Little League Baseball!

My 'free time' has been pretty occupied lately - in a very good way. Little League baseball is in full swing in Grosse Pointe Park. And in addition to Andrew playing (his third), Sam decided to play for the first time (he is older than Andrew), and it is William's first year eligible. Sam and Andrew are on a Double A team (The Giants) which means they both get a chance to pitch.

Andrew pitched the final two innings of the first game, not allowing a hit, walk, or run. They lost that one 6-2 against the Devil Rays. In the second game (Friday v. the Indians) he pitched the final inning. After hitting the first batter the second batter got on base on an error after the first one had stolen second. He scored on the error. Andrew's ERA is 0.00. He has also been catching and playing the field. He is 2 for 4 batting, plus walks. We beat the Indians 12-2.

Sam is playing Double AA because his birthday is a week after the official Little League birthday cut off. He did get drafted by a Triple A team, but we asked that he be tossed back into the draft for Double A since he had never played organized ball before. PLUS, the thought of being involved in THREE separate teams (practices, games) was too much to fathom!

Sam pitched the 4th inning of the second game and got a 1,2,3 inning (two strike outs and a ground out). His has walked a few times at bat, and got a hit the first game as well.

On Saturday we had our "Opening Day" ceremonies (Parade, etc.) and William had his first game with the Single A Orioles. He had a couple of good plays when in the outfield, and one where were had to remind him to hurry up and throw it instead of running it in! (play stops once a ball hit into the outfield comes in...important to throw it right away). He hit the ball three times but got thrown out at first all three times.