The rest of the (baseball) story

Yes, baseball is finally over.  It's actually ended more than two weeks ago but somehow it feels like it was just yesterday.  That could be from the overload of a lot of games in a short amount of time, but whatever the case, we were glad to end our late-afternoon drives into Anchorage.  Don't get me wrong, the games were fabulous and it was a joy to watch each and every one.  But daily trips into Anchorage and sitting on bleachers and being tense over plays and batting and fielding...well, it kinda wears one down.  Or more than one.

Absolutely ZONKED out.

On the plus side of multiple-trip-mania, having little girls who are absolutely exhausted can provide a smidge of entertainment:

Didn't expect Cousin Itt's cousin to come to the game!

As the last couple of tournament games wound down for Moriah's team, they continued to play hard and really gave it their all.  The Cubs made it to the championship game(s), winning the first to force the second in a double header thriller.  If those kids had had a little more rest and their best pitchers (as the team from the 'winners' bracket had), I do believe they may have pulled off a victory.  But really, what they achieved was amazing and we were all incredibly proud of how they played and how they conducted themselves throughout the tournament.

Moriah was able to pitch once more.  Literally.  Once.  She threw a pitch that was hittable, the batter popped it up and it was caught for the final out in the bottom of the sixth inning of the final game. 

It was clear that her team was running out of steam (yeah, that rhymes), but they still set up an incredible opportunity in the top of the seventh.  They started the inning four runs behind and one run had come in.  With two outs making everyone nervous, two more players got on base and the 'home run hitter' came up to bat.  It was quite exciting, and cautious optimism had crept in just a bit.  The batter hit a deep fly ball...waaayyyyyy back...that was caught.  Just a few feet from the fence.  It was a 'awwwww' moment for our team but boy was that kid who caught it justifiably thrilled with his running catch. 

If the Cubs had to lose, they at least did it in a way that showed they came to play to the very end.  They took second place in the tournament and have every reason to be absolutely proud of the way they played through that tournament. 

Thanks for memories, guys!

Baseball, the extended version

Moriah took on quite the challenge this summer.  She decided to play Little League again this year.  That in and of itself wasn't the challenge, as she's played Little League for several years, and had great fun and success while doing it.  But this year, because Moriah is 13, she had to play at the Junior level...on a bigger field...with bigger pressures...and no other girls in the entire Juniors league.

Compared to most of the players on her team, Moriah is not as skilled and usually only plays about 3 innings per game.  She has been in right field most of the games with a few departures to third base (once) and second base (twice, I think).  Moriah's gotten some hits, she's fielded pretty well and has been an asset to her team as well as fun to watch.  This year's "Girdwood" team has almost half their players from Anchorage and the team has been pretty good, with more wins than losses.

Per this blog post title...her baseball season has been extended.  Her team is currently playing in a double-elimination tournament, working their way through the loser's bracket (darn that Dimond West team who beat them that first night!).  They played three games in a row last week and played again last night.  They play tonight and possibly tomorrow and two games on Thursday, if they keep winning. 

Because of their survival in the tournament, Moriah just added a new position to her repertoire last night...pitcher!  She pitched in the minors and majors but has not had an opportunity to do so this year.  There are good pitchers on her team and she hasn't been tapped to work on her pitching.  

With the advancement through the tournament and restrictions on how much and often youth can pitch, the team is in danger of burning through their good pitchers and jeopardizing their chances of continuing to win.  Jim got a call over the weekend to work with Moriah on her pitching, which caused no little excitement around here.  She practiced a bit at a junior field in Anchorage and then worked with another lefty pitcher who gave her some helpful tips.  Then, during last night's game, she was 'called up' (is that the right baseball terminology?) to pitch.

Now, don't get too excited, because her pitching stint came at the bottom of the fifth, with one out, with her team ahead 20-6 and no danger at all of losing the game.  But, she did pitch pretty well, made one of the last two outs with a quick scoop and throw to home and in general did her mom and dad quite proud!

Here are a few photos from last night:

Got to first on a walk, ready to steal to second.

                                       

The wind up during her warm up...

the throw...

the follow through!

Moriah's 'save' last night not only 'saved' the win, but it 'saved' other more seasoned pitchers from being unavailable in more critical games.  I love that she was able to contribute to her team during the tournament in this way. 

On another, non-baseball note, after the game the little girls (who came by the field after watching Cars 2 with Papa and Granna) ran to the slide that is among the AOR ball fields.  It's a fast slide and they love to visit it, whenever they go to a game. 

