Brad's Baseball 2012

WOW!! I have not posted in forever. I have been so busy with school and the kids and I had great plans to sit at home at night and post things that happened. But I get home worn out from my taxi cab service taking the kids everywhere and at work I have been super busy getting ready for the end of school. Anyway I am gonna try and catch up. I am gonna do this by writing about both kids one post at a time then about what else has been going on. Ity may take a few days. I'll start with Brad.He had a great baseball season. We moved up to 12U this year and I was a little worried that he would struggle. He did a great job and ended up being a 2nd best pitcher behind a 7th grader. We didn't have anyone to play with off hand so we got a call from Mike Biggs. He is a great guy and ask if they could freeze Brad and I said sure. He ask if I would help coach and I said yes so I was first base coach and I sat in dugout while we were in the field. Brad played a little catcher, outfield, third and pitcher. We went to Ricky Crawford to help with his hitting and it paid off. In the last couple of games he was 3-4 with a triple off the wall in left and a walk. I was sure the ball was gone. It hit the top of the fence. I usually yell at the guys to run and quit looking at the ball. In this case I was looking as well. haha!! Our friends Jody and Jennifer Mcbride's son started playing teeball this year also. It was really neat to see Bubba on the big field and Bubbie on the little field. It was very endearing to me to see the girls grown and the boys just starting . Jody and Jennifer are the friends you are close to whether you see each other alot or not. I consider them family and their kids are mine.He had an awesome year at pitcher as well. He has come such a long way since last summer. He pitched sporadically and even one time couldn't throw a strike. This year he went 2-3 innings with ease and keeping us in the game. I am very proud of how he competes and makes things important. I was most impressed by how he threw in the end of season tournament. It is all week and a kid cannot pitch more than 8 innings in the week. So like I said we had this 7th grader that was our best. The coaches thoughts were to save him if we could. So The first game they started Brad. He was pulled after 3 inning winning 9-3 did great. The 7th grader only had to pitch one inning to close it out. The next night Brad pitched 4 innings and left winning 9-5 and seventh grader pitched 1 inning to close it out. So in the championship we could use Chase Moen the 7th grader the entire game. We ended up winning 9-7 I think and Brad was a huge part of that during the week. He had a great time this year and made some new friends.We are currently playing a little all-star tournament againest the laporte all-stars. Last night was awesome. We won in extra innings. There was a little tricky thing that Brad did that got me excited while coaching first. He was at 2nd and a guy on 3rd. Somehow our guy goes home on a passed ball he is called safe and the catcher drops the ball on the ground. He begins to try and argue with the umpire and Brad rounds 3rd . Well as the catcher is arguing he has left the ball on the ground and Brad sprints home sneekily and slides just under the catchers tag after he notices him coming. It was very exciting and I was very proud of him making something happen.Next year we will stay in this age group. I will put him on the mound more so he is even more comfortable. He has exceeded any expectations I have ever had for him or myself. He is a tremendously loving but competitive young man who I cannot be any more proud of. He lives in my heart.Ya'll be safe out there!!