Here we are on cable tv! LOL!

Christian has joined the U12 SK Cyclones and his jersey is #3.

#2 BJ and I are still on the U9 SK Sounders.

#7 Alyson is on the U6 SK Tigers.

The boys and I went to the movies this weekend. It was a fun summer popcorn movie that doesn’t take itself seriously. My favorite part was this scene.

When Horvath is trying to get Dave’s college file, the security officer behind the desk asks him for his faculty identification card. Horvath replies, “You do not need to see my faculty identification card,” while using magic to trick the officer. Drake Stone then says, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”

The video group at CPCS did a great job of interviewing the kids for the video year book. I was surprised that Alyson said she wanted to be a police officer…She’s told us before that she wanted to be an eye doctor, a cheerleader and a butterfly when she grows up! LOL.

Presented by Mrs. Stokke’s Kindergarten class at Cedar Park Christian School on June 8th.

All good things must come to an end. A heart breaking loss for the team in green.

Our defense had ups and downs in the game. In the first Alex had a 1-4 with Christian for the 1st out, Reilly caught a pop up for the 2nd out. But the damage had already been done with team Windermere scoring 5 runs on us.

Christian pitched a brilliant 2nd inning shutting down the side. He got two 1-3 combos with Reilly and Jordan caught a pop-up at catcher.

Being down 5 runs we had our work cut out for us. But we scored our first run in the third inning when Sean had a nice double to drive Chris home.

Christian struggled in the 3rd inning giving up a hit and 4 walks for 2 earned runs before striking out the fifth batter. Chris relieved Christian in the third inning finishing with a line drive on the mound for the 2nd out and a 1-3 with Reilly to finish the inning.

In the fourth, we score 4 more runs to get us in the get us to 5-7. Alex R walked, Reilly had a base hit, Ian had an RBI single with boys in scoring position, Alex B had a sacrifice RBI single and Christian also had a sacrifice RBI single.

Chris had a nice 4th inning facing 4 batters. He had another 1-3 combo with Reilly and 2 strike outs.

In the 5th inning, Benji gets a clutch 1st pitch single, Alex R and Reilly are walked. Ian you had a big hit in the last inning gets out on an Infield Fly Rule. Next our MVP of the game Jack comes in with a big 2 RBI hit to drive in 2 runs! The score is now 7-7.

Chris started the 5th strong, but then they started getting hits on him. Jordan came in to try to shut them down, but Windermere’s hot bats got 2 more hits before Jordan got his 1st strike out and Chris got another pop up at short.

In the bottom of the sixth, with the top of our order Christian strikes out looking on a high pitch over the shoulders. Chris gets on board on a single. Jordan also strikes out looking. Sean gets a single. With 2 runners on board, Benji hits a big hit to center field which was caught by Windermere, game over.

Congrats to the Echelbarger Phantoms for an awesome season! 12-4 record or 13-3 if you want to correct the umps call for the 5/15 game. Then go 2 and 2 in the post season. They should feel good about getting themselves this far.

I’d like to thank our coaching staff; Hans, Jeff and Mike. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to mold these raw players into a true baseball team. Thanks to Carolyn and Becky for being our team moms, Jesica and Karin for keeping the score book and to all that have helped with pitch counts and score board. Thanks to Tyler Echelbarger for supporting Pacific Little League and coming out to practice with us. Thanks to the Meadowdale High School players Taylor, Tyler and TJ. Mike Heck for helping us out. Finally thank you parents for bringing the players to practice, games and supporting the team.

The Phantoms fought hard to the end. They broke my Field 1 curse with 5 wins. It has been my pleasure coaching this team. See you next season!

Final Score: Echelbarger 7 – Windermere 10

A day in the sun! Team Echelbarger starting off strong! But the defense collapses in the 5th and the Phantoms go down to the lower bracket just like that.

The bats were alive in the 1st inning with Chris getting a double, Jordan drives him in with another double, Sean gets walked, Jordan steals home and Ryan drives in Sean with a single. In the 3rd inning we loaded the bases with no outs with Chris at bat, hits a line drive to the 3rd baseman who then tags Alex R at 3rd for a double play. Sean strikes out looking the end the top of the 3rd. The Phantoms get shut down for the rest of the game.

On defense, Chris gets a 6-3 with Reilly in the third, Alex R gets an 8-6 with Jordan and Jordan gets a 6-3 with Reilly in the 4th. Jordan gets another 6-3 with Reilly for the 2nd out of the fifth.

Our MVP was Sean going 3.2 innings pitching for us facing 15 batters, 25 strikes of 41 pitches, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk, 6 hits and 3 earned runs.

Chris pitched the finishing the 4th inning, going 1 inning facing 8 batters 15 strikes of 19 pitches with 1 strikeout, 1 walk, 5 hits and 3 earned runs. Jordan closed us out with 1 strikeout in 4 pitches.

What should have been an easy inning with the bottom half of Wilcox’s line up, they had 4 solid hits score 3 runs.

Final Score: Echelbarger 3 – Wilcox 6

A nail-bitter of a game for Team Echelbarger. We had solid pitching and great fielding. We just couldn’t get our runners on base home and stranded 5. The Phantoms out hit Interbay 7 to 5 and we were even on walks with 4 a piece.

We have Pitching! Christian who pitched a great game for us in the last regular season game started us off, but struggled to throw the ball down over the plate. He had walked 2 runners, hit a player and earned 1 run. So I had to pull him early. Chris relieved him going 2.2 innings facing 10 batters with 30 strikes of 47 pitches, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 hits and 1 earned run.

We have defense! This is one of the best fielding teams I’ve coached. For the most part we are taking care of the baseball. Chris had a 6-3 with Reilly in the first inning. Alex R started a 9-6 combo with Sean in the second. Sean caught a huge pop-fly to left field for the final out of the fourth and Benji caught a pop-fly to center for the 1st out of the fifth.

We have bats! The coaching staff and I took too many risky base running moves today and we got burned 3 times. We under estimated their catcher and third baseman. Chris hit a single in the bottom of the first, but got tagged out on a single from Sean. In the bottom of the third inning, Alex R & Alex B got walked. Christian hits an RBI single to get Alex R home, but Alex B got tagged out at 3rd.

The MVP of the game was Jordan. He pitched 3 innings facing 11 batters with 29 strikes of 42 pitches, 7 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 hit and 0 earned runs. He gunned down the runner leading off at 1st with a 2-3 with Reilly for the 2nd out of the second. Jo Jo went 3 for 3 at the plate. A single in the first, a lead off double in the fourth on which Sean had a RBI sac fly to left field to tie the game, and a single in the bottom of the sixth inning to become the winning run on a single hit from Benji!

The Phantoms have the entire 6 man pitching staff ready for Friday’s game against team Wilcox. We are going to need them as we will only have 1 day of rest for Sunday’s Championship game. Wilcox is a sleeper team that was off the radar until the playoffs. Their bottom 5 players of their lineup has combined for 5 hits in the regular season. But their bats erupted in the sixth inning against Bennett & Bennett with 12-0 runs. The score reverted to 2-0 as they didn’t complete the sixth inning.

I am hopeful that the team in green will persevere and play in the Championship game!

Next game is 5:00 pm Friday, June 11th on Lynndale Field 2. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Interbay 2 – Echelbarger 3

A nice game for the Phantoms! Fun in the sun, great baseball and a ‘W’ in the W/L column. Playoff game 1 is in the books and the team in green shows the league who the team to beat is.

We have Pitching! Chris started us off strong going 3 innings facing 10 batters with 32 strikes of 49 pitches, 4 strikeouts, 0 walks, 2 hits and 0 earned runs. Jordan pitched the rest of the game facing 14 batters with 30 strikes of 38 pitches, 4 strikeouts, 1 walk, 5 hits and 2 earned runs.

We have defense! In the second inning a hard ground ball was hit to Reilly and bounced over to Ryan who then threw it back to Reilly for an incredible 3-4-3 play to get the 1st out. Sean caught a grounder and tossed it over to Ryan for 6-4. Reilly caught a line drive at 1st base in the 3rd and a pop-up in the 4th. In the fifth inning a hard shot to left field got past Sean, but he stayed with it and threw the ball down to Chris who then threw the ball to Ian for the tag at 3rd 7-6-5!

We have Bats! Chris lead us off with a single, Ryan got walked and Jordan hit a single to load the bases. Sean then drove 2 runs in with a double. Jordan should have been safe for the 3rd run, but he didn’t slide and was called out at home. In the 2nd inning, Alex R and Chris got walked. Then Ryan had a hard hit line drive for an RBI, Jordan had an RBI single and Sean drove in a run. Reilly got walked in the 3rd and then Jack drove him in with a single.

Our MVP of the game was Benji. He was pretty quiet at the plate with only a sacrifice RBI to drive Jordan in for our last run of the match. Defensively Benji grabbed a nice pop fly at center field in the first inning, tagged the runner trying to steal home for the 1st out of the third, caught a pop-fly at 1st base in the fourth and had a 2-5 play with Ian in the sixth.

The Phantoms were ready to play from the first pitch. They cheered their players on and wanted the game more than Point B. Team Echelbarger is the most feared team in the league.

Our next game is Tuesday, June 8th at 5:00 pm against Interbay Foods on Lynndale Field 2. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Point B 2 – Echelbarger 8

Band Name Hollow performs Traveling On at Ed & Eva’s wedding reception.

The Phantoms finish out the season on a strong note with a decisive win. Team Echelbarger scored 18 runs in 6 innings and hold the Blue Devils to 1 run, 2 hits and 0 walks. They had it all, great pitching, solid defense and awesome bats.

We have pitching! After Christian’s last outing, he got serious and worked on his pitching for several days with Jordan. He got his first start since the 3rd game of the season and pitched very well. Christian went 2 innings facing 8 batters with a pitch count of 33, 21 strikes, 5 strikeouts, 2 hits, 0 walks and 1 earned run. Chris pitched the third and fourth innings facing 6 batters with a pitch count of 24, 17 strikes, 4 strikeouts, 0 hits, 0 walks and 0 earned runs. Jordan pitched the fifth facing 3 batters with a pitch count of 12, 8 strikes, 0 hits, 0 walks and 0 earned runs. They combined for 46 strikes of 69 pitches holding Distinctive Glass to 2 hits, 0 walks and 10 strikeouts.

We have defense! With the awesome pitching, we didn’t have much action on the field…But we did get some plays. Christian had a 1-3 with Reilly in the first inning. Chris had a 1-3 with Alex B and Sean had a 6-3 with Alex in the fourth. Christian had a 4-3 with Benji in the fifth.

We have bats! The Phantoms offense was on tonight. They had 19 hits, 8 walks, 15 RBI’s and 18 runs scored in six innings. Just about the entire team came home. In the sixth inning, with bases loaded Jordan hit a base clearing double. After the opposing pitcher caught a line drive to get an out in the top of the sixth, we ended the game due to time. So the Phantoms reverted back to 11 runs.

Everyone played well and everyone deserved a game ball tonight. But our MVP of the night was Reilly for a spectacular pop-fly catch at center field for the first out of the fifth inning.

Team Echelbarger is looking great for the playoffs. I would say we have an advantage in the 3 areas of baseball. We have a solid pitching staff with Alex R, Christian, Chris, Jordan, Ryan and Sean. I don’t think any other team in the league has 6 solid pitchers.

