KC Dodgers

Sometimes, an organization does not realize its own strengths until it faces adversity. Anyone who has glanced up at the sky or down at a puddle over the past week knows that we have had incredible amounts of rain lately. As recently as Wednesday afternoon (7/9/03), standing water occupied the infield positions usually patrolled by our 13 and 14 year olds. Weather and field conditions like that would paralyze most youth baseball organizations. But not Kyle Chapman Pony League. On this bleak, wet, overcast Thursday afternoon, the K.C. 14 year old all star team took its preparations for the upcoming District Tournament on the road to Sharpstown High School. While the baseball field was mired in muck, the football field had excellent drainage and provided a venue for infield and outfield practice. The Sharpstown H.S. batting cages and bullpen were dry enough to allow batting and pitching practice to continue, even under the adverse circumstances presented. Virtually every player on the team was present. About ½ hour into the practice, lightning bolts were hurled all about the field. Thunder reverberated off of the outfield fences. Sheets of hard, pelting rain soaked the fields and everyone on them. Did those conditions stop the K.C. juggernaut? Of course not. The players and coaches wrung out their t-shirts, gathered in a dugout and continued their tournament preparation with a dugout skull session about signs, baserunning, and situation fielding. Finally, the rains subsided and allowed hitting, pitching and fielding practice to continue for an additional hour. The team's hard work and efficient preparation under the conditions presented demonstrates the players' dedication to Kyle Chapman Pony League. Special tips of the hat to dugout coaches Jay Dushkin, Mike Winner and Nick Ozuna, and parent coaches Bennie Cernoch, Charlie West, Glenn Robichau, Cliff Gibson, Tom Triche, and Mike Morris, for making it possible for a successful team practice in the newly-formed swamps of southwest Houston. Kudos to the K.C. moms who were left to deal with soaked socks, saturated cleats, muddy pants and juicy jerseys after a rain, sweat and mud filled practice experience. Even a member of the K.C. 13 year old team lent a helping hand and caught in the bullpen to allow all of the K.C. pitchers to get their practice in. Meanwhile, about a mile to the northeast, another hearty band of Kyle Chapman parents and volunteers were hard at work preparing the field for this weekend's director's tournament. Extra special thank-you's to Bill Lamont, Dave Carney, Ted Harris, and Tom Triche, for doing everything humanly possible to have the fields playable for the district tournament, which begins tomorrow (Friday) evening. The next time someone asks you about K.C. spirit, tell them about a certain rain soaked summer afternoon in Southwest Houston, and all the people who came together through hard work and sacrifice. That will tell them everything they need to know about Kyle Chapman Pony League.

Everything looked promising for Monday night's Kyle Chapman 14 year old semifinal game at the League City Sportsplex. K.C. would be playing Deer Park, a team they soundly beat at their very own tournament less than a month ago. They were coming off a weekend sweep of three preliminary games by combined scores of 39-2. The rains, which had threatened all day, managed to hold off until a winner could be decided. Yes, all the signs were very positive. Unfortunately, that is why we play these games on the field instead of on paper. The K.C. 14's bowed to Deer Park by a score of 5-1 on Monday night in the semifinal game of the PONY Houston Area Director's tournament. In doing so, K.C. ended the tournament as either the third or fourth best 14 year old PONY team in the Houston area out of 28 teams that entered the tournament. But now on to the particulars as to why they did not make it to the tournament's finale. In the top of the first inning, K.C. drew first blood on a grounder to third by Matt West that turned into a fielding error, a stolen base, a wild pitch, and an error by the Deer Park shortstop on a Karl Pringle grounder. Deer Park drew even in the bottom of the first. They started the game with a runner on first courtesy of a K.C. infield throwing error. The second Deer Park batter rifled a shot to right centerfield. Daniel Rothenberg retrieved the ball, fired a strike to Matt West in the cutoff position, who fired a strike to Joe Silver at the plate to gun down the Deer Park runner attempting to score from first. The Deer Park batter ended up on second base and scored on two straight singles. More damage was averted when Brian Borski, Matt West and Beau Faulk combined on a nifty 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. K.C. failed to score in the top of the 2nd. Deer Park nudged ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning on a one out walk, a fielder's choice, an infield error, and an RBI double. K.C. got a leadoff double from Brian Borski in the top of the third, but failed to score him with an infield pop-up, a walk, a 5-3 fielder's choice, and a flyout to centerfield. Brett Gibson came on to relieve Jamie Reingold in the 3rd inning. Deer Park went quietly in the 3rd, managing only a two out single up the middle, followed by a routine groundout to second to end the inning. K.C. failed to score in the top of the 4th, despite a one out single by Mark Robichau. It was followed by a walk, a 6-4 fielder's choice at second advancing Mark to third, and a groundout to second base to end the inning. Deer Park managed another run in the bottom of the 4th to make it 3-1. They did it with a leadoff strikeout, a throwing error by the pitcher to first base, a walk, and a sacrifice fly to centerfield to bring in their third run. K.C. went quietly in the 5th inning on a groundout to the pitcher and two strikeouts, one looking and one swinging. Deer Park failed to score in the 5th inning, even though their pitcher led off the inning being hit with the first pitch he saw. A fielder's choice 4-6 to second base, a flyout to shortstop and a grounder to third ended the Deer Park 5th without any other runs being scored. K.C. appeared ready to spring the bats from mothballs in the 6th inning. Jamie Reingold led off the 6th inning with a four pitch walk. George Murphy hit a shotgun blast line drive right at the second baseman, who flipped to first to get Jamie, who appeared to be going on the pitch, perhaps as part of a "hit and run." A groundout to second base ended the K.C. threat without a run being scored. Deer Park added a pair of runs in the bottom of the 6th on some highly uncharacteristic (ooh, should I use that phrase?) fielding difficulties by the K.C. infield. After inducing a fly out to right field, and a groundout to shortstop that involved both a sensational grab and throw by Brian Borski and a tremendous stretch by George Murphy, the ceiling fell in on K.C. An infield throwing error, an infield fielding error, a single, another infield throwing error, and another infield fielding error (yes, that's four in one inning, folks), led to 2 very unearned runs for Deer Park. Unfortunately, time ran out before K.C. could bat in the 7th. And just like that, K.C.'s stay in the Director's Tournament was over. The scoresheet tells everything one needs to know about the result of the game. Three hits from a K.C. offensive attack that has been averaging 12 hits per game lately, 7 errors from a K.C. defense that had been averaging less than 3 errors per game lately, and some very good Deer Park fielding plays combined to ensure the result that occurred. We are all confident that this game will represent nothing more than a speed bump on the 14's long road to the PONY World Series. And won't it be fun sitting in our hotel rooms in Washington, Pennsylvania, six weeks from now, thinking back to everything we learned that humid, icky, buggy night in League City, Texas. That's all for now. This is Scott Rothenberg signing off.

