Another week

Yes, I realize pictures are a lot more interesting than what I say. I hope to get some up at some point, but I don't have the pictures where I can upload them at the moment. At least this one will be shorter, because less has happened since it isn't so long since I last posted.

Saturday Jessie and Brennan had the practice for the Children's Choir for Stake Conference. Because that practice was at the same time as Jessie usually bowls, Dee arranged for her team to meet with her on Thursday after school to do their bowling for the week.

Dee and I spent a lot of the week, when not otherwise busy, preparing talks for Sunday. Aside from us, the program was provided by the San Jacinto College Chamber Choir. The director is a member of our ward, and he arranged for them to come and sing several songs for us. They were very good. I feel both talks went well, and we both received several very nice comments afterward.

As far as baseball goes, when I last wrote we were preparing for another game. This one was at the Webster field, which is very different. Our usual field is small, with 12' fences, and just a short distance between the plate and the back stop. This means it's hard to get more than a single, because even the youngest kids can usually quickly get to a ball hit to the fence and throw it in, and it makes it hard to score on balls the catcher doesn't get, because the ball will usually stay close to the plate unless it rolls down the baselines. But at Webster they use the same field for the machine pitch and the kid pitch games, so it has a much bigger area behind the plate, and the outfield fences, although only four feet high or so, are 250 feet away. This creates a huge outfield, so balls hit out there can make a huge difference. The team we were playing is the one we lost to the Monday before, when we played probably our worst game.

Tuesday's game was similar. Brennan led off with a grounder between short and second for a triple. The second batter did about the same, and Brennan scored. We ended up with three runs that inning. The game went back and forth a bit. Brennan had several chances to make plays, but mostly on bunts and short grounders, and he was struggling to pick up the ball cleanly. His second at-bat he popped up to the pitcher, and his third at bat was his first strike out. Like I said, I don't remember all the details, but I believe we were down a run or so in the top of the last inning. With one out, we got a solid line drive down the third baseline and into the outfield for another triple (it might have been a home run, but it was one of our slower runners), and at that point we were leading by a run. The next batter popped up foul, and the catcher (who was on our team last year) made a diving catch. We tried to send the runner from third, but he was called out at home on a close play. In the bottom of the inning, the other team ended up winning on another close play at the plate, but this time the runner was called safe, and we lost again, 8 - 7.

Friday was another game. We started out with some good defense, and held the Red Sox to 1 run in the first. Brennan hit a hard grounder to third, but sadly their third base man was very good, and he was able to just throw out Brennan. From there things went downhill, and going into the bottom of the fourth it was I think 12 - 0. Brennan's second at bat he again hit it hard, but the pitcher was able to get it and again throw him out. Anyway, our team finally started getting some hits in the fourth and I think we scored four runs. Again, I'm not sure of the exact scores at most points, but we avoided losing on the 10 - run rule (if a team is winning by 10 or more after four innings, the game is over. After the fifth inning, if a team is winning by six or more it is over, because the other team can't catch up (since you can score a maximum of five runs in an inning). But we couldn't afford to give up many more runs. We had only nine players that day, so everyone had pretty much been playing the same positions. So I was a little surprised when the coach asked me if I thought we should change things a little. But, I said sure. So the coach moved his son from shortstop to first (he played first on All-Stars last year), the first baseman to third, and Brennan to shortstop. The first couple of batters hit it into the outfield, and so it was runners at second and third, with no one out, and if the runner scored the game was over. Coach called time out, and brought the infield in tight with instructions to throw home no matter what to try to get the runner. The next batter hit a pop fly into center, however. Our center fielder made the catch. Both runners had left when the ball was hit, and Brennan very alertly ran to second and started calling for the ball. The center fielder heard him and made the throw to Brennan to complete the double play, and Brennan then moved to make sure the runner on third didn't try to tag and score. The next batter hit a grounder to third, and the third base man made the throw for the third out.

Now it was up to the offense. We scored five. Brennan had another hard hit, but this time it was a line drive to the first baseman. Once again we ended up with a runner on third, and if he scored the game was over. This time, though, the batter grounded to the pitcher, and the catcher wasn't able to quite make the tag to prevent the run. So we're still left looking for our first win.

We're now considering if we want to adjust our infield at all. In our last practice, the regular first base man was late (along with several other players). I was heading over to play first for some infield drills, but apparently meanwhile Brennan was volunteering to play first. Coach asked me and I said to let him try. He ended up playing a lot of practice there, and was doing pretty good, although I'll have to try to go over some details with him, as he has never played first before. But it might happen in a game.

We have two games this week, tomorrow and Friday.

That's it for now.