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Thursday, June 4. The 2009 16U Blue Jays opened their season with a victory against the 17U Martinsville “Artesians” High School summer team, 6 – 4. This group of Jays had a new look with a few flat-bill, two-tone caps (as long as Mom allowed the flat bill) and stylish baseball trousers that dragged across the turf ala ESPN. In addition to being MLB fashion statements, this group also included a few new faces … Pete Stuart, a 17 year old from Brown County, who could only join us for Thursday and Friday; and Drew Smyth, a big, strong, fast, multi-talented 16 year old athlete from Whiteland – thankfully, a Blue Jay addition for the entire 2009 summer season. Bloomington North High School had advanced to the Regionals of the Indiana state baseball tournament, which kept three key Blue Jay mainstays busy in Evansville on this weekend, and reduced our opening day player count to 10 - cutting it a little close but still enough to field what turned out to be a pretty darn competitive team … and for the coaching staff, it felt real good watching from the dugout instead of the grandstands, a location where all of us were banished during the high school season.
The Jays manned the batter box first in inning #1 and busted out of the gates with a run in the top of the first. The Artesians, however, countered quickly with three straight singles to open their half in a 2-run, 4-hit inning. The game was on. Not to be outdone, the Jays mustered a couple of walks and a couple of doubles in the second, and went up 4 – 2. At that point, Pete Stuart (our pitcher) and the game in general settled down a bit and it was 5 – 4 Blue Jays at the end of 5 innings. The Jays scratched out an insurance run on three hits in the sixth, and Stuart finished strong … final score 6 – 4. Led at the plate by Drew Smyth with 4 – 4 and 3 doubles, the Jays posted 11 hits in their debut.
Game 2 on Thursday was scheduled immediately after the close of the Blue Jay-Martinsville clash, so our Jays had no time to savor the win, having to hustle immediately over to IU’s Sembower field to play the 17U Lafayette White Sox, impatiently waiting in their dugout. As it turned out, this game cost us our shot at the Sunday championship round, as our Jays bowed 8 – 0 in five innings … do I have to say it … run ruled!??! Indeed, it was a bitter pill. On the bright side, however, there were a host of positive take-aways. For example, the game was tied 0 – 0 going into the fourth, capped by a great gun down at the plate by Jay center fielder, A.T. Perritt; and J.K. Waldon, the Jays sneaky lefty, had up to that time matched the excellent pitching performance of the White Sox lefty, who despite giving up several hits never allowed our Jays to mount any kind of rally. We began to dismantle in the fourth, however – fueled primarily by outfielders, who had never played outfield before, committing a few miscues. Bloomington North’s success was indeed our albatross because two of our regular outfielders were worrying about Castle High School pitchers in Evansville instead of manning their rightful outfield positions in the Jays’ line-up. In the end the White Sox hit enough on their own, and took enough advantage of our make-shift fielders to put up 8 runs in innings 4 and 5, and the game was over … yuk!
Friday, June 5. Game 3 placed the Jays in opposition to Top-Tier National, an elite travel team based out of Chicago but drawing players from much of the northern Midwest. Again, a 17U team – and quite a good one – this match would leave no margin for error for our Jays. In the end these guys “ran the table” in the tournament. Overall, we played these guys tough … but very gradually they scratched a run here and one there, begrudgingly mounting a 4 – 1 lead after four against a very credible pitching effort by Jay starter, Kyle House. A pitching change for the Jays led to a homer and another scratched run, so the lead expanded to 7 – 1 after six. Despite the deficit, the Jays hung in there, and in the top half of the final inning, they put something together. Before you knew it, a 3-run Smyth triple cut the lead to 7 – 4 with only 1 out and after the next hitter the Jays had runners at first and third. While you never want to blame losses on umpires, a couple of real tough calls pretty much doused the rally – a low strike and an imagined tag out at second ended the game 7 – 5. In this one the Jays didn’t go quietly, forcing Top-Tier to call on their bull pen and press into service their ace closer. Nonetheless, our boys now stood 1 – 2 after 3 games.