Whee!  Abigail slides.

Bethany's turn!

We'll be heading back into town soon (I'm 'in class' while writing up this blog post...don't tell my teacher) to watch tonight's game.  And Moriah just may pitch again tonight.

Play ball!

Wrong....

My kids may want to mark this day down on a calendar or something: I happily admit that I was wrong. Yes, me. Wrong. About today's game.

The Giants won. Handily. 18-1. And now the kids have a taste of what it's like to be the team that controls a game. That owns a game. Something they've been on the receiving end a little too often this season.

Tomorrow's game will determine whether or not we advance once more. The team is one we've never seen before, so they're a total unknown. And we have a pretty good pitcher or two who may be able to keep the opposing team to a minimum of runs. We'll see...no predictions this time because I don't want to be wrong a second time.

Although eating my words has never tasted so sweet.

Baseball bragging

Can I just say, non-competitive person that I normally am, that watching Moriah have a really good baseball game* turns this mild-mannered librarian into a screamer. Not the I'm-absolutely-terrified-save-me! type of freak-out scream. It's the fist-pumping, up-and-down jumping kind of excited scream.

And last night, she played really well. Enough to make me scream. And jump. Repeatedly.

The highlights were her two hits.** Her team hadn't done too well in the hitting department and they were already down several runs for her first at-bat. She hit a solid single and then made it to second on her teammate's single. Unfortunately, she was left on base without scoring.

Heading into the bottom of the fourth, her team was scoreless and the other team had 10, which meant the game would be over (10-run rule) if they remained at zero. So, up to bat goes Moriah. Who then hits a great stand-up double. Beeee-yooo-tiful! The next kid also hit a double, which brought Moriah home and kept the game going for another inning and a few more runs by the Girdwood Giants.

Oh, the screaming! We didn't win, but we came alive and got a little rally going and showed that we do know how to play! (Dontcha love how I'm part of the 'we'? Royalty, that's me!)

Moriah also did well as pitcher and catcher. Her pitching was better the first inning she pitched, but she still held the other team to only a few runs. As a catcher, she has always been solid and she can get the ball out to second pretty quickly and accurately. She made a great throw to third at one point that got the kid who was trying to steal. I also think she made an out at home, but the ump didn't agree and called the kid safe ("Get some glasses, ump!" muttered this ramped-up librarian).

As I've shared before, her team has *not* had a winning season. At all. Only two games won, albeit one very satisfying win over the best team in the league. And this last game was the start of the tournament, with a double-elimination structure. They lost this first tourney game last night and will play their second (and, if I'm totally honest {even while resisting my inner pessimist}, likely their last one) tomorrow afternoon.

Play ball!

*I should clarify that I think Moriah has a good game each time she plays. Love love love watching her play. But there are times that she shines a little brighter and last night's game was one of those times.

**Moriah had been in a hitting slump for many games and it was getting her down. Not to mention that she kept being up with 2 outs and totally felt that pressure (and she railed about the injustice of that recurring situation, believe me!). There were a few games that she made the last out each time she got up to bat, which made her one surly, grumpy gal post-game. This game certainly lifted her out of her slump!

A second win

A week ago Friday, Moriah's baseball team got their first win. Against the best team in the league. And I wasn't there to see it (*sniffle*), opting to stay home on what I thought would be an unpleasant night in Anchorage (*sniffle*). Not sure I would have noticed the temperature in the excitement of watching them win.

Well, tonight the family (minus a working Samuel) went out on an unpleasant night in Girdwood and got to see their second win of the season. Yahoo! We all dressed in layers for the occasional sprinkles and the babes even wore their new rainhats Jim found at a garage sale. That I think are called sou'wester rain hats. And that are so big their heads and shoulders disappear underneath them.

Moriah did some pitching and fielding and was also catcher for four innings. The game was close, 5-4, and boasted some great plays and saw some bobbled balls. The gal who was keeping score thought it was 5-5 in the middle of the sixth inning, but apparently one of the runs we counted for the other team wasn't really a run. ?? Whatever the case, we got the win and our kids were pretty excited to have won another game. Especially after Friday night's shut out that was over in about 75 minutes.

The kids have one more 'regular' game on Wednesday night and then the tournament begins on Friday. It's a double elimination. If they win Friday, they play again on Saturday. If they lose on Friday, they play again on Sunday. I'll keep ya posted!

Play Ball!

