Ding Ding!!!!

Well, it's tournament weekend number 2 for the Osceola Powerhouse. Our first pool play game was against Jacksonville Storm. The boys came out hitting strong and playing good ball. Ty hit his first homerun in the 2nd inning of the game. Then, in the bottom of the fourth, we were up 7 runs - needing one more run to invoke the mercy rule and end the game. Our first batter of the inning was able to get on base (Grume - our catcher) and we used our fastest courtesy runner (Jalen) for him. With a runner on second, needing just one run, Bradley stepped into the batter's box. All he needed was a solid basehit - just like he had been doing all day. Boy did he deliver - a 2-run walk-off line-drive homerun over the left centerfield fence! I think we were more excited than he was - it was AWESOME!!! Thankfully we were able to get back both of the homerun balls for our boys.

Bradley didn't let it go to his head and during his first AB of the second game he roped a double to right centerfield. He caught most of the second game and did a great job. Ultimately though, we came up one run short and lost our second pool play game to the Matrix 10-9. We'll be back at the field tomorrow at noon for elimination bracket play. Real-time stats will be available on the FTB website through Pointstreak - http://ftb.bbstats.pointstreak.com/scoreboard.html?leagueid=147.

As promised, here are some photos from our doubleheader with the Canadian team. Special thanks to team photographer Tawnya Hoyle - look for more great pics all year long.

Braves LL Team On A Roll

The Braves LL team is on a roll - winning another game last night 15-10. Although, they tried to give it away, the boys managed to hang on. Game balls went to Bradley & Carson (no bias there - I promise!). Both boys had great games - Bradley caught the entire game - had a couple of sacrificies, struck out one, walked once and hit a triple. Carson played second and then came in and pitched the last two innings. He even had a homerun on a bunt! That's what speed does for you - a couple of bad throws and Carson is off to the races. Actually, all things considered, it may even have been overdue for Bradley & Carson to be recognized for their hard work. However, we are always much harder on our own kids than we are on others.

This weekend we'll be in Altamonte Springs for a travel ball tournament. Can't wait - hope to have great news to report in our next blog. Also, I hope to have pictures. It is impossible for us to take pictures at the games - there is way too much for us to worry about so I've recruited one of our "newbie" travel ball moms as designed her as photographer.

In other news - I broke down, gave in and got a bigger vehicle. As many of you know, I LOVED my 4-Runner. However, with all the travel ball gear, extra kids, etc, it just wasn't big enough. We are now the proud owners of a new Ford Expedition. There is definitely much more cargo room and more people room with the third seat. Here's the boys (Carson & Bradley) chillin in the new ride!

Baseball, Baseball & More Baseball

Well, the Osceola Powerhouse travel team has begun play. On Sunday, March 7, we played a doubleheader to get our boys ready for the tournament last weekend. They won both games which gave them a lot of confidence going into last weekend's tourney.

Last week was very busy for everyone - Bradley had FCATs, TR had high school games at the field and we had a director's seminar at work which included dinners on both Thursday & Friday. The Powerhouse uniforms were delivered Friday - just in time for the tourney this past weekend. The team met on Friday night for some batting practice and received their uniforms. From what I h ear, the boys were VERY excited. Saturday afternoon we headed to Leesburg for the tourney. Our first game was pretty ugly as we got whipped 16-0 by the eventual tournament champion. Our second game was much better as we won 14-0. Around 7 we left the field and headed for the hotel and dinner. The boys were super excited to be playing ball and staying in the hotel. We finally managed to get them to bed realizing that we would lose an hour of sleep but we had a decent draw and didn't play until 11. Our boys came out and played hard - winning their first bracket game behind some great pitching by Pedro. We had to then play another right away. We ended up losing by one run, long story including a cheating team, to the team that eventually came in second. All in all, we are very proud of how our boys played. Our "newbie" parents got to see it all this weekend - we got mercy ruled, we mercy ruled someone else, bad calls by the umpires, the opposing team cheating, a kid from the opposing team getting ejected and one of our parents getting ejected! WELCOME TO TRAVEL BASEBALL!

We have another busy week ahead. The little league team played last night and won their first game of the season! The boys were down 8-0 and came back to win 16-13. We have another little league game Wednesday night and will cap off the week with a travel ball doubleheader on Friday against a team visiting from Canada.

It was too much for us to try and get pictures this weekend so hopefully I will have some to post after Friday.