We have shown awesome defense, every infield position has a primary and a secondary that can start in that position. At first we have Reilly and Benji. At second we have Christian and Ryan. At shortstop we have Chris and Sean. At third we have Ian and Alex R. At catcher we have Jordan, Benji and Alex R. We have solid outfielders with Alex B, Jack and Ceasar. When we are on, I don’t think any other team can match this defense.

The Phantoms have fire power behind the plate. Every single player on this team can hit the baseball. We have speed at the top of the line up, the ability to move runners and big bats in the later part of our lineup. For the season, the team in green has had 180 vs 121 hits, 133 vs 100 walks and 162 vs 101 runs.

The playoffs begin on June 1st and we have a BYE in the first round. We will play against the winner of the Point B / IRG Flames match. Our first playoff game is Saturday, June 5th on Field 2 at 1:00 pm. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 11 – Distinctive Glass 1

“We have Bats! We have Defense! We have Pitching! We have Style! Who are we? PHANTOMS!!!” is the new cheer for this season. Team Echelbarger came out to play great baseball and win an awesome game against Showcase Sports.

Sometimes as head coach you need to chew out the team to start the fire within the players. We had a chat before the game on how we needed to step up, be focused, cheer for our teammates, call the plays and play Phantoms baseball. I told the team that it was up to each individual player to bring it and not the responsibility of the coaching staff to get them fired up.

We have Pitching! We had 6 innings of solid pitching with 73 combined strikes. Chris started the game facing 3 batters, 8 strikes, 2 strike outs, 0 hits, 0 walks and 0 runs. Ryan pitched the second facing 4 batters, 9 strikes, 3 strike outs, 0 hits, 1 walk and 0 runs. Jordan pitched 3 innings facing 18 batters, 46 strikes, 8 strike outs, 7 hits, 2 walks and 4 earned runs.

We have Defense! Christian had a 4-3 play with Benji in the first inning. Alex B caught a grounder at first base to tag the runner out to end the 5th. Christian had a 4-3 play with Ryan to get the 1st out of the sixth.

We have Bats! Christian lead us off with a lead off single, Chris drove him in with a first pitch triple. Sean has an RBI double to score Chris and Benji drive Sean home with a double. Chris leads off the third inning with single, Jordan moves the runner to 3rd but is thrown out at 1st, Sean drives Chris home with a single. Sean steals home on a error to the pitcher and Ryan takes 1st base on a catchers interference. In the fourth inning Ceasar gets walked, Ian hits an RBI single, Jack hits an RBI single, Alex B is walked, Chris hits an RBI single, Jordan hits an RBI single and Sean drives in the 5th run to end the inning.

Alex R was our MVP of the game. I told him that he would get the game ball if he struck out the last batter of the game and he did! He had a 1-3 play with Ryan in the sixth and hit a single in the 5th.

We have Style! The team showed real character on the field today and commanded the game from the first pitch. We have one more regular season game before the playoffs and the Phantoms look ready to play.

Our next game is Wednesday, May 26th against Distinctive Glass at 7:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Showcase 4 – Echelbarger 10

Sometimes the ump makes the wrong call and that’s baseball… In a controversial call on the last play of the game, the Phantoms lose, but technically won the game. We have to remember that the minors level is a developmental division, we don’t keep track of wins or loses and standings.

Yogi Berra once said that “Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical…” I’m not sure if the Phantoms are too confident or if they are just getting bored. In the last couple of games, the team in green hasn’t been ready mentally to play baseball. The kids are quiet on the bench, not cheering for each other and not playing like a good team.

The Phantoms had a season low of 6 hits and 14 strike outs for the game. Sean contributed with a double in the sixth inning. Chris, Sean, Ceasar and Ian had singles. As a team we were held to 5 base on balls.

Alex R was our starting pitcher going 1 inning facing 5 batters with 1 strike out, 0 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs given up on a throwing error. Chris pitched the second facing 7 batters with 0 strike outs, 5 hits, 0 walks and 1 run given up. Ryan pitched the third inning facing 5 batters, 1 strike out, 2 walks and 0 runs. Ian pitched the fourth facing 6 batters, 1 hit, 3 walks and 2 runs given up. Jordan pitched the fifth facing 3 batters, 2 strike outs, 0 hits, 0 walks and 0 runs. Christian started the sixth struggling to find his control walking 3 batters, 1 strike out and 3 earned runs. Sean closed us out with 1 strike out and 1 walk.

We had a couple good plays in the game. Sean caught nice pop up at 3rd base. Chris had a 6-3 combo with Ryan in the first inning. Alex B started a 9-4-1-6 with Christian, Chris and Sean. Chris had 1-2 with Jordan and a caught a line drive a pitcher in the second. Ryan had a pop-up at pitcher and Sean caught a pop-up at short in the third. Ian had a 1-4 with Ryan, a pair of 1-3’s with Jordan in the fourth.

Jordan was our MVP for the game. He had the 1-2, two 1-3’s and 1-3 with Ryan at 1st base in the fifth inning and 2 strike outs facing 3 batters. Jordan had a double in the 3rd and was hit by a pitch in the fifth.

In the last play of the game, Sean with the count of 2 and 2 pitched to the lead off batter Michael #2 on Windermere. Michael hit a grounder to 1st and Ryan caught the ball and immediately ran toward 1st base. Ryan beat the runner by 2 strides and collided with Michael at first. Sean who was helping to cover 1st was base was blocking the view of the fielding ump and the runner was called safe. The go ahead run at 3rd came home and we lost the game. I would have contested the call with the home plate ump had it been a playoff game, but in the end it didn’t matter and there is another game to play on Monday.

Final Score: Echelbarger 7 – Windermere 8

Sometimes experiments don’t work out. I tried out kids in new positions tonight and we missed some opportunities on the field. The Phantoms end up loosing a good game and their record is now 10-3.

Alex B started us off pitching tonight facing 9 batters with 21 strikes, 1 strikeout, 3 hits and 5 earned runs in 1 inning. Jordan settled things down going 4 innings facing 18 batters with 50 strikes, 9 strikeouts, 6 hits, 1 walk and 2 earned runs. Sean started the 6th with 10 strikes, 1 strikeout, 3 hits, 1 walk and 4 earned runs.

Defensively we didn’t do much this evening. Routine plays were missed and there was no movement by the players. Sparta’s had some big hits, but our outfielders didn’t get under the ball to make the catches. Reilly got a ground out tag in the second at 1st and a 1-3 combo with Jordan at pitcher in the fifth. Ryan had an 8-4 play with Alex R in the third and Ian started a 8-4 tag at 2nd with Benji in the sixth.

The Phantoms bats kept us close tonight tying the game at 7-7 in the bottom of the 4th. But we couldn’t generate a 5 run inning to take us over the top. Jordan and Ceasar both had doubles tonight. We had singles from Ryan, Jordan, Benji, Sean, Jack and Ceasar. Sparta’s out hit the Phantoms 14 to 12 and held us to 3 walks.

The MVP of the game was Christian who had a nice game going 2 for 2 at bats with 1 walk. He had a hard hit RBI double in the 1st and an RBI triple in the 3rd. Christian closed us out with 8 strikes, 1 strikeout, 2 hits, 1 walk and 1 earned run.

Our next game is Saturday, May 15th against Windermere at 5:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Sparta’s 12 – Echelbarger 9

The Phantoms win again! Team Echelbarger is now 10-2 for the season and are being called the team to win it all by the other coaches in the league. However, we still have 4 games left in the regular season and other teams are improving as well.

The Phantoms only had 9 players and didn’t seem too interested in playing tonight. Maybe it was that this was the first 5:00 pm game we’ve had in a while and we’ve are used to playing the late 7:00 pm games. The first inning was a disaster for the team in green, missed opportunities and let Point B get 5 runs in.

We only used 2 pitchers and overall we had pretty good pitching after the first inning. Ryan was our starter facing 11 batters in 2 innings. He had 23 strikes, 2 strikeouts, 4 hits, 2 walks and 5 earned runs. Jordan pitched 3 innings facing 14 batters, 31 strikes, 5 strikeouts, 6 hits, 0 walks and 2 earned runs. Both combined for a league season second best 76 pitch count for the evening. The lowest pitch count for the season is 68 by Point B on 3/30 against Wilcox.

Team Echelbarger had 13 runs on the board with 9 hits, 13 walks and 3 hit by pitches. Point B actually out hit the Phantoms with 10 hits, but only got 2 walks for the game. Alex B lead us off again going 2 for 3 at the plate, 1 HBP, 1 RBI and grounded out in the 4th. Ryan contributed with a RBI double in the second.

Defensively Benji caught a pop fly to end the fourth inning and Jordan caught a pop-up at pitcher for the 1st out of the fifth frame.

Our MVP of the game was Reilly. He has been a solid first baseman for the entire season. He leads the team with 32 putouts for the Spring and 5 of those this evening. Reilly had three 1-3 plays with Ryan in the first and second innings. In the fifth inning had a pair of 6-3 plays with Sean. He was patient at the plate with 4 walks and 1 run scored. Awesome job Reilly!

I’m letting the kids play some positions that they normally don’t play in the next couple of games. We’ll also get one last look for the pitchers I haven’t identified for the playoff rotation. We’ll have at least have 5, maybe 7 players going for us on the mound in the post season. I like our chances.

Our next game is a 7:00 pm rematch against team Sparta’s on Monday, May 10th at Lynndale Field 2. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Point B 7 – Echelbarger 13

A well executed game by the Phantoms this evening. They had pitching, defense and offense. Team Echelbarger goes into games believing that they will win.

I stated at the beginning of the season that our objectives are to have Fun, learn the game of Baseball, have good sportsmanship, provide a positive environment and measure our success on our improvement and the above. Not wins and losses. I think we are moving in that direction.

Teams are selected by blind draft in the minors division. I only knew what I was getting with my assistant coaches kids. The rest of the team was unknown. After observing the team after first practice, Coach Jeff and I talked about how we really needed start with basics. Throwing the ball, catching and proper batting techniques.

Those first few practices were pretty rough, but the boys were eager to learn and put in the effort to practice what we coaches were teaching. The Phantoms have come a long way since then and everyone is contributing as a team. I would argue that we have the best defense on the field, have great pitching and we’ve always had awesome bats. They ARE the team to beat going into the post season.

Ryan was our starting pitcher going 2 innings facing 9 batters with 15 strikes, 1 strikeout, 3 hits, 2 walks and 1 earned run. Jordan pitched 2.2 innings facing 11 batters, 32 strikes, 5 strikeouts, 3 hits, 0 walks and 0 earned runs. Sean pitched 1 inning facing 3 batters, 7 strikes, 1 strikeout, 1 hit and 1 earned run. Christian closed out the game again.

Everyone contributed on offense tonight, we had 14 hits, 7 walks, 8 RBI’s and 10 runs scored. Alex B got his first start at lead off going 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored. We stole home a couple times and took extra bases with runners in scoring position. I’m pretty happy with our aggressive base running and taking a base on every passed ball.

The Phantom defense was in top form. We got all 18 outs for a six inning game. Just about the entire team had a play tonight. In the 1st Alex R had an incredible diving catch with on the knees 4-3 play with Reilly. Reilly had a nice catch at 1st for the tag for the 2nd out.

In the second inning Jack had a 5-3 play with Reilly. Jordan had a pop-up play at pitcher in the fourth. Sean had 1-2 with Alex in the sixth and Christian also had a 1-2 with Alex to end the game.

