After a quick breakfast at the house, Sharon and I headed to the park for the Opening Ceremonies. The number of teams this week is 88. The extended festivities included introducing all of the teams and marching them into the field.
Walking to the field for the first game, we got your first real look at the complex. It is gorgeous. There are 22 fields laid over an area of probably 40 acres of rolling terrain. All of the buildings and fields are done in a very simple style.
The Gunners played their first game at 11:00 against the Glenview Illinois Blaze. At the plate, Jack was 1 for 2 with a walk. In his first at-bat, he hit one up the middle and was throw out at first by half a step. He walked in his second plate appearance, stole second, went to third on a grounder and was strayed there at the end of the inning. In his third at-bat with the sign for a hit and run, Jack drove the first pitch hard through the left side for single. He eventually came around to score.
Jack played three innings of the four inning game at third. He handled the ball three times including a throw from the shortstop to force a runner at third, a throw from the catcher to try and get a stealing runner and running down a runner between second and third.
The Gunners won the game by a score of 16 to 1 in four innings. There is a 12 run mercy ruling after four innings. At the opening ceremonies, the announcer reminded everyone that the tournament includes a mixture of rec and competitive teams. This was definitely a rec team.
Sharon and I left the park for a nice lunch at the Yum Yum Shack. This is a place that we would definitely recommend.
The Gunners played their second game at 3:00 p.m. against the Wellington Florida Warriors. We were warned that the Florida teams were very good.
At the plate, Jack was 0 for 2. In his first at-bat, he hit a hard grounder deep to the third baseman and was just out at first. He was not pleased. With the count 3 and 2, Jack hit one back to the pitcher in his second plate appearance and was out at first.
Jack played six innings at third. His play in the field was very solid all day. He caught a pop-up down the third base line in the first inning and made a great catch on a shoe top line drive to end the top of the sixth.
The Gunners got beat badly. They lost the game by a score of 12 to 0, including giving up a grand slam in the third inning and home run in the fifth inning. Falling behind 7 to 0 in the third on the grand slam, you could see the air go out of the boys. It will be interesting to see how they bounce back tomorrow.
The Elk Grove Gunners ended the first day with a record of 1 win and 1 loss. Jack was 1 for 4 with walk.
After the game, Sharon and I drove into Cooperstown and explored. Sharon found a couple of possible places for dinner in the next couple of nights. We stopped at the grocery store and bought some food and then stopped at the Bear Pond Winery for a couple of bottles of wine; they do not sell wine or hard alcohol in the grocery stores in New York.
Back at the house, Sharon fixed a nice dinner. We sat on the porch, drank some wine, had a late dinner and watched it continue to rain. Given it was the longest day of the year, we had enough light after dinner to start to explore some of the trails that lead away from the house. Hopefully, it will dry out enough this week for us to do some hiking.
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