Tournament ramblings, or how was your day?

[GTRH8R]

97 degrees, beautiful softball weekend for a 6 GG. Took a beating in a couple of games in bracket. Won one. Won first bracket game and played a great game against a team from out of town, but came up short 7-6. Single elimination, went home.

DD went 4 for 7 at the plate (.571) all singles (and had one walk), six stolen bases, came across the plate 5 times (including the winning run in the bottom of the inning in one game), and played a nice game in left field. Made at least one heroic catch and two real close heroic catches. Coach had her batting 7th (usually not that far down in the order) so she was batting first in several of the innings. No RBI's bummed her out.

Decent outing and only had to drive 80 miles round trip both days.

Started off a little rough with the bat, but got rolling.

 

[Momo'sDad]

Saturday: Sunny and 85, with high winds preventing use of umbrellas or tents, but it didn't feel hot at all. By the afternoon games, however, we had sustained winds in excess of 20mph, with gusts higher than 35mph. Trying to stay on schedule, the infields weren't getting as much water as they needed under those conditions.

Our new All-star team went 1-2 in pool play, looking very much like a straight-outta-rec team in the 1st game, then getting a win in the next (Mojo's 1st start in the circle!), and finally losing a tough one to finish the day. We have a 14 player roster, and our HC started ALL 14 kids on Saturday. The 2nd loss was supposed to put us into an 8am game for Sunday, but when we checked the board, there had been a change in the designation of the pools, so we got a reprieve and played 9:30am instead and I thought the draw lined up well for us.

Sunday: No winds, but highs heading towards 95. We raced out to an early 10-1 lead in the 1st game and then they stormed back with 8 to get it to 10-9 before our girls answered with a big inning to close it out.

Game 2 was against our nemesis from the next town over, the #1 seed from their Saturday pool, and a team that we went 0-for-everything against in 2011. It was a tough one, as we got a good lead, then watched as they mounted a furious comeback in the last inning as we struggled to make plays. The victory was secured only when our 3B fired a dead-on shot to 1st for the final out.

Game 3, it's been a long, hot day, but we were playing with house money against another #1 seed. DD was told to go warm up. Say what?? We took an early 3-0 lead, but then weren't able to score the rest of the way. Our starting C got hurt sliding into home and had to leave the game. We had balls in play, but they generated outs and kept us off the board. DD came on in the 3rd inning and a tired defense just offered no help at all. Her changeup was on, but these big hitters loved the fastball and our girls just couldn't make the catches. I felt bad for our #4 catcher who came on in a tough spot and did her best but had too many mental errors back there. Result: a 9-run inning that we were not able to rebound from and we eventually lost 16-3.

Getting 3 wins in 6 games on a weekend when we were expected to be 4-and-out was huge for our team and I'm excited about what the rest of the summer will bring for these girls.

 

[Ajaywill]

It was only about 90’ here yesterday and a player on the other Team passed out. Never have seen that before. She is OK, just overheated. It is scary watching a kid just collapse.

It was over 100 degrees in Phoenix on Saturday and Sunday for our ASA qualifier. We had a 14u player go down due to the heat and had to be taken to the hospital.

We later found out that immediatley before the game she had drank THREE of the 16 oz Monster energy drinks! Please don't let your players do this...all that caffeine just flushes the water right out of their system....

 

[Comp]

It was over 100 degrees in Phoenix on Saturday and Sunday for our ASA qualifier. We had a 14u player go down due to the heat and had to be taken to the hospital.

We later found out that immediatley before the game she had drank THREE of the 16 oz Monster energy drinks! Please don't let your players do this...all that caffeine just flushes the water right out of their system....

Ajay, my brother in law is a doctor and has told me you cant believe the number of emergency cases he sees directly related to these energy drinks. He says NO ONE should be drinking them, let alone children. He told me about one guy they had come in with a pulse rate of 240 all because of energy drinks.

 

[3'sDad]

Sat AM: 14U - 2.5 hr drive to get to the tourney one state south of us. No traffic (what a blessing driving at that hour on a Saturday).

Game #1: U-G-L-Y- Nothing went right from the start and it didn't get any better. The game could not end quickly enough. DD did not have a very good game.

Game #2- After the girls had a team meeting to discuss their poor play (players only), DD gets got the ball to pitch against a team who beat them 2x last weekend. DD threw a nice game, with her team scoring 2 runs in the top of the last inning. DD did not allow the tying run to score to squeak out a 4-3 win.

Game #3- Spotted the opposition 5 runs top 1. Scored 2 bottom 1. Score reamined the same until bottom of last inning. DD's team scored 4 runs with out recording an out for a 6-5 walkoff win. 2-1 on Sturday which earned them an 8 AM start Sunday morning.