Our MVP of the game was Benji. He took one for the team with a first pitch HBP (Hit By Pitch) and scored. Benji and Sean had a 2-5 play to end the first, he had a 2-1 play with Ryan in the 2nd, Chris and a pair of 6-3’s with Benji in the third and a 1-2 with Sean to end the 5th. A great defensive game for ‘G’!

The Phantoms are learning the game of baseball. They are running their own drills before games with only suggestions from the coaches and are continuing to practice after our time is over. They have really become a team and it’s a pleasure to watch them grow.

Our next game is 5:00 pm, Wednesday against Point B on Lynndale Field 2. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 10 – Interbay Foods 2

The Phantoms win an intense game against a very good opponent. Harbor Square came out firing to get 5 runs in the 1st inning. With the cards stacked against us, I fired up the Phantoms and they took the lead in the 3rd inning. For the most part I like to observe games and let the kids play baseball, but sometimes you have to motivate the players when they are down. I really believe that these kids can win any game as long as they believe in themselves!

The game should have ended at the top of the 5th due to time, but the umpire in chief said that we should play until lights out. Unless it’s tournament time, I think we need get the kids home on a school night.

Our bats remain our biggest asset as we had 11 hits, 9 walks, 8 RBIs and 9 runs. We were pretty aggressive on bases and Chris got thrown out at second by their catcher. We backed off on the delayed steal for the rest of the game.

Defensively we had a couple mistakes on the field, but we managed to get some good plays. Chris got a 6-4 play with Christian in the 1st inning. Christian had a 4-3 play with Reilly in the 2nd. Alex R had a 2-1 play with Chris to end the top of the 3rd. Alex R also had a 2-1 play with Christian to end the game.

We had an incredible double play to get 2 outs in the top of the sixth. Ryan caught a line drive at shortstop, threw to Alex B at first base who then threw to Alex R at catcher. Alex R proceeded to chase down the runner back to third and tossed the ball to Ian for the tag out. 6-3-2-5 DP!! That was awesome baseball!

Benji started us off pitching the 1st and got in trouble early. Harbor Square has some big bats and got 5 big hits off him. Chris came in the pitch the 2nd and 3rd facing 8 batters with 25 strikes, 4 strikeouts, 3 hits, 0 walks and 2 earned runs. Jordan pitched the 4th and 5th facing 7 batters with 18 strikes, 6 strikeouts, 0 hits, 1 walk and 0 earned runs. Christian closed out the game, but wasn’t consistent and got 3 hits, walked 3 batters and 1 earned run.

Jack was our MVP of the game. He hit the ball all 3 times he was at bat. Jack drove in a run in 2nd for a sacrifice RBI, a 2 RBI single in the 3rd and a single in the 5th.

Since we didn’t complete the game, the score had reset back to the previous innings score and we won the game! We are now 8-2 for the season and look pretty good to get things worked out before the start of the playoffs.

Our next game is Saturday, May 1st, 2010 against Interbay Foods on Lynndale Field 2 at 7:00 pm. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Harbor Square 8 – Echelbarger 9

The Phantoms are on a roll! They are confident in games and have a “can win” attitude. I’ve believe I’ve said it before, but this is a great group to coach.

The Distinctive Glass Blue Devils didn’t make it easy on us with great fielding and holding us to 3 runs in the first, 0 in the second, 3 in the third, 3 in the fourth and 2 runs in the fifth. But the Echelbarger offense was firing on all cylinders up and down the lineup with 15 hits, 7 walks and 11 runs scored. We had 2 triples from Chris and Alex R, 2 doubles from Chris and Jordan and Alex B had a nice first pitch single in the 2nd inning. Everyone else contributed with singles or walks.

Fielding wise Reilly is continuing to play solid defense with 4 putouts at 1st base. Chris had 1-3 combo with Reilly and caught a line drive at pitcher to end the first inning. The kids know what to do on a wild pitch pass ball and we almost prevented the run 2 times.

Chris was our starter facing 8 batters in 1.2 innings with 19 stikes, 2 strikeouts, 3 hits, and 0 walks. Christian closed out the game facing 7 batters, 15 stikes, 2 strikeouts, 1 hit and 3 walks. We’ve figured out Christian’s over throwing problem with his release point and will work to get him to release the ball in front of him instead of the 12 o’clock position.

If it wasn’t for the fact I was saving our pitchers for our next game on Tuesday, Ryan our MVP would have been benched for showing up after the had started. It turned out that it really worked in our favor to put him in as he really had an incredible game at pitcher. He pitched 2.1 innings facing 11 batters with 25 strikes, 5 strikeouts, 1 hit, 3 walks and 0 earned runs. Ryan had a pop up play to get the 1st out and a 1-3 combo with Reilly in the bottom of the 4th.

The Phantoms will face some tough competition in the next 3 games as they will play teams with winning records. I believe they will rise to the occasion and will give them a good match.

Our next game is Tuesday against Harbor Square on Lynndale Field 2 at 7:00 pm. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Phantoms 11 – Blue Devils 5

The Echelbarger Phantoms are playing like a great baseball team and won convincingly tonight. We’re getting good pitching, great fielding and showing patience at the plate. We are now 6 and 2 for the season!

The Green Machine offense is back! We had 11 hits, 11 walks and 15 runs scored. Ryan had a nice triple in the 3rd and Christian had big RBI double in the 4th. We also had contributions from Jordan, Benji, Sean, Alex R, Jack, Ian and Alex B!

We are getting much better as a team in fielding. Jordan had the first play in the game with a line drive catch at shortstop. Alex, Reilly & Benji had a 5-3-2 combo to get the runner at home and Christian had a diving catch at second. All this in the 1st inning! Christian got a 6-4 with Ryan to get the 1st out of the 5th.

Jack started us off pitching tonight facing 5 batters with 8 strikes, 2 hits, 1 walk and 1 earned run. Jordan pitched 2.2 innings facing 16 batters, 37 strikes, 7 strikeouts, 3 hits, 5 walks and 4 earned runs. Alex B relieved Jordan in the 4th facing 4 batters, 3 hits, 1 walk and 2 earned runs.

The MVP of the game was Sean who pitched the 5th facing 5 batters with 12 strikes, 2 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk and 0 earned runs. He batted 2 singles, 1 walk and 2 runs scored. In the 2nd he caught a line drive at shortstop and got a 7-6 tag with Benji to end the top of the 4th.

The other teams in the league are starting to take notice in our team. I am confident that we can win any game, the kids play with a lot of heart and are focused on defense.

Saturday is Little League Day, the Phantoms will have team photos, go through Slugfest & games, participate in the parade and the coaches will try to hit home runs.

Our next game is this Friday evening 4/23 against Distinctive Glass at Lynndale Field 2 at 7:00 pm. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: 3D Roofing 7 – Echelbarger 15

The Phantoms win! This team is really starting to gel on the field. We took care of the baseball and didn’t allow any runs after the 1st inning.

The Phantoms offense woke up in the 3rd inning. I was a little worried that we were going to loose because our kids were not swinging even after I had told them that the ump has a huge strike zone. Jack had a nice triple in the 3rd and Alex R had a double in the 4th. We had 5 hits, 12 walks and 9 runs scored.

Reilly started us off in pitching today. Wilcox’s top of the order got to him early with a lead off double followed by a RBI single. He was discouraged after that and walked the next couple of batters. Jordan relieved him in his pitching debut after being out of the country for the last 4 games with 4 innings pitched, 7 strike outs, 6 hits, 0 earned runs and 1 walk. Christian closed out the game with 0 hits, 1 walk and 0 earned runs facing 4 batters.

The story of the day was great defense on the field. As baseball fan I love offense, but I always teach defense at every practice. This was the first game since the start of the season that we’ve had no errors on the field and didn’t allow a run to score on a wild pitch.

Reilly continues to be a solid 1st baseman with 3 put outs. Christian contributed with a line drive catch at 2nd base to end the 2nd. Ryan had a nice 4-3 in the 5th and Jordan had a 6-3 to end the game.

I could have given the game ball to several players tonight, but the MVP of the game was Ian. He had two 5-4 combos with Ryan in the 3rd and very nice 5-3 combo to get the 1st out in the 5th.

Christian is finally starting to swing at the plate again. He didn’t do anything in this game other than get 2 walks, but it’s nice to see him swing. Saturday will be a test as he’s going to be the lead off hitter.

The next 4 games are going to test our defense, pitching and patience at the plate. The opponents have aggressive coaches and players that can hit. But I’m hopeful that our team will remain confident and weather the storm.

Our next game is Saturday, April 17th against 3D Roofing at 5:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 9 – Wilcox 4

The Phantoms offense got shut down today and loose a low scoring game. On a positive note overall we had really good fielding.

Chris lead the team today with 2 triples and 1 single. We had contributions from Benji, Ceasar, Ian & Sean to combine for 8 hits for the Phantoms today. But we stranded a lot of our runners to only score 3 runs.

Jack got his 2nd start at pitching today. He had trouble getting the ball to the plate but got 1 strikeout. Chris relieved him and pitched 3.2 innings with 7 strikeouts to keep the game close. Ian was shaken up today and loaded the bases in the 5th. Christian came in and struck out a batter and got a 1-2 play with Alex R to end the top the 5th.

We took better care of the baseball and held the Showcase runners at 3rd base in the early innings on passed balls at home plate. We had contributions from Reilly at 1st, a 5-3 from Jack and a 2-3 from Alex R.

Ceasar was our game MVP. He had a nice game going 2 for 2 at the plate including a double. He also backed up the 3rd baseman in the third inning to get a 7-2 play with Benji.

I’m pretty happy with the progress of the team. The kids even did the around the horn play in the game after a called strike 3. We still had some mental mistakes on the field and we will continue as a coaching staff to work on those at practice. Even though we lost the game today, we showed improvement in our game.

Our next game is Tuesday the 13th against team Wilcox at 5:00 pm. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Showcase Sports 7 – Echelbarger 3

The Phantoms win another game! They have now won 4 in a row and are steamrolling the opposition with offense. This is a fun team to coach, no bad attitudes to deal with and players who want to play no matter what position they are placed in. I can’t ask for anything more.

The team in green had 14 hits, 7 walks and 10 runs scored, while Olympic Paving officially had 5 hits, 7 walks and 6 runs scored. Chris had a nice triple, Ryan & Ian each had doubles and we had 11 singles from Chris, Ryan, Reilly, Benji, Caesar, Ian & Alex R.

As of this game all of our eligible players have now pitched an inning. Alex B started us off in his pitching debut, he gunned down the 1st batter with 3 pitches. He would end up with 2 K’s for the game! Chris continues to be our ace with 2 K’s and 0 hits in 1.1 innings. Reilly had some trouble in the 3rd, but Ian helped him out of jam with a side ending strikeout in 5 pitches.

Benji also had his season debut pitching the 4th, his fielders Ian and Christian helped him with 2 outs and he got a swinging strikeout to end the inning. Christian closed out the 5th with a 1-4 play with Ryan and 2 strikeouts to end the game.

I’ve noticed that other minors coaches only put the same pitchers in every game. Although I have done that in a couple games this season, I don’t agree with it and my philosophy is to develop our pitching staff. The only way for the players to learn is to have all of them pitch in a match. PLL minors is a developmental division and our goal as coaches should be to get them ready for majors not focusing on wins.

