Titans

For those of you who had any question, yes, the 13 year old Kyle Chapman Titans are for real. After getting to sleep around midnight last night, the K.C. Titans trudged out of bed for a 7:15 a.m. batting practice before their 9:30 a.m. game against the Lafayette (Louisiana) Titans at the Cy-Fair Lone Star NIT tournament. Buoyed by heaping glasses of Coach Haynes' famous eye opening iced tea, the K.C. wrecking crew proceeded to put a 10-5 whuppin' on the Titans of Lafayette, Louisiana. Jeffrey Rohrbach pitched the first two innings and earned the win by allowing only 2 unearned runs on three hits, while striking out 3 cajuns and walking none. Jared Rothenberg held the Lafayette bunch to three unearned runs over the last two innings to earn the hold. Once again, our hometown Titans showed that they know what their bats are used for. K.C. posted a run in the first inning on a leadoff single by Charles Mann, a beautiful sac bunt by Jeffrey Rohrbach, back-to-back walks to Paul Knowlton and Grant Haynes and a single by Ross Chan. Unfortunately, we left the bases loaded, but that would not be a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the game. The K.C. crew put up a fourspot in the second inning on a one-out single by Trey Hibbert, who was driven in on Charles Mann's double, back-to-back walks to Jeffrey Rohrbach and Paul Knowlton, a run scoring single by Grant Haynes, and a run scoring sacrifice grounder by Ross Chan. Four was apparently the number of the day, since the K.C. crew posted another fourspot in the 3rd inning. Jared Rothenberg legged out an error by the 3rd baseman, Pat Brosch drove Jared in with a single and an error on the throw, Colin Bear reached base on an error by the pitcher, Trey Hibbert walked, Charles Mann drove in Pat Brosch with a sacrifice bunt, Jeffrey Rohrbach singled, Paul Knowlton singled in Trey Hibbert, and Colin Bear scored on a wild pitch. The K.C. crew closed out their offense with a single run in the 4th inning on a walk to Pat Brosch, an error by the shortstop, a single by Trey Hibbert and a balk by the Lafayette pitcher. The usually reliable K.C. defense took a vacation day in the 4th inning, allowing three unearned runs to score on three errors. A fourth K.C. error in the 2nd inning led to both of the other Lafayette unearned runs. With the win, the K.C. Titans clinched their bracket, and guaranteed that they will seed somewhere between 1st and 6th, depending on the results of other games later today. The K.C. Titans will definitely play at either 10:30am, 12:30pm or 2:30pm tomorrow (Sunday) depending on the outcome of this afternoon's other games. I will send an email as soon as we know when we will play and against whom. Congratulations to the 13 year old Kyle Chapman Titans, manager Glenn Haynes, coaches, Bob Rohrbach, Tim Mann and Jack Schaffer for winning their bracket in the Cy-Fair Lone Star NIT. Good luck tomorrow in the remainder of the tournament. Article written by Scott Rothenberg

In Friday night action, the 13 year old Kyle Chapman Titans took the opening game of the Lone Star National Invitational Tournament in Cy-Fair, beating the South Belt Sluggers by a score of 9-1 in 6 innings. Grant Haynes turned in 6 solid innings of work to record the complete game victory. He allowed only 1 run on four hits spread out over 6 innings. What is even more impressive is the fact that while striking out four Sluggers, Grant did not allow a single walk. The Titans erupted for six big runs in the second inning off starter Frank Adame. With one out in the inning, Charles Mann singled, Trey Hibbert singled, Jeremy Schaffer reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases, Pat Brosch walked to drive in Charles, Ross Chan singled to drive in Jeremy, Paul Knowlton drove in Ross on a fielder's choice, Jeffrey Rohrbach reached on an error by the shortstop, Grant Haynes helped himself by singling in Paul Knowlton, and Jared Rothenberg drove in a run on an error by the third baseman. The Titans added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Miles Mendelhoff reached safely on a beautiful drag bunt to the pitcher. Pat Brosch singled and got to third on a throwing error by the pitcher on which Miles scored. Ross Chan drove in Pat with a single, Paul Knowlton walked, Jeffrey Rohrbach walked, and Grant Haynes drove in a run on an error by the third baseman. At that point, the umpire called the game, as the Titans won by eight run-ruling the South Belt Sluggers by a score of 9-1. After a fast night of sleep, the Titans play Lafayette, Louisiana, tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. Be at K.C. field by 7:15 a.m. for batting practice. The game will be on the same field at Cy-Fair as tonight's game. That's all for now. Good luck tomorrow against the Craw-duds. Go Titans!!! Article written by Scott Rothenberg

Date:Mon, 7 Apr 2003 21:04:13 -0500 I have scheduled the Sports House (the new indoor batting facility on South Braeswood and Hillcroft) for Wednesday night as follows: 6:30 - 7:00 Live Hitting Cage 7:00 - 7:30 Pitching Machine and Throwing Area This practice will be optional and should be used as a tune-up for our first game which will be at 8:00 on Friday night against the Southbelt Sluggers. It appears that we will have a game on Saturday against a team from Lafayette Louisiana. Rumor has it that there are 18 teams in this tournament and Sundays schedule will be determined by our standings through Saturday. I need for all pitchers to E mail me after their final league game on Thursday to let me know which days and how many innings and pitches they threw this week. Please get a good nights sleep on Thursday. Thanks, Coach Glenn

Date:Wed, 12 Mar 2003 14:23:35 -0600 I just wanted to follow up with some information regarding our upcoming schedule. We will have our practices the next two Sundays, March 16th and March 23rd at 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. These practices will not be mandatory if you are going out of town for Spring Break, however, most of the kids could probably use the work. If you are going away, please come back in one piece. After Spring Break we will be getting into baseball hot & heavy so I am putting everyone on notice that this will be your last break until after July. I was pleased at our performance this past weekend all things considered. We had some people who came into Spring Training out of shape, but that is to be expected. The two problems we had were pitchers giving up walks, and hitters not being able to handle hard pitching which will come around in the next 6 to 8 weeks. I thought we played well defensively, and I see a lot of potential as far as hitting. My objective was to play in a hard tournament early so we could evaluate players and I felt like I know what things we need to work on. Finally, I wan't to clarify an issue regarding what I call piecemeal attendance at tournaments. The issue of what to do with a player who would be missing for 1 day in a two or three day tournament has been brought to my attention. Tournament baseball is about making a commitment and we are at the age where we need to make choices. For the record, if a player is going to miss a game in a tournament, he needs to sit out the whole tournament. It is unfair to other team members if a player misses a game then expects to come in and take the place of a player who previously played. It is unfair to the team if a player misses a key game. The system which was set up (using an A team and B team) was designed to provide opportunities to players who were playing on the B team who were committed and who deserved an opportunity to play with the A team. If we allow players to pick and choose which games they want to play, we will have anarchy on this team. This is a spring/summer baseball league and baseball is top priority in the spring. The only exception to this rule will be if a player gets sick or injured or other circumstances beyond their control. Remember, it is an honor to play on the A team and we will constantly be under the scrutiny of those who did not make this team. If you know your son cannot make the entire tournament, I need to know at least 3 days beforehand so I can make other arrangements. We are expected to host a 13 year old tournament and the people from KC have asked me which weekend I would like to have it. I would like to have it sometime in late April or May. We will need cooperation from the parents in many areas. This is a big responsibility. Please e mail Sherry and let her know of your preferences both with job duties and weekends which are not a conflict. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me. Coach Haynes