Good scrimmage tonite

I was generally very pleased with the scrimmage tonite. First off, from an umpiring perspective, it was a very good game to do. Very good pitching for the most part from both teams, and the catching was pretty good too, though I did take a couple dings. After I got on Caleb, telling him I was not only the umpire, but his coach, and his first job was to protect me, he did that the rest of the night.

What I liked: I was pretty happy with the hitting. We had 38 plate appearances, and put the ball in play 26 times (with 6 strikeouts and 6 walks/HBP). Of the 26 put in play, 8 were base hits, the rest were outs, errors, or fielders choice. So we swung the bat pretty well.

I also liked our defense. We only had one error, but that turned out for a no difference. Caleb dropped the fly ball in left, but was able to quickly retrieve it, and throw to 2nd, as his former teammate Brady at first had to hold up in anticipation of the catch. Of their 21 outs made, we struck them out 8 times, and used our defense 13 times for the outs.

We turned two double plays. The first one was really sweet. They had runners on 1st and 3rd, they tried stealing, Caleb gunned it down to JD at Short, who applied the tag for the out, and then right back to Caleb at home for the out. That wasn't how we drew it up and the play we had on, but we got lucky and added in some skill to make it work. Alex also had a nice field of a ground ball at Short, then the step on 2nd for the first out, and then the throw over to first for the twin killing.

I also liked that 4 of our pitchers, Taylor, Alex, Ozzie, and Jerald each had 1, 2, 3 innings. Ozzie and Jerald each gave up base hits, but good defense got the runners out on the bases.

And I also liked that the game went so quick and smooth, we were able to get another inning in, to give the guys some more work.

What I didn't like: Despite our reasonably good hitting, we left too many guys on base. We left 11 guys on base tonite. In the 4th inning, we had 3 on, with one out, and got nobody in. Grrrr. We also left runners at 2nd and 3rd in the 5th.

I didn't care much for our base running tonite. A couple guys missed steal signs, and Jerald got thrown out at 3rd trying to advance on a grounder. He did the right thing in theory, but didn't get a big enough lead off 2nd after the hit, and he got nailed. We really need to step up our game in this department. We are playing All Stars, and we have to act like it, by looking at the coaches for signs. We need to take advantage of every opportunity, and if we miss one, that may make the difference between a fun ride home, or a frowny face the rest of the night.

We also gave up too many walks. They drive me crazy, and I won't put up with them. Ask my Brewers pitchers this year. Sometimes I may have to live with it due to pitch counts. But walks give the defense no chance, and the extra pitches make the defense fall asleep.

But again, overall, I am very happy with the performance tonite. Oh, one other thing I wasn't didn't like. I didn't hear much chatter in the dugout. I know we are newly formed team, from 3 different schools and 8 different teams, but I was hoping the guys was support each other a little more. I know it was a low key scrimmage, and there wasn't much on the line, but I hope the guys start cheering for each other a little more. Some guys did, and I heard some, but I hope that improves.

Anyway, it was a nice get together as a way to help both North Story teams out. Great weather, and just a fun night at the ball yard.

A reminder to get $24 to me, if you haven't yet, for our jerseys. Our next practice is SUNDAY 1PM to 2:30PM at Roland Middle School, if you can make it. I know Carter, Cody, Mickey, and Alex can't, and that's ok. Besides those 4, if you know your son won't make it, please let me know.

We are likely to have one more on Monday night at RMS at 6:30. Not confirmed yet, but keep that in the back of your mind, then opening night at the Carousel on Wednesday.