First Baseball Game

Game 5

Last year my son's baseball team carried 10 players. All 10 players were really good. In fact these 10 players went to the finals of the CABA World Series two years ago. They beat a Puerto Rican All Star team and a Panama All Star team in the process. Needless to say with only 10 players on the roster, each player played a lot of innings and had lots of at bats.

This year, the coach wanted to add three players to the roster for several reasons 1) Motivation - he wanted to sit players who were not giving it their all. Last year he had to play everyone, every game and every inning whether they earned it or not. 2) Pitching depth - we are playing 75 games so the team needs lots of arms for week long tournaments. And 3) Coverage for injuries. There will be a lot of sitting around and it will be interesting to see how the 10 original players handle it.

My son was the primary catcher last year, but sat on the bench for the first pre-season game. He did get to hit as a DH. The coach wanted to see the new players in action. Last years back up catcher left the team and the coach needs to find a backup catcher. My son understood. The coach handled it well. He went up to my son prior to the game and explained the situation. The coach also said he wanted my son to catch the ace of the team who was starting in the second game. My son went 0-2 but scored the first run of the year in the 5-1 loss. The opposing pitcher dominated the game and with 13 batters ABs were few and far between.

Game 6

My son started at catcher. He played very well behind the plate. He did not look rusty at all.  He went 0-2 in this game too. He grounded out to SS twice. My son is lefty and very fast, I thought he beat out one of the grounders for his first hit of the year. The umpire did not agree.

My son was disappointed in the limited number of ABs with 13 players and by going 0-4 in the first two games of the season. But he was happy they won the game. The team qualified for 4 place in pool play with the win. The team they beat qualified 5th place. They would play each other again in the single elimination quarter finals the next morning.