Game story: Orioles 6, Braves 1

The Braves' regular season ended the way it began, with a lineup of nine Braves facing the Orioles at Water Tower Park. This time, however, the Orioles prevailed, 6-1, behind strong pitching from Os' hurler Nick Cafaro.
As Coach Dave pointed out after the game, a few concentration lapses by the Braves helped the Orioles take the game. But Dave also saluted fine defensive work by our catcher-pitcher combos (Scott-Jason and Scott-Evan) who tagged out three Orioles runners who were trying to steal home.
The Braves got their run, and temporarily tied the game, in the 4th inning. with 1 out, Tyler walked, and went all the way to third on a groundout by Liam. Then Tyler scored on Jason's hard single to center field.
Jason, taking his turn as the last batter in the lineup, also torched a double down the third-base line.
Batting: Nick doubled deep to center field in the first inning; Chris singled to center in the third, and hit another ball hard that was snared by the Orioles shortstop in a fine running play.
Defense: Matt made several plays at third. At first base, Tyler stretched his compact frame to the max to retain a throw from third to record an out.
The Braves finished the regular season with a record of 9-6-1, in 4th place in the 10-team Majors. Dave said: "Fourth place for an expansion team that has 11 5th graders on it. You guys should be really proud." He also saluted the Braves' six-game winning streak as a factor in the team's upper-division finish.
Urging the team to "be more mentally sharp" than they sometimes were against the Orioles, Dave reminded the team that their playoff games start with a 4 p.m. contest Tuesday July 7 against the Rays.

Braves clinch 4th place!

Everyone,
The Yankees beat the Rays Wednesday evening in a 3-2 thriller, meaning that the Braves will finish in fourth place in the regular season regardless of the outcome of our game Thursday against the Orioles.
Barring a change in the little-league tournament schedule, our first post-season game will be Tuesday at 4 p.m. against the fifth-place Rays. If we win that game our next game will be Saturday, July 11, at 2 p.m., almost certainly against the Dodgers. If we lose Tuesday, our next game will be Thursday at 4 p.m.
We split the season series with two of the three teams that will finish above us in the standings (Pirates and Phillies). If we can bring a sharp mental focus to a game, we can beat anyone in the league.
Dave

Game Story: Braves 16, Cubs 1

Coaches Dave and Ross have drilled and hammered the Braves on their defensive responsibilities in practice during the last week-plus. The Braves proved they've been paying attention in a 16-1 victory over the Cubs Monday evening at Water Tower Park.
While the Braves hit well on this windy and rain-interrupted evening, they weren't hammering the ball out of the park. Instead, they took advantage of every Cub mistake, while playing stout defense they deprived the Cubs of any chance to make it a game.
Liam led the parade with stellar fielding in right field and left field. He caught a deep fly ball in right field with no outs and a runner on first base, likely preventing a run. He also cleanly picked up two other singles hit to the outfield, and made strong, accurate throws to the cutoff men. Coach Dave was beaming about Liam's outfield play.
Jason started the game on the mound, and helped his own cause by spearing a liner and grabbing a grounder.
Then the Braves batted around in the first inning. Jason doubled. Chris brought him home with a single to right field. Jack walked, and Alec singled Chris home. Matt walked, Jack stole home on a passed ball. Evan singled, driving in Alec and Matt. Nick singled. Evan scored on a passed ball. Tyler walked, Anthony singled, scoring Nick. Connor singled, bringing Tyler home. Jason came to bat for the second time in the inning, and ripped a hard liner that was snared by the Cubs shortstop. The inning ended with the Braves up 8-0.
More highlights:
Batting: Each Brave reached base at least once, and 10 different Braves scored at least one run.
As Coach Dave pointed out after the game, three Braves took one for the team, getting hit by pitches: Scott, Alec and Tyler, all in the second inning.
Two Braves hit the ball hard, took off running, and never stopped until they cross home plate. In the third inning, with Jason on base, Scott ripped a ball into center field that bounced hard and got past the Cubs centerfielder. Scott made it all the way home. Coach Rick scored it a triple and error by the Cubs, but the boys treated it as a homer and rushed out to greet Scott.
Then, in the fourth inning, Nick smashed a ball down the right field line and zoomed around the bases before sliding safely across home plate. Coach Dave called it a legit inside-the-park home run, as the Cubs made no errors on the play, and joked that he had never seen Nick run so fast. What I noticed was how flawlessly Nick turned at each base.
Connor was 3 for 3 with 3 singles. Jason, Chris, Alec, Nick & Anthony each had 2 hits. Matt walked 3 times. With a single and a walk, Evan drove in 3 runs.
Pitching: Scott made his Braves pitching debut in the 4th inning. Aided by their stingy defense, Jason, Matt, Chris and Evan turned in scoreless innings. Evan finished off the final out with a running snow-cone grab of a soft liner.
Defense: At shortstop, Chris snagged a hard liner by Cubs' slugger Zach Casey. In the 4th inning, with runners on 1st and 2nd and no outs, shortstop Jason scooped out a hard grounder and threw alertly to Matt at 3rd to get the lead runner. (I love watching Jason in the field -- he always has his head in the game.) In addition to his other fine plays, Liam almost threw out the lead runner going to second on a single to right field.
Debuts: In addition to Scott's pitching debut, Jason made his Braves' debut as a catcher in the 6th inning.
Next game: 6:30 p.m. Thursday July 2, vs. the Orioles. Have your Brave at Water Tower by 5:45 p.m. for warmups and practice.

