Last night was by far our tightest game of the year. There were many lead changes, and in the end we lost 15-14.
What I liked:
- Our hitters looked better than in the last game. There were few strikeouts and our pitch selection was good. There were several line drives, and the opposing team commented on our hitting.
- The arm of the opposing catcher. The kid has a rocket gun and used it to pick us off.
- We did a good job standing in the back of the box this game, as well as measuring distance from the plate.
- Our pitchers did a great job in making the other team hit and not walk.
- Nathan did well at keeping runners at third on wild pitches.
- Riley was alert and almost made a great catch in right field.
- Logan made a great backup of a throw to first and prevented a runner from advancing to second.
- We had some nice put-outs off of grounders.
What we could have done better:
- Not being afraid to get the bat on the ball. Our kids can hit and need to swing the bat
- Triaging balls coming in. When the ball comes in to the infield, it doesn’t always go to home. I need to coach that better. I’ll start by reviewing field assignments and seeing if we can cut throws
- Not getting tense when the other team is scoring runs. It takes three outs to head back to the bench, and we need to play them the same if there are six runs in or no runs in.
- Pre-game prep. I need to really work on that.
What I could have done without:
- A long drive out to Waukesha West.
- Muddy dugouts – it doesn’t take a civil engineer to figure out the grading there could use improvement.
- The long trek to the bathrooms.
- The narrow bench area.
- Hearing the deep thud of the baseball hitting Riley in the back.
Onto play FOG on Friday and Blazers West #3 on Saturday. I’ll bet we have tired kids come Saturday afternoon.
