher teams in the first round, a team that we had beaten once and lost to once. They came out really flat, gave up a quick 2 runs and couldn't hit at all (no one was being aggressive, taking a bunch of strikes), and ended up losing 4-0. Very disappointing. That put us into the loser's bracket off the bat.

But the silver lining was that we got to match up with other losing teams, and that meant hitting our groove against inferior competition. We had 2 more games on Saturday, which we won 19-2 and 12-2. Caitlin pitched the last game, giving up 1 hit and striking out 7. She pulled a back/shoulder muscle on Friday and was having some issues with pain, but fought through it Saturday.

Our last game that night ended at 10:30pm and we had a 9am game the next morning. Since we were in the loser's bracket, we had a LONG road to win it all - up to 6 games, since we had to fight through the losers bracket and beat the winners bracket team twice. We came out hot again in the morning and won our first 2 games 11-0 and 9-0, then had a match-up with a solid team that had knocked out the 2 teams we thought we'd see at this point (1 of which was the team that beat us the day before). Caitlin pitched that game and struggled with her muscle pull, but we blistered them for 13 runs in 3 innings and won 13-6. After that, we shut her down from pitching, so we were going to have to win the last 3 games with 2 pitchers.

Next game was against the loser of the winners bracket game, and we won that one 5-0. That put us into the championship game - they held their best pitcher back and we beat them fairly easily 9-1. In the second game, they started the best pitcher we've seen all year - she threw in the low-mid 50s and almost exclusively threw a wicked curveball. Our girls hadn't seen anything like that all year. We struggled to get anything off of her, they finally scratched a run off us in the 4th, 2 more in the 5th, and we lost 3-0.

So, they finished second and got the silver medal. It was an amazing weekend - 9 games in 2 days, 6 on Sunday with a 1-game break between games 2 and 3 and that was it. Coaches cancelled practice for today - ha! Good thing, as it's supposed to be dangerously hot, too.

I'm taking Caitlin to a doctor tomorrow to see what's up with her back/shoulder muscle. Hopefully not a huge issue, but she may need to rest and not pitch this coming weekend. She hit great this weekend - she went 12-for-21 with 1 double, 4 triples, 6 RBI, 7 runs scored, and 4 walks.

[Ksyrup]

So I took Caitlin to see an orthopedic sports medicine doctor yesterday, and the guy we saw was great. Very personable, great with kids, works with athletes all the time, specializes in the shoulder. He found no problems with her arm structurally, but after some balance and strength tests, identified what I've been telling her is her problem for years - lack of lower body and core strength and bad posture.

She is going to physical therapy tomorrow morning and he advised getting her a personal trainer for once or twice a month to work on conditioning and strength. This is what I was wanting to do this fall, since she's made the decision to quit basketball and focus on softball. Glad I have a doctor backing me up.

So for this weekend, she's definitely not going to pitch. She will probably be OK to play 1B and hit, and the coach told me he'd probably DP/Flex her (kinda like an expanded version of the DH in softball) one or two games so she can rest her arm but still hit. We play up to 4 games on Saturday, depending on how we do.

[Ksyrup]

Weird weekend. We played a tournament close to home. Two games on Saturday, which we won. Caitlin wasn't going to pitch because of her back/schoulder muscle, so she DP'd the first game and still got 2 hits and 2 RBIs. Second game we beat a team Caitlin hadn't won against in 3 years of playing them. So that was nice. We didn't hit the ball very well, though - just 4 runs in each game.

Sunday was a different story. First game, we lost 3-2. Our pitcher got a blister on her index finger that started bleeding, so they pulled her up 1-0 and we lost it. That lead to some pitching issues, with Caitlin also out. She said she was feeling OK, so we warmed up just in case and she said she felt no pain. Same girl who lost the first game pitched the next game, though.

We played the team we beat the day before, the team Caitlin hadn't won against. They completely fell apart in the 1st inning and we scored 7 runs. And then the rain came. 30 minutes later, we started back but the intensity was gone. We gave up 4 in the 2nd, and then 6 in the 3rd to go down 10-7. Coach finally pulled the pitcher and brought in Caitlin, and she struck out the last 2 in the 3rd to get out of it. But the damage was done, and we lost. And then the rain came again as we were leaving. Really crappy way to lose and get knocked out of the tournament.

So this weekend we play in Lexington. Next weekend we're in Columbus OH for a world series. Not sure what to make of this team. Caitlin should be fine to pitch, so at least we'll be at full strength there.