Saturday, June 6. The DuPage Outlaws, with a victory over the White Sox and only a single loss to Top Tier, figured on defeating the Jays, which would virtually ensure a second seed in the pool and a birth in Sunday’s championship rounds. The Jays, on the other hand, thought differently and rode strong pitching from three different moundsmen, and timely hitting to a 5 – 3 victory. In reality, the Outlaws were lucky it was that close. Their shoddy fielding contrasted with the Jays almost error-less performance, and only a couple of lucky turns kept the Jays from busting this one wide open.
For a team that had to be pieced together, short three starters for the entire weekend and losing their ace catcher to a broken nose (photo above) against Top Tier, the 2-2 Jays showed that they can stand toe-to-toe with top quality teams at the next highest age level. Playing against bigger and stronger competition usually makes you better, which builds confidence for next week’s Westfield tournament when the Jays will be at full strength and the competition will be at our 16U age level. Should I say it … expectations for this year’s group are high. Stay tuned, and we’ll see whether these lofty expectations are realized.
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Tri-State Challenge
Friday, June 12.The Jays’ next tournament, the Tri-State Challenge sponsored by the Roundtrippers’ Academy, pitted 10 teams from three states (Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky), and took place in Westfield, IN. just north of Indianapolis. Our boys needed to win 3 of 4 in our pool to advance to Sunday’s 4-team finals round.
Game 1 was a doozy … the Lexington Hurricanes, who ended pool play the second seed, presented a formidable foe. A quick look at their first-rate uniforms, and knowing that they travelled all the way from Lexington – you didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that these guys knew something about playing baseball. The game was as advertised … a tough pitching battle between two real baseball squads. Kyle House shut out the Hurricanes for three innings, while the Jays scratched out a couple of runs on a hit here, a hit there, a steal, a fly ball … and just about any way one can manufacture a run. After Kyle tired, a pitching change led to a single run by the Hurricanes, and the game entered inning 5 at 2 – 1. Good pitching to the finish (ala Drew Smyth for the Jays) for both teams left the final score 2 – 1, and ended on a ground out stranding three Hurricane base runners … a bit of a nail biter. As it turned out, these two teams were to meet in the final game two days later.
Friday and Saturday. The next three pool games brought the Jays to face three teams, that although well coached and classy, were a bit overmatched. The Jays coasted behind overpowering pitching and hitting to 11 – 0, 9 – 1, and 15 – 1 run-ruled victories. It seems that some of these teams are limited because they draw only from a single school, giving the Jays a big advantage. In situations like these it is sometimes difficult to keep your edge because you can often win without playing your best. For the most part our boys played the game as they were supposed to … sometimes not as much …. The real test would be Sunday in the finals against the other teams left standing post pool play.
Sunday, June 14. The Jays did not disappoint. They faced first the No. 4 seed, the 15 year old Indiana Prospects. Now you might be saying, “Hey, 15 year olds … what’s the big deal?” However, we did lose to the 14U Indiana Bulls last year, and this group is very well put together. They blew through pool play with no problem, only losing once after they already knew they had qualified for the final rounds and were saving their primo pitchers for the finals. Again, the Blue Jays rode strong pitching from Dylan Pratt and Clint Jones, and timely hitting from virtually the entire line-up to post a 7 – 1 victory. A single error marred almost a perfect performance on defense (topped by a dazzling catch in center by A. T. Perritt, his second big-time play of this short season), and clever and alert base running throughout the game kept the opponents off guard. Although the opponents were 15, this was a quality win against a strong organization.
The final game brought back a Blue Jay – Hurricane match up, as the Hurricanes pounded all four of their non-Blue Jay opponents. Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, the Jays again brought their A game, shutting out an erstwhile opponent and jumping on a series of high school quality pitchers for 7 runs. Four Jay pitchers (Kyle House, Drew Smyth, Kevin Swango, and Nolan Gredy) combined for the shut out, and the hitting parade (led by the likes of Kevin Swango, John Robertson, and Braxton Raventos … and others) kept this one from being very dramatic.
