Coast Baseball 9u Game Recap

Wow, what a great game on Saturday

! Throughout this fall season, the boys have worked hard at practice, and we have been just a few plays away from locking in a couple wins. I had seen the team execute flawlessly in practices but not in games yet. On Saturday, that changed. I could not be prouder.

James came out attacking their hitters and throwing strikes and this spearheaded our great effort, setting the tempo for the game. James’s aggressive pitching kept our defense alert, on their toes, and ready to make a play.

Also, we were very aggressive and selective at the plate, which allowed us to get into good hitters’ counts and barrel up the baseball. A quality at-bat is not always measured by what goes down in the scorebook as a hit, an out, or an error. Tommy's first at-bat is a perfect example. He hit a hard one-hopper right at the shortstop who then threw him out. Hitting is about taking quality swings at quality pitches, having a plan and an approach at the plate, being a good situational hitter, and hitting the ball hard.

Lastly, we minimized defensive mistakes which allowed our pitchers to keep a good tempo going and get us back in the dugout.

I cannot say enough about James’ performance on Saturday. He has been working hard on refining his mechanics to allow him to be more balanced and throw consistent strikes.

Felix had an all-around great day for us too. He hit the ball hard a couple times, and followed James’ excellent performance with a quality performance of his own.​

I thought Rex did another fantastic job for us behind the plate, working hard at both catching and blocking the baseball, preventing the opposing team's runners from advancing to the next base. Rex's work ethic this entire fall has been tremendous, and this will take him a long way not only in sports, but in life. Playing catcher at this age is not easy, and its tough to find a player that can consistently catch or block the ball when it is thrown in the dirt. In addition, he also had a couple nice throws down to second and third base that nearly caught the runners attempting to advance. It was great to see Fletcher back out playing with some of his friends, and he contributed nicely with a single and an RBI. We also had another lefty Dom play for us Saturday, and he too had a nice two-hit day. Levi made a ground ball to second look easy, and threw out the runner at first with plenty of time. While this may seem like an easy play, it is much easier for a player his age to not get in front of the ball and miss it, or have the ball go under his glove. Well done Levi.

Of course, there is always room for improvement. And the one area we did not excel in on Saturday was moving to the correct spot on the field after a ball is put in play. Often times when a ball is not hit to a fielder, other fielders forget that they need to re-position themselves or cover a bag.

We got burned on two plays on Saturday. The first was a ground ball to James at first where Felix, who otherwise had an outstanding game, forgot to cover the bag, resulting in the runner reaching base safely. The second was on an errant throw from Rex to James. It was a tough play, and the ball sailed all the way in the the right field corner resulting in an inside the park homerun. This should have only resulted in a single, maybe a double if our outfielders are moving to back up first.

These throwing and mental mistakes are going to happen at this age, but we can minimize the damage by ensuring that players who are not initially directly involved in a play, back-up their teammates who are immediately involved in the play. Matt Kemp of the San Diego Padres failed to back up first base during the 8th inning of a game this year, and it too resulted in several runs being scored. Needless to say, Kemp was immediately taken out of the game and benched the following day.

I want to thank you all for your continued support the entire summer and fall baseball seasons. Your son has worked extremely hard, and I have seen tremendous improvement in each and every player. I look forward to finishing the season strong and continuing to improve their overall skills.