Sunday Game #1- 8 AM and already getting warm. Game goes to ITB due to a baserunning and a fielding error by DD's team. Opposition does not score in ITB, clutch hitting by DD's team and they win 3-2.

Game #2 - getting close to 90 degrees. DD is pitching against #1 seed. Top 1 DD's team squeaks out a run. Bottom 1 - 5-3, and 2 rockets to CF that the CF runs down. The air is out of the opposition immediately. DD's team scratches out another run 2 innings later to go up 2-0. Game is then 2-1. Bottom 5 - K, E6, walk, sac.bunt and 2 WP/PB and DD's team goes gown 3-2. DD is out of gas and pitching change records the 3 rd out. Last bats DD's team does not score so they are one losing 3-2. DD said her team was completely out of gas and had they won, they had nothing left. They needed to play 2 more games to reach the finals.

Pitching record was 1-1 for the weekend, 3-10 w/ 2 walks batting.

 

[jinjet95]

In KC for a Showcase. Team went 6-0. Won the Championship game against another St. Louis team. DD hit only ok, but had some great plays at 2B. Coach of team they had just beat sought her out after the game to tell her she was a great ballplayer. It made her weekend. She and the catcher combined to pick 5 runners off of 2B in 6 games. Sneaky little devils.

 

[NVfishing]

In KC for a Showcase. Team went 6-0. Won the Championship game against another St. Louis team. DD hit only ok, but had some great plays at 2B. Coach of team they had just beat sought her out after the game to tell her she was a great ballplayer. It made her weekend. She and the catcher combined to pick 5 runners off of 2B in 6 games. Sneaky little devils.

That is awesome! Congrats!

 

[NVfishing]

We went 4-0 and 12-0 for the year. Daughter is now 6-0 and 3-0 in championship games in the circle. 8U so we have lots to work on and get to have a lot of fun playing catch and being goofy.

 

[doublesteal]

it was nice saturday about 85 with a nice breeze. Girls went lost our 1st game 5-4 on sloppy play, they won the next 2 games 11-7 and 13-3. We managed to get a first round bye which due to limited field space ment we didnt play our 1st game until 1:15pm. By that time is was about 95 and no cloud or breeze in sight. They won the first game 8-0, they won in the semi's 6-4 against the host team and won in the championship 8-3. Bringing home the championship trophy for a secon weekend in a row.

I have to agree about the terrible umpire calls.

The real kicker for me was 2 outs and the opposing team was down by 1 in the semi's. There is a runner on 1st and their leadoff batter was up. She bunted the 1st pitch to her foul, the second pitch was a ball and my catcher threwdown to 2nd, the runner stumbled so my shortstop is waiting with the ball to apply the tag, she does both my team and the runner start to leave the field,the umpire calls everyone back and says the runner was safe she went around the tag .. (she did not) I argued she was out any way cause she left the field he told me no she was safe and on second. So leadoff batter is still at bat, she attempts to bunt again it goes foul (giving her a 1-2 count), next pitch a screwball called for a strike, my runners start to run offf the field again. Again they are called back the home plate umpire tells us there are only 2 strikes. I argued that there were 3, the 2 bunt attempts and the called strike, he confers with the field umpire who says no 2 strikes. after a little more conversation I ask for the count so I can call the next pitch he tells me 2 strikes is the count (I ask him how is that possible? a bunt attempt and a called strike, what pitch was when the runner stole .. tells me 2 strikes and to stop argining or I would be tossed. Next pitch batter winds up cracking a 2 run double putting them up. Luckily for me, my girls dont take well to an umpire deciding thier fate, they came to bat down by 2 and cracked 3 doubles and some singles to score 5 runs. (The best part the umpire comes up to me after the game and tells me I was right he remembers that he cleard his clicker assuming the runner stealing was out and never reset it.

 

[29dad]

First ASA/USA national qualifier. 13U team hoping to qualify. First game of pool play... wow. no words. Won 29-0. And then got our comeuppance in second game losing 8-0. Very strange day. First game of bracket play we win 4-0. next game is against #1 seed, best team in the tourney, and a team that made a fairly deep run at ASA nationals in midland last year. We pull off huge upset and win 5-2. That puts us in the "finals' of bracket play against #2 seed. We lose a heartbreaker 1-0 on an unearned run. Now we wait to see who we play in loser's bracket and of course it's #1 seed again. But it's 92 degrees and this is their 4th consecutive game. We shock them again, this time 7-0. Puts us back in championship game but we need to win twice. Instead we lose 2-1. Gut wrenching loss. So close. First place is a berth to ASA nationals. Second place is... nothing. Back at it again this weekend in another qualifier. it's not going to be easy.