Aug 19, 2017 | paarts | 1195 views
Rookie Blue Season comes to an end
Well as fast as our season started it has now come to an end. Alvinston hosted this years Rookie River League yearend tournament and we played quite well and provided all of our fans with some great entertainment. After having a couple games cancelled by Blenhiem over the last few weeks of the season we only had one tune up game to prepare for the yearend. That game was last Monday against our bitter rivals (and some of our best friends) Alvinston White. We played that game in Watford and Blue came out on top by a score of 9-6. Player of the game was Zach going 3 for 3 at the plate and making some great defensive plays.
Now to the tournament. There were 6 teams that qualified for the A division tournament and all 3 Alvinston teams were in that group.
Our first game was against Alvinston White again and it turned out to be a defensive gem. Final score was 5-2 with Blue edging the hard hitting White team. Our player of the game was Dax. After struggling at the plate for most of the season Dax had some determination in his eye that game. All his hard work had paid off and it all came together with him going 3 for 3 in the batters box and starting a streak that would see him go 7 for 7 over the next 3 games. Great work dude. The coaches, players and fans loved seeing that ear to ear smile!
Next up we had our other cross town rivals Alvinston Blue. We came out hot on the sticks and after the 1st inning we had matched the final score of the previous game 5-2. After some back and forth play and slowly putting a couple runs up every inning we had a comfortable lead going into the bottom of the last inning up 9-3. Alvinston Blue was having none of that and wasn't just going to roll over and let us walk off into the sunset with an easy victory. They came out swinging in their half of the inning and put 5 on the board with us only managing 2 outs. At this point they had the bases loaded with 2 outs and the tying run 65 ft away at 3rd. Their batter hits a grounder up the middle to the always dependable pitcher, Tucker. He snags the ball like the always does and starts to chase down the fast runner bearing down from 3rd. When he sees the runner is going to beat him and he doesn't have another play he throws the ball to Jayden at the plate (plays at the plate are extemely rare in Rookie RL) and Jayden makes a MLB first baseman's stretch catching the ball and keeping his foot on the plate to end the game. There was so much yelling and cheering from the fans and players some didn't even know what had happened. Final score Blue 9 - Red 8 If anyone was there watching that game they would be hard pressed to tell you that wasn't one of the BEST Rookie RL games they had ever seen. Player of the game at this point was a formality and Jayden took home the honors for saving the game at the end.
Next up we had Wyoming Red Saturday morning in Watford for our last round robin game of the tournament and possibly last game of the year. Well if we didn't play our best game of the year to this point and put on a defensive show for all the fans that showed up. Wyoming Red has some really good hitters and we held them in check for the majority of the game and saw ourselves tied going into the last inning. They put up 6 in the final frame and we ended up losing this one by a score of 14-8. Player of the game honors went to Kyler for his fantastic defense play and busting his butt to get in front of some hard hit balls and preventing their runners from advancing any extra bases.
With all the results from the round robin games in, we found ourselves in 3rd place out of the 6 teams and ended up playing the 2nd seeded Wyoming Red team again in the SEMIFINALS. We out did ourselves again and saved our best game for our last game. Down 3 runs after the 1st we put up 4 in the 2nd and took the lead. We held them off the score sheet in the 2nd and 3rd innings and that is not something that many other teams can say. Saying that there was only so long we could hold them back and they put up 4 in the 4th and 6 in the 5th to seal our fate for the season. We had just lost our two best games of the season to a power house team and only lost one inning each game. Final score was 13-7 for Wyoming. After the game the Wyoming coaches we utterly impressed by our defensive abilities and being able to keep their bats in check. Something they definitely were NOT used to.
So our season is done and myself and the other coaches could not be more proud of how far the players have come since the beginning only a few short months ago. Their hard work and effort turned into putting quite an entertaining game on the field for us the coaches, the fans and even themselves to watch. We finished the season with a combined Regular Season/Tournament record of 9-8. I would like to thank my coaching staff Craig Aarts, Mike and Danielle Bryce, Steve Aarts and all the parents that helped on the field and the bench when needed. A huge thank you to Christy Handzy for being our score keeper for the season. It is truly an honor and privilege to pass on what I can to your kids and teach them as much about baseball as I can.
Now that I've written a novel I'll end with one of my favorite baseball quotes.
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY MONEY TO WATCH SOME OF THE BEST BASEBALL IN THE WORLD, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DRIVE ONE OF THE PLAYERS TO THE GAME!"
GO RIVERHAWKS!!!