It’s been far too long and now I’m way behind on my postings. It’s been about two weeks since my last post and so much has happened it’s hard to start.

In the past week and a half the Sluggers have played 4 games and even though we’re the small team in this age division, the girls have done a great job keeping up with the big kids. We knew that our game on April 12th against Chaos was going to be a real battle. The Chaos is the real team to beat in this age group and with a year of size and experience more than the Sluggers they are a true challenge. With that said the Sluggers played hard and did well against the older Chaos girls but in the end did not win. The entire game had very few hits for both teams and points were earned through a combination of walked batters and stolen bases..

Chaos won in the end (7-4), but I think the Sluggers may have put a little fear into Chaos and now we know what to expect in our next game.

The next games came to the Sluggers back-to-back. Tuesday April 17th was a double-header against Diamonds and X-Plode. I could tell right off that we had a rough night ahead of us. I found that I had forgotten to replace the SD card in the camera I wasn’t going to get any photos of the games. I do have video of some great Slugger plays but only of the first game because the battery on the little video camera I have only last for about an hour and a half.

The Diamonds had some good hits but the Sluggers were really on their game and were able to keep them in check for most of the game. It wasn’t till the last few minutes of the game that the Diamonds made any real runs but by then it was too late and the Sluggers had too much of a lead. (12-10) Sluggers Win! Unfortunately, the game ran 15-20 minutes long with an extra inning and the girls had no time to rest between games.

With the Sluggers getting to the field just after 5:00 to warm up, a game at 6:00 and then a game at 7:30, the Sluggers had barely enough time to breath. Only a few of the girls had dinner and with the first game ending at 7:28 and the second starting at 7:30 the Sluggers didn’t even have time to go to the restroom between games. These factors coupled with the heat and exhaustion from the first game were too much for our green girls to overcome. The Sluggers still had some good hits but with those tired gloves the Sluggers made too many errors and fell to a team they had easily beaten only a week earlier. Sluggers loose – (5-12).

THAT SUCKS!!! But we move on. So, how do you crank the Slugger Spirit back up after a loss? We have found what seems to work well is a good hard practice and of course – ICE CREAM.Our next practice was nothing but fielding drills and glove work to help focus the team and afterwords a little relaxation with some ice cream sandwiches and drumsticks.
Not everyone was happy with how hard the practice was but no one turned down the ice cream. We even gave our Slugger parents ice cream even if they didn’t really appreciate the active picture-taking.

With a renewed outlook on life and softball the Sluggers came into their second game against Diamonds prepped and ready. Some of them may have still been on an ice cream induced sugar high, but at least they were all happy. The 7:30 Sluggers & Diamonds game didn’t start untill 8:00 because the early game ran into extra innings and delayed the start of our game.

The late start ment the green girls had no time to warm up on the field but that was ok, they were still ready to go.

The Sluggers started strong and did well to prevent the Diamonds from making too many runs early in the game but when it was time to bat the Sluggers were ready to go but the Diamonds didn’t exactly role over. The girls did manage to make a few runs but the point lead kept changing sides throughout the game.

Half way through the final inning the Diamonds were up by three runs but the Sluggers still had a chance to bat and make up the difference. The Diamonds’ pitcher and catcher did a fantastic job through the entire game but the Sluggers were able to get the last four points for the win in the last inning. Sluggers Win – (10-9).

GREAT JOB SLUGGERS!

All the new photos of our games and of course our ice cream practice are on our Sluggers Skydrive Gallery so check them out. As soon as I have our game videos ready you will know about it.