MINK League Tournament

It has certainly been a whirlwind last week! I haven't posted in nearly a week, but that's the life of a team on the road facing elimination each day. Here's a recap of what happened:

After winning our first game 4-0 on a solid pitching performance, we lost to the #1 seed Clarinda A's 4-3. Unfortunately, we had 3 unearned runs given away and could have won 2 in a row in the tournament. Pretty disappointing game and left a bad taste in our mouth. Now each game is do or die, win and stay or lose and go home.

This is a challenge for the coaching staff to make sure we are keeping the guys motivated. That's the struggle for our guys to fight the urge to hang it up and get back home or stay competitive and wanting to win.

Game 3 is against the Topeka Golden Giants, a team that we finished 3-3 against. Now we face them in the rubber match on neutral ground. We scratch out a 6-1 win and send them home. Big win for us!

Game 4 is against the Chillicothe Mudcats who beat us 5 of 6 times in the regular season. We win this game 3-2. Trialing 2-0, we come back to tie it at 2 and go ahead to stay on a solo home run. Our best starting pitcher comes in to close the game in the ninth to preserve the victory.

Wouldn't you know it, we have made it to the semi-final game of the tournament and once again play the host A's. If we win, we qualify for the NBC World Series in Wichita, KS. These guys have dug down deep and taken pride in playing this game despite wanting to go home. We jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first. The game goes back and forth and we regain the lead 7-5 in the eighth. The guys are playing loose, while the host team is a little tight because they should be winning. The A's again come back to tie us at 7, but we scratch out a run on a safety squeeze and take the lead 8-7. In the bottom of the eighth, we bring in our closer, but he gives up the tying run and walk-off run, both on homers and we lose the game 9-8. What a ride.

Postseason Begins

After a 3 game skid, we have made it to the regional MINK League tournament in Clarinda, IA. We were seeded #5 in the tournament out of 7 teams and drew the Omaha Wildcats in the first round. The wasn't a lot of information on this team, except that most of the players are from Wayne St. (Neb.) and that they had won their league in Omaha. Scouting has it's place in regular season games and could help in this tournament, but the coaching staff wasn't concerned because we would have the same lineup regardless.

After an injury to one of our starting pitchers, once again we turned to Jesse Bachman to start the game. He delivered. He pitched a complete game, 5 hit shutout with 13 strikeouts. Really good start for us! Our offense generated plenty of runs, including a two-run home run to win the game 4-0. Great feeling for our squad as we gained some momentum into today as we face #1 seed and hometown host, the Clarinda A's.

The game's at 8:15 again tonight and we look to continue our success so far.

Nothing Really Matters

I heard that song today by Queen, that nothing really matters. Couldn't help but think of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey lip-syncing in the car to that song in Wayne's World. Anyway, that's about as close as I can come up with to describe the last three games we lost. We were on a roll having won 8 of our last 9 games. We were scoring runs, playing good defense, and pitching well.

Then, we learned that the league tournament was moved up to tomorrow (or today if you want to get technical) and that the remaining games would not be counted toward the league standings and the tournament seeding. So, nothing really mattered. We needed to save our arms for the games that did matter. We needed to rest some guys that have been playing everyday. We gave some players opportunities to play other positions. In fact, just to spice up the game today and keep the guys loose, we actually pulled the lineup out of a hat! Really, we did. We put who was playing what position and literally pulled them out. The guys got a kick out of it and help to put the game in perspective. It really didn't matter.

Immediately after the game, we made sure to refocus the guys. The slate is clean, we're 0-0 and now the next games really do matter. We travel to Clarinda Sunday to play at 8:15 p.m. vs. a team from Omaha. The internet broadcast will be on, so be sure to listen!

"I Love It When a Plan Comes Together"

One of the most well known quotes of the 20th century. Uttered by the leader of a band of renegades destined to help those in need. Usually said when the job was done and justice prevailed. Hannibal Smith, colonel of the A-Team, would say this phrase after saving another poor soul from the clutches of evil. I watched this show dutifully every night it was on and enjoyed seeing them put together ways to beat the bad guys day in and day out.

Well, last night was like the A-Team. It was one of those games when the script was written to perfection and we executed the plan. Our #1 ace threw 8 innings with over 5 strikeouts and only gave up one run. Our defense was solid, making every routine play. We had timely hitting, scoring more runs than the other team. Our closer came in the 9th inning and shut the door picking up another save and extending our winning streak to three and winners of 8 of the last 9 games, with this 3-1 victory over league foe, the Topeka Golden Giants. It was just like you draw it up and one of those game that coaches like to be a part of. You let the game take care of itself, you let the players play, and the win happens.

