Sorry It's Been So Long....

So anyone who knows us, understands that once Pride season hits we are slammed. I really didn't realize it had been so long since I updated the blog and I apologize. To catch you up -

Bradley turned 11 in May - where has the time gone? Being the cool mom that I am, I let him have 5 baseball buddies spend the night after baseball practice that Friday night. We then let two more go to the movies with us the next day - so it was me plus 8 boys seeing Shrek The Final Chapter. (You'll notice that TR declined to accompany us to the movies! BIG CHICKEN) The boys were well behaved and I didn't have any problems.

TR & Miranda managed to grab a day and go fishing and were able to catch some dolphin. We ate them for dinner that night! Then we went out on the boat with friends Speedy and Jason. This was Speedy's first time out on the big water and let's just say green is not her color. I think she'll be sticking to the lake from here on out!

Memorial Day weekend we played in the State Championship tourney. We played awful during pool play - going 0-2 and setting us up for a long Sunday. We arrived at the park at 10 am on Sunday and left at 10:20 Sunday night. I'm very proud to say that our boys played 4 ballgames, sat through two weather delays and finished second! At the end they simply ran out of gas losing the Championship game 8-6.

The Pride season officially kicked off on Memorial Day against the Venezuelan National Team. This series was a tune up for our opening NPF series that was played in Lubbock.

Mom arrived just in time for our trip to Lubbock, Texas for the Pride series against Chicago that we were hosting at Texas Tech University. Everyone worked long and hard to make this a successful event - complete with exhibition games, clinics and the Professional Games. In case you missed it, Bradley is a STAR! The Saturday afternoon game was broadcast on ESPN2 and there are several shots of him in the dugout with his girls. I think TR even made it on TV. It was great to see Jennie & Ace. Bradley & Ace had a great time playing each day during the autograph session. It was a very successful event and we met some great people.

We came back to town just in time for the Pride to play the Canadian National Team at Disney. There's no rest in June with this schedule we had! That was followed up by the baseball team's Global State Championship. The boys didn't fare as well this time, coming in a dismal third place being knocked out of the event by Monsey's team the Orlando Braves.

Since we've been running a little ragged lately, last weekend we actually got home from the field on Sunday at a decent hour (4 pm). We went to the movies to see Toy Story 3. It was GREAT - other than the fact the theater was crowded and we had to sit on the second row.

Little League All-Stars were announced and Bradley made the team. Thanks to the Roes and the Barbers for making sure Bradley gets to Little League practice! The Little League All-Star tourney started on Friday. We won the first game 12-2. Bradley pitched two innings, played first and caught. He also hit two doubles. The next game is today at 6 pm.

For the 4th we kept it low-key. I worked from home in the morning then did laundry, ironing, dishes etc. The weather was cloudy and overcast so we met Speedy and went to the movies (twice in two weeks - this is a record!) and saw A-Team. This was ANOTHER great movie and definitely set up for a sequel. Bradley, of course, never saw the original A-Team. Now that he's seen the movie, I think he'll like the original show.

The travel baseball team has a tough July schedule. We'll be playing in the Elite 32 tourney at Disney beginning next Saturday. This is the 32 best 10 year old teams in the country. This should be a great experience for our boys and will let them know what it takes to play at the next level. The the following week, we will be playing in the Global World Series which is part of the ESPN Rise Games at Disney. Whew - lots of baseball - not to mention the Pride who return to town July 22.

I'll try not to have so much time in between posts. I'll also try and get some pictures to post.

Back-to-Back Champions

It finally got hot here last weekend- just in time for our tournament. The boys went 1-1 in pool play on Saturday - easily defeating the Florida Storm 9-2 and then battling back but running out of time losting to the Elite Performance Cobras 15-10. Bradley pitched in the first game and had a great outing - it was definitely the best I had seen him pitch in a long time. He stayed hot at the plate going 2-3 in both games.

Sunday morning we had the 9 am bracket game as our 1-1 pool play finish put us in the 4th place seed for the event. We faced a tough AAA DP Select team who came out hitting in the first inning, scoring 6 runs in the first inning. Alec didn't give up and was able to hold DP for no hits and no runs after the first inning, pitching all six inning in our 9-6 win.

We immediately played our second pool play game against the #1 seeded Major team, West Orange Wolves. We knew this team was going to hit the ball- our goal was to play good defense. Bradley got the start on the mound for this game and did a great job through 3 innings. He tired in the fourth and Carson came in to close out the game as we went on to win 12-9. This semifinal win gave us a one-game break before the Championship game.

With 3 innings left to pitch, our coaching staff again decided to start Bradley and then follow up with Carson during the Championship game. This one was never really close as we came out hitting and beat the Tampa Titans 16-5 in four innings.

After a long hot day at the fields, it was back to the house for pool, drinks & pizza. We were joined by all but a couple of our players and had a great time. The boys, not having had enough baseball for one weekend, walked right by the pool and proceeded to play some homerun derby in the backyard. They all did eventually get in the pool!

This weekend is the Super NIT event - let's hope for the trifecta!

Here's a couple of pictures from the win last weekend.

Powerhouse Wins District 5 Championship!

Okay, we had a GREAT weekend at the ball fields. Friday we had a great travel ball practice then dinner with our group at Beef's. Saturday morning we headed to the field for our two pool play games. This was an Open tournament with teams from all divisions. Since we are in the AA division we knew this would be a tough event but on Sunday the bottom 6 teams in pool play would be split into their own championship. We lost 8-5 to Matrix Black on errors & walks. Then we faced the Winter Garden Warriors (cheaters!) and we were definitely ready for this rematch. Our boys fought hard and won 12-10. We ended up 1-1 in pool play (along with alot of other teams) but we gave up a lot of runs (18) and ended up in the lower flight for Sunday.

