Kenzie and Cat

One 11 year old softball player had a dream come true this weekend. She met one of her heroes, and one of the greatest players to play fast pith softball: Cat Osterman. She is one happy little girl.

Go Bayshore Barracudas!

Kenzie's travel soccer team took second place in their first ever tournament, the SAC Columbus Day Tournament! And they did it by scoring only two goals in three games, with a record of 2 and 1 in bracket play to win their bracket. Kenzie had some spectacular saves in Goal, shutting out two of their opponents, to ensure the team's advancement to the final game against a very good WAGS team. TAnd, two of our newest players scored the winning goals in both games! The future of this team looks very bright. Congratulations, ladies!

More Piano Peforming

Kenzie and Connor are playing at church, on the organ during Mass, this afternoon. They got to practice a little bit on Friday. Here's how they sounded:

The Duet

Ok, here they are:

Kenz At Futsal

She only gave up two goals in 48 minutes, which is awesome for futsal. Unfortunately, her team only scored one.

BBSL All Star

Kenzie played in her BBSL All Star game this morning, at First Mariner arena (where the Baltimore Blast plays). The All Stars from her team were teamed up with All Stars from the Baltimore Storm. I don't know who they played against, but Kenzie's team lost by one point (not one goal, because the rules allowed for a three-point goal from a certain distance). Kenz said she played defense the first half, and Goalie the second half. She seemed to have fun. At least she was smiling when she got home. Now we have to turn around and go to her futsal game. I'll get to watch this one.

Kenzie Turns Eleven

With everything going on around here, I forgot to wish Kenzie a Happy Birthday on this blog. I can't believe she's done all the things she's done in just eleven years. Now, she just walked into he classroom, grumbling. She's mad at me because it's MLK Jr. day, and we are doing school, even though government schools are off. Oh well, I want to be finished up in May (and so do they) so we can't afford to take too many days off now.

Back to the birthday. Kenzie got her guitar, which she has been really wanting. She has talked a lady at church (Eileen), who Kenzie (and Connor) sings with on Sunday mornings, to teach her to play the guitar. God Provides. We can't afford both piano and guitar lessons, so what does He do? Sends us yet another un-asked-for blessing. I'm really glad Kenzie has focused her energies on music again. It is much less expensive (and local) than all that travel softball stuff (I did enjoy it, but I don't really miss it).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KENZ

Certified

Connor and McKenzie took a soccer referee class this week. They want to be able to referee soccer games outside our local, recreational league. Tonight, they took their tests. They both passed, but Kenzie is too young to actually become a certified, travel soccer ref. Connor's old enough, though. Here's his new referee patch. And, since she passed the test, Kenzie will be able to referee in rec games, even though she's under the minimum age of 12.

Where's Kenzie?

Kenzie, and a few of other former Lake Shore players, mysteriously disappeared from the Lake Shore 10U web site. Not only did they disappear from the 2008 roster, they (not including Kenzie since she was only there one year) vanished from the team's history as if they had never played softball before. In fact, so many girls disappeared that the 2007 team only had six players on it. Many other girls, coincidentally those who remain in the Lake Shore association, remain on all rosters for all the years they played on the 10U team. It seems to be a very selective series of disappearances, but that's just my opinion.

For the record, here is the bio for Kenzie's entry. I'm posting it here just to make sure I have a record of it.

Years playing select ball: 2

2007 Season: Bayside Breeze

2008 Season: Lake Shore Lightning 10U
1st Place: ASA Halloween Classic
2nd Place: USSSA Kickoff Klassic
2nd Place: PONY Mystics Spring Season Open
1st Place: USSSA Early Bird Qualifier (plus, she received the team MVP trophy)
1st Place: PONY Cherry Blossom
1st Pace: 10th Annual Heartbreakers Classic
1st Place: NSA Atlantic Coast Challenge
1st Place: USSSA Heat at the Beach
1st Place: USSSA Memorial Day Madness
1st Place: ASA 2008 Maryland State Championship
1st Place: USSSA Blast at the Beach
1st Place: USSSA Maryland State Championship
1st Place: USSSA Blue Gray Summer Shootout
2nd Place: NSA World Series

I'm sure glad all those trophies didn't disappear from our classroom wall.

