You can't ask for for a more exciting game than our kids gave us Wednsday night. As coaches you couldn't hope for more positives to come out of a game. Sure you could ask for a shut-out, but that's just getting greedy. For the first time since what seems forever, we came out on the plus side of a close one run game. ( A June 12, 2-1 win over the Mets.) This game gave us much more than just a win. What we got was some valuable playing time experience at some key positions. We had some opportunities to play some players at new positions Jonah and Dalton at catcher, Lilly on the mound, Owen at short and Zach in center field. We also had some players build some confidence with their bats. The victory was a momentum builder as well. The win gives us two in a row and wins in five of our last eight. Not bad at all for this maturing team. Yes, we did struggle in the field at times. Too many dropped or misjudged fly balls and infield pop-ups that didn't want to stay in our gloves. Thankfully, the pitchers stayed calm and continued to get strike outs or induce routine ground ball outs. A real pleasant surprise to me this year has been our pitchers and the amount of low scoring and close games we have played. It's a real credit to their hard work and willingness to be coached.

Like I've said before, this team does not give up when they are down. It's almost become routine, fall behind in the early innings then battle back into the game. The Yankee game was no different. Two frames in and we're down 6-2. Four straight hits in the third set the stage for Brianna to come to the plate and tie the game with a huge triple breathing life back into the Red Sox. But the kids just couldn't be happy unless they had the chance to fight back one more time. The fifth inning saw us fall behind again as the Yankees plated two runs to our one. We would now need some good pitching and productive hitting to close out the last two innings and get the win. The Red Sox were up to the challenge. Zach had a truely amazing sixth inning recording three outs with just six pitches. WOW!!! The bottom half of the sixth saw our Sox come up empty stranding our lone base runner at second. While Zach needed more than six pitches in the top of the seventh he was up to task, holding the Yankees scoreless one more time. Now the pressure was on us. One run for the tie, two for the W. Our first two batters came up short and went back to the bench none too happy about it. Up comes Eddie. No pressure, just get on base or we lose. The pressure didn't get any less after the count went to 2-2 on him. But in a show of the progress Eddie has made this year he took the 2-2 fastball and ripped it to left field for a stand up double. Now it was Ian's turn to lift the team. With a keen eye he took four straight balls for the walk. Yet another good at-bat in the pressure cooker.  With a lump in his throat and a rapid beat of the heart, Dalton went into the box. Admittedly he was as nervous as the previous Sox who came to the plate. I think his dad was probably even more nervous but he will never tell. With runners on first and second and the count at 2-2 things were about to get interesting. With a crack of the bat the ball was sent sailing into the outfield of left. Eddie blew past third to score easily and Ian was in pursuit. Coach Dave almost took flight waving Ian home as he swiftly rounded the bases. With a quick slide and a cloud of dust it was over. Ian's run gave us two in the inning and a 9-8 victory! With that the team stormed the field to celebrate the walk off win. What a great team win! It could be an omen of things to come this post season.

Next up; A rematch with the Twins and a chance for redemption after falling to them and their quirky head coach 2-1 the first game. Good luck kids! Play hard, play smart and have fun

Awards night will be July 30. If we are still in the playoffs we will have practice at 5:30 that day then do the awards. If we are done we will just do the awards at 5:30. We will have practice this Tuesday. I will announce practice days after Mondays game.