Opening Day 2009
Saturday, March 7th, 2009
Sweetwater Valley Red Sox Team Banner
Another little league season has started, and opening day for Austin’s first year in the majors and a traveling team. I could tell he was a little nervous at the start of the game, and his first at bat for sure. I think he was really looking to kill it. He has just watched 4 of his team mates get walked by a pitcher lobbing high fast balls over the plate. Austin came out swinging at the first two pitches that were a little too high thinking he could reach up and snag them. Then after the couch gave him the sign, he let the last pitch go by him thinking it was too high only for the umpire to call it a strike. He looked really bummed afterwards so I went to calm him down. His first remark when I walked up to the fence of the dugout was….”Are we going to the skatepark after this?” After I laughed, I said, “concentrate on this right now and we will think about the skatepark later.”
Needless to say I just told him to look for the right pitch and don’t get suckered into the high stuff this guy was throwing. Make him throw you a strike. He got his next shot at bat with the bases loaded in the next inning and sure enough his second pitch he hit a 285 foot standup triple. His last game of the year last year he hit a homer out of the park that drove in 3 runs, and the first game of the year this year he did it again. Except now the field is 300 feet instead of 200, and he has to hit a lot harder for that homer. But give him some time, I think he could do it. So, 10-2 was the score, and it looks like he has a really good team this year, cant wait to see the rest of the games.
First at bat for the season