2008 Fall Schedule

We have received the fall schedule for what are five game dates – which have a total of four games to be played (one date is a bye).  All games take place at the Lascassas ball fields.

Monday, August 25th vs Lascassas 4 – 6:00 PM on field 3

Thursday, August 28th vs Lascassas 2 – 7:00 PM on field 1

Tuesday, September 2nd vs Leanna – 6:00 PM on field 3

Friday, September 5th vs Lascassas 3 – 7:00 PM on field 3

Tuesday, September 9th – Bye

Concession Stand: Thursday, August 28th from 5:30 to 7:00 PM (3 volunteers needed)

Snack Schedule – will exclude the concession stand volunteers.

Trash Can duty – our team is responsible for the emptying of the garbage can located in the dugout on the Big Field, that is closest to the concession stand.  A parent’s assistance in emptying this with me after games would be greatly appreciated!!!

I’ll update the concession stand workers and snack schedule after obtaining volunteers at Friday’s practice.

Lascassas Fall Ball 2008

It’s that time of the year!  The players have taken several weeks off and now their ready and excited to get back into the game.

Our team practices will be taking place from 6:30 to 7:45 at the Big Field on the following days:

Monday, August 11th

Friday, August 15th

Monday, August 18th

Friday, August 22nd

The Fall League games will begin on Tuesday, August 26th with the end of season tournament being wrapped up on Thursday, October 1st.  The primary game nights are Tuesday and Thursday nights, with a sprinkling of Friday night games being necessary due to the amazing turn-out the fall ball league has received.  The majority of our game start times should also be at 7:00 PM.

The specific game dates and times will be available in the near future.

It’s great to see such a big turnout, and our goal for the fall ball league is fun, fun, fun, with a strong dash of learning more about the game of baseball.

Game #12 Flames vs Kittrell Diamondbacks

5/30/2008 Game Date

Well, we were caught up on our schedule for a brief moment, until game 11 was rained out. So, with game 11 delayed for a week, the Flames moved forward and prepared for their second game against the Kittrell Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks were Kittrell’s top ball club, and it would be interesting to see how the Flames have progressed in the rematch.

Inning 1
The Flames were visiting Kittrell, so we took the field first. Pearson and Noah both had good solid hits, however, the D’backs defense rose to the occassion, fielding Pearson’s hit and throwing him out at first, and then catching Noah’s fly ball to shallow right field. Chris managed our first hit of the game with a single, however, we’d leave him stranded with the next batter going down on strikes.

The D’backs had some solid offense, obtaining five runs before we closed the door on the inning with getting the third out. The D’backs pitching helped our cause, with two of the three outs coming from strike outs. The other out came from Noah catching a high fly ball.

Inning 2
The Flames were feeling good and ready to snap their offensive slump. Bubba started things off with a strong single. Tony followed up with a hit that sailed over the pitchers head and bounced up the middle into the outfield. Bubba had his running shoes on and scored from first base. With the D’backs scurrying for the ball after a bad throw towards third base, Tony advanced safely to second base with a double. Dylan hit a slow roller down the third baseline. Tony held up at second, and Dylan reached first safely. Faith came up and poked a ground ball towards shortstop. The shortstop had some trouble with it and by the time he recovered, Tony and Dylan advanced a base and Faith was safe with a single. With one out, Gray helped the cause with a sharp ground ball towards second base. The ball was fielded and Gray was tossed out, however, his sacrifice hit allowed Tony to rumble home for the score. That would be the last score of the inning for the Flames.

The D’backs continued to plague themselves with contact woes, as two more went down on strikes. In an attempt to start a trend, Noah once again made good on an opportunity to catch a fly ball, this one a difficult one that was falling into the no-man’s land between the pitcher, second, and first. The three outs came quickly, but a triple by the D’backs combined with a pair of singles was enough for them to manage another two runs.

Inning 3
Pearson started things off with a blast to deep left field. Pearson was trucking around the bases to end up safe at third with a triple. Noah followed up with a triple of his own, a smoking shot that reached the fence in left-center field. Pearson scored easily and the fans were going crazy. Chris drove Noah home with a single up the middle to keep thing going. Mike was doing his best to get a hit, fouling off several pitches. It came down to his last eligible pitch, and I threw him something horrendous. Mike struck out but didn’t hold it against me as he slapped me five on his way back to the dugout. Bubba moved Chris over to second with a single down the third baseline. Tony poked a shot right at the pitcher, and the sacrifice hit was good enough to move both Chris and Bubba into scoring position, although Tony was out himself. Unfortunately we’d leave Chris and Bubba stranded after a strikeout ended the inning.