[Ksyrup]

Another pretty disappointing weekend. Except for a few spots here and there, this team just hasn't put it all together at one time yet.
Lost the first 2 games of the tournament in pretty horrible fashion - 3-2 to a mediocre team we should (and did, later) pound. Caitlin made a bad error in extra innings that let the tying run score (ball through the legs), but the way we were playing, they were going to win anyway. Then lost the next game 10-1 as the team looked completely out of it and uninterested in playing.

That put us in a loser's bracket elimination game at 8:30 that night. Caitlin finally got to pitch - her first start since the shoulder problem - and she pitched great. We won 8-0 over the team that beat us 3-2. She gave up 3 hits, no walks, and had 3 Ks. They didn't get a runner past 2nd.

Next morning we played a decent team we had split 2 games with earlier in the year. Caitlin pitched again. She gave up 2 solid hits in the 1st inning for a run, but shut them down after that. However, we couldn't hit the ball at all and trailed 1-0 going into the bottom of the last inning. Pressure and/or heat got to their pitcher, and she walked the first batter, hit the next 2, then walked in the tying run before we finally got a clean hit to win the game. Caitlin gave up 4 hits, 1 run, no walks, and 6 Ks.

Next game was a rematch with the team that beat us 10-1 and we played much better. It was 0-0 into the 6th inning when they got a 2-out, 2-run triple to take the lead, and we couldn't answer and lost 2-0. We just couldn't hit for shit all weekend.

So - now we head to Columbus OH for a world series tournament with 62 12U teams from about 6-8 states, it looks like. If we don't hit, it's not going to be pretty, because a lot of these teams are going to be 2nd year teams that can hit the ball and score runs. We'll see how it goes, I guess, but I'm not too optimistic on our chances. I just hope they play like they want to be there and have some fun.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm curious, what were temperatures like during the tournament? Also, how close are you guys to school starting back up?

(It's the apparent disinterest, for lack of a better word, that made me wonder about those two things)

[Ksyrup]

Oh, it was hot as hell. But that's no excuse - it's hot for both teams. Heat index was probably around 100-102 on both days.

School starts back 2 weeks from tomorrow. But if you ask my daughter, she'd rather play softball than go to school any day.

Personally, I think part of it is...well...they are 11-12 year old girls. You don't know what kind of mood you're going to get from one moment to the next. And also, I thinnk they are in the process of learning what it takes to get to the next level. Just showing up to practice and going through the motions isn't going to cut it. You have to actually learn from it and take it to the games. That's something they are struggling with right now - they are taught the right way to do things, then they don't do them in the games sometimes.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Oh, it was hot as hell. But that's no excuse - it's hot for both teams. Heat index was probably around 100-102 on both days.

School starts back 2 weeks from tomorrow. But if you ask my daughter, she'd rather play softball than go to school any day.

I wasn't thinking so much in terms of "druthers" but more in terms of "being distracted".

Personally, I think part of it is...well...they are 11-12 year old girls.

Having just spent the past couple of years dealing with 11-12 year old girls by proxy (my son is now 13), this is pretty much what I was thinking. They're ... mercurial best I can tell, it doesn't seem to take a lot to distract them from anything (other than Bieber maybe).

[Ksyrup]

Throw in the..ahem...changes several are going through, and it just amplifies it all. Luckily, Caitlin isn't there yet. I hear that girls pretty much stop growing once they hit puberty. She shot up another half-inch in the past 4-6 weeks, it looks like. She stood next to my 5'2" wife last night and we couldn't believe her chin was now to my wife's nose. She's at least 5'5" at this point.

[Ksyrup]

Exhausted, crisply baked, and several hundred dollars lighter, I'm back at work after getting back from Columbus around 10pm last night from the world series our girls played in.

What an up and down weekend, and with strange parallels to last year's Columbus world series (Caitlin played for a different team in 10U than the current one). We had 4 pool play games - and lost them all. First game Caitlin pitched really well, but they scored 3 cheap runs on a couple of misplayed balls and a couple of groundouts, and we lost 3-1. Had a runner on 3rd with 1 out in the 1st - didn't score. Had runners on 2nd and 3rd with NO OUTS in the second and struck out 3 straight times. And the hitting, or lack thereof, continued pretty much the whole weekend.

