Mini Mite Baseball Tournament

Sandwiched in the weekend between two weeks of drama camp was Dec's first baseball tournament (and the end of the summer season). He was scheduled to play from 9am-noon on Saturday. The kids were bummed that they had to be up and at 'em and organized on a Saturday morning. Until we pointed out that it was already 88 degrees by 8am, so an afternoon schedule would have been even worse.

Fiona and I missed part of the first game as we were in charge of running to pick up the groceries and getting them put away at home. We chose the wrong game to miss! It was a really well played game. The boys hit well, fielded well, and had a great time. The head coach of the other team was a friend of ours from original Ms. A days and he and our coaches ran a really fair, fun game for the kids [you will see why this is noteworthy when we talk about game 2. It's a not-so-subtle foreshadow!]. Dec's team won 13-12, but the boys from both teams were beaming after the game. Some of the beaming was from their joy and a lot of it was probably sweat. It was already incredibly hot. 

Because the boys had won the first game, they advanced to the championship game. When we got to the field, we were surprised to see the Green team as our opponents. Dec's Red team, the Blue team, and the Gold team were all pretty evenly matched ... while the Green team tended to struggle during the regular season. About halfway through the second inning (50 minutes into the game ... we'd played 1.5 innings in fifty minutes), we figured out why the Gold team had lost. They'd simply lost the will to live. 

Even though there was a six pitch maximum per batter, the Green team was averaging about 20 pitches per kid. So with 5 minutes for every at bat, our kids were so bored and completely forgot how to field. There was one point where I looked out and our entire team was sitting down! Ugh. 

It would have been painful to watch on a normal day. In 100 degrees under full sun, it was unbearable. We kept trying to pump the boys up when they would come off the field, but morale was pretty low. At one point, Q came over to complain to me and I answered with "I know. I feel the same way. I'm just not allowed to say it because I'm a grown up." So that's where we were on the parenting and the sympathy levels. Low and lower.

We managed to play three innings in 90+ minutes (dear heavens!) and our boys were up last. We had a rough top of the third and were down 10-8. D's friend Andrew's mom and I did our best to get the boys excited. Three runs! You can totally do this, kiddos! And they did! 

Then the other team's coaches tried to pull a bunch of shenanigans (including trying to play a rule card that they hadn't followed the whole game) and really just left the boys feeling rotten. It was incredibly frustrating - especially when they are seven and should just be out having fun. Our coaches respectfully held their ground and the other team begrudgingly admitted we won. Such a bummer of a way to win the championship!

We were shocked and excited when D looked at his medal - as it says 1st Place on it! We are used to participation awards that an actual first place medal was pretty cool. That said, he told me when we got home that the game ruined the season for him. We were able to shake it off and remember all the other super fun games and practices. 

The boys also recovered with a team party. One of D's teammates invited everyone over to his house after for pizza and swimming in their lake. We spent the whole afternoon hanging with the families, jumping in the lake, riding in the tube, and having a great time. It was still really hot, but the lake made it bearable. It was so much fun to watch D have the best time playing in the lake with his buddies. He was the first one in and only got out when we told him it was time to head home. The girls also had a few big sisters to play with and were content with that. 

Lake party - instead of game 2 - was a better way to end a fun first baseball season. Dec had the best time with several good buddies on his team. Both he and Andrew tell me that they like baseball even better than they like hockey! D enthusiastically said "yes" when we asked about fall baseball, so he'll start playing again in a couple weeks to built up his skills for next season.