The D’backs decided to make us work for our outs, which the Flames were more than up to the challenge for. The D’backs sent 10 batters up to the plate, but only showed five runs for their effort. The first out coming from a text-book outfield to home relay. Tony fielded the ball in center field, threw the ball to Chris who was set for the cut-off, who gunned it home to Bubba, and Bubba applied the tag on the runner, just a couple steps prior to home for the first out of the inning. The second out came from a D’back strikeout. The last out of the inning came with Mike making a nice play on a pop-fly that he caught at second base.

Inning 4
Time was our enemy, and if we were going to be able to force the game to go much longer, we needed a big inning. Faith worked to get things rolling with a triple that was hit to right field. With Faith ready to score, Madi came up to the plate and swung her bat with determination to let me know “throw it here coach”. I did my best and it seemed to work as Madi made contact and hit a hopping grounder towards the gap between third and shortstop. The shortstop for the D’backs showed good range and made the stop, however, it was enough to allow Faith to score, and Madi was standing safely at first with a single. Gray worked to keep things moving, with a hit up the middle. It was good enough for Gray to be safe at first, however, the second baseman made a play and was able to get Madi out as she was advancing. With one out, Josh stepped up to the plate a hit a pop-up that seemed to go straight up in the air. The D’backs pitcher made an amazing catch for the out, and was able to get a double-play by throwing the ball to first base as Gray was given the green light to advance due to the base coach thinking the ball uncatchable. A double-play and the inning and game came to a close.

Flames: 5 Diamondbacks: 12

Oddly enough that’s the same score as the first meeting between the teams…

Game Ball
Noah received the first game ball for his reliable hands in catching a pair of pop-flys, as well as his thunderous triple in the third inning.

Faith received the second game ball, for solid play in the field, and her lead-off triple in the forth inning – combined with her excitment at scoring her first run of the season.

Thanks
To Mike and David Lee for the help coaching the bases. To Dorothy for the help with the scorebook. To Brian for the help with the lineup and dugout duties.

Game #9 Lascassas Braves vs Flames

5/22/2008 Game Date

As happens during a season, rain outs threw our schedule into a little chaos. We managed to play game #10 on the season, before both game #5 and #9 were completed. With the make-up of this rescheduled game, however, it brought us current for the moment with our games on the season.

It was a hot day for our second match-up with the Braves. Our players seemed ready for the game, and they did an excellent job defensively – holding one of the most potent offenses in the league to only 15 runs. Unfortunately our offense seemed to fall out of rythm, and while I wish I could have claimed it was my pitching, I may have thrown my best pitches of the season. In the end though, we were unable to get anything started offensively, never having more than one runner on base at a time and we were held to no runs.

Game Highlights
The game wasn’t without it’s shining moments though. We did manage three hits in the game. All of them were singles – and they were hit by Pearson, Chris, and Bubba. Defensively we had both Faith and Mike put on a display on how to work at second base. Mike and Faith both played two innings each at second base, and each one was vital in one or more outs per each of those innings. Mike started the game at second, and in the first inning he caught a pop-fly, and fielded a ground ball cleanly and made the throw to Noah at first for an out. During the second inning, Mike fielded another ground ball close to the first base side, and made a little under-handed toss to Noah for an out. In both of those innings, the Braves other outs came from strikeouts.

In the third inning, Faith took over at second base. Chris fielded a hard grounder at short stop and made the throw to Faith at second base for a force out. Then it was Faith’s turn to field a ground ball who made the throw to Pearson who was now playing first base, for another out. In the last inning, Chris pulled down a pop-up at short stop, as did Mike who came up from centerfield to make one just behind second base. Faith then fielded a grounder and made another throw to Pearson at first base for the third and final out of the Braves inning.

Braves: 15 Flames: 0

Game Ball
Mike displayed an excellent glove and range in his movement around the field, proving to be an instrumental piece in holding the Braves in check.

Faith was in top form, being aware of where she needed to be while fielding second base. She did a great job of knocking down and fielding ground balls, and made her throws to first base count.

Thanks
To Perry and David Lee for the help on the base paths. To Dorothy for the work on the scorebook. To Brian for his work in the dugout and in keeping the batting order straight.

Game #5 Orioles vs Flames (Take 2)

5/18/2008 Game Date

The time finally came for the make-up game to be played for the one that was rained out. The make-up game came on a Sunday, in place of our normal practice slot. The mood was a little light, with more than a couple Flames making comments about being a little tired and hot. Still, they all agreed that they were looking to play and they took the field at the top of the first, determined to have fun.

Inning 1
The Orioles came out of the starting gate on fire. They managed to bat their maximum of 10 players, and they scored 8 of them, with our Flames getting the other 2 players out. The outs came from a nice play by Chris at shortstop, where he stopped a ground ball and tagged an advancing runner, and the other came from a stop by Mike at second base who then had a throw to Pearson at first base.

