The only constant is change.
Posts tagged ironpigs
Summerfest Tournament Game 1: These guys are good!
Jun 23rd
We’re playing in the Oakdale Summerfest tournament, despite not being an Oakdale team. These games don’t count for our league standings, so it’s a great chance to get in some extra games and practice.
In our first game under the lights in three years, we faced the Oakdale Royals, the first-place team in our league. They’re very, very good. Alex started and held them scoreless in the first, and we scored two quick runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 2-0 lead. They came back and scored one in the top of the second, and then added three more in the fourth (I think, things get hazy and I keep forgetting to take a picture of the scorebook so I have the facts). Meanwhile, we were striking out a lot – their pitchers were throwing strikes and getting good movement on the ball. Our best hitters were swinging and missing, and I don’t think it was the lights.
We missed some plays in the field, and they took advantage of the extra outs to score some runs, piling up a 10-2 lead. We managed to get a runner aboard in the bottom of the 7th, when Alex walked to start the inning, but couldn’t get him home.
It was a really good game, and we played hard. The first-place team in our league took us very seriously and played the best baseball we’ve seen all season. We didn’t manage to pull out a win, but we can be proud of the way we played. We’re still in the tournament; best we can do is 3rd place,but that’s what we’re shooting for.
Final score: Loss, 10-2
Tournament record: 0-1
Game 7: 57 and rainy – just another summer day in Minnesota
Jun 22nd
Our adventures with rain continue. It rained from Monday night (after our game, fortunately) through Wednesday morning pretty much non-stop. The Oakdale fields were closed for Wednesday’s games because the rain had rendered them unplayable. Fortunately, we were scheduled for Afton, our home park, which has pretty good drainage and a fair amount of sand mixed with its native clay soil.
We faced the North St Paul River Cats tonight. Like the Raptors, they’re having a tough season – they won their first game, but haven’t been able to put together both hitting and defense in a game since then. They can hit, though – two of their guys hit fly balls that nearly hit the fence, and they hit a few solid singles through our infield.
When the game started, it was about 65 degrees, with a wet breeze. Over the course of the game, though, the skies lowered and the temperature dropped. We have to get in 4-1/2 innings for a game to be official, and as we took the field to start the 4th inning, a light but steady rain was falling. We needed to get six outs, and we also had to bat in the bottom of the 4th. We got three outs fairly quickly, giving up a run in the process, and came to bat with puddles forming near the bases and in the dugouts. In some ways, what we should have done, since we were already leading by something like 10-3, is simply swung through nine pitches and taken the field, hoping to get the game in before the rain stopped play.
The guys, however, are incapable of playing to lose. We can hold them back on the basepaths to prevent running up the score, but they won’t just make outs at the plate on purpose. So we scored seven runs, hitting the limit for an inning, as the rain fell and the temperature dropped even further.
The guys took the field for the top of 5, and the rain let up a bit. We gave up a couple of runs but got three outs, with Marco pitching strong to finish out the game.
Final score: 17-5
Season record: 6-1
Game 6: Which should have been game 8…
Jun 20th
Last Monday’s weather was beautiful, but due to field availability, we were scheduled to play Tuesday.
Tuesday it rained hard, so no game.
Wednesday the league called off games due to field conditions from Tuesday’s rain.
Sigh.
So we got to play tonight, finally. Our opponents were the North St. Paul Raptors. Before the game, we learned that they’d had an equipment mixup and were playing with a set of catcher’s leg guards for a tee-ball league. Since two of their catchers were really big guys, they were playing without leg guards. This is not okay, so we had them use our guards; this meant a delay between innings (since their catcher couldn’t get ready while ours was wearing the guards, and vice versa) and meant that pitchers didn’t get as many warmup throws. It was the best we could do.
The Raptors have been having a tough season – they came into the game 0-6 – and tonight wasn’t much better for them. We have a 7-run-per-inning limit in our league, and we hit it twice, in the first and third inning. Their pitchers were having a hard time throwing strikes, and they made a couple of mistakes in the field that gave us extra outs. They also had some good plays, and showed some pop at the plate, but had a hard time stringing together hits.
Coach Craig had us hold the runners back starting in the third inning; we came into it leading 12-1 and were pretty sure of the outcome of the game, so we stopped stealing. This is a good thing to do from a sportsmanship perspective – running up the score when you are already ahead and the kid pitching can’t find the strike zone is a dick move – but is a bit hard for the guys to understand. They want to keep playing hard, and we want them to keep up the intensity level. You don’t want to build bad habits that can cost you in a close game. Holding back is the right thing to do, and I’m glad we did it (and we’ll do it again), but it’s hard to find the balance.
Alex started and pitched three innings, giving up one run and his second walk of the season. He left with a 19-1 lead.
Final score: 23-8 in 5 innings, and once again it wasn’t that close. We gave them an extra out in the 5th, and we throttled back our running game.
Season record: 5-1
Game 5: The run-down
Jun 8th
We played the North St Paul Rockhounds tonight. When they took the field, we saw giants. They had 5 or 6 players who were as tall as I am. These are 7th graders, mind you. Big kids.
We were the visitors tonight, so we started at the plate. It was a one-two-three inning, with a grounder to 3rd by Alex, a strikeout by Patrick and a liner to the shortstop by Lukas. Not a good start, but then we got to take the field. Alex started tonight, and pitched three innings. He gave up one run, and his first walk of the season. Marco pitched the 4th and 5th.