The K.C. 14 year olds continued their efficient and effective style of play on Sunday, sweeping a doubleheader from Katy and Post Oak by scores of 10-0 and 14-1 in the Houston Area PONY Director's Tournament. In the first game, Jamie Reingold retired Katy 1-2-3 in the top of the first. In the bottom of the inning, K.C. struck for 4 big runs on a Matt West single, a Joe Silver bunt single, a balk, a Beau Faulk grounder to third that resulted in an error, a Jamie Reingold sacrifice fly, another error by the third baseman on a Mark Robichau grounder, and a Sean Lamont single that drove in 2 runs. In the top of the second, Jamie retired Katy on three straight swinging strikeouts. In the bottom of the 2nd, K.C. ran the score to 10-0 on a double to left by Alex Cernoch, a balk, an RBI single by Brian Borski, an RBI double by Matt West, an RBI triple to right center by Joe Silver, a Beau Faulk RBI fielder's choice, a Mark Robichau double down the third base line, and a Sean Lamont double. Sean scored after advancing on a stolen base and a wild pitch. That closed out the scoring in the game. Andrew Espinosa held Katy scoreless in the 3rd and 4th innings, and Alex Cernoch finished off Katy in the 5th inning on three straight swinging strikeouts. All in all, K.C. scored 10 runs on 10 hits, while holding Katy scoreless on two walks and one hit. One of the Katy runners was even gunned down by Joe Silver on a steal attempt at second base. Not too shabby!!! The second game was similar to the first. Post Oak allowed 3 K.C. runs in the first inning on a Brian Borski single, a Matt West RBI double, a Karl Pringle grounder to 3rd that resulted in an RBI error, and a Sean Lamont hit to shortstop that resulted in an error. Karl Pringle started for K.C. He held Post Oak scoreless through the first three innings of play on a walk and two singles. In the K.C. 4th, the good guys doubled their scoring output on a Mark Robichau grounder to third that resulted in an error, a Brett Gibson RBI double, an Alex Cernoch single, a few stolen bases and a few errors. Post Oak finally broke through to make the score 6-1 in the 4th inning on a walk and an RBI double. That would be the entirety of Post Oak's scoring for the day. K.C. added two runs in the 5th inning on a leadoff walk to Sean Lamont and a home run to left field by Jamie Reingold, to make the score 8-1 in favor of K.C. K.C. added a run in the 6th inning on an Alex Cernoch single, an error by the left fielder, a passed ball, and an RBI fielder's choice by Karl Pringle. K.C. closed out the scoring in the 7th inning, adding 5 runs on a leadoff Jamie Reingold home run to almost the exact same spot as his first home run of the game, a grounder to third by George Murphy where the third baseman made a bad throw, an RBI single by Brett Gibson, an RBI single by Alex Cernoch, an RBI single by Brian Borski, and an RBI fielder's choice by Matt West. Brian Borski came in to relieve Karl Pringle in the bottom of the 7th inning. He walked the leadoff batter, then promptly fired to first to pick him off for the first out of the inning. Brian proceeded to strike out the next batter, and with the K.C. throng standing, clapping and cheering on a 1-2 count, struck out the final Post Oak batter to earn the hold. As a result of their efficient and effective style of play (and the results therefrom), K.C. is now in the semifinals of the Houston Area Pony Director's Tournament. Their semifinal game will be at Walter Hall Park in League City, Texas, at 8:30pm tomorrow, Monday, June 30, 2003. To get there, take I-45 (the Gulf Freeway) to FM 518 (the League City exit). Make a left at the light (on to FM 518). Proceed for 1.5 miles eastbound on FM 518 until you reach Highway 3. Make a left turn on Highway 3 and proceed north for 3/4 of a mile. Walter Hall Park is on the left, and the entrance is hard to see at certain times of day. Be sure to pay attention. Congratulations on the twin killing. On to the semifinals tomorrow night. This is Scott Rothenberg, signing off and saying, "if the Rimp don't getcha, the Romp definitely will."

