2008 AAA Baseball Game #7

Jack played in his seventh baseball game of the 2008 little league session. Cole was on the other team. Jack and Cole played on the same team for four years (t-ball, rookie and two seasons of single A). We have gotten to be good friends with Cole's parent in the ensuing years.

Jack was 2 for 4 at the plate. In his first at bat, Cole struck him out. Jack got ahead in the count 3 - 0, but Cole battled back. Jack drove a pitch into right field in his second at bat. He came around to score. In his third plate appearance, Jack lifted one into right field between the right and center fielders. Again, he came around to score. Jack got jammed in his fourth at bat and popped out to the third baseman.

Jack played shortstop for four innings. Ranging far to his left, he made a nice stop on a shot up the middle. On the move, he made a throw to first, but not in time to get the runner. After the game, Jack said to me that "the pros make that play look so easy, but it is really hard throw." Jack ended the game by fielding a grounder up the middle and tagging Cole out as he was coming to second base.

The Padres jumped out to an early lead and won the game by a score of 10 to 4. Their record is now 4 wins and 3 losses.

One of the odd things about AAA is the range in the size of the kids; there are 9, 10, 11 and 12 year olds. While Jack is not the smallest kid I have seen playing AAA in the last month, he is the smallest on his team and the youngest by almost 6 months. The biggest on our team is an 11 year old that we played with last year. The picture shown below shows the two of them in the bottom of the first. Jack bats lead off, while Joseph bats clean-up.