I love it when a plan comes together!

We're on a Roll

It's been a hectic last week, I apologize for not posting sooner. Angela and the kids left for Rochester on Saturday and I have moved into a host home. What a great set up for me as I have a queen size comfort adjustable bed! I also have 24 hour access to the Internet and ESPN! I went golfing in the 100 degree heat yesterday and we're wrapping up the season.

We have begun to play well winning 7 or our last 8 games. We've won really close games (1-0, 3-2) and we've blown out some teams (8-2, 10-0). So it's good to see us gearing up for the league tournament which starts on Sunday.

Some of the players continue to battle through injuries: sore shoulders, tired legs, aching knees and backs. They're young, but the grind gets to them all. We had our last off day yesterday, so it's the coaching staffs job to keep them fresh as we can.

It has certainly been an exciting summer and I have enjoyed every minute of being around the game again. Thanks again for making it possible for me to do this!

Split - the Evil Reality of Baseball

The split, not a word you associate with wholesome goodness. For example, the beloved 10-6 split in bowling. I've been playing Wii bowling with Claire and have come across that pin setup one too many times. You know the one where you have to try to knock one pin clear across the alley to knock down the other. Yeah right! Other infamous splits: Britney and what's his name, Brooklyn and the Dodgers, the Partridge family, and the banana split. Wait, that's a good one. Anyway, the point in this little blog is to split is bad.

However, the way we are playing it was good to split yesterday. After yet another offensively stagnate game which we lost 3-0, we were down yet again 4-0 in the fourth inning. We were going quietly into the night, couldn't get anyone to get that two out hit and time was running out. Then just like that we were patient at the plate, drew some walks, had timely hitting and tied the game at four. Our bullpen put up zeroes in the fifth and sixth and we scored a two-out run in the bottom of the sixth and gave the lead to our closer in the seventh. He came in and struck out two, including one looking to end the game and we salvaged a split on the night.

The way it's been going the previous week, I'll take it!

Undefeated after the All Star break

Well, that's what I've come to call the last five days we had off because of the rain. Our very own All Star Break. We had a refreshing rain to make the grass greener and to rest up some guys who were banged up. Unfortunately, we opened up with the Junction City Generals who are pretty good and have been playing games when we could not. So we traveled out to Junction City, Kansas for our first game in a week.

We had our best pitcher on the hill, Ben Shockey, who has a sub 2.5 ERA yet we can't score any runs when he pitches. And wouldn't you know it, he holds the Generals to two runs over 7 innings, but leaves with a 2-0 deficit. Looks like we're going to keep the losing streak going to six games. But wouldn't you know it, in the eighth we come back to tie the game at 2 and go on to win in extra innings 4-2. What a great way to start our week! The guys played good defense and put together quality at-bats to steal a game from a good team. Our bullpen did a tremendous job with three scoreless innings to put the game away. It felt good to win again and get back in the left side of the column.

Had an interesting dilemma in the eighth inning as the coaching staff tried to figure out a lineup change. Our first string catcher is hurt and couldn't play, so we had to move our DH to catch after pinch-hitting for our starting catcher. We also pinch hit for our right fielder and brought in a new pitcher. So we had to move our pitcher to hit for our catcher as the pinch-hitter moved to right field. However, this was an educated guess and after conferring with the umpire we made the right moves. Did you follow that? Me either! It was one of the hardest lineup changes I've ever made and was made that difficult because of our lack of depth on our bench.

I'm learning this summer as well. We have 5 games in the next four days. Another great test to see what we're made of.

Rain, Rain, Go......

Well, you know the rest. It has been raining since Wednesday of last week and just stopped early Sunday morning. Other sports tough it out and play in any weather that's out there. Except for the occasional lightning storm, soccer and football and other sports play through anything. Not true with America's past time. Would you want to step into the batter's box in the rain with pitchers throwing a wet ball? You could get one in the ear!

You would be surprised how much baseball coaches know about the weather. The rain we have been getting is coming from the Gulf of Mexico due to two high pressure areas in the East and West of the Midwest. Those high pressure areas are drawing moisture up from the Gulf and dumping huge amount of rain from Texas to Missouri. The bulk of the storms have been in Texas, where extreme flooding has threaten many peoples lives.

For us, it means we have been sitting around and had to postpone 4 games. We have not played since Tuesday of last week. The clouds have broke and we are practicing today and head down to Junction City, MO for a game tomorrow.

Talk to you then.