Fun Sight for Me

Yesterday after dinner Alex and Maddie went and played catch in front of our house...  threw for about 15 minutes... need to make sure they keep doing the "together" part...

Texas Glory 14U won 3rd place out of 20 teams at the Frisco Pink Out on May 27, 2012.

Maddie pitched:

1) 5 innings vs. Xtremem Heat 99 - pool

2) 5 innings vs. Texas Force Soliz - win - bracket

3) 8 innings vs. Axe Weichel - win - bracket in ITB

4) 5 innings vs. Team Assault - win - bracket

5) 6 innings vs. Dallas Tigers - win - bracket in ITB

6) 7 innings vs. Oklahoma Storm - loss bracket

36 total innings in two days....  26 on Sunday...  was definitely not throwing as hard at the end, but still getting Ks...  relied on change-up the last few games...

The kid is a pitcher....

Not to get lost in the pitching...  Maddie was freakin' crazy at the plate too...

1) Tripled over right fielder's head in last at bat against Oklahoma Storm...  I said "tripled"....  190 feet in air...
2) Doubled over third/short and slid into second...  aggressive running... I said "stretched a single into a double and slid"
3) Slid into catcher at home - safe!!!
4) Has a streak of 6 straight hits/on base
5) Struck out once
6) Probably had 15 hits in 9 games
7) Had 3 hits against AXE

Alex Playing left field for the Texas Wildcats Gold in an 18U tournament in Plano.  She also played first and said she had "fun".

Maddie Black Widows

Maddie played in North Richland Hills for the Black Widows.  The team was bad...  several dropped third strikes and dropped pitches...  

Maddie pitched a lot and slept on the ride home...

Alex Texas Glory 16U

Alex played on a Texas Glory Adkins 16U team in Allen.  She hit 3rd the entire tournament and said she hit well...  I didn't see any games...  she wore an old pair of Maddie's pants...

Many of the Frisco High School players were on teams at the tournament...

No Idle Hands Here!!!

During the week before May 5th I saw a post on VTD for a pitcher needed for a tournament in Frisco.  Maddie's Glory team wasn't playing this weekend and she had just made an adjustment in her pitching motion.  She had pitched well in a 16U tournament last weekend, and I was hoping to replace our weekend pitching practice at a park with a couple of games pitching in Frisco, five minutes from our house.

I sent a video link to the Coach of the team needing the player in Frisco.  He wanted Maddie to pitch but had already told a girl coming up from Conroe that she could pitch.  We probably exchanged emails 10+ times...  a few times he said he needed Maddie because the Conroe player may not be coming.  I didn't really care one way or the other...  I had to bribe Maddie to play as she wanted a weekend off.  We got to Thursday and the Frisco team coach said he wanted Maddie but had already given the spot to the player from Conroe (odd because Conroe is 3 hours away).

Maddie was about to get three baby teeth pulled at the dentist on Friday morning at 10:00am when I received a text from the Coach of the Weatherford Fast Lane asking if Maddie could play with them in Grand Prairie this weekend.  He said they would only have 10 players.

Maddie had played with the Fast Lane a few weekends ago in Midlothian at a one day tournament.  The team finished second when Maddie played with them.  She won all the games she pitched. (see a previous post)

I told Coach G I would have to get back to him in a couple hours and went to the dentist.  Three teeth gone and twenty minutes later Maddie was fine.  The dentist did say she would be sore on one tooth because he had to do more work and it required more shots.

I asked Maddie if she was OK playing on the Fast Lane team this weekend and she said "ok".  I think there was some confusion as she thought they were playing in Frisco, when they were actually playing in Grand Prairie - 50 minutes away.

Maddie was scheduled to pitch their second game at 1:00pm on Saturday, but I hadn't committed 100%.  He had told me "all I really want is Maddie for the bracket games"...  I woke Maddie up around 11:00am and we were in the car driving to Grand Prairie by 11:15am.

Maddie pitched the game against another Glory team and we lost like 11-1...  she didn't pitch "bad", there were a bunch of errors and she wasn't dominant...  she told me her mouth and stomach hurt... and she was dizzy...  it was 95+ degerees...

We got through the next two games and Maddie didn't pitch in either.  She hit pretty good...

We finished low in our pool seeding and had to return to the field at 7:00am for an 8:00am game...  and the Coach told me he wasn't going to have Maddie pitch the first game because the Mizuno Ice team we would play the second game was good... 

We were loosing the first game 3/4ths of the way through and had a spurt of hitting to win 6-4... 

Maddie started the 2nd game on Sunday and pitched 6 innings in a 1-0 win...  she was throwing "hard", never really gave up a good hit and was in control the whole game.  I actually think she drove in our one run. 

The Coach asked me if Maddie could go again...  and we decided "yes"...  she pitched 6 more innings to a 2-2 tie against a North Texas Impact team, both runs unearned...  we went to ITB and had a runner start at 2nd and each batter start with a 2-1 count...  Maddie got ahead and ended up allowing 3 runs to score...  I figured we could score more than three in our bottom half of the inning...  Maddie doubled in a run to right center and we won 6-5...

The Coach asked me if Maddie could go again... and we decided "yes"...  she started her 14th inning against Blu By You (who had just won their last tournament) striking out the first two batters...  we went 4 more innings...  I don't think Maddie walked a batter...  we were winning 6-1 when time ran out...  Blu By You scored 3 runs...  Maddie was visible tired... she had only pitched 19 consecutive innings...

They made it to the championship game and I assumed there was no way Maddie could pitch again.  The coach was using another pitcher...  which was quite OK...  an assist. coach asked me if I thought Maddie could go again...  I told him "heck no"...  and he said he was just checking my "Dad Status" and I passed....

Loves cupcakes, likes trophies and hates pictures.

A well deserved rest on the ride home...

Oh, by the way, the team that originally asked Maddie to play in Frisco lost both their bracket games by a combined score of 1-25....

I Know What I Want for Our 18th Wedding Anniversary

On Friday night Andrew and I talked about going to hit early Saturday AM before teams start practicing.  To my surprise, and delight, I heard Andrew up around 7:30am and we drove to the field.

It was about 75 degrees, shadows and slight breeze... no noise... what a fantastic way to start a weekend.

I pitched about 80-100 pitches to Andrew.  Before he started, I told him he would hit one over the fence because he has been swinging well when we have been hitting tennis balls.  

WHA LAH!!!!

He hit two over the fence.  It was a fun morning!!!

So, honey, now that we have stretched the hitting field beyond the fences...  can I get two dozen Rawlings baseballs for our anniversary?  Thanks...  :-)