Second game we played a team that ended up undefeated in pool play, and we lost 7-4. We were down 7-1 until the end, and played horribly. Friday evening we were supposed to play our third game, but rain cut it short in the middle of the 1st inning, so it was cancelled and rescheduled for 8:30am. This was by far the best team we played all weekend. They had 3-4 girls who hit shots to the fence every time up. But they never tried to advance runners other than with hits, so we held them to 1-0 until the last inning, when our second baseman didn't charge a grounder with 2 outs, let them get on, and the big girls put 3 into the gap and they scored 4 runs to put it away 5-0. Even though we didn't score, it was the best game we played to that point.

Final game was against a team that had 2 losses and a tie, so we had an opportunity to finish as the 4th seed instead of 5th (the 6th seed didn't show up for the tournament). We came out and played our worst game of the year, losing 8-0 in 5 innings to some seriously weak-ass sauce. The parents were about ready to pack the cars and head home at that point. To top it off, our catcher broke her wrist on a foul tip.

So we ended up with 5th seed and had to play a 2 seed Saturday night in the first elimination bracket game. Our goal was to get to Sunday. Caitlin pitched and was awesome. She threw about 75% change-ups and made those girls look silly. We scored 4 in the first, with Caitlin driving in the 1st run with her 1st hit of the weekend. We cruised 9-3 - and it wasn't even that close as we made a couple of errors and let them score 3 in the 4th inning

That put us into the top 32 with a game against another 2 seed Sunday afternoon. This team had put up 9, 15, and 18 runs in 3 of their pool play games. Caitlin started again and did great. She gave up a run in the 2nd on a play that should have ended the inning - runner on 2nd, ball hit to the left of the SS, and she waited for the runner to move out of her way before making a play, and the ball was past her at that point. It was basically a routine grounder. If she had just run into the runner, the runner would have been out. So they scored 1, and through 6 innings, we were being no-hit.

Bottom of the 7th, Caitlin lead off with her 2nd (and last) hit of the weekend. They pinch-ran for her, and with 2 outs, runner on 3rd, and a full count, our CF hit a grounder through the left side to tie the game. So we went to extra innings, international tiebreaker where you start with a runner on 2nd. Caitlin got the first girl out, but the runner advanced to 3rd. Next batter hit a line drive to the SS and we doubled the girl off 3rd to get out of the inning. Bottom of the 8th, our runner on 2nd advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch and scored on a single to LF to win the game. Caitlin only struck out 1 in 8 innings, but her change-up was so good all the other team could do was pop up or hit weak grounders to 2nd or SS most of the time.

So we advanced to the top 16 against a 4 seed. We started the wrong pitcher, IMO. This girl is a 2nd year 12U player, but as a pitcher, she's too wild and walks too many. And considering how poorly we hit, we had no margin for error. She actually pitched pretty well, but in the 2nd inning, she gave up a hit, a couple of walks, and threw 2 wild pitches that scored 2 runs. We scored 1 in the 5th but couldn't score again and lost 2-1.

So it was a great end to a shaky weekend overall. We finished higher than any other team in our pool, despite being the last place team. And the team that beat us ended up being the runner-up in the whole thing. So that's not too bad.

The parallels from last year are weird - on our other team, we lost all our pool play games (1 was a forfeit win from a team that didn't show up), were seeded 5th, and Caitlin pitched us to an 8-3 victory in our first bracket game, then a 1-0 extra inning win to get to the top 8 (only 26 teams in that tourney). Then we lost 2-1. BIZARRE.

We've got 1 more tournament next weekend to officially wrap up this season. We'll be losing a couple of players to 14U and making some minor adjustments to the team before playing a couple of fall tourneys as an official "2nd year 12U" team and hitting the off-season indoor workouts and practices during winter. Caitlin decided to give up basketball, so we're going to hit the strength and conditioning stuff hard this fall and winter. She has a chance to be a really good player, and I don't want her looking back on this in 10 years and wishing she had put more effort into becoming a better player.

[Ksyrup]

One additional thing about this weekend - we played 4 games on field 18, so we had the same umpiring crew for all 4 games. It was this pair of black guys who were like a hip hop comedy team or something. Dudes were going all Frank Drebin punching out players on strike outs, and the guy out in the field would sometimes thrown in a few dance steps as he called players out on close plays at the bases. They were hilarious. Not the best umps I've ever seen, but really entertaining and fun. And the guy behind the plate introduced himself to every catcher and made sure to ask the coaches if they wanted courtesy runners for the catchers, etc.

So in the game we won 2-1, the other team got jobbed on a bad call at 1st base. The girl was clearly safe. But the 1st and 3rd base coaches went nuts arguing the call, and they had reacted on a couple of other close plays earlier in the game, too. So the ump out in the field kicked them both out of the game right there. And then a parent started yelling, and he told him to be in his car with the engine running in 60 seconds or the game was forfeited.