A Note Of Sadness

The hardest thing I've done in recent memory was telling Coach Terry that Kenzie was moving from his 10u softball team to Charlie's 12u team, the Riviera Beach Spirit. Terry is an awesome coach who did awesome things with an awesome bunch of girls last season. From the Bayside Breeze, two years ago, Kenzie went from a 10u team that introduced her to the world of softball, to the Lake Shore Lightning that introduced her to winning in the world of softball. Kenzie's first two years of fastpitch softball could have been written in Hollywood, except in the movies there are usually more sad parts than the one at the very end.

Kenzie had every intention of spending another year at 10u with Lake Shore. That is, until the first weekend of tryouts when only two quality, older girls showed up, and one veteran player decided to go up to LSL 12u. This left Kenzie and a couple other girls as the core team with which Terry had to develop next year's team. Everyone was discouraged. When word got out about the apparent collapse of the 10u team, other coaches began contacting us about Kenzie playing somewhere else. No one seemed to be trying to steal her away from a happy situation; but they did want her to look their way if she decided to leave Lake Shore. One of those coaches was Charlie, with whom I'd developed a rapport over this past season. Charlie was one of the original coaches for LSL when Kenzie originally tried out last year. She liked him from the start, as she liked all the coaches, but Charlie stood out to her as a coach who aggressively sought the best performance that each girl had to give. For one reason or another, Charlie wound up not being an LSL coach; just a gung-ho sideline father like myself.

My original plan, before tryouts, was to have Kenzie try out for Charlie's team next year. Kenzie would have a chance to develop and mature as a team leader at the 10u level, something she has never had the chance to do since she's always "played up" in all her select and club level sports. We never considered RB's 12u team until several things came together, the first being the low turnout at the first LSL tryouts. That, and the fact that Kenzie, herself, does not want to be, to put it in her words, "the top player on the team". I don't know if she'd be the top player on Terry's team, but she would be among the top players. She functions best, and improves the most, when she is challenged; when her position is threatened; when she has to continuously earn her keep. I'm not sure she would be in that position, based on the girls we saw on that Saturday. Keep in mind, Kenzie's birthday is 16 days after the age cut off for 10u. If not for those 16 days, she would be forced to go up to 12u, regardless of her talents and experience. Also, if she moves up now, when her skills are fairly equivalent to the other girls on RB's team, she maintains the option of staying down for a third year at an older level. I really like having that option. Say her second year at 12u (or 14u or whatever-u) is a frustrating year, for whatever reason--she would have the option of taking an additional year at that level if she needed to work on certain skills that may be lacking. Right now, her skills aren't lacking enough to merit taking that extra year at 10u.

Well, in the end, we decided to check out Charlie's team this weekend. If nothing else, it would give Kenzie another chance to see Caroline. What I saw was a good group of girls with a lot of softball ability. Then I saw Kenzie fit right in. I saw her extend herself beyond what I thought she was capable of, beyond what she doing even at the World Series. Over the last few days, playing Devil's advocate, I told her she may not, for Charlie, play in a position she wanted, but rather in the outfield, where she spent most of last season. She was not happy about this. So, what did she do? She wowed the coaches with her play at third base. She also wowed the coaches with play in the outfield. She also wowed the coaches with her bat. She shifted into that higher gear that is inspired by the challenge placed before her. After today, she just felt plain good about her performance. Her last words before we headed over to talk to Terry were that she felt good about our decision to go with Charlie. I offered her $100 to talk to Terry for me because I am a coward, I felt like throwing up, and I was on the verge of hyperventilating, but she declined. She is only ten, after all. I hate hurting people, and I know I hurt Terry today, but Kenzie has to come first; and she, Vicki, and I (and Charlie and his assistant Bob and almost everyone I've talked to) believe she's ready for this move.