Fielding wise the Phantoms took better care of the ball, but we still had some errors that cost us runs. I do like the aggressiveness that our catchers are showing to throw the runners out at 3rd base. The team as a whole is improving in moving when the ball is pitched and not just standing around.

Alex R was our MVP with a self double play by catching a pop fly and tagging 1st base when the runner didn’t tag up in the 3rd inning. Our 1st double play of the spring.

I will be focusing on pitching, plays to 3rd base and introducing bunts at our next practice. My hope is to try it out soon.

Our next game is Saturday 4/10 against Showcase Sports at 3:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2. Should be a good match. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 10 – Olympic Paving 6

The Phantoms win another one on a very cold windy afternoon! My Field 1 curse is broken thanks to Team Echelbarger! It feels pretty good to be 2 & something and not be 0 & something!

We had pretty good pitching today. We only gave up 7 walks, 7 hits and we had 10 strike outs. Jack pitched his very first game with 14 pitches thrown, 0 hits and 1 walk. Ian also pitched his 1st game with 16 pitches, 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 strike outs and 2 runs.

The Phantoms offense had 11 hits and 6 walks. We scored 3 quick runs in the bottom of the 1st to take the lead. 2 runs in the 2nd and 4 runs in the 4th to seal the deal. Benji lead the team with 3 singles & 1 RBI and Chris, Ryan, Reilly, Caesar, Alex and Jack all contributed with singles.

Our MVP of the game was Alex B with his 1st hit of the year! Great job Alex!

Defensively we had contributions from Benji, Chris, Christian, Ryan, Ian and Reilly. We missed some opportunities in the top of the 4th which allowed the IRG Flames to tie the game.

The Flames did manage to go ahead in the 6th, but due to time the game ended before we could complete the inning and the score reverted back to the 5th.

This was the first game I tried to score with my new iScore app on the iPhone. You can see live updates during the game here: http://baseball.abella1.net/gamecast I’m still getting used to it and was a little difficult coaching a base and scoring at the same time. But it’s pretty cool. I do need to go back and change a couple things in the later innings as I got messed up in the bottom of the 5th.

Our next game is Monday, April 5th against Olympic Paving on Lynndale Field 2 at 5:00 pm. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: IRG Flames 7 – Echelbarger Phantoms 9

Wow!  What a game!  The Phantoms came out of a heated battle to win a close one with Bennett & Bennett.

I can’t tell you how much this was a stressful game to manage, especially when I was already without my starting catcher in the line-up and learning right at game time that I was down another player.  I had to make on the fly adjustments and made mistakes on who was suppose to sit out an inning.  I like to have things dialed in at least a day in advance.

The Phantoms had 9 hits and 12 walks while B&B had 6 hits and 8 walks.  The team had 3 doubles by Benji, Sean & Ian and 6 singles by Alex R, Chris, Reilly & Ryan.  The game started with 2 runs at the top of the 1st inning for team Echelbarger, but B&B came back with 5 runs in the bottom half.  We went ahead in the 4th with 5 runs and scored a run in the sixth.

Christian didn’t have the best of games.  It’s a struggle to coach him sometimes because he doesn’t listen to my advise.  I don’t believe he properly warmed up before the game because I was too busy prepping the field and it showed with the lack of control at the mound.  His pitches were in the ground, it didn’t help that B&B has a good hitting line up.  He gave up 5 earned runs, 3 hits, had 3 walks and 0 strike outs, but the they did get 2 outs in the inning.

At the plate he struggled and was letting the umps big strike zone get to him.  At least he struck out swinging and got walked.  I’m forced to put him down the line-up until he starts getting hits again.

Chris was our MVP of the game.  The kid is as cool as ice in both batting and pitching.  He pitched 4 awesome innings of shut out baseball with 9 strike outs, 1 hit, 3 walks and 0 runs scored.  I’d like to give special honorable mention to Reilly for solid playing at 1st base.  He leads the team in put-outs with 9.

Defensively we made a few mistakes…Kids didn’t cover home plate and we bobbled a couple plays in the field.  I’m trying to teach the kids to move to the ball once it is put in play.

Christian did get a 1-3 play during the 1st inning.  He should have had a 4-3 out in the 2nd, but he didn’t charge the ball and Reilly’s catch was after the runner got by.  Matters got worse in the later innings where he bobbled the ball in routine plays.  One of those plays should have been a 4-3 out to get the last out of the game, instead the tying run crossed the plate.  A couple missed opportunities cost us 3 runs in the sixth.

I was hoping to try out Jack pitching tonight, but didn’t want to put him in a high pressure situation for his first time out this season.  He and others who haven’t pitched yet will get a chance in the next couple of games.

I remembered a rule from minors last year that if the game results in a tie at the end of the game and no more innings can be started, the score reverts back to the previous inning. So the score of last nights game is 7-5 in our favor!

All in all we played hard.  I’m proud that the team held it together and didn’t get down on themselves too badly when we were behind.  Our offense will give us a chance to win in every game.

Our next match is Thursday, April 1st against Insurance Resource Group @ 5:00 pm on Field 1.  See you there!  Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 7 – Bennett & Bennett 5

Great game last night!  The Phantoms had outstanding pitching by Chris, Christian & Jordan and our offense was relentless.  We managed 10 hits and 17 walks and held Windermere to just 7 hits and 2 walks. What a turn around from Saturday’s game where we had a league high of 150 pitches in a game to the league low of 88 pitches.

I made a few minor changes to the batting order based on our previous game. The experiment worked! The Phantoms have a potent offense that will scare opposing teams. We had 2 triples from Reilly & Ryan, a 2 RBI double by Chris and 7 singles from Chris, Jordan, Benji, Caesar, Reilly, Jack & Ryan.

Defensively we got 15 outs and took better care of the ball. Reilly leads the team with 4 put-outs. I’m eagerly waiting for the Chris & Christian double play combo. Although we may not see it until we build up the rest our pitching staff since both are pitching a lot right now.

Christian was the MVP of the game. He pitched lights out not allowing a hit, walk or run and got 2 strike outs.  Hitting wise, he had a couple problems swinging at high pitches and struck out twice.  Hopefully he will calm down and be patient at the next game.  I plan on starting Christian pitching against Bennett & Bennett.

Our next game is this Friday against Bennett & Bennett on Lynndale Field 1 at 7:00 pm. If you are not able to make to the game, you can watch via web-cam at http://www.pacificlittleleague.com.  Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Windermere 4 – Echelbarger 18

Unedited video of the Passover Seder at GLC.

It’s baseball season again and Christian is playing for the Echelbarger Phantoms minors club. It’s the same sponsor from last year, but he’s going by Echelbarger Properties instead Coldwell Banker. I brought back Coldwell assistant coach Jeff Tilbury and Hans Landel from the Dodgers and Padres teams.

What a great day for baseball and it was an exciting game! It felt like a game in late May. Our team definitely has firepower behind the plate. We had an inside the park home run by Jordan, 3 triples from Chris, Christian & Caesar, 3 doubles by Jordan, Alex R & Sean and several singles by Chris, Christian, Reilly & Jack.

The top of the order is in fine form and we were able to capitalize on runs early in the game. The middle and bottom of the order is a work in progress at this point. Many of these kids moved up from super 9’s and haven’t been in kid pitch for a whole season.

Christian went 2 for 2 and got walked during his last at bat. Both of his hits were 1st pitch hits and he got a triple in the 3rd inning!

This years team is a little light in the pitching department. We had 6 strong pitchers last year and we are going to need to mold our staff this year. The bright spot was that Christian started real strong with 1-2-3 strikeout to their lead off batter, but the ump didn’t call the close ones for him and he struggled to find his control after he walked a batter.

We should have won the game with 14 hits to 3, but the walks killed us. We walked 15 Sparta’s batters, where the Phantoms only had 5 walks for the game and they took advantage of our team not taking care of the ball. I’d rather have the other team hit the ball and put the ball in play for our fielders to get the outs rather than letting them walk.

My starting fielders are going to be pretty strong, but as we rotate players through the field positions we have some holes. This will get better with more practice and games.

The MVP for this game was Jordan for the HR in the 1st inning.

The Phantoms are an exciting team and will be a great squad. We have a fabulous cheering section and we have great assistant coaches working with the kids.

Our next game is Wednesday, 3/24 at 7:00 pm on Field 2 against team Windermere. See you then. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 10 – Sparta’s 14

Video of Christian throwing yesterday.

http://baseball.abella1.net

Christian, Jesica and most of the GLC Youth Group speak about our recent trip to Leavenworth in this video.  Pictures and Video of the trip are also included.

Alyson’s Fall Soccer team: Blue Storm Troopers

Here’s the game schedule:

Fields:
Woodway Elementary: 9521 240th St SW, Edmonds

The game schedule is:

Fields:
Frances Anderson Center: 700 Main St, Edmonds

Civic Center (grass): 6th & Bell, Edmonds

Video of our trip to Belfair on the Seatte-Bremerton Ferry.

Jesica and I recently switched from Verizon Wireless to AT&T Wireless to get the iPhone. While the phones are awesome, our experience in switching wasn’t. All should hopefully be all well once we get our accounts combined in September.

One of the cool apps with the iPhone is the WordPress app which I’m using right now to post on. I will hopefully give an in-depth review soon…

This is a game the Phantoms would have won if they had been able to complete the game. Due to a game duration rule technicality, the 6th inning wasn’t completed and we lost the game.

The Phantoms held the lead for most of the game, but TE Briggs took advantage of a couple errors made and had the lead in the 4th inning. But we fought back to overtake them 10 – 8 in the top of the sixth.

We should have had the time to complete the game since we started the 6th at 8:38. TE Briggs took their sweet time to change out 3 pitchers in the sixth so we couldn’t field. We were going to purposely strike out our guys once we had the lead to get to the bottom half, but by then it was too late by then since we had 4 minutes left. The ump called the game at 8:55 sharp and the game reset to the previous score.

In my mind, the team Coldwell Banker won the game. They just didn’t have a game to play the next day. Even Coach Ryan of 3D Roofing was surprised of the outcome and would have had us complete the game had he been there since we still had 10 minutes left before the lights shut out.

Christian has grown into a great defensive player this year. I’d say at this point, he’s better at defense than at offense. He did turn it on during the playoffs and got out of his hitting slump.

In this game, he was solid on the field. He was responsible for 2 outs and could have had 4 outs. One of those could have been a single person double play. Instead he went for the safe play and threw the runner out at 2nd in the 1st inning. The other was a 6-4 play with Zach in the 3rd. The missed play had the shortstop over throw the ball over Christian’s head which would have been a sure out.

Christian struck out his first at bat looking. This ump had a really big strike zone and made it know to all she was in charge of the game. His 2nd at bat was a line drive to the 3rd baseman and was an amazing catch. His last at bat was hit to the shortstop and was thrown out 6-3. It was a good play since Christian is really fast.

I’m thinking of signing him up for Fall baseball to get some more looks before next year. Also might look at signing him up for a couple summer baseball camps with the First Swing organization. Finally I’m contemplating on taking a head-coach position for a minors team next year. We’ll see how he feels after another summer of Skyhawks sports camps.

It was a privilege to coach the Coldwell Banker Phantoms this Spring. This club had all the pieces and became a really great team at the end of the season. It was a nice run and I hope next years team is just as fun!

Final Score: Coldwell 5(10) – TE Briggs 8

Coldwell Player Season Stats

What a great game! The Phantoms are on a roll and are believing in themselves. They really are the team to beat. The boys take a nail biter game 3 in the playoff race and are looking more confident in each game.