Funniest thing either of them did though was this - Caitlin was up and checked her swing, and they asked for the appeal to the other ump. This was the exchange:

Home plate ump: "Did she go?

1st base ump: "Did she go? OH NO SHE DI'NT!!"

[TurnerONU22]

Ksyrup, was this at Berliner Park? I drove by there Friday evening on my way to Toledo and saw all of the diamonds full and traffic was slow on 71, so I'm guessing this is where the tournament was at.

Did you guys have any downtime to go anywhere in town (out to eat, ect..)?

[Ksyrup]

Yep. It looks like there were around 170 teams from 8U to 14U there this weekend. Last weekend was the older girls.

We really didn't have much downtiime. About the only thing we did was go over to Easton, eat at Pei Wei (love that place and we don't have one in KY), and take our little one to the Lego Store.

[Ksyrup]

Well, we finished up our 1st year 12U season with a nice, albeit odd, 2nd place finish in our last tournament.

Saturday afternoon/evening we played 2 pool games. We lost the first game 8-3. The girl who pitched imploded in the 2nd inning and they scored all 8 runs before the coach pulled her (queue foreshadowing). I questioned starting her against a good hitting 2nd year team, but whatever. Caitlin pitched the 2nd game and was 1 flair over the 1B’s head in the 4th from pitching a 6 inning no-hitter. She was awesome. We won 3-0.

All the Sunday games got moved back 2 hours because of rain overnight, so we played our first elimination game at 3pm. We played a real good 2nd year team that we unofficially adopted as our sister team – all the girls have become really good friends, and they finished top 8 in the Columbus tournament we finished top 16 last weekend. Caitlin pitched a 3-hit shutout, and we won 3-0 again.

Next game was the semifinal, and we won 2-1 behind our 3rd pitcher.

That set up the championship game against a big rival team, the one coached/owned by the millionaire jackass (I'm sure I mentioned that bastard in this thread). And here’s where the weirdness started. First, the coach decided to pitch the girl who got lit up in the first game on Saturday. This team can hit. I know she pitched less than 2 innings all weekend, but now’s not the time to even out the innings or play favorites. But whatever, I can live with that. Right off the bat, they hit her. 2 in the first, 4 more in the 2nd. At this point, we’re down 6-0 going into the 3rd, but we scored 1 and Caitlin hit an RBI single to make it 6-2. So I’m thinking Caitlin’s coming in to shut the door and give us a shot and getting back into it, right? It’s a 7 inning game, no time limit, so we can do it. Nope. She actually got through the 3rd with just a couple of runners and no runs, but we don’t score in the top of the 4th and she goes back out there in the bottom of the inning and gets blasted. It was so bad the ump came out in the middle of the inning and asked if she needed a drink! They get 6 runs and we get run-ruled 12-2 without Caitlin throwing a single pitch. She must have thrown 130 pitches, easily.

So we finished 2nd, and that was great and all, but I’d be lying if I said that didn’t bother me. Caitlin should have started, but at a minimum, she should have come in at some point while we still had a chance. It just felt like he went with loyalty over winning. Over the last 3 tournaments, this team has won 7 games, and Caitlin has won 6 of them. The math’s not hard to do. I’m generally not “that guy” who pushes for his daughter to pitch, but in the championship game, you play to win, not to make sure egos aren’t bruised or everyone gets their innings quota. She's a very good pitcher and has been solid all year, but we gave up 21 runs all weekend, and she gave up 20 of them – in less than 5 innings pitched.

And so it ends.... until it begins again, next weekend. No games, but tryouts, team meetings, planning fall schedule, workouts, fundraisers, etc.

[Ksyrup]

So we ended up playing a tournament this past weekend with our "new" team - we dropped 2 girls moving up to 14U and picked up 2 12U players. Played in an 8-team tournament with 2 "teams" that had split from each other and borrowed players from another team moving up to 14U, and a full team moving up to 14U. It's not technically "next season" yet, so while most teams that are moving up will play in the new division to get some experience, you have other teams looking to win a cheap championship against younger competition. Which is what happened.

We ended up finishing as runner-up to the 14U team. Caitlin had a nice tourney, pitching in 5 games and only giving up 7 runs - 6 in the championship game at 8pm pitching in her 4th game of the day. We lost the tournament by losing the first game on Sunday and having to fight through the loser's bracket, which killed our pitching. But it was a fun tournament.