There are some other miscellaneous factors we considered as well. Some positive and some negative for RBS. Some positive and some negative for LSL. When everything balanced out, we did what we did with the best intentions for Kenzie in mind. But for having done it to Terry, the end of this two years is on a note of sadness.

Priceless

Gas to Ohio and Back: $200

Food for a week: $350

Hotel expenses: $1300

The hug I got from my little girl when her team took second place in the NSA Softball World Series in Columbus, Ohio: Absolutely, positvely, without-a-doubt... Priceless.

More to come as time allows.....

62-3-3

As best I can figure by going back to all the tournaments Kenzie has played in, that's the regular season record of the Lake Shore Lightning.

The softball season culminated in a fantastic battle of the titans when LSL met their arch-rivals, the Phiadelphia Spirit. After beating the Spirit 6-0 in a preliminary game on Saturday, the final showdown came in the championship game on Sunday afternoon. Everyone contributed to get us to this point but since this is my little piece of the Internet, I have to take a moment to extol the performance of my little #4. After a couple of scoreless innings, where both teams had runners in scoring position, but failed to cross the plate, Kenzie sent a one-out line drive into center field, earning her a single. Coach Terry gave her the "half-way" sign, meaning she should take a good lead, and she had permission to steal if the opportunity presented itself. To Kenzie, this meant she was going to attempt yet another delayed steal. I lost count of how many of those she's made this year. Anyway, after the next pitch, Kenzie took her lead, and following a lazy throw back to the pitcher, she took off. I thought she was a goner because her lead was very short, but the pitcher paid absolutely no attention to Kenzie. By the time the pitcher realized Kenzie was stealing, she had to make a hurried throw to second base that wound up in center field. This prompted Kenzie to take third, leading to another errant throw that hit the fence. And yes, Kenzie came home to score the first run of the game. All on a delayed steal. Very cool. The Spirit proceeded to get two runs to take the lead and a few innings later, we were starting to bite our fingernails. In the bottom of the sixth, our girls managed to scrape out two more runs. I am ashamed to say I don't remember who scored those runs, but I did have a ball fly at my chair at one point, knocking my drink off my little table and I know that's when the third run crossed the plate. I was in the process of getting out of the way of the stray ball and failed to see who was running the bases. After Ali shut down the Spirit in the top of the seventh, the Lightning emerged as champions once again. This kind of thing makes up for spending two nights a week at softball practice, spending 14 of the last 15 weekends in different towns and parks, spending lots and lots of money on softball stuff, etc.













Well, another thing that makes it worth it is the camaraderie that develops between the girls. There is a mutual respect that grows into friendship off the field. Between games the girls from both teams get along like they've been friends forever, even though they live in two different cities in two different states. Even after the heated battle of that final game, here's how they ended up, awaiting the trophy ceremony. The Spirit player, the coach's daughter, sitting next to Kenzie in this picture actually made someone else move over so she and Kenzie could sit together.

In two weeks, we head to Ohio for the NSA Eastern World Series. The Spirit will be there, too.

Oh, and just a note about the 62-3-3 record. All three losses and one tie were to the Spirit, one tie was with the Mystics, and the other with the DE Magic. So, the only team to ever beat us was the Spirit, with whom we share identical records, 3-3-1. I don't think two top teams could be much more evenly matched, although the Spirit did lose to teams other than us.

MD State Champions

The Lightning took home their tenth first place trophy today. They won the USSSA Maryland State tournament for the seventh straight year. Kenzie only helped them win the most recent one, but at least she stepped out of her hitting slump.


On Saturday, against her former team (Bayside Breeze), Kenzie went 3 for 3, including a double and a couple rbi's. In the championship game on Sunday, she got things started with a double in the first inning, scoring the first run of a 12-0 rout. The game ended by slaughter rule after only two and a half innings. We didn't need to bat in the third inning!