This group of Blue Jays is comprised of 12 kids – all of whom add something significant of value to the mix. The chemistry is good, the pitching is deep, hitting goes through the line-up (from the first to the last hitter), and the fielding is sharp. Next week’s Cincy tournament includes some of the best 16U teams in the country. Can our boys play at that level? It will be fun to see.
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Ohio Valley Regionals – Cincinnati Ohio
June 18. Every year the Ohio Valley Regionals, hosted by the Cincinnati Flames’ organization, is one of the most competitive travel baseball tournaments in the Midwest. This year was no exception, when you see the 40-team line-up boasting teams the likes of the Schaumberg Seminoles, Top Tier out of Chicago, the RBI Redwings from Pennsylvania, the Columbus Ohio Cobras, the Indiana Mustangs, the Lake Erie Bulldogs, the Brownlee Lookouts, the host Cincinnati Flames; and we would like to think the Bloomington Blue Jays belong in this class. It seems that the host Flames strategically put together the pools as many of the top teams were placed in the same pools, and wouldn’t you know it, the Flames somehow ended up without having to face any of the above-mentioned powerhouses. I guess if it’s your tournament, you can set things up any way you like.
Anyway, the Blue Jays found themselves in Pool A with Top Tier, the RBI Redwings, and an Ohio team from Patterson Park that turned out to be much more than a pushover. In the first game against Top Tier the Jays played excellent what we call “Big Boy” baseball, and after three innings strong pitching from both sides (Kyle House on the Blue Jay side) led to a 0 – 0 duel. A couple of relatively small (but very costly) Blue Jay miscues (a base running mistake and failure to cover first) put the Jays in a 1 – 0 “hole” after 4 innings. Proper play on the Jays’ side would have led to a reverse of the 0 – 1 deficit. The 5th was scoreless on both sides, but in the sixth Top Tier pushed three runs across after one tough umpire call that - had it gone the other way - would have kept any of the runs from scoring. Nonetheless, the Jays entered the 7th down 4 – 0. The Jays made it very interesting, however, pushing 2 across in that inning, and the game was very much in question until the very last out. End result: Top Tier 4 Blue Jays 2. Lesson learned – small miscues can cost you dearly when you play good teams … very little margin for error.
Game 2 pitted the Jays against another powerhouse, the RBI Redwings, who had just fallen to Top Tier in a tough game, 4 – 1. The Jays broke out of the blocks, powering themselves to a 6 – 1 lead after two innings behind a 2-RBI single by Clint Jones and a couple of 2-run homers by Dylan Pratt and A.T. Perritt. For some unexplained reason, though, the Blue Jay bats fell silent for the remainder of the game, and the Redwings, against a series of lackluster pitching performances from four different Jays, kept chipping away at the lead, finally taking over 7 – 6 in the sixth. The Redwings brought in a big, flame-throwing lefty (headed to Duke on scholarship) to finish the game and again the Jays fell short. End result: Redwings 7 Blue Jays 6 … darn! Lesson learned … keep your intensity even when you have what you might think is a comfortable lead.
The Jays were now in a “hole,” 0 – 2 with two pre-championship round games remaining. To get to the finals round we needed to win both games, and keep our opponents to very few runs … despite our 0 – 2 record, there was still a chance. Our boys bounced back with a 4 – 1 win over Patterson Park. In no way was this one a laugher, 0 – 0 going into the 4th behind one fine pitching performance by JK Waldon. Our boys small-balled one across in the 4th and we held a 1 – 0 headed into the sixth. Our opponents put a few things together in the sixth, and tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Kevin Swango came in to spell JK, who was fast approaching 100 pitches, and showed some real smaltz, striking out one of their best hitters with the bases loaded. In the bottom of the sixth with two outs the Jays finally struck and struck hard … Drew Smyth found a way to get on, stole second and was pushed to third with a grounder by Clint Jones. With two outs, Dylan Pratt knocked Drew home with the winning run, and John Robertson, Braxton Raventos, and JK Waldon followed with hits that pushed the score to 4 – 1. Kevin Swango held serve in the 7th and the game ended with the Jays on top.
