So, after getting 0 hits and only spoiling the opponent's average pitcher's perfect game by the grace of a walk, our girls proceeded to come out Friday night and beat the absolute pi$$ out of the ball. The only change made was they spent Thursday's practice taking cuts at 55-60mph from the pitching machine. Even DD 2 one hopped to the fence in the JV game. The weight room time was definitely showing. She's swinging with some confidence. She pitched 3 innings of JV. A couple strikeouts, 4 walks and 2 HBP. She beaned one of them right in the head. I knew she would come out there a bit rough from lack of work, and it showed. I took some slo mo of her after practice Thursday and she's got some new glove arm funk going on, and turning her torso around pretty badly. I figured I would see FSR problems, but it was actually solid. Overall, nothing insurmountable if we can get a few workouts in. Unfortunately we won't have an opportunity until Wednesday.
The game itself ended in a heartbreaker 11-10 loss. At one point we had a 6 run lead, but our opponent managed to start making contact and had one of those really crappy 2 out free-for-alls and got up on us by 1 run, which we managed to tie, followed by them getting 1 more and us not quite able to do anything in the bottom of the 7th. But boy did the girls hit. 17 hits, legit, and our best hitter was out sick. Our bookkeeper doesn't give credit for hits on error. They used the same pitcher they've had the past few years. She's generally pretty tough.
Our opponent managed 15 hits, almost all of which were in the 5th inning. We scored one of those an error and they had some junk contact the infield couldn't get to fast enough. Overall it was very encouraging to see our girls, having had to replace four 2022 starters (five that night with the cheerleader sick), manage to hit like that in their second game.
Saturday was a triangle. We visited a local powerhouse to play them, along with another visiting team that we thought we may have a shot at.
Oddly enough, our girls went right back to smacking the ball vs the powerhouse. They threw their ace against us and we hit her well. It was 5-4 in their favor going into the bottom of the third, then the wheels just completely fell off. It was 32 degrees with relentless wind. I was miserable, so I can only imagine how crappy it was for the girls. They got a quick two outs, then had a couple errors, then a headwind started sending everything to the fence and it was another two out slaughter. They ended up with three OTF homeruns. One of their girls hit two of them, then she hit two against team 3 later. The host team ended up sending nine balls over the fence on the day. Bruisers. Their coach did his best to end that 12 run inning for us, and the girls eventually finally got that third out.
DD2 got in for an at-bat. She was aggressive and fouled three off. The last pitch jammed her up inside and she went down looking. Later she said "I got standing in there funny and before I could fix it she pitched, and as soon as she let go I knew I was too close to the plate."
As much as it sucks to go down looking, it was great to hear her say that. She's finally starting to think at the plate beyond the "is it a ball or a strike" mentality.
The host brought out their #2 pitcher to play team 3 and got themselves in a bit of trouble. Team 3 saved their better pitcher for us (also I'm sure thinking they had a shot vs us later), but their #2 was doing fine for a bit. The powerhouse eventually brought their #1 back out and got control of things, ending up winning by four runs or so.
So bringing us to our game vs Team 3. It was a solid effort on both sides. We used pitcher #2 vs their #1. Both teams hit well, and our coach subbed in runners as much as possible. We have a lot of speed in-general, but there's a lot of it on the bench so he got them in there whenever possible. We got up 15-6 then into a bit of trouble and gave up three more. Coming into the top of the 7th he sent our #1 out. She was coming off 130 pitches friday and 120 in game 1 vs the host, but I thought it was a good idea. Give team 3 something a bit faster and with more movement. She fanned the first two and I was thinking again how it was a great idea, then some hits and walks and suddenly it's 15-12. There we were in yet another two out melee. The bases were loaded up for the second time that inning, but finally someone popped out.
So we got a W against a decent team, and nearly got a W Friday against a team that I think is slightly better than team 3. The record now sits at 1-3. Tonight we play the team we scrimmaged against a couple weeks ago. The team we lost to Friday run-ruled tonight's opponent so we're optimistic. Just gotta keep those sticks going and I think we'll do fine.
End of long-winded report...
The game itself ended in a heartbreaker 11-10 loss. At one point we had a 6 run lead, but our opponent managed to start making contact and had one of those really crappy 2 out free-for-alls and got up on us by 1 run, which we managed to tie, followed by them getting 1 more and us not quite able to do anything in the bottom of the 7th. But boy did the girls hit. 17 hits, legit, and our best hitter was out sick. Our bookkeeper doesn't give credit for hits on error. They used the same pitcher they've had the past few years. She's generally pretty tough.
Our opponent managed 15 hits, almost all of which were in the 5th inning. We scored one of those an error and they had some junk contact the infield couldn't get to fast enough. Overall it was very encouraging to see our girls, having had to replace four 2022 starters (five that night with the cheerleader sick), manage to hit like that in their second game.
Saturday was a triangle. We visited a local powerhouse to play them, along with another visiting team that we thought we may have a shot at.
Oddly enough, our girls went right back to smacking the ball vs the powerhouse. They threw their ace against us and we hit her well. It was 5-4 in their favor going into the bottom of the third, then the wheels just completely fell off. It was 32 degrees with relentless wind. I was miserable, so I can only imagine how crappy it was for the girls. They got a quick two outs, then had a couple errors, then a headwind started sending everything to the fence and it was another two out slaughter. They ended up with three OTF homeruns. One of their girls hit two of them, then she hit two against team 3 later. The host team ended up sending nine balls over the fence on the day. Bruisers. Their coach did his best to end that 12 run inning for us, and the girls eventually finally got that third out.
DD2 got in for an at-bat. She was aggressive and fouled three off. The last pitch jammed her up inside and she went down looking. Later she said "I got standing in there funny and before I could fix it she pitched, and as soon as she let go I knew I was too close to the plate."
As much as it sucks to go down looking, it was great to hear her say that. She's finally starting to think at the plate beyond the "is it a ball or a strike" mentality.
The host brought out their #2 pitcher to play team 3 and got themselves in a bit of trouble. Team 3 saved their better pitcher for us (also I'm sure thinking they had a shot vs us later), but their #2 was doing fine for a bit. The powerhouse eventually brought their #1 back out and got control of things, ending up winning by four runs or so.
So bringing us to our game vs Team 3. It was a solid effort on both sides. We used pitcher #2 vs their #1. Both teams hit well, and our coach subbed in runners as much as possible. We have a lot of speed in-general, but there's a lot of it on the bench so he got them in there whenever possible. We got up 15-6 then into a bit of trouble and gave up three more. Coming into the top of the 7th he sent our #1 out. She was coming off 130 pitches friday and 120 in game 1 vs the host, but I thought it was a good idea. Give team 3 something a bit faster and with more movement. She fanned the first two and I was thinking again how it was a great idea, then some hits and walks and suddenly it's 15-12. There we were in yet another two out melee. The bases were loaded up for the second time that inning, but finally someone popped out.
So we got a W against a decent team, and nearly got a W Friday against a team that I think is slightly better than team 3. The record now sits at 1-3. Tonight we play the team we scrimmaged against a couple weeks ago. The team we lost to Friday run-ruled tonight's opponent so we're optimistic. Just gotta keep those sticks going and I think we'll do fine.
End of long-winded report...
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