AA Giants

This one was a hard fought battle from beginning to end.  But even in a low scoring affair, there were some great moments that must be recognized ...

Starting Pitcher Mitchell confidently delivered throws that were so dialed into homeplate, I thought for sure the ball and plate were magnetized!  His two innings yielded only a couple hits ... and a couple uncharacteristic errors behind him ... allowed the Angel runners on base, but he kept his composure, and more importantly, kept them from crossing homeplate.  Mitch consistently racked up strikes .... which every out those innings were by strikeout! 

Caden has been working hard to prepare for his first outing as pitcher ... and us coaches believed it was time.  So in the 3rd we looked to our young 8yr old and asked him to keep the Angels off the basepaths ... and so he did.  Cade faced three batters in his debut, two of which didn't get a sniff of the ball striking out, and the other lined out to Cade (who was so excited he immediately "sorta threw the ball around", love the instincts!).  Cade deservingly came back another inning and forced the heart of the Angels order into groundouts, which he personally took care of himself with strong throws to the #1 bag.

Ryan joined the party in the 5th and continued the scoreless tradition by only facing four batters, finishing them off with a 4 pitch strikeout.  He also showed his defensive prowess at 2B .... after a strong hit, Ryan slowed the ball, quickly chased it down, turned and threw a LASER to Caleb for the close out!

And the Giants needed dominate pitching because the bats were asleep ... as a matter of fact, we got on base only four times!!!  Caleb started the rally with a drive down the 3rd base line followed by a strong single from Mitchell.  Tyler continued his hot hitting, getting enough of the ball and an RBI scoring Caleb for the run we needed.   But would it be enough???

With only a 1-0 lead in the 5th inning, we needed some insurance ... so at the bottom of the order, our little man came up and stepped up BIG!  On a full 3-2 count Colin took his final pitch against the wind and knocked it clear over the left fielder for a monster double scoring Mitchell for the final run!!  Since he took the game into his own hands, why not finish it?  So Colin came in as the closer in the 6th and only needed 11 pitches to record the save!!

This was definitely the game for the 8yr olds ... as Cade and Mitchell pitched strong and got a big hit, Caleb scoring the winning run and defensively chalking up SIX assists playing the important first base ... but for today, it was Colin who showed he can do more than just play defense and pitch .... he can get the BIG HIT!!!  Great job game ball winner!