At this point it looked encouraging for the Jays, we were almost in the top 16, driven primarily by the fact that although we were 1 – 2, we had only given up 12 runs in three games. All we had to do now was win our cross-pool game, hold the opponent to a few runs, and we would qualify for the final rounds. The good news was that finally we would be playing a team that wouldn’t be considered a powerhouse. Of course, one never knows in baseball, but we felt good about our chances, and were ready to play anybody in the championship rounds. As luck would have it, Mother Nature stepped in and sent an overnight downpour that made the fields unplayable early Saturday morning. However, Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day … the sun was out before 8:00am and breezy and 80 by noon – perfect conditions to repair soggy baseball diamonds. Surprisingly, the Flames organization made virtually no effort to prepare the fields for the cross-pool games, and at 6:30am cancelled them all, which left the Blue Jays and several other teams with good chances to make the final 16 “out in the cold.” So, rather than hang around the hotel for an entire day, pay the lodging expenses for a another day, in anticipation of playing an 8:00am no-count consolation game the Blue Jays voted to return home … obviously very disappointed and dissatisfied with how the Flames ran the tournament. Interestingly, we dropped by a few of the “unplayable diamonds” on the way home (before noon), and found that all we saw were “bone dry” and being used by ball teams … also, we chanced to notice how the Flames did in their pool play … 3 games, total score: Flames 39 – Opponents 0. Ever feel like you’ve been “homered?”
The Jays will take their 9 – 4 record to Indy next week for a wood bat tournament … hopefully, we’ll hear the crack of the (wood) bat a few times. We didn’t hear the ping of the aluminum bat this weekend as much as we would have liked.
Midwest Wood Bat Championships
Our Jays tried their hands at wood bats for the first (and last) time this summer season … a throw back to the olden days – days ages ago when the Jays’ coaching staff actually had to turn on those fast balls and hold back on those slow curves as they dropped off the corner of the plate. Could the Jays find the sweet spot on those wood bats, or would handle shots splinter the wood and weakly die in the gloves of infielders?
Thursday, June 25. The first game opened against the Indiana Black Sox, coached by an assistant baseball coach from the University of Indianapolis, who was on the lookout for potential college talent; and Paul Kramer, a good friend and knowledgeable baseball guy, who over the years with his son (Clayton) have played plenty of tough ball against the Jays. Somewhat surprisingly, the game opened with three of the worst-played defensive baseball innings I have ever seen - on both sides. Booted groundballs, dropped throws, throws sailing into the bleachers, balls dropping at the feet of fielders … I am almost surprised that the two pitchers (Kyle House on the Jays’side), both of whom had good stuff, just didn’t walk off the mound in disgust and go home. After these three ugly innings, the Jays emerged with a 5 – 4 lead, an advantage that neither team deserved. Finally, the game settled into something resembling real baseball, and the Jays guarded their lead into the 7th. In the sixth both teams threatened unsuccessfully, thanks on our side to some nifty relief work by JK Waldon. The Black Sox again mounted a threat in their half of the 7th, which was doused by a three-pitch strike out (by Drew Smyth), stranding the tying run at third and the lead run at second. The Jays dodged a bullet, fortunately ending the day 1 – 0 in pool play.
Friday, June 26. After not playing particularly well there was some worry that the Jays might get drilled by their next opponent, Top Tier from Chicago, who had bested the Jays (4-2) last week in Cincy, and made it to the final 4 in that 40-team tournament. But this is 16-year old baseball … and the Jays absolutely blasted out of the gates with 5 straight hits to open the game, posting a 5-spot in the first. Top Tier responded with 2 in their half, but behind a solid 4 innings of pitching by Jays’ starter, Dylan Pratt; catcher, John Robertson’s gunning down two base runners; and continued wood-bat line drives from our boys, after 4 innings it was 10 -2. Clint Jones on the mound polished off Top Tier in the 5th, and the game ended in a run rule. I don’t imagine that Top Tier gets run-ruled very often … 2 – 0 in pool play and looking good.