Christian was the MVP of the game. He finally broke out of his hitting slump and drove in the game winning run. Went 2 of 3 at bats this game. He seems to always step it up for the tournaments and comes through in both defense and offense.

The club is picking off runners on the base pads, throwing strikes and in general not making big mistakes. The Phantoms also have a deep pitching rotation. We can use 1 pitcher per inning in a complete game and get great if not outstanding pitching.

Team Coldwell awaits the outcome of Friday’s match-up between Gabe’s team TE Briggs and Benji’s team Point B. We match up very well against both teams. Our next game will be Saturday evening at 7:00 pm against the winner. See you there!

Final Score: Windermere 5 – Coldwell 6

These are the games you hope to play every time. Evenly matched good teams playing solid baseball. 3D Roofing has gone undefeated through the whole season. Except for the top of the 1st inning, the Phantoms held the Blue Devils to 3 runs or none.

Christian is finally hitting again and had a great single at the top of the 1st. He is such a fast aggressive runner, that it can get into the other teams psyche. His voice in the dugout also came back as a result and he leads most of the cheers. The quiet non-talkative team of the last couple games is now gone.

He’s been solid again at defense. Had another 4-3 out and almost had a couple outs with base runners not paying attention.

The Phantoms had a great game and played 6 complete innings in 1:45. If we could have taken care of the baseball in the first, we would have won the game. 5 runs in an inning is a lot of runs to give up. 3D looked scared when the score was 8-7 at the bottom of the 5th.

We are now playing in the lower bracket and will play up to 7 games the in the next 8 days if we stay alive. Our next game is Thursday at 5:00 pm against team Windermere on Field 2. See you there.

Final Score: Blue Devils 10 – Phantoms 7

Well the playoffs have started. The Phantoms have shown through the whole season that they are a team to beat. From moments of brilliance pitching, solid defense and great hitting.

I’ve been working with Christian outside of regular practices: soft tosses, throwing golf ball sized wiffle balls and pitching from the mound. He’s been really consistent hitting my pitches, even the ones outside. So it’s all mental. I also had him switch to his old bat since he can swing that faster.

We’ve been telling Christian to swing at everything unless its obviously a ball. This afternoon, he finally cracked a hit in the game. Unfortunately it was caught by the opposing 3rd baseman. But a hit is a hit and maybe he’s finally broken out of his hitting slump.

He had a high batting .427, now batting .227 since his slump. He’s a better hitter than that and he’s such a great threat on the pads.

At least his defense hasn’t been slumping. He got a key 4-3 out in the game. It’s funny to see that he’s a better defensive player right now when his bat has always been his strength.

The Phantoms showed Harbor Square who was boss and took charge of the game. I don’t think our guys ever really were in danger of loosing this game. The Phantoms got 8 runs in, but the score reverted to 6-4 when HS couldn’t finish their inning.

Final Score: Coldwell 6 (8) – Harbor Square 4

This was our last regular season match-up before the playoffs, a make-up game from the rain-out earlier in the month.  This was suppose to be a tune up game, but the boys didn’t really take the game seriously.

Christian was the starting pitcher and only went 1 inning. Playing at Meadowdale Elementary the field doesn’t have a mound and actually has a hole in the spot. So he was even more a disadvantage being shorter than most of the other players.

I think we figured out what is wrong with Christian at bat. He’d been hit by a pitch and is scared. He struck out a few times looking again.

The Phantoms could have easily won the game as both Christian and Matt loaded the bases in the first 2 innings. Eric and Zach shut down NWK8 in the the later innings and CB tied the game at the top of the 4th. Unfortunately we had to revert to the 3rd innings score officially and lost the game.

Final Score: Coldwell 5 (10) – NWK8 10

In our 2nd to last regular season game, the Phantoms have their 2nd rematch against Sparta’s.  There is a big rivalry between these 2 teams as they beat us pretty good last time and we share practice fields on Thursday’s.

Our pitching was outstanding again in this game.  We held Sparta’s to 2 scoreless innings to start the game and we got a jump on the lead early.  We also had some pretty out standing plays in the field.

Christian had an off game both in the field and hitting.  Earlier in the day during recess, he was rolling around in the grass and got a bug bite near his eye.  It looked awful and probably cause him to not see well…Although he denies it.

I don’t have any videos or pictures of this game as the weather was really iffy for the cameras.  Hopefully we’ll get some good shots at the next game on Thrusday the 28th.  We are making up our rained out game against NWK8 during our practice time at Meadowdale Elementary from 4:30-6:30 pm.  We begin the playoffs Saturday, May 30th on Lynndale Field 2 against Harbor Square.  See you there!

Final Score: Sparta’s 7 – Coldwell 9

The Phantoms showed a lot of heart in this game against Pacific Trust.  The over the top manager of the other team made game not very fun to watch.  His antics coaching 3rd base and calling time out for inspection of the game ball were just atrocious.  I understand being competitive, but trying to steal home from 3rd on every pitch was getting old.  Also having their pitcher throw the ball as soon as the batter stepped in the box was just awful.

Christian was back to hitting 2nd and managed to get walked in the 1st and 5th innings.  He struck out at his 2nd at bat.  He needs to be more aggressive at the plate and not rely on walks…BTW he leads the team on base on balls.  But he’s been striking out a lot looking.

He didn’t do much on defense today.  He really didn’t need to as our pitchers got 13 strike outs and the team combined for 5 put outs.

Despite Pacific Trust trying every dirty trick in the book.  The Phantoms were victorious by playing the game their way.

Final Score: Pacific Trust 4 – Coldwell 10

The Phantoms regrouped after the loss to Distinctive Glass.  This was a game to see if our non-regular pitching rotation could get another look.

I had held off putting Christian back on the mound until we could get his confidence back up.  He was pretty excited to start the game.  He had an awesome 1st inning pitching.  The leadoff batter did manage to get a good hit off him, but he came back and struck the 2nd batter, got a grounder 1-3 for the 2nd out and a pop-up out the end the 1st.  All in all he was responsible for 5 outs in the game.

Christian again was the leadoff hitter and struck out in the 1st.  He was hit by a pitch in the 3rd and walked in the 4th.  Not much going on batting side, but his pitching and defense was outstanding and got him his 2nd game ball of the season.

It was a closely matched game, but Wilcox was able to put a string of hits in the 5th inning for 5 runs.  The Phantoms just didn’t get enough hits to get the win.

Final Score: Wilcox 10 – Coldwell 9

I just realized that I haven’t updated the baseball blog in a long time.  These will be short as I usually post what I remember along with the score book.

This game was to be another 1st of back to back games.  The Phantoms had shown that they were a team to beat in the last couple of games.   In this game, they had started well into the top of the 3rd inning.  But they had trouble getting the last out of at the bottom of the 3rd.

They were without big guns Chris & Drew and only fielded 8 players.  The borrowed outfielder from Distinctive Glass also cost us a run or two.  But the game was done by the bottom of the 4th.  We had too big of a hole to fill.

This was Christian’s first game to lead off.  He struck out in the 1st, grounded out in the 2nd and walked in the 4th and 6th.  He didn’t do much on the field either.

It was a tough loss for the Phantoms.  They had been playing at a high level and just couldn’t put a string of hits together for this game.  That and the inconsistent pitching after the 4th inning was our downfall.

Final Score: Phantoms 6 – Distinctive Glass 14

After a long midday spend at Little League Day.  The Phantoms had a game at the Edmonds-Woodway HS softball turf field against the NWK8 Blue Thunder.  Team Coldwell Banker had a better defensive game against this team by getting 18 outs in six innings.  The previous game we only managed 10 outs in five innings.

We’ve won just about every game where we’ve had 10 or more outs by fielding or strikeouts.  It makes sense since we don’t let 5 runs come in for the other team stopping the half inning.

Christian didn’t have a great game offensively.  He walked in the 1st and struck out the next 2 plate appearances.  He had changed to an open batting stance and it has made him take some bad swings.  I hope to correct this for the next 2 games as he will be the lead-off batter while Chris is away for the weekend.  Christian is usually a patient batter and leads the team in walks due to his small strike zone.  He’s also one of the fastest guys one the team and is a threat on the base pads.  He has stolen home a couple times this year.

Defensively Christian had a better game and got a 4-6 out with Drew at short.  Since we’ve had the prior experience on the turf field, the Phantoms played their positions deep while NWK8 played at normal depth.  This became a huge advantage for us as balls rolled fast by the opposing team when we got a hit.

It was good to see former teammates Jordan and Charlie on the baseball field, even if they were on the opposite side.  Charlie pitched well and manage to strike out Christian.  Jordan was playing mostly outfield.  Their manager uses a 2 squad system where players play all outfield one game and all infield the next.  Not exactly legal according to PLL minors rules, but I think it’s a huge disadvantage for them when their strongest players are not in the key positions.

We have another set of back to back games next Friday and Saturday.  The first 6:00 pm game against team Distinctive Glass at EWHS and a 7:00 pm rematch against NWK8 at Lynndale Field 2.  Christian is scheduled to pitch against Jordan and Charlies team.  See you there!

Final Score: NWK8 3 – Coldwell 9

Saturday was Little League Day! The players parade to the field, team pictures are taken, the kids get to pitch, get timed around the bases, hit at Slugfest and eat lunch.

It’s a pretty fun day to spend at the ballpark. Us coaches didn’t get to participate in the homerun derby since we had a game immediately after our pictures. Maybe next year.

Zach, Christian and Alex

Waiting to pitch for candy.

Christian pitching strikes.

Tug-A-War: The other team let go because we were winning.

The Phantoms are able to keep up with the best teams in the league.  Even when they have bad defensive games, they are within a few points to win.

My lineup strategy has been to put Chris and Christian as the leadoff batters.  Both are good hitters, fast base runners and have really small strike zones.  The advantage is that it makes the opposing have to pitch perfectly in order to get them out.  This has been working really well and even the best pitchers are having a tough time pitching to them.  They get on base and then our power hitters are right behind to drive them in.

Christian was walked 3 times in this game and finally got a hit late in the game.  He’s had better games defensively, but he wasn’t the only one to miss grounders and pop ups.

The Phantoms had a couple bad calls by umps go against them.  It cost us a couple runs and we could have tied up the game or gone ahead.  Team Bennett & Bennett was undefeated until they played 3D Roofing, the only team now to be undefeated.  We feel pretty good that we gave them a good close game even when we didn’t play well.

This was the first of 2 back to back games for this weekend.  We have Little League Day and a game against NWK8 on Saturday.

Final Score: Coldwell 11 – Bennett & Bennett 12

Being the crazy statistics nut that I am, I’ve been keeping track of the entire team stats for all the games this year.  Here’s where Christian is at the moment for 8 of 9 games recorded.

Here’s the key:

Updated 4/24/09

Wow!  What a game!  This was the most exciting game of the season so far.  Great Defense and Great hitting by both teams.

Christian had a great game.  He play well defensively and showed patience at the plate.  He walked in the 1st inning, hit a single in the 3rd & got a run, struck out in the 4th and walked in the 6th.

He got a 4-6 play with Zach at short to close out the top of the 2nd inning with bases loaded.  In the top of the 4th, playing left field he started a 7-6-5 play with Chris at short and Charlie’s first out ever at third.

