Will's Feb. 27th game

Will played in a baseball game with the Sandy Plains 12 & under Cougars Sunday evening. They gave him a uniform, and he’ll play with them when he’s available, and they need players. They usually aren’t as good as their competition, but it’s good practice for Will. Even though they’re twelve year olds, the smaller field dimensions and quality competition makes it good for Will. Thursday at Mt. Paran a former teammate told me his Colt team needed pitchers and catchers, so I told Will to talk to the coach. He’s already better than some of the boys, though the competition may be a bit much. We won’t get his Mt. Paran Pony schedule until later in the week. The temperatures were dropping, especially after the sun went down. Matthew played for a while, then sat in my lap, wore my gloves, and had a blanket around him. I had on one golf glove, and I would cover his ears with my hands, and breathe into the back of his head. Will batted leadoff, but has only had a few practices with his Pony team, so the closer Bronco mound threw off his timing all the more. After ball one and two late swings, the fourth pitch was in the same spot the umpire had called the first pitch a ball. This time the ump called it a strike. I couldn’t tell from my spot near third base. He reached base in his other at bat, when the right-fielder wasn’t able to catch the ball. Will turned his ankle as he took off on a stolen base, but still managed to hook slide in safely. He was stranded there. Will played two innings at shortstop, and an inning each at third base and centerfield. In the first inning he fielded a grounder and threw out the batter at first. In the fifth inning, with one out and runners on first and second, Will ended the rally with an unassisted double play. The batter lined the ball at Will. Even though the ball was knuckling a little, Will caught it, and beat the baserunner back to the bag to end the inning. He had two other balls hit to him at short. In the first Will went deep into the hole and dove, fielding the ball cleanly. He threw to first while sitting on his rear, though he had no chance to catch the batter. A nice play. In the fifth Will fielded a tough grounder and had to hurry his throw, but the first baseman wasn’t able to handle the throw…a tough play all around. In centerfield Will almost made a great catch. Will ran into the fence about the same time the ball hit off the fence, Will barely missing making the catch. He fell down, but quickly got up, picked up the ball, and fired a strike to second base, actually holding the batter to a single.