Emotional Night about to happen (softball) Update first week high school fall ball…

Emotions are high right now. Reagan began playing softball 7.5 years ago at Shocker Park. As many know we never did travel ball until this Fall season. And it has been a lot (Forest/Snakebite/Shocker). I have questioned whether we should have played at Shocker this Fall season as Reagan was going into High School and all that has come with it.

But there is no doubt as I type this that this was the way it was suppose to be. One Final Game at Shocker! Reagan may play good. The team may play good. Reagan may play bad. The team may play bad. Our opponent the same.

No matter the outcome…Life Lessons will be and can be learned!

I am not going to lie. There is a really good chance Chaos Win or Lose that you will get to see a 42 year old man cry/tear up tonight when I get to address the team. It is likely this will be the end of my on field coaching with Reagan. What a Phenomenal Run. Memories that are irreplaceable!

To all the young ladies I have been blessed to Coach and Coach against. Thank you! I hope you found Life Lessons learned through this great game. I have learned as well through the process.

Never stop learning! Control what you can control. Next Play.

We have a chance to complete the goal tonight Chaos. Let’s go give it all we have!

Reagan I Love You!

 

Well tears were flowing tonight.

Reagan doubled in the gap in the first. But had two sky high pop outs her other two at bats.

Errors killed us all night in the field. But going to the fifth we had a one run lead and time was going to expire so we had our chance to win it. We were the visiting team. After not scoring we had our shot to close it but threw one away from short leading to the game tying run. After that we got out of the inning. In the sixth we pushed one run across to take a one run lead and Reagan was able to strike out the last batter she will face at Shocker to win the Championship!

I got to hug and cry with my oldest one last time on the field as her Coach after she closed it out. Blessed!

Go Chaos!

 

Update:First High School Games…

Reagan took the field for the first time playing with the Tuesday Forest Wildcats this past week (two teams for Fall Ball split evenly). These are drop dead games with no winner for the local high schools to get a chance to play each other. Some schools send one team. Some two. The Tuesday Cats have Reagan and another freshman as their pitchers (teammate on her new travel team we just started with). The Thursday Cats has a senior pitcher but they had the two freshmen come to pitch only (no hitting on Thursday) one of the two games as these are double headers. A senior and sophomore pitcher are not playing the fall season.

Reagan got the start in her first ever game. Threw 3 scoreless innings. Her friend and other pitcher closed the game throwing well. She did strikeout which is really rare for her.

Game 2 we played our rival who had what appeared to be their entire varsity team and they are legit where we have a split squad. Reagan’s freshman friend started the game and threw 3 scoreless innings before Reagan came in and threw a scoreless inning against the top of their lineup. At the plate a our freshman catcher got our first hit of the game followed by Reagan absolutely smoking the ball down the right field line to the fence for a RBI triple. Just loved that the freshman took it to our rival!

Thursday Reagan got the start in Game 2 and threw two scoreless no hit innings. Striking out the side in the second. This was a split squad they were playing so the back end of the lineup was on the weaker side.

Here is a great group of Freshman Wildcats (freshman pitchers and the Thursday freshman)…

 

That is what I have heard and am learning. Worse JV. Forest has a lot of solid players. As does a few of the other high schools. Chatting with a parent of a sophomore last Thursday they commented on how their daughter regressed during the JV season last year.

I am torn about Spring and how it may play out. There are two senior pitchers and a sophomore. While Reagan and her fellow freshman are good enough to pitch varsity high school softball. The two seniors and sophomore should be the staff. The two not playing this fall are home schooled and zoned for our school. They are really good players. After hearing how bad JV can be…it changed my thoughts from getting reps to working hard to make varsity as it sounds like the pitching and fielding can be really bad in JV. All I knew was Forest was solid. But when you have the numbers to field two teams (maybe not championship but capable of competing at a varsity level of competition) I just assumed JV would still be okay. Her bat is good enough to be in a varsity lineup right now. Her pitching is sufficient. Fielding is another story. It is sufficient in fact really good from the pitcher position. However her first travel season ever has been this Fall. So she has typically been the only pitcher on her city/Rec team and has never gotten reps outside of one on one really from positions in the field. I gave her stuff from a young age so she is plenty capable but clearly green when it comes to the higher level play in the field. Two weekends ago she played right field/DH for her 18U travel team. No errors and made a great play. At the plate though she was on fire. Started in the tenth spot being new to the team. Went 2-2 only player to get a hit. Then leadoff before playing the rest of the games in the 3 spot. No strikeouts. And only two unproductive outs.

