This week, we enjoyed a welcomed cool-down in the weather department. In fact, it was downright chilly in the early mornings – starting in the upper ‘50s and peaking in the lower 80’s. Monday was a long-ass day. It started at 5:30, running Matt to the high school for football / wrestling practice, followed by evening practice later that day. It was also a long day at work for Ann & I – which is typical for a Monday…but you know how that goes… Abby began basketball camp. She wasn’t sure she really wanted to do it, but by the end of the first day; it was all she could talk about when we picked her up. We picked up the kids and headed to the ball diamonds where Luke & Bu had simultaneous games. I hate it when this happens. Luke and his Rangers played the Red Sox, who barely had enough players to even field a team. We ended up destroying them, 20-4! Luke went 3-3 with a pair of doubles and a triple that he just rocked. All told, he had 4 RBI’s, scored two runs, had six assists from the pitcher position, caught 2 fly balls, made a double play and had only 1 throwing error with all that action. Meanwhile, Abby’s team had a battle on their hands against the Lincoln Street Grill team, but they pulled through for another victory! Abby was 0-0 officially but reached base all three at-bats with walks. She scored a couple runs and slid again! She is still the only one on the team to slide. She played catcher but did not have any plays at the plate. She had no sooner completed the game then she was off to fast-pitch practice over at North Park. While the girls were off still softball-ing, Luke & I went home to load up the truck but it wouldn’t start (JT says he’ll get it ready for Matt to drive full time next year), so we moved the middle bench seat in the van and shoved the equipment in there (it still smells like gas in there to this day!). Afterwards, we hit Wal-Mart to get sodas and oil for the cars – Luke later thought it was cool that I showed him how to add oil to the Pacifica and the Grand Caravan, which were both nearly a quart low from all the heat lately. After shopping, we stopped by Dairy Point and got ice cream for everyone and brought it home.
Tuesday was another long day. Matt was back at football practice in the morning but did not have wrestling, which is apparently on hiatus. Abby was back at basketball camp. We left work early and picked up the kids due to Brandy having an early ball game. We brought the kids home where I pitched to Abby for about an hour (Luke was my catcher), in preparation of her first fast-pitch game that evening. In fact, she had a double-header that night. In her first game she went 0-2 with a pair of strikeouts. Defensively though, she was the bomb. She played first base for the first time in her life and did phenomenally. She had about 10 putouts with no errors and even made a double play! The team ended up losing their opener in a heartbreaking loss by two runs. In the nightcap, they faced the Vinyl Solutions team, which was pretty tough. Although they hung close until the end, they trailed the whole game and never did catch up. She again played 1st base and had several great plays and really looked like a pro. That being my old position, I was very proud of her and loved seeing her out there. I couldn’t resist hanging out a few times at the fence by her and shouting out some helpful hints to her. She did make her first error when a ball went right through her legs! I had to give her a hard time about that one… She was 0-1 and got hit by a pitch. After stealing a base, she was sent home on a single and was tagged out at home (more like smashed, but she tried hard). She again slid a few times and experienced her first strawberry! She was pretty sore that night and whimpered a little. All in all, she was really pretty tough. We were awfully proud of her with her war wounds. It was a full moon that evening and we couldn’t resist having a little fun with it as we walked back to the car after her last game. She was a little down about not getting any hits and how hard it was to hit the ball coming that fast. We encouraged her to give it a few more games and she’ll get the hang of it.