So our season has ended.
The game was pushed out to yesterday due to rain. Despite it no longer being graduation day, we were still missing 3 of 4 senior starters. There was (and is) some real heartburn over that one. I'm of the opinion that you go. Even though it was expected to be a bloodbath, it was still the biggest game for our program in 5 years. They earned it--and you just dont leave your teammates to the wolves...and they were definitely facing the wolves.
So we had a first year player in RF, a first year in LF, 3B was at 1B, 1B was at SS, and my kid started at 3B. 2B was the kid who always plays there. Literally, only CF (our one senior present), C, P1 and 2B were in their normal spots. Considering the circumstances, it was about as good as a lineup as could be put together.
Other than one start at pitcher, this was DD2's first varsity start. I could see she was nervous. She's played a lot of 3B the past few years, but she was pretty out-of-practice. She flubbed a couple grounders in warmups but her throws were on point. I would have been pretty nervous as well if my first start was against a team who went to the state final 4 two seasons ago. She said she thought she was gonna puke...haha.
She only had one come her way, and it was in the first inning. She fielded it but stumbled to her knees and pulled back on the throw.
Later in the first inning with two out and bases loaded, SS fielded a hard grounder and tossed it to DD2 for a force at 3. She had her foot against the side of the base and got throw easily in time. Ump called it safe. I saw her pleading her case, but I figured with him being on the opposite side of the bag he couldnt see her foot. I always thought you give that situation to the defence, but maybe not.
She said he said her foot wasn't on the bag. We were only sitting 30 feet or so from the base so it was clear in the moment, but I've since gone back and watched the stream and she's clearly against the bag. She did move her foot up some after the catch was made, so maybe the ump just decided it based on that. If there's one thing that kid knows how to do, it's getting to the bag. She does it on tag plays, throw-downs, pop-ups, etc. It drives me nuts.
This probably wouldn't have been such a huge deal had they not gone on to score 9 more runs with two outs. Our very inexperienced outfielders understandably dropped a few or misplayed a roller.
The girl in LF (who as I said is a first year player as a junior) is a tremendous athlete regularly used as a pinch runner, can pretty much always track and get under a popups. Unfortunately she just still has the ball hit her in the palm too often. She chased one to the fence and it bounced off her palm and went over. P1 started walking batters. P2 came in from SS, 1B went back to her usual 3B, P1 went to 1B, 2B went to SS and DD2 went to 2B. DD2 has never actually played 2B but she hit all her spots. She's seen it enough I guess.
Anyway, it continued to be brutal for all the same reasons and ended 15-0 after 3 innings. Their pitcher threw heat as expected, but didn't throw much with movement and honestly was kind-of wild. She didn't walk anyone but had several go over the catcher or in the dirt. I'd say she's just gotten by on her speed for the most part. She had a perfect game going until she hit one of our girls in the arm, then her no-hitter was spoiled by our catcher with two outs in the third and final inning. She's leadoff, so we did manage to get through the order.
Despite the sad finish, which would have still been sad but probably gone farther with our seniors, it was a great season vs the past few years. The regular season record was 15-15, and after it was all said and done they were 4-4 district, 7-12 region, and 16-16 overall.
We really didn't expect this team to do so well. 2021 team won 7 games against very weak opponents, 2022 won 11 against a few decent teams and some very weak opponents, and this year's team played a much tougher schedule and beat all the fringe teams at least once. Hung in there for a few complete games that they'd not been able to play a full 7 with in previous seasons.
I attribute this to a couple things. Firstly, getting P1 on a transfer helped tremendously. Having two kids that could throw strikes 50-55 mph and another a little under 50mph may not sound like much to most of you, but coming from a very accurate first year player throwing maybe 38mph in 2022, having a bit more speed was a game changer for us.
Secondly, we had three girls bat over .400 and two more over .370. Huge difference. We're only losing one of those as well, and are already making plans to get the other girls a lot of summer and fall reps.
And lastly, most of the kids we had this year consider themselves softball players first. They wanted to win, and when things went south against more evenly matched teams the wheels didn't fall off. They fought back and won most of them. It's hard to ask for much more.
I asked DD2 yearterday how much time she wants to take off before hitting the field again. She said a month. I said I'd give her two weeks. School is overwith today, so I know she'll be bored to death by then and looking for anything to do. We'll get back to converting her pitch to whip, a ton of hitting and 3B reps (and some outfield since 3 spots open up there), and she's planning on getting back in the weight room. I also think we'll also see more of the girls on the field in the offseason.
Personally, I look forward to having my evenings free again. 32 games in 8 weeks was a grind I'm happy to get out of for a while. I've had nachos for dinner at last twice a week since mid-March, so it'll be good to break out the blackstone regularly again.
I suppose updates for the next several months will just be practice stuff. I appreciate you all who have been reading and providing feedback. I'm thrilled that we went .500, came in second in the mid-season tournament and district runner up, but I'm certain we can improve next season. We'll give it our best shot regardless. The right people and players are in place.