Isaac started things off for us with a single, which included some fine hustle to first. Chris drove Isaac in with a blast into the outfield, which ended with Chris standing safe at second with a double. Noah followed up with a single, with Chris advancing to third base. Mike hit a hard chopper, that the defense had a hard time handling. When the dust settled, Chris had scored, Mike was safe with a single, and Noah was standing safe at second. Bubba poked a shot into left field, and our runners were advancing. Noah was give the go sign to head for home, but the outfielder got the ball in quickly. Noah tried to save the play by making it back to thirdbase, however, the Orioles showed some good ball handling skills in passing the ball between players and them successfully tagging Noah for the second out of the inning. Josh was up next with runners on first and second, and ripped a line drive that made it to shallow center. Mike received the green light and as he was rounding third, the ball was on it’s way towards the cather. Mike must have seen the ball out of the corner of his eye, because his face took a stern look and his body tilted slightly forward in anticipation of the upcoming slide. The Orioles catcher fielded the throw on a bounce, and positioned himself in front of the plate just as Mike came barreling home and began his slide. There was a cloud of dust, a collision, and when everything settled the catcher had maintained his hold on the ball, and Mike was declared out. It was most impressive though seeing Mike’s teammates hoot and holler in appreciation for the close play at the plate, and Mike showed his scuffed flesh around as a badge of honor.

Inning 2
The Flames still high on their inning full of heart seemed to have a little extra step as they took the field. It showed in one of the highly sought after 1-2-3 innings. The lead runner had a hit into left-center, and the Orioles first base coach gave the runner the go ahead to try and take second. Tony fielded the ball in the outfield, and threw it in to Chris who was standing nearby second, where he was able to turn and make tag to get the runner out. After the next batter struck out, the Orioles final batter of the inning popped-up the ball with Chris catching cleanly it for the final out.

Tony tried to get things rolling with a ground ball back up the middle, yet the Orioles pitcher fielded the ball and made the throw to first for an out. Gray was more successful, with a hit that proved too difficult for the pitcher to handle, and Gray’s sheer determination getting him safe at first as he beat out the throw. Madi moved Gray over with a single that was hit down the third baseline. With two outs, runners on first and second, Isaac came to the plate. He asked me how many outs we had and I told him two…to which Isaac responded by his eyes getting as large as grapefruits. I told him it was okay and he needed to just focus on the ball. Isaac did manage to put the ball into play, however, it went right to the firstbase man, where he was able to field it and step on the bag to bring the inning to a close.

Inning 3
The Flames were still working hard and managed to keep the Orioles caged for another inning. With their lead-off batter standing at first base, the second batter hit a pop-fly, which Chris caught just in front of second base. The Orioles base runner made a mistake, and ran on the play, and before they could make it back to first base, Chris was able to make the tag for an unassisted double play. The following player managed a double, but the inning was brought to a close with the next batter hitting a line drive that went right to Chris at shortstop, where he reached out and made the grab for the final out.

Pearson led off the inning for us with a hit that bounced through the infield and out into the outfield. Pearson was safe at second with a double. Chris followed up with a single of his own, but Pearson was tagged out while attempt to move over to third. Noah had a single of his own, while Chris advanced to second. Mike had a sacrifice hit that moved Chris and Noah forward into scoring position. Bubba took advantage of the moves, with a single that brought home Chris and Noah. Josh ripped a single while Bubba moved to second. Unfortunately a bad pitch on my end resulted in a third strike and the end to our inning.

Inning 4
We had done an excellent job of holding the Orioles back, and closing the gap, until the Orioles seemed to say no more and displayed some real tough ball of their own. They managed to bring 10 batters to the plate, with six of them scoring. We managed our three outs, with Chris getting his second unassisted double play of the game, when he caught another pop-up and then tagged an Oriole who had decided to leave second base. Our last out of the inning came from a ball that was hit into left-center field. Tony positioned himself in front of the ball and made a good throw to Noah at third base. Noah took the throw and tagged an advancing runner for the third and final out.

Our final at bat didn’t go well at all. I was a jumble of nerves in wanting the kids to pull things out, and it affected my pitching, with Dylan and Madi only seeing one decent pitch to two bad pitches, and Gray tapped a pitch straight down to the first baseman where it was fielded cleanly for an out.

Orioles: 14 Flames: 4

Game Balls
Mike was recognized with the “Tough as Nails” ball. Mike showed determination in heading for home plate and made an excellent slide. The catcher blocked the plate and Mike ended up getting out, but the fire he displayed is a fine example of what makes him a member of the Lascassas Flames.

Chris received a game ball for his offensive and defensive prowess displayed in the game. Two unassisted double plays, a pair of hits and a pair of runs highlighted Chris’s role.

Tony received a game ball for solid defensive play in the outfield. Two outfield assists that led to outs that kept us in the game.

Thanks
To Perry and David Lee for the help on the base paths. To Frankie for filling in with the scorebook. To Brian for managing the choas of the dugout.