Saturday, June 27. Some people say that if you can scratch out a few runs in a wood bat tournament, you have an excellent chance to win. Well, nobody told that to the Blue Jays on this weekend. After putting up 10 in five innings against Top Tier, the Jays posted 9 runs in six innings against the Fort Wayne Cubs and 13 runs in 4 innings against Warrior Baseball (St. Louis) … both ending in run-ruled victories. A.T. Perritt and Drew Smyth combined to hold the Cubs to 1 run, and Kevin Swango and JK Waldon combined to hold the Warriors to 3 across the plate. Solid hitting from the beginng to the end of the line up as well as consistent pitching and fielding earmarked the Jays’ performance in the last three games of pool play … leading to a 4 – 0 record, and a second seed (out of 23 teams) in Sunday’s championship rounds. Only strong teams from here on out for the 13 – 4 Jays.
Sunday, June 28. The Kentucky Baseball Club has been around for years and draws the best talent from the entire state of Kentucky. Their 15U group crushed all comers in pool play, and blew through Pony Express for the right to face the Blue Jays in the semi-finals. To make a long story short, they are for real. After a scoreless first inning on both sides, the Kentucky boys pieced together a sequence of line drives, a walk, and a misplay to post 5 runs in the top half of the second. Stunned, our Jays had to climb out of a hole … but had 6 innings to do it. A pitching change, and excellent moundsman work from Clint Jones kept Kentucky away from home plate until the sixth, when finally our boys mounted together a few walks and hits to make it a game. Kentucky’s pitcher, a lefty, who we never really hit, finally tired in the sixth and began to have trouble hitting the corners where he had lived all day. Climaxed by a two-run RBI single by Jays’ catcher, John Robertson, the Jays posted a 5 spot and the game entered the 7th inning knotted at 5 runs each. Kentucky opened their half of the 7th with a sharp single, and after a misplayed pick-off attempt and a ground out, they had a runner at 3rd with 1 out. A bouncing curve ball got by our catcher to the back stop and the Jays were again down … this time by 1 run (6-5) going into the bottom of the 7th. After a bounce out and a K, it looked extremely rocky for the “Mudville 9,” but a bases on balls and an errant pick off attempt put the tying run on second. With two outs Kevin Swango looped one into shallow right field, and none of us will ever forget this play at the plate. A perfect throw from the right fielder beat A.T. Perritt, the runner, but a clever move enabled him to avoid the tag and brush the plate with his hand as he tumbled over and around the catcher. To the Jay’s fans it looked like a tie game with the winning run on second, but the plate ump saw it differently, claiming that A.T. never really touch home base, and calling him out … game over, Jays lose 6 – 5! Damn! So close … a great game and every fan got more than their money’s worth. Yes, we are disappointed that we never made it to the final game, but these are the kinds of games we signed up for … win or lose. Final 4 out of 23 teams is OK, and baseball is really fun! Headed for South Bend next week to play under the shadow of the Golden Dome with a record of 13 – 5.
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Triple Crown Stars & Strikes 4th of July Tournament
While a summer deluge poured on Bloomington and Indianapolis, the Jays ventured just far enough north to avoid rain outs and play some competitive and fun baseball in South Bend. The coaching staff arrived a day early on Friday so that a collection of five Blue Jays could participate in a college showcase at Bethel College, which was very well run and gave the kids a chance to showcase their skills in front of college scouts. Later that day, it also gave the coaching staff a chance to scope out a game between the Michiana Scrappers and the Indiana Irish, both of whom were in our pool and would represent opponents the next day, Saturday. Frankly, we watched what we thought was a pretty lackluster game between two teams that we thought would erect little in the way of a barrier against the Blue Jay Express.
