Coast Baseball 13/14U Game Recap

Coast Baseball Acadmey's 13/14u team started out their fall season with a 5-1 victory over the Trabuco Colts Friday night at Lake Forest Sports Park. I thought we played a great game yesterday! I’m sure the boys were a bit nervous playing their first game of the fall season, but we came out hot out with a nice two-run first inning. Following an inning when we put runs on the board, it’s important to come out and pound the strike zone as a pitcher. I thought Daniel did an excellent job for us throughout his four innings of work. Dan allowed just one run in four innings with one walk while keeping his pitch count at 61. Fortunately, the one walk he did allow was negated by a double play turned by Christian and Enzo.

The two double plays we turned yesterday were of no surprise to me, and flawlessly executed by both Christian and Enzo. I have so much confidence in our defense because we have been emphasizing defense in our practices. It is great to see all their hard work during the hot summer days pay off in a big way in our first game. Having a defense that can turn two goes a long way in building a pitcher’s confidence. Knowing and trusting he has a strong defense behind him that can make plays enables him to go after hitters and not try to pick the corners and just get strikeouts. This enables him to keep his pitch count down and allows him to go deeper into ball games. It also helps relax a pitcher who knows he can get out of a jam rather quickly. Great defense can also change the momentum of a game rather quickly.

In the top of the fifth inning, Adam reached base on a fielder’s choice, and would later steal both second and third base. These stolen bases were huge because it enabled him to score on a pass ball during James’ at-bat. I always talk to the boys about not giving up, playing hard, and remembering that what’s important is not what happened, but how you react to it. A perfect example of this was James’ at-bat with Adam on third base. James chased a breaking ball in the dirt that went to the backstop. Not only did Adam score and James hustle and reach first base, but he also took second base while the pitcher and catcher were both sleeping. That is huge! I loved his aggressiveness in that situation, and how he was looking to take advantage of their miscues. By doing so, he put himself in a position to score on a base hit, which could have been the difference in a closer ball game.

Overall as a team, our bats were rather quiet on Friday night. What we lacked in the number of hits, we made up with outstanding situational execution, pitching, and defense. Not to mention Noah was 3-3 on the night, a home run short of the cycle. He was aggressive early in the count to pitches he could drive, and didn’t panic with two strikes. I loved the type of swings he took yesterday, and I will continue to reinforce this aggressive approach in all aspects.

Although it was a great first victory, we do still have a few minor areas that we need to do a better job of executing. First, we must establish strike one as a pitching staff. While our pitchers were outstanding overall, they were a combined 10 for 24 on throwing a first pitch strike. Against a better team, this could really hurt us, as falling behind forces a pitcher to work the middle of the plate to get the count back in his favor. Second, we have to do a better job of base running. We had base runners taking their leads and looking back at the bag. We also had Noah and Dan try to take third base on a ball hit to the left side. While I love their aggressiveness, in that situation the base runner must see the ball through the left side of the infield. Furthermore, we can only take third base on the throw if the first basemen misses the ball. Those were little mistakes, and we expected little mistakes the first game. but they could have turned into big mistakes that could potentially take two runs off the board. This will cost us in closer ball games against better teams. We will continue to stress these minor details in practice this week, and be ready to roll next week.

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