Yes, Little League games are in full swing! (ha, ha)

Well, not in Girdwood yet. Even though the field, in the last month, has gone from this:




to this:


Moriah started baseball practices a couple of weeks ago, first inside (snow) and then at a field about 15 minutes away (that snow finally melted). Finally, today, in Girdwood, in gorgeous sunshine. The first game in Girdwood will be this coming Monday, I believe.

Her first game was on the 10th, and her team lost. By a lot. Which is kinda typical. Girdwood kids play in the Anchorage Little League but the team for Girdwood is put together in a very different way. As in pretty much any kid who wants to play, does. We usually have just enough kids come out for the teams and Girdwood now has a minor, major and junior team.

Moriah is one of the pitchers and the only lefty pitcher on her team. She does pretty well and on that first game day threw some good, solid strikes. She also threw hard enough at one point that her catcher shook his hand back and forth and said "ow". Moriah also was the first kid on her team in about four innings to hit a ball in fair territory. She was out at first, but she hit it.

Moriah's team (the Giants) hasn't won a game yet. But that hasn't stopped great hitting and great fielding from the team. (but I'm only going to share about Moriah, dontcha know) In one play, Moriah struck out a batter and her catcher lost the ball, encouraging the opposing team's kid on third base to try to steal home. Moriah ran home and tagged the runner out. A sort of double play all on her own. In another game, she caught a ball at the pitcher's mound and then threw the runner out at first.

Saturday was opening day and the Girdwood kids played really well. The game was fairly close and we went into the fourth inning a few runs behind. Moriah was first at bat and got a good hit (double). Then other kids followed up with excellent steals, hits and runs and they were up by one. Because the end of the 4th inning was also the two-hour mark, I thought they'd call the game and we'd have a win. Nope. They decided to play one more inning. And we ended up losing. (*wah*) Moriah was also the first up in that inning and got another double. Before she went up to bat, I said should try for another double. Of course, she thought I was nuts and said it wouldn't happen again. But, it did! What's the saying? "Told ya so!" :o) It was a beautiful, solid hit. She ended up having a three-hit game and pitched pretty well too.

This kid *loves* baseball (and her Red Sox). Gets completely charged up on game days and feels losses fairly acutely. She aspires to be the first woman in the major leagues and is quite indignant over the fact that she likely will not be allowed to try out for baseball in high school, since there is a softball team.

We have a few more weeks of games and I so look forward to watching my kid play.

Nail biter

Moriah's team had their penultimate baseball game of the season tonight. The rainy weather let up earlier today, thankfully, and we had a decent (and chilly) evening. Following is a somewhat biased account of the game: seen through proud-mom-of-Moriah glasses.

The first three innings were close. Moriah was the second pitcher and was really 'on' tonight, keeping them to only two runs. She pitched just a bit of the fourth inning before she maxed out her pitch count. By the end of the fourth inning, after their pitcher had walked in five runs, we were ahead 12-5 and the kids were really excited. We all thought we had won for sure because of the 'five run rule' the league has in place. But, alas, when we started the last inning I learned that there was no run limit for the last inning. The game could go on and on. Which meant that we might lose because of pitching. Again.

I was keeping score and it was pretty painful to color in the little diamonds each time a batter was walked home. Moriah made a great double play when she caught a pop fly and then tagged the runner out at first who had started for second. She also helped make the third out when the pitcher threw the runner out at first. By the time all those outs were finally gotten, the other team had amassed ten runs. On walks. Sigh.

We got our last at bat and the score was 15-12. Where our pitching had gotten more shaky, it appeared this team had saved one of its better pitchers for this last part of the game. The Grizzlies had two outs within the first three batters and it didn't look that great. But, after Moriah struck out (truly, that third strike was at her ankles...not a good call), we got a break and ended up with kids on base from walks and a couple of good hits. We had tied the game when a strong hitter came to bat. Talk about stress...after a couple of full counts and tension before his at-bat, every Girdwood fan was on the edge of their seats. What a thrill went through all of us when he hit a triple that won the game. Whoo hoo! (here I will admit to praying for a win...selfish? Yes. Surprising? no!)

The win was very sweet after so many losses. In my head I had already credited them with a win after the fourth inning...they played so well and had every reason to be proud of themselves. Tomorrow night is the last game of the season for them. I know Moriah will miss the games and practices and team spirit. And I know Jim and I will miss seeing her play. Till next year.

Baseball tonight

Moriah's team has had a losing season. It's been hard on her to have so many losses, but I keep trying to get her to understand that they have a pretty good team. We've been focusing on complimenting her (and her teammates') skill and hits and fielding...they are comparable to most of the teams they've played and should be very proud of how well they've played overall. It's the lack of enough good pitchers/pitching that typically turns the game into a loss, when batters are walked and walked and walked....

