With high school softball season coming to a close last week - it looks like Baseball will be the dominant post for a few weeks. This week was filled with Baseball - which means I have lots of dirty clothes in my car changing from "work" wear to "coaching" wear while driving through rush hour traffic. I'm sure the people driving around me are wondering what the heck I am doing in the car.
As I posted on Monday - Holden's game was weather permitting ... and the weather did not permit - so the game was postponed until Wednesday. Tuesday - the weather was just as gloomy ... but we took a chance and started the game. The Tigers were playing the Red Sox on Tuesday - and with games on Wednesday and Thursday - we decided to keep our pitching fresh and started some of our kids that didn't get too much action on the mound. Holden caught the game - and got to call pitches. Holden had a groundout RBI in the first inning and the Tigers jumped out to an early lead. The Red Sox got one back in the top of the 2nd inning to tie it 1-1. The Tigers scored 2 more in the bottom of the 2nd to take the lead - after two innings, Tigers 3, Red Sox 1. Then came the lightning and the game was delayed ... after 10 minutes it was evident the weather was going to only get worse and the game was postponed until Friday. Thankfully - the storm was just a lot of wind, rain and lightning - but the tornado watches that happened later that day were just "watches". The bad stuff hit the next day in Alabama - here is a page that has some of the amazing and scary videos - http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110428/ts_yblog_thelookout/watch-tuscaloosas-terrifying-tornado
The fields dried out (amazingly) - and games were on for Wednesday. Holden had a track meet as well - and it was not his best performance - and because of that - you don't get to hear about his performance (just know that he was not happy - and he will be working on getting better) This was the rescheduled game from Monday against the Bucs - and the boys came with their game faces on. Our #4 pitcher Jordan took the mound for the game and threw a great game. Holden had to catch again, as the other catcher on our team was still nursing a sore arm. The Tigers jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. I'd like to give you play by play - but let's just say that the Tigers really started to put it on the Bucs in the 3rd inning with good hitting, aggressive baserunning - and then the Bucs pitcher lost all confidence and couldn't throw a strike. Realizing this game was over - the Bucs threw some less experienced pitchers and the Tigers kept hitting. Holden had a ground out in the first inning, drew a walk, stole a base in the third inning, and got a hit in the 4th inning. Tigers end up winning this game - somewhere along the lines of 12 or 13 to 1. Hard to believe I forgot the score - but at some point in the game - I have to stop the kids from stealing bases and feel bad for the other team.
Thursday - the Tigers had their 3rd matchup with the vaunted Thunder. This is the team we played and got absolutely destroyed the last two times - but this time, we had a chance to throw our #1 pitcher in Andrew at them. Unfortunately - without our catcher - Holden again held down the fort behind the plate - but our infield defense would be much weaker without him. The Thunder again threw their best pitcher at us as well, but seeing him twice already - our team was a little better prepared to play against him. After the first inning - the Tigers scored a run on an RBI groundout by Holden to take the lead 1-0. The score held through three innings. The fourth inning, the Thunder started a rally - helped out by an error by one of our players. With the bases loaded and one out - a ball was hit right by our third baseman - I'm not sure he was paying attention - because if he would have just lifted his glove a foot - he would have caught the line drive and had a double play with the runner leaving third base ... but - the third baseman was not named Holden - and the ball went right by him allowing two runs to score. The next batter hit a double and scored two more - so after 4 innings, the Tigers were down 4-1. The fifth inning the Thunder tacked on one more run 0 and Andrew threw the maximum number of pitches he was allowed to throw. With Holden unavailable to pitch (since we didn't have our other catcher) - we had to turn to our #3 pitcher - and he did not perform well under pressure. 9 runs later, we were down 14-1 going into our last at bat. Thankfully - their ace also threw his maximum number of pitches - and the Tigers started to rally. Holden drew a walk in the final inning and scored a run - and the Tigers scored 5 in the inning - but well short of the victory. All things considered - a small victory losing 14-6 - knowing they did everything they could to try to beat us. Holden threw out a base runner trying to steal on us - and nearly threw another one out after a wild pitch hit the backstop and bounced back to him. Solid game for the most part by the team - and by Holden. I think if we had our catcher - we very well might have won that game - so hopefully - we will get to see them in tournament ball this summer.
Friday brought the conclusion of the game against the Red Sox. The Tigers came out flat and lost their 3-1 lead they had when the game was postponed. Holden popped out his first time up - and after a couple of errors by the Tigers - we found ourselves down 6-4 going into the bottom of the last inning. We were up to the top of our order - and the first two batters got on base when Holden came up. Of course - since I wasn't there - Holden decided to belt his biggest hit of the season - a two hopper to the fence (and this is on the big field - 300 foot fences) - and got a stand up triple. He thinks he could have hit an inside the park homerun - but as a coach - there was no way I would let the winning run get called out at the plate with no outs. Two intentional walks and a little flare single that scored Holden and the game was over. Tigers win 7-6! Again - Holden caught the entire game ... and we got bad news from the other catcher - looks like he is out for the next three weeks (which is essentially the rest of the season). Hopefully we will get Holden on the mound this next week against one of the teams that we know we can beat and put an inexperienced catcher behind the plate. I feel bad for Holden - but as a coach - we have to do what is best for the team.
Three games next week - two tough ones against the Diamond Kings and the Astros - one easy one against the Yankees. Hopefully I can post after each game instead of giving a loooooonnnngggg blog about the week in review!
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