Game time, WOO!!!!

Game times for this weekend are posted on this link:  http://usssabaseball.yuku.com/topic/1750

Waterfront Park - Martinez
Park phone number 925-372-3551

From 680, take the Marina Vista Exit. Stay on Marina Vista, Go right on Ferry St

Our first game is at 8am!!!! Please be there BY 7:15!!!

Puget Sound Shockers 14, Canes 7. (3/15)

Our Sunday afternoon game against the Shockers (who came all the way from Washington) was a little messy, but something to build on.

We jumped up early with 2 runs on 4 hits in the top of the 1st and showed some true grit and guts to battle hard throughout. With a score of 7-7 going into the bottom of the 5th, the Shockers proved to be a little much for us a they ran off 5 runs to seal our fate and send us packing. The Shockers looked imposing, but our Canes showed to be more physical as we hit the ball harder, ran faster and seemed to be more aware. In the end, it came down to throwing strikes and a few ill-timed errors. Overall, we hit well and ran bases well. 

The (offensive) stats tell the story:

Shockers= 11 singles + 6 walks + 4 Hurricanes errors... and only ONE strike out. 

Canes = 12 singles + 2 walks +  2 Shocker errors... and TWO strikeouts.

We OUT hit them! But the walks, errors and whiffs proved to be too much to overcome.

- Notice I said "singles"... Once we convert a few singles to doubles, triples and HRs, we will be golden.

Once again, this Shocker team was solid. All the teams we played this weekend were very good, well coached teams. Although we came up short in all but one game, there has been some wonderful improvement.

Vinnie Poole, Roman Reed and Jordan Barnum each had 2 hits.

CK Toribio was 1 for 1 with a walk.

Kaya Lacey was 1 for 1 with a walk.

Vinnie drove in 2 runs and scored twice.

I must say, Mr. Poole has been straight raking the ball! This reminds me...

Starting this week, We will have "Tournament MVP" balls to give out. They will be given out based on offensive and defensive play, awareness, leadership and the plain-old gut feeling of your fearless leader...

Also this week, I am awarding game tokens to anyone who gets an extra-base hit. It

 must be legitimate; a single and a throwing error that lands our batter on second base does not count!!!!

When we win our first tournament, Vinnie's dad J.R. has pledged to allow the boys to shave his head. 

PYB Crushers 7, Canes 1. (3/15)

Hit.... If you were to ask a thousand people what wins baseball games, 90% of fans, players and coaches would say pitching. The other half would say hitting. for those of you paying attention, that is a new twist on an old joke...

Our boys really have played well lately. We may not "hitting" on all cylinders, but much of the sloppiness has passed.  In this game against the Crushers our bats were quiet and we had trouble with finding the plate. Anytime we have trouble throwing strikes, we could have a long day... Well, we had a long day. To make things worse, the Crushers only walked  2 and spread 2 errors among 3 hits in 6 innings. We issued 4 walks and 7 hits and tried to hide them somewhere within TWO innings. It really doesn't work th

at way. 

I'm not sure if our boys knew, but the Crushers were actually coming up and trying to hit from the opposite side of the plate... But I knew. We will not say or do anything at this point, but we will remember it. We will remember it and use that memory as a tool. We knew coming in that we would get bounced for a bit.We just need to learn from it. We will.

We will get our walks down, attack the baseball, play smarter, be faster and show more all-out hustle. 

Luck = hard work +opportunity.

Please don't get me wrong, talking about the negative is not something that I try make a habit of. Remember the lean times and never let it leave your memory. Motivation comes from many different places. If ever in the future we need a little more motivation, we can draw from some of our tougher games. This, was one of them.

CK was 1 for 2 with a walk

Vinnie was 1 for 2 with a walk

Jack was 1 for 3 

Justin was 1 for 1 with a run scored.

Our boys are learning more and more baseball each day. Many of them are right where they should be at this point, and at this age. The wins will come over time.

It could be worse... We could be Cubs fans.

Canes 7, Muckdogs 3 (3/14)

 Game two on Saturday and we looked like a completely different team. We won the toss and unconventionally, we chose to be visitors. Why? I don't know. I guess it just felt good. When we are hitting, I love to hit first to intimidate the other squad by starting the game with a whole gang of runs. So don't ask what I was thinking as we had exactly ONE HIT in the morning game...

But it worked.

Jordan Barnum led off with a single. Todd Porter dropped a bunt for a hit, then CK Toribio grounded to short and scored Jordan. Vinnie Poole drilled a base hit down the left field line to score Todd. Nice. Up two runs before the Muckdogs even warm up.  On Dee, Todd pitched extremely well to hold back the dogs as when he left in the fourth, we were up 3-2 as he scattered 4 hits and two walks in front of a very sound defense that played the entire game with ZERO errors. Jack Brydon closed out the final two innings on the hill striking out 2.

In the end, The Canes led the whole game and played solid through out. On offense, we swung at good pitches to hit and drove the ball. We ran bases well, never missed a sign and executed a few very nice bunts.  Defensively,  we made plays. In the first inning Jelani laid out for a ball down the line, picked it up, fired to Jordan who fired to Torin who then laid a quick tag on the runner trying to squeeze a double for the second out of the game. Our boys may not know how big this was- No other runners even attempted to try for two for the rest of this game... We only walked 2 runners. 