The whole team played awesome today; everybody was hitting, and the defense didn't allow a single run to be scored in either game. By my count, the Lightning outscored their opponents 39-4 in four games this weekend.


Here's to the champs!

Back On Track

After that surprising loss last Sunday, the Lake Shore Lightning girls got back into their winning form this weekend. Their first game was scheduled for 9 am on Saturday. It would have been against her former travel softball team, the Bayside Breeze, but that game was cancelled due to wet fields (on par with this whole season). The Lightning won their two other games, 14-0 (another Coral shutout) and 11-1, or something like that. We placed top seed for Sunday's elimination. We did stay after we were done playing so we could watch her old team play their next game. They won. And, it was fun talking to the parents and coaches I know from last year's team.

In the semifinal game, we could have played the Bayside Breeze, but they lost, and we played the Churchville Lightning. (I think Lightning and Storm are the two most popular softball team names) In that game, Kenzie got the first RBI, which turned out to be the game-winner since we won by slaughter rule, 10-0 (yet another Coral shutout).

The second, championship game, gave all us parents heart attacks. We played the Swoop, from Delaware. It rained during most of the game. Ali was having another phenomenal pitching performance, but so was the opposing pitcher. The Swoop squeezed out a run and led by 1-0 for most of the game. Once again it cam down to the bottom of the last inning. The game was tied, and I'm very ashamed to say that I've forgotten the circumstances that tied the score up. I think the excitement fried some critical memory circuits in my brain. Anyway, with one out, Kenzie came to bat. She hadn't gotten a hit yet against this pitcher. This time she stroked one to left-center field to get a single, with Toni at the plate. Toni ripped one to center that rolled to the fence. Kenzie took off, and wasn't going to stop until she touched the plate, which she did, as the ball rolled off the catcher's glove, onto the ground. Toni's dad (Big Tony), one of the coaches, now has to pay Toni a hundred bucks for that game-winning RBI. He also told Kenzie he owes her $25 for being in position to score that winning run. I won't hold him to it (and neither will Kenzie); we're just happy to part of this winning team.

For the weekend, by my count, Kenzie wound up going 8 for 11 (a .727 batting average) and was part of a few defensive plays. Several of her hits were line drives to the outfield, so that's a major improvement for the year. I only got upset at her once, when she was caught off the base when a fly ball was caught in the outfield. I then found out it wasn't her fault. She was obeying her coach's sign to steal second, was focused on that task as she should be, and just couldn't get all the way back to first to tag up. The same thing almost happened again in a later game. That's what happens when the batter is swinging away when a steal is called for.

To top off this great, but busy weekend, Alex said it was the best time he's had for a long long time. We need more weekends like this, where we can all be in the same place at the same time.

More Softball News

This is what I get for not updating my blog in a timely fashion. This also proves that people actually read this thing. In my last post I said that Kenzie could forget her world series trip because all the money went to Vicki's car. Well, this unintentionally caused concern for those who expect to have Kenzie at that tournament. I spoke abruptly because I was upset about our money that was reserved for other things was being consumed by such a large, unexpected expense. I also ended that post with the belief that whatever is meant to be, will be. The last post was Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, with the help of family, we had replenished more than half of Alex's tuition fund. By Friday evening, Vicki had found a cheaper motel in Ohio, saving us at least 50% of that expense for the tournament. We will save a lot more by taking fewer kids on the trip and using the new car, with its 34 mpg (vs 10 mpg for the big van or 20 mpg with the minivan).

Anyway, to anyone who is still concerned, we've managed to tweak things enough so that the trip to Ohio is no longer in jeopardy. I apologize if my communications skills are lacking. Of course, the new baby is due within two months of the tournament; let's pray he doesn't try to mess up his sister's summer.

