The Boys of Summer are Back in Business

This week my son's little league team kicked off their season by playing their first two games.  My son just recently turned eight and this is his third season playing baseball.  Due to the weather, his team only had the opportunity to practice two times before starting their games.  They were a little rough around the edges to say the least, so the coaches and parents were a little worried about how they would perform come game time.  In their first game they fell behind early by a score of 4 to 1.  The games are only five innings long so they didn't have much time to catch up.  During innings 2 through 5, they played much better defense and only gave up one more run, making it 5 to 1 going into the bottom of the final inning.  During this defensive display my son made two great infield plays to get a couple of critical outs.  Defense was the focus of our practices together in the off season so I was very proud to see him execute so well during game time.  As far as offense goes, his entire team struggled throughout the first four innings.  My son got a single his first at bat, but he struck out his second time up.  All of a sudden when the game appeared to be lost, his team started swinging the bats superbly.  They tied the game up at 5 to 5 with only one out in the bottom of the fifth.  With runners at first and third, my son stepped into the batter's box.  I was nervous because we hadn't worked on his hitting as much I would have liked to during the off season plus he had struck out his last time at the plate.  After missing the first two pitches, he drilled a grounder towards short and it made it through to the outfield.  The runner from third scored and the game was won with a walk off RBI single hit by my son.  It was amazing to see his excitement when his team came running from the dugout to celebrate and to congratulate him on his game winning hit.  This confidence building experience completely elevated his entire team.  In their second game they completely crushed the other team by a score of 14 to 5 (they gave up 4 of the 5 runs in the final inning).  It was a complete blowout.  Everyone was hitting well, everyone was making great defensive plays, and they all worked together as a team to out play their opponents.  I grew up loving baseball and it has been so much fun seeing my son take on the same love of the game that I have.  I am looking forward to the rest of the season and possibly signing up for a few private tournaments after the little league season is over.