Schedule issues

After this evening's game (Sat June 20), the Braves will have four regular-season games remaining. Here is the schedule:
Monday, June 22, at 6:30 p.m. against the Yankees
Saturday, June 27, at 11 a.m. against the Rays
Monday, June 29, at 6:30 p.m. against the Cubs
Our June 16 game against the Orioles was rained out. Initially we were told that it would be made up Thursday, June 25, but that turns out NOT to be the case. Both teams would like the game to be made up on Thursday, July 2, at 6:30 p.m. But of course nothing is official until it appears on the Little League web site.
Dave

Braves game rained out

Our game against the Orioles this evening was rained out, despite a loud "let us play!" cheer led by the Braves (with most other teams joining in).
The makeup is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, June 25, at 4:30 p.m.
We are hoping for better weather for our next game, Thursday June 18 at 4:30 p.m. against the Phillies.
Dave

Game Day: Focused, aggressive Braves win their season opener

A base on balls might not come immediately to mind when thinking of big at-bats in a 17-4 game.

But Jason's third-inning walk was a key point in the Braves' 8-run outburst during today's season-opening victory over the Orioles. His epic battle at the plate, one of several by the Braves today, typified the blend of aggression, patience and good decision making that led to victory.

Jason was down 0-2, but continued to spoil good pitches by fouling them off, and wisely laid off the pitches that weren't strikes. He endured a pitching change by the Orioles -- no easy feat, waiting with 2 strikes for a new pitcher, bringing a different speed and motion to the mound. He finally worked the new pitcher for a walk. With Alec already on base with a ringing double down the first-base line, the Braves were in business. Matt's double down the third-base line brought Alec home, and the scoring onslaught began. Thirteen Braves batted in the inning.

As Coach Dave pointed out after the game in his remarks to the team, it is rare in our little league to have every kid on the team score in a game. But the Braves pulled that off today.

Every Brave went home today with something to feel good about. The Braves where whirling around the bases so fast the electronic remote control for the scoreboard threw a hissy fit and stopped working for a while.

Some of the highlights as I saw them (feel free to add your own mentally):

PITCHING: Two dominant innings of pitching by Connor, who struck out 5 batters and showed impressive command and poise. Folks, I saw Connor pitch last season. He has made tremendous improvement on the mound. Later in the game, after the Orioles mustered a rally, Chris swaggered onto the mound and shut them down.

BATTING: RBI machine Jack drove in 5 runners with 3 hits, including 2 doubles; Alec ripped two doubles as well, and Chris and Scott each had three hits. Every Braves batter had at least one hit.

FIELDING: Jack made a nice catch in LF of a hard-hit ball to snuff out a rally (the Orioles had the bases loaded). When an Orioles runner tried to score from third, catcher Nick threw him out, with pitcher Alec alertly covering the plate and applying the tag. Evan made several sure-handed putouts at first.

THIS DAY IN WFBLL BRAVES HISTORY

With this being the Braves' first game ever, let's take a moment to note a few firsts in Braves team history:

First pitch: Connor to Scott.
First K by a pitcher: Connor.
First putout: Evan (at first base, unassisted)
First batter: Jason
First hit: Connor
First stolen base: Connor
First extra-base hit: Alec
First run scored: Alec
First RBI: Matt

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own. Any mistakes are my own, too, and have nothing to do with the coaches. If you think I got something wrong, please tell me.