Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges.

What does the title have to do with baseball? Nothing. I just wanted to say that.

We lost last night. Tough loss. Let the other team back in the game in the 4th, then lost it in the 6th.

But I choose to expound upon how to prevent runs from scoring on things such as 1st and 3rd situations and passed balls with a man on 3rd, or at least, minimize the damage. The solution is simple, keep as many runners from reaching 3rd as possible. If the other team chooses to run into outs, take them as they come. For example...

Last night, other team had a man on 3rd. Batter walks. The runner kept on going to second base. The other team is handing us an out. Regardless if the runner on 3rd scores, we should have gotten the runner going to 2nd out. A few things prevented this. One, as much as I have wanted to, we haven't worked on this situation in practices. Two, the catcher was slow in getting the ball back to the pitcher. Three, the SS wasn't covering 2nd. Four, the 2B, who was properly backing up the throw to the pitcher, was forced to take the throw from the pitcher and backpedal to apply the tag to the runner.

How to remedy this? a) Work on this in practice. b) The catchers have to be quick and accurate getting the ball back to the pitcher. c) Batter walks, SS should be covering 2B (and every pitch, thereafter).

There is a flaw in the other teams strategy sending the runner to 2nd on a walk. It would be safer for them to stop the runner at 1B, and have him steal on the 1st pitch. There is a greater probability that something will go wrong with the throw from the catcher to 2nd, than there would be, if the pitcher throws to 2nd, on the walk. So, if they choose to run that play, we take advantage of it. If we got that man at 2nd, that inning would have been a lot different. That would have been the 1st out of the inning, and that runner would not have scored.

Other thoughts. It's time for a change at SS. RJ, as much I hoped he would step up and be the 12 year old leader the team needs, is still playing in a funk, fog, whatever you want to call it. My nominations for replacement would be Ben or Tommy. Maybe we can give both an inning trial to each next game. Also, RJ needs tee work.

Catchers have to be more, crisp, in their execution. Passed balls, throws to the pitcher, 2nd base, etc.

That is all for now.

Fay 13 Willow Tree 4

I have been remiss in my blogging. I didn't blog Saturday's game right away, so I'll try to recap both games.

First, the bet. The team was struggling in the field, committing a lot of errors. So I bet the team, that if they can play an error free game, I'll buy them sundaes. Both games, they were error free through 5 innings, then, they got bit by the error bug in the 6th inning of both games. Soooooo close. But, this is a bet I want to pay off. Frankly, I don't want them to win it too early. It actually seems like it is giving them incentive.

Also, we have been doing infield practice at the beginning of the game, and, our fortunes changed. So, this will stay in the pregame routine.

Both games, the umps missed infield fly calls, causing some confusion on the base paths. But, for the most part, the umping has been good.

Saturday, Connor had a bases loaded triple. Pure guess on my part, but if the game was played in the minor league field, the hit would have one-hopped the fence. He also got the game ball. Everyone pitched well, and we played 5 scoreless innings out of 6.

Today, Ben pitched 2 innings, and struck out 6 batters. He was pitching strikes, and had zip on the ball. Alec made a nice baserunning play. I had him take a big lead at 1B to draw a throw from the catcher. As soon as the catcher threw, instead of coming back to the bag (as I intended for him to do), he took off for second, and was safe. Heads up play. Riker had a bit of trouble in the 6th, but, hung in there and worked through it, striking out one batter, and inducing a ground ball for the final out. Tom has a nice double, and Austin went 3 for 3 with a nice play at 3B.

Things to work on. Getting Brian and RJ hitting again.

Next up, Caputo. I hope they walk to 2nd.

Fay 8 Wickford 3. Joy in Mudville

By far, the best game we have played this season. And, the funny thing is, the umps didn't show. Coincidence? So I ended up umping when we were in the field, and Wickford's coach did the same when they were.

Our defense finally came through. We only made 2 errors, which were both infield pop-ups that should have been caught. But, we gave up the 3 runs in the first inning, and played the next 5 innings scoreless. All of our pitchers did great (Evan, Tom, Ben, Brian, Riker). Tom crushed 2 balls, one of them one hopped the fence. Jason's new nickname should be Hoover. 5 put outs tonight, a couple on some hard hit balls. Could this be the proverbial "turning the corner"? Find out Saturday.