Against my better judgement, we committed Jack to play baseball with the Outlaws in Sparks, Nevada over the Labor Day Weekend. Originally, the team said that they only had 8 players for Saturday and needed Jack. When we got there, they had eleven players...
I was hesitant to commit because Jack really needed the downtime. Between football and the start of school, he has been running very hard. It would have been nice for him to have a lazy weekend. I was also concerned about putting him into a position where he had not swung a bat for five weeks.
I have to admit that at the end of the day, Jack was very excited about playing baseball again. This was true in spite of the fact that he struggled at the plate. Jack talked for half an hour about the adjustments that he needed to make. He also played very well in the field.
The Outlaws played the Norcal Hitmen in the first game. The Outlaws have played a couple of different Hitmen teams in the past, but the roster of this team does not seem to match any of those.
At the plate, Jack was 0 for 3 with a RBI and a run scored. In his first at-bat with Leland on third and Trevor on second, he grounded a 2 and 1 pitch to right side. Leland scored and Jack was out at first. He struck out swinging on a 3 and 2 count in his second plate appearance. In his third at-bat, Jack grounded a 2 and 2 pitch back to the pitcher. The pitcher tried to get Trevor between second and third, but both he and Jack were safe on the fielder's choice. Jack went to second and Trevor to third when the pitcher threw the ball into centerfield on a pick off attempt. They both scored on Josh's line drive up the middle.
In the field, Jack played five innings at third base. He had one assist and one put out. Jack handled a slow roller down the third base line and threw the runner out at first in the first inning. In the fourth inning with the bases loaded and one out, Jack handled a high pop-up on the left side for the out. He fought the sun and made a basket catch which freaked everyone out...
The Outlaws scored three runs in the fourth and two runs in the fifth to win the game by the score of 7 to 4. The box score is here.
The Outlaws turned right around and played the Jr. Cardinals. This is a team from Palo Alto that practices on the Stanford campus.
Continuing to struggle at the plate after a five week layoff, Jack was 0 for 2 with a walk. In his first at-bat, Jack grounded a 1 and 1 pitch down the first base line and was out at first. Jack had an ugly plate appearance the second time up; he struck out swinging. Jack took two straight called strikes and then swung weakly at a pitch off the plate outside. In his third at-bat, Jack walked on seven pitches. This was an odd at-bat. They changed the pitcher when the count was 2 and 2.
In the field, Jack played three innings at first and one inning at third. He had five put-outs. Jack took a throw from the second baseman for an out at first. In the third inning, Josh threw wildly to second to get a runner stealing second. Jack ended up with the ball. When the runner took a big turn, Jack ran right at him. In the ensuing rundown (3-4-5-3), Jack tagged the runner out. He also had three put outs on 3dks; the Cardinals were swinging wildly at Breyton's pitches.
In an odd twilight game, the Outlaws ended up losing by the score of 10 to 5. The Outlaws outhit the Cardinals by 7 to 6. The box score is here.
The Outlaws will play the San Jose Toros and Central Coast Quakes on Sunday. Both of these teams had 2 wins and no losses in the first day of the tournament.
We finished the day with a late dinner at Fuddruckers. From there, we headed to Harrahs in downtown Reno. We will be staying there the next two nights.
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