The 13 year old Kyle Chapman Titans played their first game of Saturday, June 29, 2003 beginning at 8am. They began their second game of the day almost sixteen hours later at 11:54pm. In between, the 1-1 Titans managed to seed 9th out of 22 teams to make it to the championship bracket. Their reward? A game against the San Antonio Giants-- a team that has been ranked #1 in the State of Texas and #4 in the country at various times during the season. K.C. started the game with fire in their eyes, scoring 3 big runs in the top of the first inning. Ross Chan worked a leadoff walk on a 9 pitch at bat that took 37 minutes. Well, the at bat itself took 7 minutes, and 30 minutes was spent in the dark as the field lights cycled off due to their timer setting. When play resumed, Paul Knowlton drove Ross in with a double to center field, Pat Brosch reached first on an error by the first baseman, but was caught trying to steal second base. During the steal atttempt, Paul ran home with the second run of the inning. Jeffrey Rohrbach walked and Grant Haynes walked to put runners on first and second with two outs. Jared Rothenberg hit a solid single to centerfield to drive in Jeffrey, giving the Titans an early 3-0 lead. Jeremy Schaffer held the Giants scoreless in the first and second innings, but gave up two runs in the third. The #9 batter led off with a single and the one hole hitter sacrificed him to second. The next batter grounded to first, with the runner advancing to third. A single and a triple later, the Giants had narrowed the Titan lead to 3-2. After the first inning, the Titan offense could only manage to get Ross Chan on base on an error in the second inning, singles by Trey Hibbert and Jeffrey Rohrbach in the third inning, two walks to Jared Rothenberg, and a walk to Paul Knowlton, scattered throughout the remainder of the game. Meanwhile, the Giants tied the game in the 4th inning on an unearned run off reliever Grant Haynes. An error by the third baseman, an error by the second baseman, a sacrifice bunt, an error by the pitcher, and a walk allowed the tying run to cross the plate. With the bases loaded and two outs, Grant induced the Giants' cleanup hitter to hit a routine grounder to second, which was bobbled. The second baseman threw the ball offline and low to Jared Rothenberg, who did his best hockey goalie impression to snare the ball inches from the ground in a full sitting position for the third out of the inning. Paul Knowlton came in to relieve in the 5th inning. He gave up a leadoff single to center, but appeared to get out of the jam when the next batter hit one right back to the box. Paul fielded the ball, wheeled and threw a perfect strike to second base, where, through a lack of communication, our shortstop and second baseman each thought the other would cover the play. The throw sailed into the outfield, giving the Giants runners at first and second with no outs, instead of no runners on with two outs. The next batter hit a sacrifice bunt, but the final Giants batter lined a single to center to score the winning run. The Titans made a gallant effort to win this game. There is no doubt about it. If the Titans are to make a good showing in the PONY sectionals, there is also no doubt about the fact that the Titan offense will have to generate more than the four hits that they registered in each of the two tournament losses. There is also no doubt that the Titan defense will have to improve from its average of four defensive errors in each of the two losses. There is also no doubt that the Titan running game will have to improve with more stolen bases and less runners caught stealing. There is time to make these adjustments before the PONY section tournament begins in less than two weeks. The only question is whether all parties involved will make the effort necessary to achieve the success that this team is well capable of. This is a very tired Scott Rothenberg signing off from Boerne, Texas, at 3am. See you at the 14 year old's game in Spring Branch at 2pm today.

The Kyle Chapman 13 year old Titans have seeded into the championship round of 16. Our first game of the championship bracket begins at 11:30pm tonight (Saturday night), and may not end until 1:30 or 2:00 a.m. early on Sunday morning due to weather related delays. No, that is not a misprint. The loser of the game is out of the championship bracket. The winner will play tomorrow (Sunday) late afternoon or evening. Details about the game will be posted as soon as they are available (and I get back to my laptop 'puter in the hotel room). That's all from Boerne for now. Scott Rothenberg