Well, sometimes things are not as they seem, and by 9:00am the next day we knew that we were in the middle of a dog fight against the Scrappers. We posted 3 in the first, but they matched our total in their half, and it was not until the fifth that we started to create some separation. Led by a wonderful job of relief by JK Waldon, the Jays played the role of the scrappers and unimpressively pieced together a 6 – 3 victory. Few fans walked away thinking that the Jays were a candidate for tournament champions.
After a short respite, the Jays faced the Indiana Irish, who fell to the scrappers 10 – 2 … easy, rollover game, right? WRONG!!! The Irish introduced our “big” bats to a nifty lefty, who literally shut us down with off-speed, well-placed (and I should not use the word) junk … because after 6 we were behind 2 – 0. A.T. Perritt and Drew Smyth did a fine job of holding the Irish bats in check, but if you need to shut the opponents out to win, it is going to be a long season. Almost miraculously and with a call or two from the two older guys dressed in blue, we tied the game in the 7th, aided by the lefty tiring a bit after around 100 pitches. A strong pitching performance by Clint Jones held them in the 7th, sending the game into extra innings. The new Irish pitcher was greeted by some pretty aggressive Blue Jay hitting in the 8th, when the Blue Jays pushed the score to 5 – 2, eventually winning 5 – 3. While the victories were somewhat less than impressive, a 2 – 0 record with a +5 differential was sufficient for a #2 seed in the championship rounds.
The third game on Saturday brought back the Indiana Irish, who at 0-2, earned one of the lower seeds; and in a light drizzle that unfortunately changed the game to something other than baseball the Blue Jays showed what they can do with their bats. A bunch of line drives and long fly balls later the Jays created some 4th of July fireworks of their own, and amassed 14 runs in 5 innings, run ruling the Irish 14 – 4. This victory earned the Jays a final 4 spot, and sent the boys snoozing with three notches in their belts for that Saturday – no one could argue that this was not a full day.
Sunday was a beautiful day and the Jays greeted it with an impressive showing against Kings Red, who earned their chance at the final 4 with a victory over the Michiana Scrappers. The Jays scored in every inning of the 5 inning run ruling, behind a homer and a triple by Drew Smyth and a 2-hit (and only two balls hit into the outfield) pitching performance by Dylan Pratt. Final score: 12 – 2, and the Jays had just finished one of their most solid outings of the year.
The final game was a doozy! The Blue Jays were matched against the Duneland Flyers, who earned their spot in the final game with an impressive victory against Black Diamond, who sent 7 kids to the showcase on Friday and had a swagger that made one think that lack of confidence was not one of their concerns. The Flyers placed a very savvy pitcher on the mound, who mixed a variety of pitches and even without a blazing fastball, used control and change of speed to keep our boys off balance. After 4 innings the Flyers led 2 – 0, runs scratched out more by lack of tightness in the Blue Jays than by line drives and base hits. The Jays’ bats warmed up in the fifth with successive doubles by Dylan Pratt and John Robertson, but that produced only 1 run, and the Flyers responded with one of their own in the 6th to push the lead to 3 – 1. The bottom of the sixth looked like a breakthrough for the Jays with a 1-out single by A.T. Perritt followed by a blasted 3 –bagger by Kevin Swango, pushing the score to 3 – 2. In a surprise move the Flyers chose to intentionally walk Drew Smyth (the winning run), putting runners at first and third with one out. Then came the turning point … in an extremely well executed play, the Flyers’ catcher gunned down Drew attempting to steal second while freezing the tying run at third. Chalk one up to good coaching and great execution for the Flyers as Clint Jones grounded out to end the inning. In the bottom of the 7th, Dylan Pratt opened the inning by pounding a line drive through the first baseman, finding his way to first … but he (the tying run) for the Jays was left stranded on the base paths after a failed bunt attempt and two strike outs. Great game, great fun … that’s exactly why we do this; baseball at its best! The Jays take their second-place Stars & Strikes finish and their 17 – 6 record to the Indiana Bulls Best of the Midwest tournament next week.
