Pirates88

Normally I stay on the softball thread but wanted to post something I saw at the Vidor vs PNG game. At half time I was standing where the PNG football team exited the field for half time and near were several young Vidor boys wanting high 5's as the team went into the locker room. No doubt the young kids are little league players themselves and probably plan on playing high school ball later on. Most of the PNG football players were frustrated and upset from the direction of the game and hurried past (understandable) but I saw each PNG coach that passed by smile and give each young boy a high 5. That to me shows alot of class and is worth mentioning. 

Speaking of shade tree Big Cat we should bring a small grill with somes steaks and ice tea to Burris park this weekend.

Sounds like a good idea to me. How many games are we playing this Sunday?

Don't know yet.....as for me being quiet... my wife made me sit next to her so I would behave myself. It was boring...no yelling...  no kicking buckets....no throwing my hat on the ground......no wait...silly me...that's CC that does that. ;D  ;D  ;D

Speaking of shade tree Big Cat we should bring a small grill with somes steaks and ice tea to Burris park this weekend.

Hit Away Gold played three games this past weekend at Collins Park. We had wins over Intruders Gold (5-2) and Sudden Impact Gold (2-1). Lost our last to Shockwave Gold (3-2). Not a bad start while batting 16 girls in the line up. The local girls on the team are;

Danielle Treadway (Silsbee)

Kaitlyn Werner      (Vidor)

Mollie Randle        (Ozen)

Caitlyn Dykes       (PNG)

Bekah Flores        (Lumberton)

Kelsey Young       (Westbrook)

So , are your tryouts over and do have your roster filled. Do you fill good about your team and where do they stand. It may be a little soon for this, however,

    Out team ( Hit Away 16U ) is no more. Sad. We are now playing with Hit Away Gold. Out first practice is this Sunday. I haven't seen the team yet due to working overtime but we picked up several from our old team, some from the Hawks, some from the Beaumont area , and some from the Gold team returning. They did talk about us going back to the Fireworks, Mckinney, The Batbusters in California, and I think the Stars Over Texas was mentioned. Good luck to everyone.

Work Overtime

Well stated Trout, no one can deny Robert Verde and your accomplishments. I spoke, in the past ,with several players that played on Blast Gold and all had nothing but respect for RVerde and yourself. So the question is........with your resume' why can't we build that team we are talking about and get all the best players on one team. I think some of the thoughts that run through players and parents minds when choosing a team are;

1) I want my DD playing a certain position.

2) The coachs themselves . Whether it's the hitting style they teach or how they relate to the girls.

3) Location and the amount of practice time.

4) And maybe other girls that have played for a coach and had a bad experience.

5) And ,of course, the amount of exposer a coach can get for his girls.

   I think there are several really good coaches , including Trout, in the area that can help our girls out but the trick is getting all the girls on one team. I would love to see it happen.

         Don't think its a question of commitment? I think there are plenty of girls that love the game and want to play division one softball. We could field a team from this area that could compete at any level with one exception which is pitching. While there are several very very good pitchers in the area right now we do not have that one dominating pitcher that we have had in the past. The one obstacle, in my opinion, is who would get this team together and who would coach it. Who is the one person that could bring all the best payers from this area together.  Which one person would everyone trust and respect to teach our girls the game and have the ability to get them the exposer. Maybe R. Verde should make another run with Blast Gold. But then again the problem maybe that this area is too watered down with "A" ball teams.

        Two other obstacles I think that play a role is;

1) Us dads giving up the coaching role of our DD to someone else.

2) And again we as parents thinking our DD should be playing certain positions when maybe there best suited to play others. This always plays a role in who we play for.

 

Just my thoughts.

Good luck on the turnout. I've been a part of this organization in the past and know that CC and his crew are some of the best coaches in this area to play for. They do everythng they can for the girls playing for them.

While Intensity took home the IFA trophy it is important for us all to keep it in perspective what they have accomplished.  Most of us are excited about this team and the spirit in which they played.

I am excited for this area to get a glimpse of what could be possible if we can assemble the best players from our area on ONE team.

Fact is.....

There was only one team at the IFA Tournament that had qualified to play in the ASA Gold Nationals.  There are 64 teams in OK city right now did qualify. (Most of the better teams did not attend the IFA Nationals )

Also....

During the IFA tournament there were 168 teams competing in the 16U ASA Nationals.

( Several of the Players in the IFA and the local area are younger and could play 16U ) 

That is where most of the coaches in the nation were the week of the IFA tournament.

That is why you should not skip the 16U age group. It is so important in the recruiting process.

Congrats to the Girls that have to play 18U and congrats on your scholarships and your new IFA trophy, but time is short for you younger girls.  Be careful !

A good post Big Daddy

Holey moley, never heard of that time killing trick....bat out of order! 

OK...hmmm, bet they ruled game over?

Yes , Game Over

Great Job kid.

Had an interesting ending to our game last night against the O.C. Wildcats. We are winning 3-2 and are the home team with 4 minutes left in the game. We are up to bat. Time limit was due to rain delays.

1) 1st batter gets a hit and is on 1st base.

