Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Another week of Ball in the Books!

The weekend started off with Mallory heading to Alexandria to play in a tournament with a travel team out of Rayville, LA called "The Heat".  This is the same group she played with last year for part of the year.  We had an early game - and Mallory and I headed to Alexandria around 6am.  The first game was against St. Mary's - our team handled them easily for the pool game and we won 8-0.  Mallory went 0-1 with a walk and a stolen base.  Played 2nd and SS in the field and got no action!

The second pool game was against a team called Diamond Dust.  Our girls played well - but came up just a little short and lost 6-5.  Mallory got a little action on defense - again - went 0-1 with a walk ... and a stolen base (showing off her wheels!)

The first bracket game was against a team called the Louisiana Angels - a nemesis of the Lady Vikings that I coached for the past few years.  The play a lot of "small ball" - using bunts and aggressive baserunning to get their runs.  My teams in the past were better prepared for this type of team - but this team had some infielders playing in positions they weren't used to - and we committed a bunch of errors (6 to be exact).  It's pretty tough to come back when you make that many mistakes.  We ended up losing 6-1.  Mallory was part of a spectacular double play ... a bunt was fielded by the pitcher - Mal was a little late getting to the bag - and the pitcher threw it high and to the right of the bag.  Mal caught the ball while backpeddling over the bag - and fired home at the baserunner trying to score.  The throw was dead on - and the runner was tagged out by the catcher.  That was the only highlight for our team ... Mal did get on base with a walk - and stole a base ... so identical stat line as the other games. (0-1, BB, SB).

Unfortunately, that ended our portion of the weekend in softball - as the next game was on Sunday afternoon - and Mallory had a scheduled shift at the Tennis Center and couldn't play the next day.  The tournament was originally scheduled to be a one day tournament - but turned into a two day tournament at the last minute.

Holden had two games this week - and both happened to be against the Yankees.  Monday's game was one of the worst games we have played.  Unfortunately - Holden was the starting pitcher.  The first inning the Yankees scored 3 runs on Holden - Holden allowed a couple of costly walks in the inning - but only after we made 3 errors in the inning.  This seemed to be the story of the day for our team.  Holden ended up pitching 2 innings giving up 5 runs - all unearned because of errors.  With the game being close - we turned over catching duties to Holden.  After the two innings we were tied 5-5.  Holden hit a 2 RBI single for his first at bat - with a shot between the LF and CF.  The Tigers continued to boot the ball around - and we kept giving the Yankees a chance to win the game.  Even though we had 7 errors in the game and numerous baserunning errors and missed signals - the Yankees had 8 - and allowed us to take the win home 10-8.  Holden ended up 1-2 - the 2nd at bat was a long fly ball caught by the centerfielder.

The 2nd game of the week was the same result - but a much better performance.  Our other catcher came back and caught a couple of innings - allowing Holden to get a break and play a little Shortstop.  This time - both teams played sharper on defense with only 1 error by the Tigers and only 2 by the Yankees.  The Yankees pitcher kept us on our toes - holding us to just two runs in the first 4 innings - both of those runs brought in by a single by Holden that went up the middle.   The Tigers added some more runs in the 5th and stayed out in front for the rest of the night - as they prevailed 7-4.  Thankfully - we get a much needed rest - and will get the rest of the week off.

On deck for the Hall household ... PRIDE awards for the best in hospitality in Shreveport Bossier is Thursday - where I have five of my team nominated.  Friday night is the Employee Crawfish Boil - so I'll be hanging out at work for the night!  Saturday - Mallory is playing with The Heat again - so she will be busy both Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday - Holden has a practice and I have an "old-man" baseball scrimmage.  Monday - Holden has a game, and Mallory has the Airline Softball Banquet - (Jules had the date wrong - so you'll have to wait until next week to hear what awards Mallory won .... and I can tell you now - there is one I am already proud of - but you all will have to wait until the next blog!)  Always busy here in Shreveport/Bossier!  Next week might even include pictures from the banquet!

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