Unfortunately, unexpected bummers invade even the best of situations. Arm trouble seems to be haunting both our pitching staff and our core of catchers, and Clint Jones, a Blue Jay mainstay for almost 6 years, unexpectedly and quite abruptly decided to leave the team for something “better” in Ohio. The coaching staff is now scrambling to fill what we have intentionally kept as a small roster (to maximize everyone’s playing time). We will see what we will see.
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Indy Bulls Invitational
Baseball is a funny game, a phrase (and book title) coined by color commentator and average catcher, Joe Giragiola. You never know ‘cause you never know … or something like that. To wit, the Jays opened against the Dayton Dirtbags (a very strong group who eventually won the tournament) with 4 -0 lead, fueled by a first-swing homer by Ashton Perritt, and strong starting pitching by Dylan Pratt. But you never know, and one ground ball boot led to 3 unearned runs for the Dirtbags, and we have a game. The Jays push the lead to 5 – 3 after 4, and a bonehead pitching change by the Jays’ “think tank,” and wouldn’t you know it … the Dirtbags are up 6 – 5, and after one more inning and another pitching change have extended the lead to 8 – 5. After 6 innings, things look rocky for our Jays. But these boys don’t give up … hits, hits, and more hits – most with 2 outs – and the Jays post 3 on the board and the score is all of a sudden 8 – 8. Unfortunately, a 2-out seeing-eye ground ball up the middle pushes the winning run across and the Dirtbags come out on top, 9 – 8. The Jays start the tourney 0 – 1 in need of some magic to earn a spot in the championship round.
The next obstacle for our boys is a very talented 15U Bulls team, which means the Jays once again found themselves in a very high-quality pool. To make a long story short, both teams played very good baseball, but the Bulls simply hit the ball a bit harder and more consistent than did the Jays. In fact, the Bulls, some of whom stood no more than 5’8” off the ground, drilled 8 balls to the warning track, several were caught by alert outfielders, but most found their way to the fence for extra bases. The Bulls put together 4 runs, enough to best the Jays who never really bunched any of their 8 hits together until the 7th inning, when they ended the game with the bases loaded. Final score 4 – 1; the Bulls just played better. The Jays’ tourney record falls to 0 – 2, with only a slim chance of making the championship round. The good news: the two weaker teams in the pool are up next, and 2 – 2 with a strong run differential might just make it.
For the second time this year, Mother Nature stepped in and removed the Jays’ chances to improve their pool record … with a Saturday wash out. No more pool games; the championship round was determined by the existing record, which leaves the Jays with only a consolation game. No hardware for the Jays on this weekend.
The consolation game was played on a beautiful Sunday afternoon against one of the least classy teams we have seen to date – the Long Shots from Downers’ Grove near Chicago. Their coach berates their players in public, tried to pick fights with our coaches, players and the umpire, and in general acted very boorish throughout the game. To make matters worse, the Jays started the game flat as a pancake, listlessly digging a 5 – 0 hole for themselves … baby pop-ups, low-quality at bats, and less than inspiring field play. It wasn’t that we were making errors, it was just that you couldn’t get any of the boys to move their “you know whats” from here to there. Fortunately, Kyle House entered the game in the second and credibly put together 5 pretty good innings (without a walk), holding Long Shot to only 2 more runs into the 7th. In the meantime, the heart-attack kids from Bloomington whittled away at the lead, and blasted across five runs in the bottom of the 6th to take an 8 – 7 lead. Why is it that this team almost always waits until the 6th inning to start taking names? Anyway, we never do anything the easy way, so we decided to spot our opponents 2 more runs in their half of the 7th, forcing us into a 9 -8 deficit into the bottom of the 7th. Lordy. Lordy … the Jays did it again … a 2-base blast by Drew Smyth followed by a 2-out line-drive base hit by J.K. Waldon tied the score, and a booted ground ball ushered the winning run to the plate … a fitting way to lose for a classless coach, who I’m sure had a belly ache the entire drive back to Chicago. The Jays now take their 18 – 8 record to the 16U nationals next week.
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