2) 2nd strikes out which is what I wanted. Down to 59 seconds

3) 3rd is told to not swing the bat. She get's two strikes on her. She swings at the 3rd strike and drives it up the middle to short stop which fields the ball and touches 2nd . Then she makes an attempt at a double play to 1st. Batter is safe with 2 seconds left on the clock.

4) As I'm walking up to home plate I ask the Umpire if that was the game. He looks up at the clock with no time and calls game.

5) Immediately afterwards the opposing coach comes up and makes an appeal on our batter batting out of order.......which she did.

     The 3 umpires on the feild called for the U.I.C. and the 2 U.I.C. 's called for the A.S.A. representative which made the call.

Lost our first bracket game to a weak South Dakota team. Gave the game away. Then we turn around a beat a very talented southern California team....the O.C. Wildcats. Interesting ending that I'll put on a " You make the Call ". We play today at 2:00, 8:00, & 10:00 as long as we keep winning.

Rain delays. They said they never get rain this time of the year. We heard the same thing in Colorado.

Hit Away is 3-0 so far. We won our second pool game today beating the Virgina Legends 5-4. This puts us in a #1 seed winning our pool. Also saw the Virgina Tech. and S.F.A. coaches in the stands watching most of the game. There were more but I didn't get a chance to see who they where.

A couple of interesting things going on up here I thought you guys might be interested in.

1st - 164 teams. This is the largest national tournament for ASA, any age group ever. All the teams up here actually qualified. There were no At Large berths given.

2nd - The size of some of these 16U girls is amazing. I saw the N.W. Blaze out of Oregon....at least 3 six footers on that team.

3rd - Hit Away played Tennesse Thunder today at 12:30 in a practice game beating them 1-0.

4th - Over 200 colleges signed up for attendance.

A couple of more things;

1) Pool games are an hour and 40

2) Bracket games are 7 innings no time limit.

Played Arkansas Extreme today in our 1st pool game. We won 1-0 in the bottom of the 7th. Kaitlyn Werner rips an outside pitch to the right field corner for a triple. Caitlyn Dykes put down a two strike bunt on a squeeze play for the win. Mollie Randle pitched a no hitter however if we plan on going very far our girls better start hitting.

P.S. Had Tx AM & Illinois St. watch most of game today due to our girls contacting these coaches. Tell your girls to stay after these college coaches......it pays off.

A couple of interesting things going on up here I thought you guys might be interested in.

1st - 164 teams. This is the largest national tournament for ASA, any age group ,ever. All the teams up here actually qualified. There were no At Large berths given.

2nd - The size of some of these 16U girls is amazing. I saw the N.W. Blaze out of Oregon....at least 3 six footers on that team.

3rd - Hit Away played Tennesse Thunder today at 12:30 in a practice game beating them 1-0.

4th - Over 200 colleges signed up for attendance.

We played in an 18U round robin over at Collin Park this weekend put on by Impact. Went 3-1 beating the Pink Panthers, MC Elite, and Easton Elite. Out lose was to The Lady Hawks, In general the girls played really flat but it was good practice for South Dakota.

I think the ball actually hit her foot.  That is why she slowed up.

The batter kicking the ball into fair territory was a different play.....and yes FOUL.

This past Sunday while watching OCG I saw an interesting play. Batter turns for a bunt, tips the ball down, the ball hits the front of home plate and bounces out into fair territory. Team batting assumed fowl ball and was thrown out at first.

Tryouts for the Texas Thunder97 (Chirafis)  12u , Texas Thunder98 (Higgins) 12u  and 14-and-under  girl's fastpitch softball teams

will be held at various locations around the  Golden Triangle during the month of August..

On Saturday, August 15,  2009  tryouts will be held at the Vidor Girls Softball Fields on Operators Lane.

A final tryout will be held on Saturday, August 22, 2009 at Beaumont College  Street Complex.

All tryouts will take place from 12:00 pm to 3:00  pm.

For more information contact any of the following coaches:

  Carl May  (409)  782-5555   [email protected]

  John Chirafis (409) 540-6016    [email protected]

  Buddy Andrus (409) 893-8255  [email protected]

  Mike Higgins (409)782-0199

  Frank Russell (409) 673-8264  [email protected]

A lot of good coaches here. You guys should have quite a few girls show up. Good luck with the teams.

Bracket says Tx Hit Away lost to CA SD Legacy in the 11:30 Sun AM game

Yes S.R. ....16U

16U?

Bracket says Tx Hit Away lost to CA SD Legacy in the 11:30 Sun AM game

Didn't lose but forefited. Most of our parents didn't expect us to do as well as we did and scheduled themselves to come back home Saturday night and Sunday morning. With all the rain delays taking place we decided the chances of the tournament getting played out Sunday were very slim. We were wrong. From now on we'll schedule our departure times after the championship game. The best reference we have as to how we might have done was our game against OK Ultimate Gold which we won 3-0. They lost out in the 2nd round to Legacy. That doesn't mean anything but we are now wishing we would have stayed to see how things would have played out for us. Looking ahead it seems that the ASA 16U Nationals will have some really good teams there.