This was our best all around game as a squad.

Jack was 3 for 3 with a double and two runs scored.

Daniel Gates was 2 for 3 with a triple, an RBI and a run scored.

Vinnie went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs

Todd was 2 for 3 with a run scored and and RBI

Jordan went 2 for 4 with two runs scored.

Justin was 1 for 3 with a run scored.

Slammers 9, Canes 0 (Saturday, 3/14)

Saturday's opener seemed to be a typical opener for us as of late. It took us until the 6th inning to come out of a deep sleep. Too bad the game didn't go 6 innings. Our Canes went down without much of a fight to a good Slammers team, 9-0. 

 Our boys really didn't play all that bad - We just didn't hit and gave up a few too many hits and walks on defense.

Roman had our only hit as we only managed to get 2 runners on board with nobody even reaching second base.

Bee's 5, Canes 4 (Sunday, 3/8/09)

     Our final game on Sunday was solid. Although we lost to a good Bees team 5-4, the game was well played and came down to the wire.

     Vince Leon took the hill for us and pitched his heart out. All day long the Bees were off balance as Vince mixed up his change up with a strong fastball to keep us in the game. Vince scattered 7 hits and 5 walks among 3 strikeouts to give up 4 runs in 5 innings pitched. Although the Bee's got a few runners on, Vince was quick to pick them off as he was able to use that nasty move to first to catch 5 runners sleeping... Devin came in to finish off the 6th and recorded another strikeout.

      On offense, our base running was key as we swiped many bases and took advantage of 1st and 3rd situations every chance we could. As a team, we scored 4 runs on 6 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4 times. (Goal is only 2 per game, and soon to be ONE)

      Vinnie Poole continued to terrorize pitchers as he went 2 for 3 with a double, RBI and a run scored.

Hitting:

Hits: 2- Vinnie; 1 - Jordan Barnum, Todd Porter, CK Toribio and Devin Hurtado.

Doubles: 1 - Vinnie Poole

Runs: 1 - Jordan Barnum, Todd Porter, Ck Toribio and Vinnie Poole

RBI: 1 - Vinnie Poole

Walks: 2 - Justin Watts; 1 - Roman Reed.

Jordan recorded 4 outs and 3 assists on defense...

Practice Friday at 5:30 at American.

Our schedule for the weekend is posted and below...

http://www.nations-baseball.com/index.cfm?event=general.gameSchedule&eid=15389

Hurricanes 11, Die Hard 9. (Sunday, 3/8)

Our boys came out early and started Sunday off with a win as they took The DieHards 11-9 in 4 innings.

Behind some patience at the plate, some strong bats and solid base running, our Canes made sure this game was not as close as the score might show. After a 7 run first and 10 runs after 3, all our squad needed to do was make a few plays and run out the clock. They did just that. Roman pitched 2 1/3 innings while striking out 6 and giving up 4 hits. Jack pitched 1 full inning while getting a K and giving up only one hit. Vince closed the game giving up 2 hits and getting the final batter to pop-up to Todd in right. Vince also picked off another runner at 1st...

Devin led the Canes at the plate with 2 hits and two runs scored.

Hitting:

Devin Hurtado: 2-3, a double, 2 runs and 1 RBI

Todd Porter: 1-1 with a walk, 2 RBI and a run scored.

Vinnie Poole: 1-3 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBIs.

Jordan Barnum and CK Toribio both went 1-2 with walks and 2 runs scored each.

Kaya Lacey pulled 2 walks and scored once.

We only had 3 strikeouts... Our goal is TWO or less-

A brief reminder: Practice Thursdays, 5:30 at American.  Fridays 5:30 at American.

This weekend we play at Twin Creeks. First game is at 8 am. Please be there at 7. (Ouch)

We also Play Sunday at the same time.

Please remember to let me know if a player cannot make it to all games.

Delta dawgs 5, Canes 4.

Game two on Saturday against the Delta dawgs was a tough, well played and competitive ball game. Although we took the loss, it was something to build on. In the end, we went down 5-4 in a game that could have gone either way.

Devin pitched 4 solid innings, giving up 3 earned runs while allowing only 2 hits. He recorded 5 strikeouts. Daniel threw one inning allowing one hit and completed the inning by feeding a ground ball to Jack who turned a sweet 1-5-2 double play...

At the plate... Well, we have not been swinging- so we did not expect much...but don't tell Vin.

Vinnie was 2 for 2 with a walk, Jordan was 1 for 2 with a run scored.

Everyone else was 0-16 with 7 walks and 10 strikeouts... Glad we had some DEEE.

I have to send some love to Roman as he caught a solid game, was drilled in the face with a fastball and not only shook it off, but he took his base and stayed in the game. The next morning (his next at-bat) he drove the fourth pitch over the left fielder's head. I can't begin tell you how wonderful this is. If you don't know, if a kid gets hit in the face with a pitch- many times it will end any aspirations of playing baseball again; not because of the physical damage, but because of the psychological effect. Most kids would have a really tough time just getting back in the box....

Atta Boy, Rome.

Athletics 18, Canes 0. (Ouch)

I wondered if we would be a little rusty after rarely getting together for the past month... "Rusty" doesn't quite explain how we looked in the first game. In the end, It was ugly and we were sent home early. 

18-0.

Nuff said.