Twins Play Like Pros

If you want to see some GREAT baseball, you need to come watch the Twins play. I can now say that I have seen one of the greatest Little League games of all time. (Okay, so I'm a Dad who is a little partial, but I can't help it.)

The Twins played on Saturday afternoon against the T-Bird Red Sox. The Red Sox are what you would call a "stacked" team. They have 10 year olds bigger than me. They are a powerhouse and it shows. The Twins, on the other hand, have some great talent mixed in with some kids that are less talented, but the coaches have done a great job of getting them to play as a team.

I'll give the short version, because nobody really wants to hear the long version (I could go on & on & on...)

Joshua started pitching and only had three innings left (you can only pitch 6 innings per week). The Red Sox scored three in the first inning on a squib hit, a solid hit and two errors (the third out popped out of the right fielders mitt and turned into a two run double - those things happen in 10 year old baseball). Josh struck out the side in the second and then faced the top of their order again in the third and shut them down. In spite of the runs in the first, it was one of his best outings of the season considering the level the Red Sox play at.

We scored a run in the second and two runs in the third to tie it 3-3. It stayed that was through six innings (which is regulation in little league). Our tournament rules say that someone has to score to win, so we kept playing. Three more innings and two rain delays later it is still tied 3-3. Amazing! Everyone was playing perfect defense. We also had our leadoff man and quickest runner (twice) thrown out at home plate. Finally, they called the game because of wetness and scheduled it to be played out today (Sunday).

Today we showed up to play until someone scored. Joshua led off the game (we were visitors) and got a hit, but was forced out at second when the next batter hit it to the shortstop. A single and a walk loaded the bases for our "least likely to get a hit" player came up and what does he do? He swings, which he always does (at anything) and drives the ball between third base and shortstop. We ended up scoring two runs.

If your still with me you are either a die hard baseball fan or you are up late at night with nothing else to do so I'll give you the controversy. The Red Sox showed up today with three of their least talented players absent. This is important because these are the batters who were up to bat in this inning. They claimed that they refuse to play on Sundays. Who can argue? But I am sure if it were three of their best players they would have sung a different tune. So, they get skipped in the order and up comes the top of their order. I wish I could say that we held them and won, but with our top pitchers all having pitched yesterday, they started banging the ball around and promptly scored three runs to beat us. An amazing game.

We now move into the Loser's Bracket and play again on Monday and probably every day after that until the end of the tourney on Saturday. We'll keep you posted.