The game was pushed out to yesterday due to rain. Despite it no longer being graduation day, we were still missing 3 of 4 senior starters. There was (and is) some real heartburn over that one. I'm of the opinion that you go. Even though it was expected to be a bloodbath, it was still the biggest game for our program in 5 years. They earned it--and you just dont leave your teammates to the wolves...and they were definitely facing the wolves.
So we had a first year player in RF, a first year in LF, 3B was at 1B, 1B was at SS, and my kid started at 3B. 2B was the kid who always plays there. Literally, only CF (our one senior present), C, P1 and 2B were in their normal spots. Considering the circumstances, it was about as good as a lineup as could be put together.
Other than one start at pitcher, this was DD2's first varsity start. I could see she was nervous. She's played a lot of 3B the past few years, but she was pretty out-of-practice. She flubbed a couple grounders in warmups but her throws were on point. I would have been pretty nervous as well if my first start was against a team who went to the state final 4 two seasons ago. She said she thought she was gonna puke...haha.
She only had one come her way, and it was in the first inning. She fielded it but stumbled to her knees and pulled back on the throw.
Later in the first inning with two out and bases loaded, SS fielded a hard grounder and tossed it to DD2 for a force at 3. She had her foot against the side of the base and got throw easily in time. Ump called it safe. I saw her pleading her case, but I figured with him being on the opposite side of the bag he couldnt see her foot. I always thought you give that situation to the defence, but maybe not.
She said he said her foot wasn't on the bag. We were only sitting 30 feet or so from the base so it was clear in the moment, but I've since gone back and watched the stream and she's clearly against the bag. She did move her foot up some after the catch was made, so maybe the ump just decided it based on that. If there's one thing that kid knows how to do, it's getting to the bag. She does it on tag plays, throw-downs, pop-ups, etc. It drives me nuts.
This probably wouldn't have been such a huge deal had they not gone on to score 9 more runs with two outs. Our very inexperienced outfielders understandably dropped a few or misplayed a roller.
The girl in LF (who as I said is a first year player as a junior) is a tremendous athlete regularly used as a pinch runner, can pretty much always track and get under a popups. Unfortunately she just still has the ball hit her in the palm too often. She chased one to the fence and it bounced off her palm and went over. P1 started walking batters. P2 came in from SS, 1B went back to her usual 3B, P1 went to 1B, 2B went to SS and DD2 went to 2B. DD2 has never actually played 2B but she hit all her spots. She's seen it enough I guess.
Anyway, it continued to be brutal for all the same reasons and ended 15-0 after 3 innings. Their pitcher threw heat as expected, but didn't throw much with movement and honestly was kind-of wild. She didn't walk anyone but had several go over the catcher or in the dirt. I'd say she's just gotten by on her speed for the most part. She had a perfect game going until she hit one of our girls in the arm, then her no-hitter was spoiled by our catcher with two outs in the third and final inning. She's leadoff, so we did manage to get through the order.
Despite the sad finish, which would have still been sad but probably gone farther with our seniors, it was a great season vs the past few years. The regular season record was 15-15, and after it was all said and done they were 4-4 district, 7-12 region, and 16-16 overall.
We really didn't expect this team to do so well. 2021 team won 7 games against very weak opponents, 2022 won 11 against a few decent teams and some very weak opponents, and this year's team played a much tougher schedule and beat all the fringe teams at least once. Hung in there for a few complete games that they'd not been able to play a full 7 with in previous seasons.
I attribute this to a couple things. Firstly, getting P1 on a transfer helped tremendously. Having two kids that could throw strikes 50-55 mph and another a little under 50mph may not sound like much to most of you, but coming from a very accurate first year player throwing maybe 38mph in 2022, having a bit more speed was a game changer for us.
Secondly, we had three girls bat over .400 and two more over .370. Huge difference. We're only losing one of those as well, and are already making plans to get the other girls a lot of summer and fall reps.
And lastly, most of the kids we had this year consider themselves softball players first. They wanted to win, and when things went south against more evenly matched teams the wheels didn't fall off. They fought back and won most of them. It's hard to ask for much more.
I asked DD2 yearterday how much time she wants to take off before hitting the field again. She said a month. I said I'd give her two weeks. School is overwith today, so I know she'll be bored to death by then and looking for anything to do. We'll get back to converting her pitch to whip, a ton of hitting and 3B reps (and some outfield since 3 spots open up there), and she's planning on getting back in the weight room. I also think we'll also see more of the girls on the field in the offseason.
Personally, I look forward to having my evenings free again. 32 games in 8 weeks was a grind I'm happy to get out of for a while. I've had nachos for dinner at last twice a week since mid-March, so it'll be good to break out the blackstone regularly again.
I suppose updates for the next several months will just be practice stuff. I appreciate you all who have been reading and providing feedback. I'm thrilled that we went .500, came in second in the mid-season tournament and district runner up, but I'm certain we can improve next season. We'll give it our best shot regardless. The right people and players are in place.