Feelin' So Fly: BASEBALL FEVER

As if picking up Calli from camp this weekend wasn't enough excitement, we also kicked off our All Star season with our first tournament. I'm going to have Calli be a guest blogger later this week and let her share her favorites about camp (isn't that a great idea?). But know that we left Pine Cove camp in Columbus and spent 2 and a half hours in the car in a rush to get to Colson's game in time and I heard non stop stories. She had fun...just a little (wink, wink).

But back to the topic that gave me several near heart attacks this weekend....baseball! As I posted on Facebook, I have become THAT mom. Although I should say that I'm not ugly. I would never yell at the umpires or other coaches but I do jump and scream and act like a first class maniac. People have asked if I'm like that in cheer and I'm really not...promise! As I thought about it I concluded that Calli's cheer routines are MAYBE 4 minutes in length and it's the same thing every time. I MAY hold my breath when a stunt goes up or get excited when they flip all together but I know what's coming. With baseball, it's so unpredictable and it's dependant on an umpire at that moment to make a call...and you never know what he saw. The point is...I get into it!

This was during the 5 minute singing of the National Anthem. If you ever need a long version for stalling purposes, Leann Rimes has a great one.

So Friday night we kicked off a double elimination tournament playing what we were told was a semi select team, EMC, in that they have been playing for 2 years together (not really sure if that rumor is true). But I do know that they were 2nd in State last year and they were slated to win the whole tournament. And the tournament was on their home field with their home umpires and their home scorekeepers...how convenient. After our scrimmages last week which were TERRIBLE, I had a feeling we were going to get slaughtered and get so down and be out after 2 games. But to my surprise, our boys came out and played real baseball! The game was great! The boys played great! Colson did great! The only thing that wasn't great was the score at the end....18 to 16, we lost. It was ok though because we realized we had a good team. The other team coaches admitted they were nervous after the 2nd inning when we shut them out...it was 3 up, 3 down...just like you want it.

Here's Colson up to bat. We played in a different League than our regular season which means we had a whole new set of rules to follow. One was we now had to hit off the tee, that was bearable. The other that really was hard to adjust to was that we played with a safety ball which was like a rubber ball. It bounced EVERYWHERE. During one of our games, the catcher would bounce the ball between hitters like it was a tennis ball. It made it hard to anticipate when it was hit on the ground. And it killed us when balls were overthrown.

So, we lost. It was ok. The boys were super excited they played so good and we had another shot on Saturday. We won our first game and advanced to a second game that day and won it. So we made our way through the losers bracket and the EMC team made their way through the winners bracket and we met again yesterday. And if Friday's game was close...todays game was heart breaking close. After a few bad calls, a few errors, a few good plays, a few really good hits and a ~~few~~ LOT of pacing on my part, the final score was 28 to 29. We lost.

This was during warm up

Again we played our hearts out. The coaches were proud, the parents were proud and you better believe the kids were proud. And can I tell you how cool they looked in their Willis uniforms? Sharp looking uniforms with matching All Star bat bags and matching helmets all with their name and number on them. I joked on Thursday after our horrible scrimmage that we may get dubbed the "special" team from Willis with our skills but we'll sure look like real baseball players.

So not only did we kick off our All Star season but we ended it all within 3 days. We had to get first in this tournament to advance to the tournament in July. But let's just say Colson is obsessed with baseball. After every game, Colson would immediately grab his glove and another player and play catch. And today we walked in the front door and he walked out the back door with his glove and ball to play catch.