While we did put the bat on the ball a few times, I still believe we are letting to many good pitches go by without a swing. Coach Dude and I are trying to remind the kids at the beginning of each game to swing at anything between the knees and the shoulders. I'm trying to frame this as an opportunity to hit the ball in a game that may not have many due to the erratic pitching. Our most consistent hitter continues to be Ian who manages not only to swing, but to make contact in almost every at-bat. Big-cat Ben Linberg also had a nice smash up the middle.
Defensively we played well on about half of the balls. Our biggest challenge in fielding is getting our players to move aggresively toward the ball. Players sometimes seem a little confused on how to approach a ball. Sometimes it seems as if the motivation to make the play is softened by the confusion of how to make the play and the fear of getting in the way of the ball. It will always be nearly impossible to make a play if the player refuses to get in front of the ground ball or undeneath the fly ball. Only practice helps to take this fear away. Once the kids know that they can catch the ball and that they can effectively prevent the ball from hitting themselves they will gain the confidence necessary to move quickly to the ball and make more plays. If you have time to practice, you can start with soft-core balls (come see me for some) and that way if they do miss it won't hurt quite as much. Having said that we once again almost made a caught-stealing play at third with Ben and Trevor. Joe make a great play on a --hot line drive to first base and showed some great hustle chasing a ball down the rightfield line.
Despite our lack of offensive power, we kept the game close, closing it to a tie in the top of the 3rd inning. We were unable to hold the Tigers in the bottom half of the inning, but we did compete very well with a very good team.
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