While I'm here, I might take the opportunity to once again praise my girl. In bottom of the last inning in the the semi-final game on Sunday, the Lightning was down by a run. The opponent's best pitcher was in the circle. Hunter came to the plate and rbi'd the tying run in, ensuring at least extra innings. Kenzie came up (she said there were two outs, but I don't remember) with runners on second and third. She hit a line drive to left field and drove the winning run in. Very cool. I think this was her best offensive weekend yet. They went on to win yet another first place trophy (the individual trophy was a pretty junky trophy, if you ask me - although the team trophy was nice, which Hunter won as the weekend MVP).

Vicki and Kenz are heading to Philly on Friday for another tournament. Wish I could go. There's going to be some different teams there. I get to go to Delaware the following weekend to watch her play against her old team, the Bayside Breeze. They have essentially the same team as when Kenzie was on it; nine out of eleven girls played there with Kenzie last season. I haven't seen any of those players or parents for about a year so it'll be fun to see them again.

Second Place Again

But only because it was a rain-shortened tournament. Ten teams showed up. Kenzie's team only played two games, and by chance played two of the harder teams in the tournament. In the first game, they beat the team that took first place from them last weekend. The score was 4 or 5 to nothing. They shut the second team out with a score of 5 or 6 to nothing. This gave the Lightning a second-seed for the Sunday elimination tournament, which never happened because of the rain. So, they ended up second for the tournament because another team won their two games by bigger scores, I guess.

Kenzie had three at-bats. She struck out once, but got two hits, bringing her season average to .333 and OBP to .500. She added and RBI (now 6) and runs scored (now 3) to her totals, and in 14 games (13 plate appearances), she has only one strikeout. In the field, she played shortstop, where she got at least one out, but also some incredible diving stops that kept runners on first base. I wish I had seen her play, but I'm glad Vicki had a chance to spend some time with Kenzie on their mother-daughter weekend.

Second Place

Shock and Awe! After winning their semifinal game by a time-shortened 9-1 score, The Lightning lost the final game by 7-4. They only gave up 4 runs altogether in the four previous games (one run, each game), but their defensive errors could not be overcome by their hitting. Coincidentally, we'll see the same team that beat us yesterday, in our first game next Saturday, in New Jersey. If our normal team shows up, we should be able to even the score. On a personal note: The coach tends to move girls around in qualifying games, especially girls new to this team (like Kenzie) to give everyone a chance to play, but he puts the strongest players in when we really need a win. For what it's worth, Kenzie got to play the whole final game. She didn't contribute much with the bat, but at least she did put the ball in play and made no errors.

If It Was Easy, They'd Call It Baseball

The travel softball team that Kenzie plays for, the Lake Shore Lightning, started their tournament season today. They won all three games they played. They beat the Loudon (Virginia) Storm , 5-1; The Delaware Magic, 13-1; and the Bayside Blues (from Souther Maryland), 9-1. Kenzie had six at-bats. She got three RBIs, and scored two runs. Her batting average for the three games was .400, and her on-base-percentage was .500. The highlight of her day came in the second game when she came to bat with the bases loaded, and knocked in two runs with a double to left field. From second, she stole third. From third, she stole home. Here's some pictures of her batting, playing first base, and playing short stop. What an awesome day for her, and her team. Tomorrow, they go for the tournament trophy as a #1-seeded team in single elimination.

Equal Time for Kenzie

Kenzie has complained that I unfairly gush over Connor's piano-playing. She forgets how much gushing her softball skills receive. Whatever. She can play piano, too. Here's proof...

Catching Up

I just transferred some pictures from my camera to my computer, and thought I'd send some here as well.

Here's Kenzie in her indoor softball tournament in January. Her team won all three games.














Tay and Ty got some Eitech (similar to Erector Set) Sets and began building all kinds of stuff. Here's Tay with his windmill. Then, they both designed and built their own rocketships.















Here was a lazy day in early February.














The weather broke nice one day, so we let the chickens scratch outside their pen. It made their day. They love to scratch up new territory.


















Finally, here's Kearsyn.