Jan 28th Practice Game

Will and Matthew had their baseball tryouts Saturday. Afterwards Will played in a twelve-year old practice game at Shaw Park, against an East Cobb team. The East Cobb team had been practicing for weeks and was outfitted from head to toe in new, matching Rawlings and Reebok gear, names on the back, etc. The five East Cobb coaches also wore matching outfits. East Cobb won, but it was only because the team Will played with wasn’t that good.

Will played centerfield and shortstop, but didn’t have any balls hit to him. He also caught two innings. At the plate he walked three times and hit the hardest ball of the day, a screaming low line drive that hit the fence on one hop, for a double. Will was the only player to steal third all day, and he also stole second two or three times.

Will was on second when the batter grounded a ball into the hole between the first and second-baseman. The first-baseman had ranged to his right but couldn’t field the ball. The second-baseman charged to his left and was able to field the ball, but there was no play at first base. Instead the second-baseman threw home, and Will was out on a close play, attempting to score from second on a grounder to the second-baseman. He appeared safe to me.

Since it was a practice game the teams would bat through the order instead of changing sides every three outs. The last batter in one inning took a walk to end the inning. The same batter came up last in the next inning, with Will on third. Working deeper into the count, it was apparent the boy wasn’t going to swing. Will noticed the pitcher and catcher weren’t paying him much attention after the pitch, so when the catcher tossed the ball back to the pitcher, Will broke for home on a steal attempt, and was out on another close play.

Will should find out soon what team he’s on…we think we know. Matthew got a good coach…the same fellow that coached Will’s championship Tigers team two years ago. Should be a fun season. At Matthew’s tryout he hit the only pitch in the strike zone, and had some pretty swings at the balls pitched in the dirt. I had told him that since this was tryouts, to go up there and try and hit everything, and that’s what he did.

Friday afternoon I had gotten a call letting me know that Anna had been selected to be the student weather girl on the radio station 104.7FM. This morning they called the house at 6 AM, and Anna repeated back the weather, and they edited the tape and put her on the air. She wasn’t thrilled.

Yesterday afternoon Ceil and Anna went to Staci’s Southern Living party, so I took the boys to see the Zathura movie. Matthew had been feeling under the weather, so Ceil stayed home from church with him yesterday morning. Will had spent the night with Preston and went to church with him, so Anna and I stopped for a doughnut on our way home from church.