Meltdown

It's getting hot in KC. You know those summer days: hazy, humid, sticky, hot breeze. Unfortunately, this is just a taste of what will actually get worse this summer. It's only 85 here and mercifully a nice breeze is blowing. It's not so bad right now and we'll deal with the weather when it arrives. That's what summer baseball is all about.

We had three games over the last two days, starting with a 13-2 loss to the Topeka Golden Giants. This is the same team we felt we could've beat last time, but lost 4-3. It was one of those games that invariably rear it's ugly head. Mental mistakes, fielding errors, bad approaches to the plate. We were beaten on the field and demoralized in our psyche. We just didn't have a good day. Didn't compete at all. The staff let out some frustration on the boys after the game and hopefully used it as a wake-up call. We just couldn't get anything done! The team was embarrassed.

But that's why you play the game. The great thing about baseball is there's always tomorrow and a new day. Put the previous game away, because there's another one today. Especially early in the year, we can chalk it up as a learning experience and move on.

The guys did just that. The Chillicothe Mudcats were in town for an unscheduled double-header. This was the team that was rained out on Sunday, so we tacked on the game on this day. After the debacle in Topeka, the guys rallied and won a tight extra inning game 2-1 in the eighth. We were leading 1-0 in the top of the 7th when the Mudcats tied it at 1-1 on a quality pitch hit up the middle with 2 outs. Could've been a letdown for us and I was afraid the team would have withered. They did not and after holding them down in the eighth, we came back to win on an infield single to get the monkey off our back and break a four game losing skid. It was nice.

We played at the same level during the second game, but couldn't muster any scoring threats and lost 4-1. The boys played two complete games and had a chance to win both. That's what the staff likes to see from game to game. It was a 180 degree turn around from the night before.

We travel to Beatrice, Nebraska for a 3 game series vs. the Beatrice Bruins. We look to do better this time around.