Game 7 - A's

Another game, another injury, another tale of toughness. Our guys played the A's well enough to in the first four innings to keep the game close and then mounted a strong rally in the top half of the last inning to make the game interesting. While we could not contain the A's offense in the last inning we did make a game of it and showed some promise with the bats in the last inning.

Joe and Ben pitched well enough to hold the A's to only three runs in four innings. I noticed this game that our outfield play by Josh, Ian, Sean has really improved. On hard-hit balls to the outfield our guys are hustling to the ball and throwing the ball in to the infield quick enough to hold runners to just one base in most cases. This makes a big difference, particularly when we have catchers like Ben and Roberto who are able to stop a lot of balls and hold the runners on first and second. We came close again to throwing out base-stealers twice in this game. I can feel it coming, we will throw someone out in the next few games. Jack Coughlin and Mason both made good plays on throws from catcher to nearly make a timely tag on the fleet-footed A's baserunners.

We struggled again with our hitting early (although Ian has been very consistent hitting in the early innings) in the game but showed signs of waking up in the 5th inning. Mason started things off in the 5th with a solid single on his last pitch. Angelo woke the crowd up by crushing a line drive over third base and using that speed to turn his hit into a triple. We benefited from a friendly call on the liner to third base and turned our good fortune into a couple more runs delivered off the bats of Trevor and Joe. Part of baseball is learning to overcome the tough calls and taking advantage of the favors. The fun thing was watching how the boys pumped themselves up in that last inning to mount a charge. Way to go Red Sox.

Finally, Mason took a very bad hop off his bottom lip in the last inning. I got a quick look at it as he left the field, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. But much like his teammate Ian in the last game, Mason stuck with his team on the bench and with the help of some ice and his Dad, walked through and shook hands at the end of the game. Way to tough it out big guy!!!! I'm proud of how Mason and the rest of our kids competed in this game, sticking with it through 5 innings. If anything I'll bet we lead the league in shiners and fat lips!

On Saturday we square off against the Angels at 11:30. Please have the kids there by 11:00 am. Be prepared for the return of Coach Dude and a new look for the coach's pitches..