A Rocky Start in Georgia

Well, the season has begun. For those of you new to following our team, let me back up. This team started as the Smyrna Bulldogs five years ago. Jay Vondohlen, our head coach, was coaching rec league and decided to put a travel team together. Throughout the years, we have lost players and added players, but the majority of the boys that started with Jay are still with Jay.

We have Coach Jay Vondohlen, Coach Chris Ellis, Coach Brian Turner, and Coach Lee Freeman. Meet our boys: Maddox Vondohlen, Ty Ellis, John Turner, Daniel Freeman, Austin Steel, Dawson Hamilton, Dawson Kula, Kavan Hill, Corey Perkins, Julian Shanklin, Cody Miller, and Seth Gardner.

Last year was by far our most rewarding year. We played 73 ballgames last summer and our record was 67-6. We won several tournaments including the USSSA World Series in St. Louis.

This year, however, we are off to a little bit slower start. We had our first tournament in Marietta this past weekend. We won 2 and lost 2. This was the boys' first play of the year and as everyone knows, it will take some time for them to get their groove together. Most of the teams we played had already played in 10-15 games so they did have a jump on us.

Defensively, the Bulldogs played well, but their bats needed a little help....as they get older the pitching gets faster but I have no doubt within a couple of more tournaments, these boys will find their team power from last year and be back on top again!

Now, more about the Marietta tournament. We all traveled down Friday night and a few of us went to dinner together. Saturday morning we headed to the ball field where we won our first game against the Hobgood Heat pretty handily.

Later that afternoon we lost to the East Cobb Bandits. The boys hung their heads, but pulled it together quickly enough later to play in the hottub and a little game of cornhole.

Sunday morning we all gathered at the park for a nice devotional lead by Coach Jay. Then we hit the field to play the Georgia Titans and won. The boys were on a high, until we hit the field with the East Cobb Tigers. The teams were pretty evenly matched, but our sticks were just not on this time. We all drove home in the rain - but made it back safely.

One last note, one of our players, Kavan Hill was injured in a scrimmage last week and fractured his arm. Everyone please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. We all wish him a speedy recovery so he can rejoin us soon!