I knew going into this tournament team that it would be a whole new world of baseball.
What I didn't expect was that other teams would use tactics to win that in my book are cheating.
The one thing that I just can't stand is chatter. I don't see the point in it and if you can't win a game without trying to intimidate or trick someone - then go home.
Our first team that we played this weekend used this technique. It worked on a few of our players because they had never run into it before. They were very upset and couldn't concentrate on what they were to do. Luckily our head coach thinks the same way I do about this chatter method and told them to ignore it and that it is classless. Amen.
They ended up beating us by quite a bit that first game but not because they cheated - because we were just not quite meshed as a team yet.
The next day we played again and we did much better. We made good throws, good catches and our hitting was great. We won the game and went into the last day with our heads held high and our confidence built up.
Then the last day came - we ended up the 2nd seed in our bracket and if we played our cards right we could actually finish in the top two! We were playing another team in the same situation as we were - just formed and hadn't played together in a tournament. We felt pretty confident we could get another victory. We thought we were ready and hit the field but somewhere between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we forgot how to play baseball. I don't know if it was the schedule, if they were just tired or if they just had enough baseball for one weekend but we played horribly. If there was a mistake to be made we made it. My heart broke for them because they had worked so hard and it was all going down hill so fast. It was just heart wrenching to watch. I know that they will get better as the season progresses. The potential on this team is just amazing. There are 12 boys with 12 different strengths that when they all finally figure it out they will be unstoppable!
Tyler personally struggled with the hitting part of the game this weekend. He has never been in a slump like this one before and we just don't have any clue how to help him get out of it. He struck out more this weekend then he did the entire season last year. On the positive side - when he did hit the ball he got doubles, triples and even one home run. Just gotta keep focusing on those positives and pray this slump ends soon - for all of our sanity!
Coach letting him know that he had a good hit.
We have a long way to go but I hear the Thunder coming!
And he did.....
It was an interesting weekend at the ball fields. We played in our district tournament and ended up with a 2 and 2 record. We needed a 3 and 1 record to move on the the semifinals. Just barely missed it. Our last game was our best but unfortunately we didn't score as many as the other team did. It was only a 6 to 4 game - both teams defenses were ON. We were very proud of our boys and how far they have come in just the few weeks we have been playing as the Thunder. I really have to give it up to Coach Mike - he got them fired UP! He lost his voice in the process but it was well worth it to see them all just so excited about being able to play baseball. Our state tournament is this weekend and we need to be ready. 