The highlight play of the game was a run-down in the bottom of the 4th, with Marco pitching, Lucas catching and Nate at 3rd base. Lucas blocked a pitch in the dirt, but the runner on 3rd took off. He realized his mistake when Lucas came up with the ball and ran at him, with Nate ready for the throw at 3rd. We haven’t practiced the run-down at all, but you wouldn’t have known it if you were watching. Nate and Lucas had the runner in the hot box, and with the runner watching those two, Marco picked a throw from Nate to Lucas out of the air and applied the tag. It was a beautiful thing.
We had started hitting in the bottom of the second, finishing the inning with 6 runs. We piled on more, and went to the bottom of the 5th with an 18-run lead. We had a hard time finding outs, with a couple of defensive misplays and the ump calling a tight strike zone (which he should, with us having that big of a lead), but eventually managed to close it out.
Final score: 19-8, and it wasn’t that close. We gave them 5 outs in the 5th.
Season record: 4-1.
Game 4: If you can’t stand the heat…
Jun 7th
Temperature at game time today was, and I am not making this up, one hundred and five of our American Fahrenheit degrees. There was a stiff breeze, which at that temperature does not help. It felt like we were playing in a convection oven.
We faced our first Maplewood team of the year, the Muckdogs. As it happens, this is the team that came in second in the B league last year as the Owlz. We came in first, in case you were wondering – as the Ironbirds, we beat the Owlz in the championship game, which was well-played the whole way. They have a lot of good players, and we expected a good game.
We got one.
Things started off rocky, with the guys giving up three runs in the top of the first. We came back strong and scored six runs in the bottom of the inning, and the rest of the game was a battle, with both teams hitting and running well. We fell behind by two runs at one point, and when we came to bat in the bottom of the 5th, we were trailing by a run. In our league, no new inning can start after 8:15, and we took the field after 8 PM, meaning that we were playing the final inning of the game.
Alex led off the inning with his third hit of the game, a towering fly to short center that fell in for a hit. He took a big lead off first, and the pitcher threw over and missed the first baseman. Alex took off, rounded second and third and scored the tying run. Three bases on a throwing error – not bad if you can get it. Patrick got a double, Luke Pasiuk got a hit, sending Patrick to 3rd, and Marco hit a single that scored Patrick, winning the game.
Final score, 11-10 – a nailbiter all the way.
Season record: 3-1.
Game 3: Starting to Click
Jun 1st
We played the Oakdale Phillies tonight. One of the odd things about the A League is that some of the boys are 13-going-on-14 (as Alex will be next year) and have hit a growth spurt. In tonight’s game, two of the Phillies were as tall as their coaches – who were about my height (5-10 if I have good posture).
Alex pitched three solid innings. I think he gave up a run in the second inning, but I’m not sure. He did not have a good night at the plate – he hit a triple, but struck out twice. He was thrown out trying to steal home on a passed ball (the catcher got a good bounce off the fence behind home plate), so finished the night with no runs scored.
Final score: Ironpigs 10, Phillies 3.
Season record: 2-1.
Game 2: That was fun!
May 25th
Our second game went much better. We played the Roseville Orioles. The guys were fired up after losing on Monday, so they came ready to play. I think they were also over first-game jitters, and since we were the visiting team, we got to start off hitting. Generally speaking, the guys want to be the home team, partly so they get “last ups,” and partly because they like fielding.
They also like hitting, and we started things off right tonight with Alex hitting a lead-off triple and scoring a couple of pitches later. For the night, he was 2 for 3, with a triple, a single, two stolen bases and two runs scored. He also pitched two innings, played three innings at first and two at third, making pickoff plays on both sides of the infield. He had a very good night. :) So did the rest of the team, both at the plate and in the field.
Final score: 14-2, Ironpigs over the Orioles.
Season record: 1-1
Game 1: Harsh Lessons
May 23rd
Alex is playing baseball again this year, still in the Maplewood Athletic Association (www.maplewoodbaseball.org). He’s in 6th grade, so we’ve moved up to the A league, which is 6th and 7th grade boys (girls are allowed, but rare – I believe we had one girl playing in the B league last year). He’s been playing with (and I’ve been coaching) the same set of guys for four years now. When he was in 3rd grade, we were the Bats, and did well – C league was 2nd and 3rd graders, so we were older.
B league was hard the first year – we had a losing record as the Mudcats, despite playing well enough to stay in games. The B league is the first level where kids are pitching, and learning how to throw strikes, and how to hit real pitches, was tough. Our second year, we were the Ironbirds, and played very well – our season record was 12-2, 3rd best in the league (and the best record for a Maplewood team – one from Little Canada and one from Roseville had better records). We went into the tournament as the 3rd seed and won.
A new year brings a new league. The A league has longer basepaths – 70-75 feet instead of the 60 feet of the C and B leagues – and runners are allowed to lead off. Which means pitchers have to hold baserunners on, so the balk comes into play.
It’s a whole new game, and it’s going to take some getting used to. We were counting on some practice over the weekend in the annual Jamboree – a pre-season set of exhibition games that don’t count in the standings but do give our guys the chance to find out what it’s like to play. As it happened, the weather didn’t cooperate – both of our Saturday games were canceled, and we got in about 3/4 of an inning of a game on Sunday before the thunderstorms rolled in.
So we went into tonight’s game not as prepared as we would like to have been. We only had one really bad inning in the field, but couldn’t string together hits.
In the end, we got beat by the Roseville Giants 12-3 (I think, I’ll update the score when it’s posted). Alex pitched well, giving up a couple of hits and a couple of runs, but he also struck out two and fielded his position well. He didn’t do too well at the plate, though – two strikeouts and a walk. He did steal second, steal third and go home on an overthrow, though.
We’ll get ‘em next time.
[Updated to reflect actual score. Ouch.]
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