HOME RUN! [2010 Cal Ripken 11U Northern California Tournament Day #1]

The Laguna Youth Baseball 11U All Stars are playing in Cal Ripken Northern California Tournament in Rohnert Park. The tournament starts July 2 with the championship game on Friday, July 9. It is a double elimination tournament. Laguna played Windsor in the first game.

At the plate, Jack was 2 for 4 with a home run, a walk, four runs scored and six RBIs. In his first at-bat, Jack hit a 0 and 2 pitch off the end of his bat to the right side. Jack was thrown out at first, but Niko came around to score the game first run. Jack drove a 1 and 1 pitch into center field in this second plate appearance. The center fielder for Windsor played the whole game in left center. He had to run to make the play and the ball went off his glove. I scored it as an error on the center fielder. Niko came around to score the second run of the game. Jack stole second base and went to third on Jeremy's grounder to third. With Jeremy trying to advance to second and drawing the throw, Jack raced home to score the Outlaw's third run.

With Laguna trailing by the score of 6 to 3 in the top of the fifth, Jack walked on five pitches to led off the inning. Jack stole second and scored on Jeremy's blooper in right field. Laguna scored four runs in the inning to lead by the score of 7 to 6.

With Laguna leading 7 to 6 in the top of the sixth inning, Cooper and Niko both walked. Jack drove a 0 and 1 pitch back up the middle to score Cooper and Niko in his fourth plate appearance.

At this point, Windsor finally replaced their starting pitcher. With two outs, James, Cooper and Niko all hit the ball hard to the outfield to get on base and Jack came back up again. With Cooper on second, Jack crushed a 2 and 1 pitch into left field for a home run! The fence was 210 feet, but there was a fifteen foot wall; the ball cleared the fence by at least 5 feet. Sharon and I were probably more excited than Jack was! While Jack has had a couple of inside the park home runs in the last month, this is the first one that he has hit over the fence. After the game, the people running the tournament gave Jack the ball in a case.

In the field, Jack played three innings at third and three innings at first base. He had one assist and 5 put-outs. In the bottom of the second, Jack fielded a slow roller to the left side, but rushed the throw and threw a one hopper to Breyton at first. Breyton could not handle the throw. I charged Jack with an error. When the runner stole second, the Outlaws threw the ball into center field. The runner advanced to third. The throw to Jack at third from center field was in the dirt and rolled to the fence. The runner then tried to go home. Jack got to the ball and threw a strike to Josh to get the runner out at home by five or six feet and end the inning. At first, Jack had 5 put-outs on throws from the shortstop and pitcher.

In spite of giving up 5 unearned runs on errors and passed balls, Laguna blew the game open in the top of the six to win by the score of 17 to 6. With the win, they avoid having to play Saturday or Sunday and will face the winner of the Washington Manor and Oakland game on Monday afternoon.