We enjoyed a cook out at the Goerner's Saturday night since we didn't have to be at the field until noon on Sunday. Our first opponent was Winter Spring Matrix Purple and we owed them as they seemingly had our number although, in my opinion, we are definitely the better team! This game was very tough and we had to go into an extra inning using the International Tie Breaker but we were home team and won the game 7-6.

Our next game was for the Championship against the Central Florida Wolverines AAA team. Our boys came out hitting and Alec hit his first homerun over the fence! Bradley caught this game and did a great job. More importantly, he hit a double, scoring Jalen to end the game 10-2 in the 4th inning. He had a great weekend - batting .667 for the tournament!

Here's a team pic- will post the celebratory pictures once I receive them from our official team photographer Tawnya.

Ball, Ball & More Ball

We had the men's Major softball tournament at the office last weekend. It was great to spend time with friends but we had a couple of long days! Thanks to Mark for keeping TR company in the crow's nest Friday night! Thank you Speedy, Cookie & Jody for some great laughs.

Monday we had the late little league game. Thankfully we won although we lost in another way as our Manager was ejected (wrongfully) leaving TR manage last night's game. Last night we lost to our other travel ball coach's team (Mike) but we definitely were overmatched. I was proud of the boys for coming back & keeping it a close 6-4. Bradley did great - catching the entire game & having two outs at the plate. He also was the only person on our team with two hits!

Osceola High School won their district game Tuesday night & face a touch Lake Wales team tonight. I have to take Bradley after practice as the girls insist he is their good luck charm!

We are back to it this weekend for a travel ball tourney. I just hope the boys come out to play as we have some stiff competition.

In A Slump

Boy oh boy - both the travel team and the little league team have had a bad week! Last week was Spring Break and I think some of our boys are still on vacation.

We manged to go to the Tampa Rays/Baltimore Orioles game last Thursday night - two packed vehicles - us, The Roes, The Hoyles & The Barbers. Traffic was backed up getting over there so we missed the first inning but still had a great time. There were fireworks after the game so of course we stayed. Everyone was tired when we rolled back into St Cloud around 1:15 am! Good thing we were all off on Friday.

Friday we went to Melbourne Beach with the Roe family. By the time we got there, the clouds had cleared up and we had a nice afternoon. The temperature dropped suddenly late afternoon and decided we had enough beach so we packed it up and went to the beachside pizza place and followed it up with Cold Stone ice cream! A trip to Dick's Sporting Goods completed our day on the trip home. Saturday I ran a few errands and worked around the house. We had a "pre-all-star" little league scrimmage Saturday evening followed by a cookout at the Clayton's at their new pool. That brings us to Sunday...

Well, Sunday we had a travel ball doubleheader against the Winter Springs Matrix Purple, who beat us 10-9 in our last tournament. This team is NOT THAT GOOD! Our boys were definitely still on spring break - making errors and in general not playing well. We ended up losing both games - 7-4 and 8-4. Let's hope they regroup and get back in the swing of things.

Last night, we had our first little league game back from the break. It was definitely BAD! Bradley caught, played third and pitched and did fine in the field. At the plate, he was absolutely AWFUL - going o-fer which he hasn't done all year long. Our fielding was pitiful and we hope for much better on Monday.

We'll be at the ballfields all weekend as our first Men's Major tournament of the year starts today.

Tourney Update & Easter

Well Spring Break officially started last Friday. The travel ball team practiced on Friday morning and then the boys made a day of it - going to lunch and to the movies. Saturday we arrived at the ballfield bright & early for our tourney. We picked up our first game where we left off - leading 5-0 in the top of the 2nd inning. Our boys played well, beating the Rovito Reds 12-4 and putting us in the Semifinals.

In the semi's we faced a tough Seminole Warriors team. We led the game into the bottom of the 5th inning 2-1 but the Warriors bats finally came alive with great shots down the line to both right & left fields. All in all, they scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 5th. We tried to come back but fell a little short 6-3. All in all, it was a great weekend and our boys accomplished another goal.

Here are a few pictures from this tourney - including the homerun sluggers Ty & Bradley. Special thanks to Tawnya for the pics!

The Hanshews from Prince George made a trip down to Disney's Fort Wilderness for spring break. On Sunday, we headed out there and spent the day. Had a lot of fun and enjoyed the great weather.

The End of Spring Training

Well, it's the end of Spring Training -which while it is sad to see it go, is usually a happy day. Today, however, is a much different story for the end of spring training means our extended family, Jennie Finch & son Ace, leave us. We will miss them terribly but wish them safe travels! At least we know we will see them soon in Lubbock! Best wishes to Casey as he starts the season with AAA Houston affiliate Round Rock and hopefully he will get the call to the bigs soon - he definitely deserves his shot after the way he performed this spring.

Onto happier news, the little league team won ANOTHER (that's two in one week) game last night. Our boys soundly defeated the Reds who beat us the first game of the season. Last night Carson & Bradley split the pitching duties and both did AWESOME! It is so great to see our boys thriving on the mound. Our pitching rotation is two 10 year olds and one 11 year old while most other teams have at least two (in some cases more) 12 year old pitchers. Bradley also did a great job at the plate - hitting a clutch double with bases loaded!

Spring break starts here tomorrow and thankfully we finally have warm weather. We'll be spending lots of time at the ballfields!