All my kids effectively started to play ball (softball/baseball) while living in Canada. When we moved back to Frisco, we had a 4 year lag getting in with existing teams/organizations. Alex never found a softball team, and went right into HS softball. I need to have her play this summer to see better pitching. Andrew, our youngest, was easy to get into baseball, but I need to get him more serious about the sport. Maddie was the toughest/easiest depending on how you look at it. I continued coaching softball and started a local FBSA sponsored Texas Twist team. We played in 15 tournaments during the first 2/3rds of 2011. Longer story, but because of the personalities involved, the Texas Twist team would never have the opportunity to be good... I wanted to get Maddie on a good team.
Maddie picked up on the Texas Force (2 teams), Twist (2 teams), Black Widows, ACES, Thunderstix and Tx Glory Adkins - Moser. She eventually took a full time position on TGA Moser. A broken leg to the coaches daughter seemed to slow the amount of tournaments we (TGA Moser) signed up for in spring 2012. I brought a personal check to Craig Ranch to meet the deadline to get us "approved".
Pitching is a repetitive activity. You have to pitch in real games to improve. On off weekends, I have posted, or watched postings, on VTD to get Maddie some pitching time as a "pick-up" player. It is a hard life being a pick-up player. I am, however, getting better at positioning Maddie on the right team for her.
Last weekend, Maddie was asked to play on the Texas Stix 98 (from Austin), the Ennis Cyclones and the Weatherford Fast Lane. I spoke with all three coaches and decided Maddie had the best chance to pitch on a good team, lot's of factors, with the Weatherford Fast Lane.
I was guaranteed Maddie would pitch 1 game if they played 4 games, and 2 games if they played 6 games. Their Coach said they had 2 other bracket pitchers. He also said they would only have 9 players so Maddie would play every inning. It was only a 1-day tournament so if it went wrong, our time commitment was less.
We got to the fields in Midlothian and Maddie did her stretching. She threw, pitched and hit. We played the D Bat Shivers team first. Maddie played left field, we won. We played the North Texas Express. Maddie played left field, she hit well and we lost.
We the played a 2-0 team, D Bat Whitlock. Maddie pitched and we won 4-2 with no earned runs. Maddie then pitched the next game against a 3-0 team and we won 8-0. Maddie came into the last game in relief to win. We went 4-1 in pool games. Maddie pitching in 3 of the wins. We played the North Texas Express again in the Championship game and Maddie played left field. I would have done the exact same thing if I was their coach. I suspect Maddie would have pitched had we gotten close... we lost 6-1... came in second!!!!
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