 

Agree with all of what you are saying. All the parents with the higher level players I have spoken with have similar sentiments. I just sit back and take it in. But chatting with the parents of a senior who has played travel for years...they only play showcases now. Their daughter will play her senior year I am pretty sure (especially with her out there now). And as far as I know the two who are not playing right now are expected to play. But I would not be shocked if they chose to not play and stick to the showcases (pure speculation this is even an option but..). They were at the fields Thursday night working out themselves. I have my own thoughts on the situation but will wait and see how it plays out before vocalizing anything if I do. I have coached my daughter since the beginning pretty much. The last two years more because the help was needed and it has been a blessing. But it is hard being coach and dad. I can see the difference in certain things when I am not involved and we can discuss things after the game. The hard part is when you figure things out the other team is doing but do not want to overstep anything as the coach comes out in me.

My daughter did the pitching and hitting camp at UF when she was 8 years old. She had signed up for the fielding as well with the hitting but after day one we ate the cost on that one as it was on hot summer mornings over at the intramural fields. The hitting camp had some stations inside and it worked out well. One of the more funny moments happened as the UF players were helping keep the campers in order and they were running ground balls to SS to throw to first. And they had it so the girls were throwing to girls that were similar in age. Well the UF players got caught up in a couple of things and next thing you know a straight up HS player was about to throw to girl clearly under 10. No one was paying attention but that girl on first was looking for help with these big old eyes when the bat hit the ball. She immediately moved to the back of the line and SS fielded looked and threw a bullet to an empty first base and the ball smashed the fence. Still get a chuckle out witnessing that.

It will be interesting. At this point. I just want my daughter to enjoy her time and represent her school while learning life lessons along the way. We are in Clermont this weekend for the final Fall tournament for us. The team has a game against Santa Fe College I believe December 3 but we are in Palm Coast for a family event. After playing Central Florida College I really wish we could have made this one work. Reagan was the only player to get on twice for us when we played Central Florida College with a single and a walk. Got the first hit of the game for our team smashing it past a diving third base. Pitching was a different story. They lit her up LOL. After she mentioned she missed her spot on the first HR. My response..."clearly". That ball went as far as I have seen on a softball field lol. But it was an amazing experience for all of our young ladies!

 

We are at Hancock Park. I can’t keep up with the usssa/pgf/showcase/etc lol. The flyer on the parent thread says Veterans Day classic.

***looks like it might be isa which is a little lower level than pgf?***

If that is the one let me know. Would love to put a face to name and meet up. Right now I believe my wife will be doing Saturday and I will be doing Sunday. But not positive yet.

 

3 at bats tonight. 3 walks. I missed the first game. But the second was against a solid pitcher. Went 3/2 each time. Fouled off strike three twice in the first at bat and once in the second if memory serves me correct. Loved the approach as always. The strikes she took were good pitches. It is really hard to strike her out!

Pitching she finally gave up runs. But all unearned based on what a I heard from the first game. First game breezed through the first inning. Second inning took down the first two batters and then 2B threw the ball away for the third out and the inning got out of control. Second game got the first two out when she came into the game in the fourth and then a weak hit up the middle for an infield single before a fly ball to left field that was misplayed and should have been the third out. They got a few hits after that before striking out the last batter of the game looking.

Solid in my book.

 

That is a bummer. Have not heard that on ours yet. I get it though. It will likely be perfect weather this weekend once the storm is through. But it could still be a mess for all we know.