Tonight was game two of the 'championships'. The first bazillion games they played (three games a week made it seem like millions of games) were all 'exhibition' games. (???) Now, the games this week and next week determine the 'champions', I guess. Tuesday's game wasn't that big of a loss. We were actually ahead and doing really well. Then the pitching got us and we ended up losing. Tonight was the same story. We had pulled ahead by two and then truly lost it with the five runs that were walked home. Sigh. (I promise I'm not such a downer with Moriah... I really am proud of their team.)

So, onto a couple of highlights in Moriah's game tonight:

Moriah very nearly made an out with a close call at first--she thought she had gotten the kid, who needed to be tagged, but the ump didn't see what she saw/felt and called him safe. Although it wasn't an out, she did very well with the play.

Then, she was part of a double play. The second baseman caught a pop fly and Moriah realized the guy on first had gotten trapped off base. She called to her teammate, caught the ball and tagged him out as he was returning to first. I got to giggling because she had made an extra out--the pop out was the third out but she didn't realize it. I was proud of her for being cognizant of a good play and the two players executed it perfectly. Moriah was proud of her fourth out, too.

Finally, at her second at-bat (first at-bat was a strike out while looking), she took a good swing and hit a solid single to left field, bringing in two runs. She had put them ahead and was very pleased with herself. I looked across the field at her, blew her a kiss and got a huge grin in return.

I'm pretty sure I've said it here before, but it bears repeating. It is a pure joy to watch her play baseball. She can get caught in a negative spiral of 'yuck' if a game isn't going well, but for the most part she has a fantastic time. I'll share a photo that one of her coaches took on Tuesday night:

She sure is something to watch!

Baseball fever

Moriah had a great game tonight. She pitched first and struck out three out of the first five batters. She struck out two in the second inning as well. Woot! Moriah also got a single in the third inning and had an RBI.

Her whole team did well and a couple of kids got excellent hits--one was an in-field home run and the other was a great triple. It was a very lopsided game (24-2). The other team's pitchers weren't that accurate and most of their runs were brought in because of the many many walks. But in the third inning our kids finally got a few good shots and gave the other team something to field.

I kept the stats again and learned a couple of new abbreviations: HBP and F1. Know what those mean? Hit By Pitch and Fly out caught by the pitcher. Good job if you knew that!

Tomorrow is another game, in Anchorage. Then Thursday back in Girdwood. I think Moriah has to wait to pitch until Thursday because of the league's rules about number of pitches thrown and resting the kids' arms. I'm sure she'll be anxious to get back on the mound.

Play ball!

That phrase is what often pops into my head whenever I hear the pledge of allegiance. But it's also what 14 Girdwood kids did this afternoon, at Moriah's Little League game.

Moriah had the option of trying out for Girdwood's majors team but didn't feel ready to move up. So she stayed in minors and is one of the oldest on the team. I think it's great that she'll have another year to hone her skills (definitely improved since last year) and she'll have the chance to be one of the leaders on her team, which has a lot of younger kids this year. She's such a great kid and I can already see that she will shine this year in baseball.

We left babies home with Samuel and Susannah (at their offer!) and Jim and I took Moriah in for the opening game of the season. Because I didn't have two two-year-olds to chase, I was able to be one of the statisticians. If you haven't had the pleasure of keeping tabs on strikes, balls, who got to which base, runs and pitch counts you haven't really experienced a baseball game. It was a lot of fun and it forced me to watch the game with a different perspective. Plus I always knew the score, something I don't usually pay much attention to.

As on most teams, there are stronger players and developing players and Girdwood's team is no different. We had pretty solid pitching, especially from one player who threw a lot of strikes. Moriah was really hoping to pitch but hurt her arm on Thursday on the playground at school. Her coach (and her daddy) wanted to be sure not to hurt it again so he kept her at first.

Moriah got to first base on a walk her first at-bat and hit a solid single her second at-bat. Samuel had just called me so he got an earful of my excited screaming as she hustled to first. I think he heard the 'ping' of the bat when she made contact, too.

Moriah also had a good play at first. The batter hit a grounder to her, she scooped it up and beat him to the bag. A similar opportunity happened later but she missed getting the runner out by a little bit. She was pretty jazzed about her performance over all, and with good reason.

Girdwood ended up winning 7-6. A wonderful start to their short season. Great kids, great weather, great hits, great plays, great game.