My Weekend

[Parr8hed]

Went down south to Shelbyville TN.  Shelbyville is 15 miles from Lynchburg.  We'll discuss this later.  Played softball in a horse arena.  Got there Friday night and drank some brews with the team moms and dads.  The tourney turned out to be only one day.  We won.  We elected not to drive the 4.5 hours back to Indiana that night.  Since we already had the hotel for 2 nights we stayed the night and toured the Jack Daniels distillery the next morning.  Then in my quest to see more National parks we toured Mammoth Cave on the way home.  Great family weekend. 

Emmy played lights out defensively.  Offense was improving, but she's not recruited to this team for her bat.  Some numbers for @ChrisL 9 2/3 innings pitched.  18 K's.  3 BB.   2 runs.  1 earned run.  2 hits.  Threw a complete no hitter the first game.  Her team allowed 2 runs in 5 games.  She pitched against a great team to get us into the championship.  Other pitcher was worn out in championship.  We were up 1-0 and other pitcher walked the bases loaded.  Emmy was put in with a 1 run lead, bases loaded and 0 outs.  She got 3 K's in a row to get them out of the inning.  I was most proud of her fielding though.  4 times she fielded her position very well and got the out.  Once caught a sharp liner come-back.  And she played first base in our first bracket game against a very fast athletic team.  First hitter laid down a bunt.  Emmy crashed, fielded it clean, and threw down for the out.  Essentially setting the tone of the game and taking away their biggest strength of the short-game.  I was very proud of that. 

The JD distillery was awesome.  Some amazing history there.  Strongly recommend.

The mammoth cave tour was meh.  It was a big (really big) hole in the ground.  Only so much to see there.

I will upload a few pics. 

[Parr8hed]

Griffin climbing into the rafters to shag foul balls.

a little skeered.

He got it.

The horse arena we played in.  Emmy on the mound. 

Playing first base here.  Emmy (#15) fielding a bunt and throwing for the out. 

Jack.  The creek that feeds the operation in the background.

Registration number one.  Pretty cool.

Inside the original rick house. 

Big hole in the ground. 

 

[maddmaxx]

Wouldn't pitching from up there be an unfair advantage?  I've heard of some teams raising the mound for certain pitchers but that's a bit over the top.

[Parr8hed]

9 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Wouldn't pitching from up there be an unfair advantage?  I've heard of some teams raising the mound for certain pitchers but that's a bit over the top.

Ha!  That is Griffin.  Him pitching for our team would be no advantage at all.  Quite the opposite. 

[bikeman564™]

go Emmy

LOL @ really big hole

[ChrisL]

56 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

Some numbers for @ChrisL 9 2/3 innings pitched.  18 K's.  3 BB.   2 runs.  1 earned run.  2 hits.  Threw a complete no hitter the first game.  Her team allowed 2 runs in 5 games.  She pitched against a great team to get us into the championship.  Other pitcher was worn out in championship.  We were up 1-0 and other pitcher walked the bases loaded.  Emmy was put in with a 1 run lead, bases loaded and 0 outs.  She got 3 K's in a row to get them out of the inning.  I was most proud of her fielding though.  4 times she fielded her position very well and got the out.  Once caught a sharp liner come-back.  And she played first base in our first bracket game against a very fast athletic team.  First hitter laid down a bunt.  Emmy crashed, fielded it clean, and threw down for the out.  Essentially setting the tone of the game and taking away their biggest strength of the short-game.  I was very proud of that. 

Wow Em was dealing!  That’s so cool to hear.

I love this shot. Head, shoulders & foot placement are spot on.  Look at the flight of the ball, textbook! 

[Parr8hed]

50 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Wow Em was dealing!  That’s so cool to hear.

I love this shot. Head, shoulders & foot placement are spot on.  Look at the flight of the ball, textbook! 

Not to take all of the credit away from Em, but look how quickly 2B had slid over to cover the bag.  And RF was getting in place for the backup.  Total team effort here. 

Emmy's weakness as a pitcher (IMHO) has always been her ability to field her position.  She's not a horrible glove, just puts so much into pitching that I feel like she was always caught off-guard when a slow roller came back at her.  She let a lot go to SS that I feel like should have been hers.  But she was on top of it this weekend.  No air-mails.  Throws were crisp and spot on.  This is all on her coaching.  They have worked fielding hard in the off season and I think it really shows.  D really stepped up to squash a ton of momentum plays in the last game.  A girl popped up a bunt when Em was pitching that was going to land right in front of the plate.  Emmy's catcher leaped at it and made an incredible diving catch, completely laid out.  Just took away anything positive that the other team was trying to put together. 

[Parr8hed]

1 hour ago, bikeman564™ said:

go Emmy

LOL @ really big hole

Well it WAS a really big hole. 

[donkpow]

My family went to Mammoth Cave  when I was a kid. We camped and I gathered wood for the fire. It is a good memory.

[Parr8hed]

1 minute ago, donkpow said:

My family went to Mammoth Cave  when I was a kid. We camped and I gathered wood for the fire. It is a good memory.

We talked about going back there to camp.  There was a lot there to see that we didn't take advantage of. 

[Zephyr]

We did the Mammoth caves back in the early 80's.  My family still talks about that trip.

I noticed in one pic,  first base is wearing a mask.  Is that for safety when playing tight to take away the bunt?  Does third wear one too.  

When I migrated from baseball to softball, I stayed at second and short.  Those playing the corners were (IMO) nuts -and I am a goaltender in hockey-

[Parr8hed]

1 minute ago, Zephyr said:

We did the Mammoth caves back in the early 80's.  My family still talks about that trip.

I noticed in one pic,  first base is wearing a mask.  Is that for safety when playing tight to take away the bunt?  Does third wear one too.  

When I migrated from baseball to softball, I stayed at second and short.  Those playing the corners were (IMO) nuts -and I am a goaltender in hockey-

Almost every pitcher and corner in softball wears a mask.  Honestly it is very rare to see any infielder in softball not wear one.  And at least 50% of the outfielders wear one.  Bats are hot.  These kids swing hard.  Softballs are not soft.

I think it's a little overkill in the OF, but most people have the idea that if their kid is on the field then they wear a mask.  You  can see the straps on Em's from the back of her head in the "throwing" pic.  Most kids also wear a chest guard as well.  To help with sudden cardiac death from taking a line drive to the chest.  The game is a lot faster than it was 10 years ago.