First Tournament in the Books!

Our Indians played in their first tournament last weekend and went 2-1.  We didn't get to finish the tournament because of rain but we had a good shot into making it to the championship game.

Ready to play!  I meant to take my good camera but it was such a crazy day, I forgot to grab it.  Bummer.... I have a bunch of other pictures with his teammates but don't want to post without their parent's permission. 

I guess I need to back up and note how we got to the maroon and gray and away from the blues and grays of South.  Dobyns-Bennett and South are huge across town rivals- either your a Rebel or an Indian.  The baseball teams are named from the high school teams in hopes that these boys play HS baseball in the future.  Last year, there was no Indians 8u team.  We played on the Rebels team.  It was fun but Carson didn't learn much about the game of baseball.  The coaches didn't have much playing experience and it sort of was "daddy ball".  We were glad to say "see you later".  When the opportunity came up to try out for a new Indians team, Carson was all over it.  He was estatic the day his jersey was handed to him with the number 1-5 on the back.  Carson is wearing Sam's baseball and football number.  Number 15 is the only number in our house!   

We ordered team magnets and decals for the cars.  I worked with the business that does a lot of orders for D-B and this is what he and I came up with.  We didn't want to be just like the school but wanted everyone to know that we are a part of the Tribe!

We had tryouts in the fall and played a couple of tournaments then and did pretty well.  Our little team is a force to be reckoned with.  What I like about this team is that all the parents have become good friends, the boys are good friends- there is no within team rivalry.  Most importantly, they are being led by a group of great men.  Our head coach played baseball at D-B then was drafted to the MLB but chose to go to college.  He played at the collegiate level but I am not sure if he played beyond that- it doesn't matter though- the man knows what he is doing and is a great teacher of the game.  He never yells at the boys and is always an encourager.  The boys respond well to that.

Chad is one of the coaches so I will sit with my parents and in laws or some of the other families.  Chad has already warned me that the head coach's wife and I will probably get thrown out of a game. We can't help it.  In our second game, the other team subbed their catcher out after he batted with the intention of him getting suited up for the next inning to save time; however, he sat in the dugout even though there were two other coaches there that could have helped him get ready.  The only reason they did that was because the game was close and if they ate time off the clock, they had a better shot of winning.  My friend and I made sure the umpire knew that.  He took our heckling- I mean- "advice" and the next day, he told all teams they have one minute to get their catcher out on the field!!!  Score one for the Mamas!  The umpire also asks us for the score all the time- hello?  Isn't that your job?  The good news is I downloaded an app on my iPhone to keep score and that works great.

The biggest news from the first tournament is that Carson caught his first pop fly in a game.  This is something he has been very timid about and struggled with.  He tried to catch one in the fall and ended up with a black eye.  He says he wasn't scared of the ball but scared that if he tried and failed, he would disappoint his team and coaches.  I told him he was disappointing everyone by not trying.  We all have worked on pop flies with him.  He will catch them almost every time when Chad or Sam hits to him but never got enough courage to in a game.  That all changed Saturday night.  He caught one, bobbled it, but maintained control.  From where I was sitting, I didn't see it (which was probably for the best- he doesn't like me cheering for him- I have to remain quiet when he is at bat- which is hard) but he doesn't know that.  My daddy was standing outside the dugout and saw it and had tears in his eyes.

We are back at it this weekend for another two day tournament which means today will be housework and getting all the laundry done.  I learned my lesson last year- do laundry before tournaments!

GO INDIANS!