Boys take Sparta by Storm - AGAIN!

Well, originally we were going to take this weekend off and have a yard sale. But after the poor showing last weekend in Southaven, the team decided that we needed some playing time. But....we didn't want to play the same local teams we always play. They say you have to play good competition in order to get better.....so we decided to play 11 year olds. We went into this weekend with the mentality that it wasn't about winning, it was about getting better. If you want to improve you have to play someone better than you. If you are always playing weaker teams, you will tend to play to the level of competition that you are against. So, with that said, we were off again to Sparta to play in the 11 year old bracket.

This is how we start every game - we are so thankful for our Christian coaches.

We started off pretty hot. We played a decent team called Blue Baseball. We kept them to 5-0 for the first 4 innings, then we started booting the ball around and let them come back on us 5-4. But we held them at 4 and won that game.

Easy jog across home plate.

The second game played immediately afterwards was against a team called Mean Machine - with skulls and crossbones on their jerseys. We beat them 10-2. This one included an out of the park homer by Julian Shanklin. We came into Sunday being first seed.

Congrats on that homerun Julian!

Sunday, we were up against the Mean Machine team again and this time run ruling them in three and a half innings....12-4. Then we played a team from Chattanooga for the championship. We beat them 5-2 in what was a really good game. Austin pitched all 6 innings of the championship game and only allowed 2 runs scored.


All the boys played awesome. They all hit the ball like they are capable of doing...they all fielded the ball like the Bulldogs we know......and they came together as a team. This weekend was a blast to watch these boys play so well. We are still undefeated in Tennessee....now if we can just win outside of state! This weekend we play in LaVergne, close to home. Our record is 16-4!

Tuckered out boys on the way home (and very dirty!!!)

Beat at Southaven

Well......they say it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game.....try to convince 10 year olds of this! We started off really rocky...REALLY rocky.

First of all, two of our mom's got speeding tickets on the way to Southaven, MS Friday afternoon (and yes, I was one of them) and another mom broke down on the side of the road 100 miles out Saturday morning. So, that was a rough start all by itself.

Then someone besides the Bulldogs showed up to play at 9:30PM Friday night. It was funny because they had our sons' bodies but didn't play like our boys. We lost our first game 2-3. We went back to our hotel rooms with our tails tucked.

Saturday morning they woke up with a renewed sense of what baseball is all about! We won the first game 10-1. Daniel Freeman sent one sailing over the fence with bases loaded - our first grand slam. Then a few batters later, John Turner sent one sailing over the fence with two on base. What a wonderful win!

The tournament was set up to start Saturday night. So after one loss and one win, we were seeded 6th and getting ready to play the #10 seed at 6PM Saturday. We won that one 18-1 in the 3rd inning. Yes, you read that right! 18-1!!!! Austin Steel (my son!) send TWO sailing over the fence, both times, bases loaded. He hit two grand slam homeruns in the same game. Then Daniel sent another one over the fence for his second homerun of the day! The boys were definitely on a high.

Austin jumping on homeplate after 'trotting' around the bases following his grand slam!

We headed back to the hotel for a little fun and relaxation. Maybe too much relaxation.

Sunday they showed up looking like the same boys that played Friday night. The opposing team shut us down 0-3 in 6 full innings. This is the first time in kid pitch that we have been shut out. Bummed and sad, we packed up and headed home. We are still undefeated in TN and our record is 12-4. We still have alot of baseball coming this season so stay tuned!

WE GOT IT!!!

Just found out that because the boys won first seed last weekend by a landslide, and given our record and history, we were awarded the berth to Disney even though the qualifying tournament was rained out. That means we have an invitation to play in the Disney World Series in Orlando in July! Look out Mickey Mouse, here we come!!!

This weekend we play in Franklin - local teams again. Probably the same ones we've seen for 5 years now. Good luck to all our boys on Mother's Day!

Another rainout in Kingsport

Where is all this rain coming from??? It's crazy - we are approaching the rainiest ball season ever. This is the third rainout we have had. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share because Keith and I were out of town and we handed Austin over to the coach's wife for the weekend. But I did get updates.

The first game was played at 9AM and the boys shut down the opposing team in three innings....winning 19-1. Then they waited around for a few hours to play again at 4PM. The next team they played had won their previous game 16-4 so we thought we were going to face some competition this time. But once again, our boys shut them down....winning 13-0. This set them up for 1st seed to play on Sunday for the championship.

We needed to win or place second in order to receive a berth (invitation) to play in the World Series in Orlando at Disney. The games were delayed for two hours Sunday morning and eventually canceling due to the overwhelming rains.

We hope to find out this week if our 1st place seeding is enough to get us the berth or if we actually had to finish the tournament, even though the canceling was out of our control. If we do not receive the berth, then we will have to play in SouthHaven, MS and place 1st or 2nd there in a couple of weeks.

Stayed tuned...this weekend, we play locally in Franklin at the Mother's Day Classic - we won it last year. The boys are back to defend their title. (if it doesn't rain us out!!!)