Team Windermere had some big bats with a lot of hits to outfield.  But the Phantoms were right in there getting on base, stealing and driving in runs.  Our team was hitting well!

Our next game is the first of 2 back to back games.  Friday evening April 24th at 7:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2 against team Bennett & Bennett.  See you there!

Final Score: Windermere 9 – Coldwell 10

Tough loss for the Phantoms…I think we had a few questionable calls at the plate calling balls and strikes favoring the opposing team.  Definitely had some bad calls on the field.  But we just need to focus on making our plays on the field and taking advantage when we are at bat.  If we do that, we can win just about any game and the officiating isn’t a factor.

Offensively in this game our 1-8 guys are getting on base and scored all the runs.  But the bottom of our lineup is going down 1-2-3.  Defensively our players are playing tentative and missing routine plays.  Our green players are costing us runs.  Hopefully we can work with them and get their game in order.

In the past 2 years Christian has batted in the middle of the lineup.  But I’ve moved him up to 2 to take advantage of his speed on the bases.  He’s batting 333 right now and making good choices on the plate.

Christian didn’t get to do much at the plate.  He worked his friend Gabe to a 3-2 count and walked in the top of the 1st.  In the top of the 3rd he got put on base with 4 straight balls and stole home when he got to 3rd base.

He and shortstop Chris had another 6-4 play to get the 2nd out of the 1st inning.  Those are starting to become regular plays for those two.

In the bottom of the 4th inning (our last due to time) we made a mental mistake and tried to get the runner at 2nd and let the runner at 3rd score.  If we would have taken care of the ball and got the 3 outs, we would have won the game 4-3 because the score would have reverted back to 2nd since we were tied in the 3rd.  Oh well…

Our next game is Saturday evening at 7:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2 against team Windermere.  Christian’s teammate Michael from the Red Dragons from a couple years ago is on that team.  See you there!

Final Score: Coldwell 7 – TE Briggs 8

Here’s the entire game from Saturday.  I had to reduce the bitrate down to 400 in order to be able to upload additional videos this week.  So the picture quality isn’t very good.

My brother Andrew got some awesome pictures from his camera, here are a couple shots.  Enjoy!

The Phantoms in the dugout!

Christian at bat with former teammate Benji catching.

Chris and Christian High-Five!  Former teammate Benji at Catcher!

Christian at 1st base.

Christian getting a grounder but was late for the throw to 1st base.

Christian getting the ball from shortstop Chris for the 2nd out of a double play!

Me giving out the game ball to Josh at the end of the game for 2 doubles!

The Phantoms are starting to fire on all cylinders.  Great pitching, improving defense and the bats are finally alive!  Starting pitcher Alex pitched 4 solid innings for the win.

Christian is getting better at bats, he’s being more aggressive and starting make better choices.  He did strike out at the bottom of the 1st inning because he couldn’t lay off the high pitches.  But his next three were a lot better.  He walked in the bottom of the 2nd.  In the bottom of the 3rd inning he hit a single for 2 RBI’s.  Finally walked in the 5th.

He got the second half of a 6-6-4 double play at the top of the 4th inning with Christopher at short catching a pop fly.

It was good to see former Padres/Dodgers teammate Benji catching.  He was taking the job of catcher seriously and threw that helmet off at every chance.  He also pitched an inning.  Great job Benji!

Our next game is Wednesday at 5:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2 against Christian’s friend Gabe’s team TE Briggs.  See you there!

Final Score: Point B 5 – Coldwell 14

Just to set the record straight…We did get 2 Strike Outs and a 1-5 Combo in the 4th Inning in last nights game.

The Phantoms had a Great game last night even if they didn’t win!  We’ve had outstanding pitching from our starters the last 2 games.  This was our first game on the softball diamond at Edmonds-Woodway High School.  The entire field features Field-Turf  which means the ball moves fast, so the defense needs the react quickly or the runners advance extra bases.  We play 3 more times on this field.

Christian didn’t do much this game on both sides of the plate.  He misplaced his athletic support and wore his plastic cup without it.  I think it might have caused him to not play his best because he looked like he needed to go to the bathroom out on the field.

Zach pitched an awesome game.  He’s finally starting to settle into pitching from the mound.  This game was really a pitchers duel as it was a low scoring game.

When the other team managed to hit the ball, they hit it right to our rookies who didn’t make the right play.  Can’t really fault them, but it’s cost us in every game so far.  In this game Pacific Trust managed to get 2 inside the park home runs.

The fast field also caused problems for the other team as the Phantoms managed to steal home 3 times in the top of the 3rd inning.  I did video the game, but I believe my battery died before that play.  I’ll have to check when I have time to review.

Our next game is Saturday at 1:00 pm on Lynndale field 2 against former teammate Benji’s team Point B.  See you there!

Final Score:  Coldwell 3 – Pacific Trust 4

Zach pitching.

Delivering the ball to home plate.

Bat Boy BJ!

The Phantoms came out to play this evening and had their best game yet!  There’s still a lot of room for improvement even if we had good pitching and made some good plays on the field.

BJ was our bat boy this evening and he did a great job!  He took his job seriously and was out there ready to get the bat after every play.  When the Phantoms were on defense, he go play with his friends Tygan and Cole.  But he was back at the top of every inning.  Go Brandon!

Christian went 2 for 3 this game.  He hit a line drive right to the pitcher in the 1st, a soft hit to the left side for an RBI in the 3rd and a single in the 5th.

He let a couple hard line drives get through him at defense, but they were hit pretty hard by the opposing team.

It was good to see Brock and Kameron tonight.  This was their only their 2nd game as their previous 4 got rained out.  I heard that Coach Kevin is the night manager at Costco, so he couldn’t make it out to the game.

Our starting pitcher Eric pitched an awesome game, Matt hit a hard double at the top of the 3rd and rookie catcher Noah tagged the runner to close out the side in the bottom of the 5th.  Noah got the game ball.

Our next game is this Thursday, 6:00 pm at Edmonds-Woodway HS against Pacific Trust.  Their manager was the guy who called the league official in the middle of our playoff game a few years ago.  Oh joy…  See you there!

Final Score: Coldwell 8 – Olympic Paving 4

Bat Boy BJ!

Christian finally finds his swing in tonight’s game against Harbor Square.  At his first at bat he was a little slow swinging through hit the ball but got caught by the pitcher.  His next at bat was in the 3rd inning and he got a single.  Video down below.

The one thing that has been really missing with this team has been the kids talking to other and cheering each other on.  Coach Kevin was always great at getting the team in to the game and my mission tonight was to get that team spirit going.  At the top or middle of each inning I got all the guys together in a huddle and came up with a cheer.  I also got them fired up in the field with the ‘Phatoms Ready?’ call.  Still needs work, but it was a great start.

Christian let the ball get away from him on defense this game…Sometimes the old habits die hard.  Still need to work with him on that, but he’s only had a couple lapses this year.  He almost had a 4-6 combo with Zach in the 2nd, but Zach dropped the ball.  All in all I can count on him to know the right defensive play.

It was pretty cool to see former teammates Sam and Reece on the other side.  They each played positions that they wouldn’t have played on the Padres.  I think I got Sam into the game by calling him ‘wiggles’ and he had a nice hit to left center field…Which then started a rally to get 5 runs in the inning to put them over the top.

Our next game is a late one, Monday at 7:00 pm on field 2 against Brock and Kameron’s team Olympic Paving.  See you there!

Final Score: Harbor Square 7 – Coldwell 4

In the winter months of 2008 I worked on a recording project with Seattle artist Lars Katz.  The project was a solo album called ‘The Veil’ and I’m honored to have worked on it.  This selection from the album is called ‘Flare’.  The Veil is available on iTunes, Amazon, etc… for purchase.

Here’s a review by Travis Parno of AbsolutePunk.net.

Source: absolutepunk.net

Lars Katz – The Veil
Record Label: Wide Asleep Music
Release Date: January 22, 2009

Oh, that voice!

It’s a fairly obvious first reaction, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself uttering a similar expression upon hearing Lars Katz’ latest full-length, The Veil.

If you’re wondering where Katz has been all your life, you’ve probably heard from him without even knowing it. The very definition of a finger in every pie, Katz’ private consulting and contract work has led to appearances on albums such as Anberlin’s Cities (gang vocals on “Godspeed”), Fair’s The Best Worst-Case Scenario (acoustic guitars on “Pause” and “Confidently Dreaming”), and even the soundtrack of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (guitars on “More Than It Seems” by Kutless). He’s also helped to engineer and/or mix many of Tooth and Nail’s recent releases. I swear, the man doesn’t sleep.

Oh-and-did-I-mention: that voice!

Pairing Katz’ stratospheric pipes with all manner of straining strings, jubilant bells, and anxious guitars, The Veil sets its arcing melodic rock to the key of existential philosophy. Tackling the truth inherent in our own awareness is no light task, but it somehow feels easy in Katz’ deft hands. Each track is massive and miniature all at once, layering wistfully self-conscious lyrics across walls of soaring sounds.

Our introduction is somewhat rude as “Alive” sets the electronic strings a-humming with almost no warning and then throws some uncharacteristically aggressive screams our way (they fortunately only appear again briefly in “The Reaper”). All is forgiven, though, when Katz absolutely launches himself into the lyrics “Brightest night skies/ Fall and give rise to/ Everything I see in your eyes.” His ability to jump octaves, combined with the precise beauty of the album’s vocal harmonies, is stunning.

Katz’ extensive musical experience is apparent in the execution of The Veil and each of the instruments he plays (guitars, bass, and drums) clearly benefit from years of practice. There are times, however, when the delicate framework gets a bit smothered by digital elements. The sea of strings and bells fits at some moments, but at others, it threatens to drown the listener in its programmed depths.

The Veil is at its best when it hands the reins to Katz’ voice. Tracks like “Flare” and “Hearts Pour Out” gently usher the instruments to the background, allowing the exquisite vocal track to hold center stage. That said, one of the major successes of this album is that despite the obvious power of his voice, Katz doesn’t hold back from pushing the tempo and rocking out. At no point is The Veil slow, nor will it likely ever be accused of being “sleepy,” and yet its elegance is undeniable.

It’s tough to call Lars Katz a secret. He’s had a hand in a lot of the music you’re probably listening to and he doesn’t fall into that vast and mysterious category of “unsigned.” Still, with one of the strongest voices in operation, both he and The Veil deserve much more of our attention.

Author’s Rating

Final Verdict: 80%

[Updated 4/4 – Added video highlights below]

After our game was rained out on Saturday, we were able to reschedule the game quickly the next day.  What a beautiful day it turned out to be for baseball…the sun was out and we got to play on field one!

Christian again has been solid in defense.  He played pickle at second base and got a 4-6 out with shortstop Zach in the 2nd.  I can always count on those 2 players to call out every play on the field.  The rest of the team has started talking later in the game…Hopefully we’ll see more.  Christian also got to play the catcher position since our number one guy Jackson is out because of spring break.

The Coldwell Banker Phantoms is a team that hasn’t gelled yet.  We have a couple kids that are brand new and it shows on the field.  A couple times routine plays were blown because players were out of position…the right fielder was at 1st base when the ball was hit hard into right.  Us coaches and parents were wondering what happened to our right fielder.

In another instance a runner that was running from 1st to 2nd and our 1st basemen was confused on who to throw to.  The left fielder was at 2nd base with both our shortstop and 2nd baseman close by.  Unfortunately what should have been an easy out also got bobbled.

