To finally finish off our baseball season, we spent the past week in Round Rock at the Cal Ripken World Series. We arrived there Sunday afternoon in time to check into our hotel and then for the team to have a practice. They headed to the batting cages to hit some balls and then went to a dirt field to field some balls on since the games we will be playing will be dirt fields, instead of turf fields that they normally practice on. While Shane and Casen went to practice, Camden and I hung out in the hotel room. Once they returned, we headed to a local restaurant for a team dinner.
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| One of the mom's made swag bags filled with all sorts of goodies in them. |
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| The team |
Monday morning the boys had their first game at 10:30 against Cobra Kai (a small 9U team), which they won 27-3. They then played at 1:30 against Edge where they won 9-2. Casen pitched the first two innings of the game and did great! Afterwards, we went back to the hotel where the boys swam and played around until it was time for dinner.
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| Break between games |
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| Casen on the mound |
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| Pool time fun |
On Tuesday, we played a local Round Rock team, the Bucks, which ended in a 5-1 win for us. If it had not been for one of our players, Tommy, hitting a 3 run home run and then getting the team fired up, we may not have come out on top. It was Tommy's first ever home run, so to say the least it fired up the players and the fans. Afterwards, the team all had lunch on their own and then we all met up at a marina on Lake Travis where we rented two party boats and played on the lake for the afternoon.
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| The boys rode on one boat while the parents rode on the other. Once we got to our docking place, our captains tied the boats together so everyone could walk back and forth between both boats. |
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| Double slides off the back of each boat made for lots of fun. |
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| Jumping from the upper deck was a favorite |
Our head coach, Paul also rented a boat so he could take the boys out tubing. Camden, Casen and Caleb all volunteered to go first.
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| First up, Camden and Caleb |
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| Caleb fell off first |
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| And Camden was right behind |
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| Next up was Camden and Casen |
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| Camden fell off, while Casen stayed on. |
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| Caleb and Casen's turn |
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| No one fell off! |
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| Lots of sliding |
On Wednesday, we played the Piranhas, a team out of Nederland, and tied them 11-11. We should have won, but ended up giving up 5 runs in the last inning. Ugh!!! With that tie, we were the second seed going into bracket play on Thursday. To say the least, we all agreed that the boys all needed to be in bed early ready to go so we could win our game on Thursday. We did some laundry, ran to the outlet mall, ate supper and relaxed in the hotel room and hit the sack early.
We arrived at the field ready to play at 10:30 Thursday and again played the Bucks who we beat 11-2. Tommy, who hit his first home run on Monday has now, as of today, hit three. He hit another one yesterday and then one today. His parents are convinced it is the famous Round Rock donuts they have picked up and fed him as well as tthe box of donuts they have put in the team dug out each morning that has led to this, so tomorrow I have no doubt there will be more Round Rock donuts.
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| Camden, who is generally quiet during games, cheered a lot during the gmaes, so much so that even some parents noticed and made a comment. :) |
Several of our players got hit this week by wild pitches, however I don't think any got hit as hard as Casen. He apparently turned the wrong way and got hit smooth in the middle of his back. The sound that makes is one I am not a fan of. Tears were shed and deep breaths were taken.No doubt, he had a bruise to show for it.
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| Onto the championship game! |
After wining the semi-final game, Coach Paul told the boys they could go to the waterpark, but he recommended they only stay for a couple hours so they would be good and ready to play in the championship game. Most of the team headed to the water park and had a great time swimming, going down water slides and in the parents case, relaxing in the water.
Today, we played in the championship game against a Mizuno team out of Beaumont. We have played them once before when we played at Ford Park in Beaumont and lost against them (although we shouldn't have). That particular game we did not play well and there was a lot of 'home cooking' calls from the umpires. For this game, Casen was the starting pitcher, however after throwing 8 straight balls and then being in tears after being yelled out by one of his coaches (his dad), he was pulled from the mound and a kid out of Austin who we picked up to play the tournament with us, Tres, came in and pitched an amazing game. To say this momma was not happy with that particular coach is an understatement and I will keep many of those thoughts to myself, but rest assured that particular coach got plenty of texts letting him know just what I thought throughout the game.
The final game ended in a stressful 4-2 win. A great ending to a great week. Not only did we end up tournament champions, I honestly thought I was going to spend the week sweating to death since the temps were over 100 daily, however as spectators, the stands were in shade and had h a nice breeze each game. Luckily most of our games were early, which helped us and our players, however when we went on the field for the post-game activities, I realized just home much hotter it was on the field and for the first time all week, broke a sweat.
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| Prior to the game, each player was announced and the Star Spangled Banner was played. |
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| Casen warming up to pitch. |
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| Cal Ripken Round Rock World Series Champs |
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| Coach Paul always reminds the boys that they are playing for an audience of one. |
For now, we will take a break from baseball and in a few weeks Camden will start back with soccer and Casen will start back flag football.
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