The main thing is that we need to get out players alert and have them play their position.  We gave team Sparta’s too many opportunities to score with our defensive errors.

I’m hoping that Christian will find his swing at the plate.  He’s been tentative and not swinging at close pitches.  I’d rather he go down swinging than watching the ball go by.  This game he managed to walk both times he was up.  Christian scored in the 2nd by stealing home and made it to second base in the 5th but got stranded.

Our next game is Tuesday evening on field 2 at 5:00 pm against team Harbor Square.  See you there!

Final Score:  Sparta’s 13 – Coldwell 4

[Updated 4/6 – Added video of Christian Pitching]

Christian has been solid at defense and got an out at 2nd base throwing the runner out at 1st in the first inning.  He also got an out in the 5th inning catching a pop fly in right field and started a double play 9-1-6.

The 3 3D Roofing pitchers all pitched in the minors last year.  They shut down our our entire lineup.  No one was was able to get any hits.  Although the bottom half of our lineup did manage to get on base.

This was Christian’s first game pitching.  He had a couple control issues, but was able to pitch pretty straight.  His arm got tired as the inning continued and started throwing the ball short to our catcher Jackson.  He walked a couple batters and gave up 5 runs. A couple adjustments and I think he’ll do fine his next outing.  His official pitch count for the inning was 35.

He was pretty down on himself after the half.  But his teammate Zach gave him encouraging words and tried to cheer him up.  He even said that he hit 2 players and hit the ump twice his last game…and it wasn’t Zach’s first game pitching.  All in all, I was proud of him to go out there and give it his best.

Final Score: Coldwell 0 – 3D Roofing 9

It’s a start of a new season and for the first time in a while Christian is on a brand new baseball team.  I’m saddened that we were not able to keep our team together, but it’s exciting to see how he fits in a new situation.  This is the first team that Christian hasn’t had Zach W. as a teammate in baseball.  (They played together since t-ball.)  Minors teams are put together in a blind draft…although he is joined by 3 Seaview kids and Zach P. from the Padres is on his team as well.

Today was the 1st game of the season and positions become more solidified.  An infielder still needs to play at least one inning in the outfield and an outfielder needs to play at least one in.

Christian started this game at 2nd base and will probably play this position a lot.  He along with Zach were field generals out there calling out the plays.  It’s nice to see the communication skills that we taught them in the lower levels are being used.  He is probably the most vocal of the bunch when calling plays out.

This is his first year seeing live pitching instead of machine pitch and it will take him a few games to adjust.  He’s got a new bat to get used to as well.  He made contact his first at bat, but popped it up and was caught by the pitcher.  He was able to get to a full count at his 2nd at bat, but struck out.  He walked to 1st on his 3rd at bat.

The team looks good with only having 6 practices under their belt.  I think they could be a really great team once they have a couple more practices and games behind them.  Our next game is Monday at 5 pm on field 2 against 3D Roofing.  I’ll try to have some video of that game on the next post.  See you there.

Final Score: Wilcox 7 – Coldwell 8

Pacific Little League Minors Coldwell Banker Bain Game Schedule:

Un-edited video from Andrew & Brenda’s wedding.

Only took an hour and 20 minutes to get to work today. This was the cause…A late model Volvo was on fire on southbound I-5 near NE 195th which is by the 175th Street Exit.

BJ’s team the Sounders are once again the team to beat.  They have pretty much pwnd all the games except the game with the Blue Thunder.  That team has been the only team to challenge us to date and actually won the game.  But they only scored because our goalie was out of position and it was a close game that could have gone either way.

BJ has scored in 4 of 6 games with a total of 4 and is currently the 3rd top scorer for the team.  That’s pretty good especially since most of our boys would be the number 1 player on an average team.

Christian’s team on the other hand has had a tough season so far.  They are clearly out matched with opponents this year.  While these teams have improved and worked on passing, dribbling, getting into position and scoring, the Red Dragon’s have reverted from the improvements they made last year.

Simple things like dribbling and passing are non-existent.  Kids are always out of position and most of them don’t even put any effort to get the ball.  Most of the time they are waiting for a teammate to do something or they kick the ball to open space with nobody on their side to pass to.

It’s been really frustrating to watch their team play games this year.  Especially since I’ve been coaching the Sounders and seeing the opposite mentality with our players.  Although we have our share of problems in getting 6 and 7 year olds focusing in practice.

Christian’s team won their first game of the season this past weekend and you’d think they won the championship after the game.  They were jumping for joy and couldn’t stop celebrating!  I was really happy to for them…Hopefully it won’t be their only win.

The season is half over and hope to see you all at their games soon.

BJ playing defense wearing a Seaview Chess shirt because he couldn’t find his normal jersey.

Christian in action.

Cheerleader Alyson supporting her big brothers!

Christian’s team is 0 for 3 games so far and the outlook doesn’t look optimistic as they’ve been put in the tougher bracket this season.

BJ’s team pounded the other teams in their first 2 games.  But actually lost their first game against a team that matched up pretty well.  The other teams goals happened because our players were out of position.

I’ll try to post some video in the next couple of weeks.  Stay tuned.

On another note, Alyson’s music class was cancelled due to low enrollments.  In fact, Alyson was the only enrollment.

The game schedule is:

Field Locations:
Seaview Elementary 8426 188th St. SW Edmonds

Sherwood Elementary 22901 106th W Edmonds

Sierra Park 190th & 81st Pl W Edmonds

The game schedule is:

Fields:
Frances Anderson Center: 700 Main St, Edmonds

Old Woodway High School: 23200 100th Ave W, Edmonds

Jesica and I went to my 20 Year High School Reunion in August.  It was pretty weird to see how some people changed and how some looked exactly the same as they did in high school.  I was pretty disappointed that most of my closer friends didn’t go to the dinner Saturday evening.  Although one of my best friends from 6th-12th grade, Tim Turner did go and gave me this picture of myself, Chhem Penn, Tim, Andy Conrad and Joel Phillips taken during our senior year.

I thought I knew most of the people in my class, but I must say that there were a few people I didn’t recognize including David Conner who we sat at the dinner table with.  I do vaguely remember him now that I think about it.  All in all it was good to see Tim, Saed Hindash, John Keir, my Impressions singing partner Michelle Brunes and others at the dinner.  Hopefully for the 30th, more people will come to the event.

It was a disappointing loss for the Padres. Maybe having track and field day at school and the warm weather wasn’t a good combination for our kids. But overall the kids have shown through the whole season that we were one of the teams to beat.

The Giants really hit the ball well and the our team had holes in defense. The Padres bats just really couldn’t string together the hits to score runs.

Christian who had been solid all season struggled at the plate. He just couldn’t find the ball and tried to bunt out of frustration. What he needs to learn is that you don’t bunt on a 2 out situation. He struck out at all off his at-bats. He made a couple great plays at defense, but it wasn’t enough as the Giants kept hitting them into the gaps.

Coach Kevin has plans for next year as we go to the next level and try to keep the team together. I will reveal those plans after the team party.

I want to thank all the parents and kids for such a great season! Speaking for the coaching staff, this was an awesome team to coach and couldn’t ask for a better group. It was our privilege to work with them.

Final Score: Padres 10 – Giants 15

Whew! That was a close one…the Padres live to play another day. I don’t know if its the intensity of the playoffs or if its just the other teams getting better. But this game went back and forth with who was in the lead and was a nail-biter for both teams. Our boys stopped the ball in the field, but didn’t throw well to their targets and it nearly cost us the game.

This was Coach Kevin’s last game to manage the team as he goes on a pre-paid vacation for the rest of the playoffs. I take over as manager and Coach Ed takes over 1st Base Coach duties as well as being the hitting coach. We have some big shoes to fill as the kids really respond to Coach Kevin and hopefully we’ll bring home the championship trophy for him.

Christian has been solid in the playoffs since the first game and today was no different. He was our lead off first run as Zach W drove him in from 2nd base at the top of the 2nd with a double. The 2 kids from the championship team from a couple years ago have really lead the team in hitting and defense. Both have had several key outs and key hits during the tournament. Christian closed out the game with a 1-3 combo with Zach W.

Reece got the game ball for stepping up at plate to drive in runs and got a really big out catching a huge hit to left field in the 6th inning. Lets hope the other kids will settle in and start to play as well as they did in regular season for the rest of the playoffs.

Our next game is this Thursday at 5:00 pm against the Giants. The last time we met this team, we kept them to 1 run. But they have a couple kids that can really hit, but their defense is suspect and we need to capitalize on it. See you there! Go Padres!

Final Score: Padres 16 – Devil Rays 15

PS I should have video highlights up Wednesday evening.

Congrats to the Padres on a well played game. The boys in blue and white won the game with good defense and managed to hit the ball despite problems with the pitching machine in the rain. As you can see in the picture, it was raining. Is this really June weather?

Christian had an awesome game, he hit well and made several plays out in the field. The kid was on fire and got his 2nd triple for the season. Coach Kevin gave him the game ball for stepping it up!

Our next game is Tuesday at 5:00 pm against the loser of the Red Sox/Devil Rays match up on Sunday. If we win, we play again on Thursday. See you there!

Final Score: Padres 13 – Marlins 8

It was a heart breaker of a game for the Padres. 2 innings of cold offense did them in. The boys also didn’t play good defense and routine plays got bobbled. Almost everyone had defensive errors including our starters, who have always won the 1st inning.

In the regular season our starting in-field has kept the other team from scoring on us and our top of the batting order has always scored runs. That wasn’t so today. We let the White Sox score 5 runs and the Padres were only able to get one out.  Thank goodness for the 5 run rule.

I think the 2 weeks of not having any games made the team rusty or the team was not fired up to play the White Sox. I give credit to the Sox for making good plays and scoring runs.

Christian flied out in the 1st inning, but drove in the 5th run in the 3rd and had a single to begin the 6th inning. Defensively he was responsible for 2 outs, but bobbled 3 plays as well. But he wasn’t the only one, our super stars Jordan, Brock, Zach P, Zach W, Sam and Kameron all missed opportunities to get the out.

Christian also celebrated his 9th birthday today.  The team sang Happy Birthday before the game started and we gave cupcakes to all the kids after the game.  

Since we lost our first playoff game, we will be on the long track to the championship. We will play the Marlins on Saturday the 7th at 9:00 AM. If we win, we play on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and 2 games on Saturday for the championship. The team has the ability to be the champion and has proved that they are ones to beat during the regular season. Lets hope they put it together on Saturday.

Final Score: White Sox 13 – Padres 11

Today the boys got to play a makeup game against the Braves. We had to scramble to find a field, but it was worth it in the end. Since this game was for fun, we had the kids pitch to each other. Of course all the kids wanted to pitch.

Poor Christian didn’t get to pitch because I made the decision not to have him pitch, but he did get to catch. He and Jordan were calling signs during their inning. It was great to see the Padres pitch a great game.

We start the playoffs on June 1st and we play the White Sox in our first round.

Final Score: Braves 0 – Padres 9

This game should have been an easy win for the Padres. For the first 2 1/2 innings, the team in blue and white came out to play good baseball and looked poised to win the battle. Then at the bottom of the 3rd with a score of 15-4, the team relaxed and started to make a lot of mental errors on defense. The team didn’t talk the plays on the field and all of a sudden the bats went cold.

Christian was solid on the plate with 3 hits. He also made a couple defensive plays at 2nd base. He had one ball go through him at the end of the game, but overall he had a pretty good game.

The team got complacent in the later innings and let the Braves back in the game. Coach Kevin was not happy after the team lost and didn’t give out a game ball. We are trying to get a make up game scheduled with the Braves this Thursday. No time or place at the moment, but will update the post when I get the info.

Final Score: Padres 18 – Braves 19

The Padres are hot…and so was the weather. We knew that going into this game that the White Sox were not a great defensive team or had consistent hitting. So we mixed up the in-field to see which players who don’t normally play in the hot spots do during a game situation. Players like Charlie at 1st Base, Teo at Short Stop, and Reece at 3rd. Regular infielders like Brock, Christian, Jordan and Zach P playing the Catcher position.

Christian has this habit of using other kids bats during games. It’s driving us nuts because he doesn’t use that bats we buy for him. Today he used a bat that was too big for him and it ruined his swing. He did ok at his 1st at bat hitting a single, had a sacrifice pop up in the 3rd inning to move the runner, struck out in the 4th and had a hit in the sixth but got thrown out at 1st. I’m going to show him the videos of why we shouldn’t experiment with unfamiliar bats during games.

He had a pretty good defensive game again, but a couple of the stops were not textbook plays. He stopped the ball at 2nd and almost threw the runner out in the 1st inning. A play he could have made if he had been in control of the ball. He had two 1-3 plays in the 3rd inning, although one them was saved by Zach W great stretch to catch the badly thrown ball. He had a 4-3 play in the 6th which he did a hollywood move that could have gone bad.

Charlie really stepped up his game tonight. His bat was solid and he made some good outs. Coach Kevin rewarded his awesome game by giving him the game ball.

Kameron was also a contender for the game ball with an inside the park home run and other good hits. We closed out the game in an hour and 15 minutes, but we got to hit 2 more times since we had time to spare. The Padres went on to score 26 runs with the extra innings. One of the White Sox coaches Matt and I talked after the game and he wished us luck in the playoffs. He thinks we can beat the Cubs and I agree.

We go to the Seattle Mariners game tomorrow evening who are playing an inter-league game against the San Diego Padres. It also happens to be Little League Day and we’ll get to march across the field in our Padres uniforms. Our next game is Sunday on Lynndale Field 1 at 5 PM against the Braves. Should be a good game. See you there.

Final Score: White Sox 3 – Padres 19 in regulation

White Sox 4 – Padres 26 in extra innings

The Padres bats are back and win a game against the Giants. As the season has progressed, the coaching staff hasn’t had to yell at the kids to make plays. They are just doing it and team is playing with confidence.

Christian is becoming a complete player both offensively and defensively. His bat has always been pretty good and he is now swinging all the way through. He is starting to consistently hit the ball hard to the outfield. I have to think that the other teams are surprised to see the littlest kid on the field hit like the big kids. He had 2 hits for RBI’s in the 1st and 3rd innings. He had a monster hit to outfield to move the runner in the bottom of the 5th, but got caught out.

His fielding has come a long way since he started playing, the kid that couldn’t catch the ball is now making the plays. In this game he caught a pop fly at pitcher in the 2nd, a 4-3 combination with Zach P in the top of the 6th and a 6-4 combo with Jordan to close out the game. Zach P got the game ball for solid offense and nice defense today.

Our next game is Friday at 5:00 pm on Field 2 against the White Sox. See you there!

Final Score: Giants 1 – Padres 14

Here’s the kids singing in church today for Mother’s Day.

The Padres winning streak comes to an end. A few too many errors on defense lost the game. Kids that normally get hits, either struck out or had pop-flys caught. On a positive note, the Cubs said that this was their closest game they played.

The Padres took the lead and shut down the Cubs offense in the 1st inning. Two of the top ball clubs played good baseball through the entire game.

Christian and I had been working on fielding on the off team practice days and it’s paying off. He’s getting to ball and making good plays. He’s had several great defensive stops in the last 3 games. We also worked on swinging all the way through on his swings. As a result he had 2 monster hits in today’s game. For his good fielding and solid bat, he got the game ball.

We have a very busy week coming up. We play the Giants on Wednesday and the White Sox on Friday both on Field 2, goto the San Diego Padres vs Seattle Mariners game Saturday and play a game on Sunday afternoon against the Braves on Field 1. All the games start at 5:00 pm. See you there!

Final Score: Padres 8 – Cubs 12

Brandon’s Spring Soccer Team is the Black Bears and he is wearing #3. He loves soccer and dominates at defense and offense. He scored 3 goals in this game on Saturday.

The Padres bats were pretty quiet tonight…Although that can be attributed to the pitching machine pitching really high. The defense kept the Red Sox to 3 runs and the boys in blue and white win again.

Christian had 2 great stops at second base at the top of the 1st. He struck out at his first at bat, popped one up at his second but managed to get to first and had a double on his last at bat for an RBI. Probably was a candidate to get a game ball, but he had one defensive slip up and let a ball get through him at second base at the top of the 6th inning. The game ball went to Zach W who was solid for the whole game.

Our next game is on Saturday on Field 2 at 9:00 AM against our rivals the Cubs. See you there. Go Padres!!

Final Score: Red Sox 3 – Padres 9

Here’s the video from Friday nights game.

The Padres are on a roll. What started out as a very close game ending up being a blow out for the boys in blue and white. The defense was solid and kept the guys in the entire game.

Christian had 4 hits including a triple in the sixth inning. He also was involved in a 5-4 out combination at 2nd base with Zach W at 3rd. Also had a nice 8-4-1 combo from Brock and Kameron to hold the runner at 3rd.

Teo had a 5-3 play from 3rd base with Zach P at 1st and got the game ball. Brock almost had a 4-3 double play followed by Reece with a nice catch at center field. Most of the players had nice outs during the game.

With score of 5 to 3 at the top of the sixth inning, the Padres bats came alive and scored 15 runs. Wow!! The runs just seemed to never stop.

Our next game is Sunday afternoon at 5:00 pm on Field 2 against the Red Sox. See you there!

Final Score: Padres 20 – Marlins 6

Here’s the video of the entire game. Enjoy!

The Padres are coming together as a team. Good offense with good defense and Coaches not having to yell at the kids. Everyone is playing their position and hitting their cutoffs.

Christian has been Mr. First Pitch Hitter and had 3 hits today with runners in scoring position. The only thing we need to work on is swinging the bat all the way through. Brock had 2 triples and just about the whole team scored. Preston had a 1st pitch hit, scored in the 4th and got the game ball.

Our next game is Friday on Lynndale Field 2 at 7:00 pm against the Marlins. See you there.

Final Score: Devil Rays 6 – Padres 18

Today was Little League Day at Lynndale Baseball Park. The Padres got their pictures taken and participated in the parade and Slugfest Games. Christian, Benji and Jordan missed out since they were at the State Chess Tournament.

The last event of the day was the Coaches Home Run Derby. Padres manager Kevin Krall won the derby and is the Home Run King for 2008! Congrats Kevin! Check out the video below taken on our old camera, so there is no sound.

Our next game is 1 PM Sunday on Field 2 against the Devil Rays. See you there!

Brandon’s Spring Soccer team is the Black Bears

Here’s the game schedule:

Alyson’s Spring Soccer team: Thunder Mud

Alyson is number 2.

Here’s the game schedule:

Just went to lunch at Bakeman’s Restaurant in Seattle. They have the best Turkey Sandwiches you can eat and real good value for lunch downtown. The place is reminiscent of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. The owner Mr. Wang is notorious for being surly with the customers and if you don’t know what you are ordering, the staff will sternly instruct you how to order, so next time you come in, you can tell them what they want to hear.

I went to lunch with my co-workers Laura and Lyndsey. It was Lyndsey’s first time to the place and was a little unsure of what to order. She also got a little dose of Mr. Wang at the register. He asked me, “Did you bring her?” and I thought I was going to get yelled at because I picked up a 2nd sandwich for my co-worker Troy and was short $3.00. He said, “You owe me $3.00 next time” and sent me on my way. Must have been having a good day. :O

The Padres played their 4th and best game of the season so far. The kids were fired up play good defense and good offense. And the coaches didn’t have to yell “Throw to the Pitcher” once this game.

This weeks Tuesday practice focused on catching and throwing the ball. 3 players throwing in a line to each other with the middle player catching and throwing as quick as they can to each end player. We also had them split up in to groups of 4 and threw the ball clockwise and counter-clockwise in a square. The last 15 minutes of practice we talked about defensive strategy to focus on making the smart play. I think it worked!

Christian has been on fire at the plate. He had a single in the 1st, another single in the 3rd and RBI single in the 5th. He’s been doing some strange batting stances in the last 2 games, but it’s working for him as he is hitting the ball on the 1st pitch almost every time. He almost had a great defensive play to throw the runner out to Brock at 2nd while playing pitcher. They were just a split second slow.

Zach P had an in the field home run for 2 RBI’s in the 1st. But our game MVP was Benji…He was responsible for 3 outs in the game. He tagged the runner at 3rd to end the bottom of the 3rd and he threw the runner out twice playing the pitcher position in the 4th.

We only played 5 innings because time ran out…I think the White Sox were thankful that the game ended. We held them to 1 run for the whole game. Our next game is this Saturday at 7 pm against the Braves. See you there.

Final Score: Padres 13 – White Sox 1

After reeling from the loss on Friday evening to the Cubs, the Padres were fired up to win one against the Giants. The team played 5 innings of solid baseball today. The offense continued the momentum from the Friday with 9 runs at the middle of the 3rd. The defense kept the Giants to 1 run until the 4th.

Christian is out of his hitting slump and hit the ball hard every time he was at bat. He had an RBI in the first, 2 RBI’s in the third and 2 RBI’s in the 5th. Brock had a monster hit in 3rd and the core of our line up was solid. Coach Kevin and myself agree that we need to work with a couple of the kids at the batting cage next weekend.

The score was 14 to 4 at the middle of the 6th and Padres struggled to close out the game. The Giants capitalized on defensive errors with 7 runs and once again the kids didn’t throw the ball to the pitcher. We could have easily lost the game with the unlimited run rule. We will be working at throwing the ball to the pitcher at the next practice.

Our next game is against the White Sox at 5:00 pm on Thursday at Lynndale field 2. See you there.

Final Score: Padres 14 – Giants 11

Our second game of the season and what could be the preview to the championship game at the end of the season. The Padres have the ability to beat any team any day, they just need to have the mental toughness to do it. The team was playing scared and maybe us coaches made too much of a big deal of who we were playing on the big field.

Everything they learned from the Edmonds CC coaches went right out the window. Easy plays bobbled and a lot of kids not knowing what to do with the ball in their possession. I think the coaches yelled to throw to the “Pitcher” at almost every play. The Cubs were aggressive on the bases and the over throws coupled with tentative fielding killed us.

I think Christian is getting back to form at the plate. He moved the runner in the 2nd, had 2 RBI’s in the 5th and a single in the 6th. Jordan got the game ball for his great defense.

We played a tough team in the Cubs and we had a fantastic 5th and 6th inning at the plate. That was FUN baseball and I hope the kids feel good about how they played in those later innings. The Padres had 1 inning where the defense looked good, but we have a long way to go.

Christian and I may go to the batting cages tomorrow evening to work some more on hitting. Our next game is against the Giants on Sunday at 5:00 pm. See you there.

Final Score: Cubs 22 – Padres 11