Batter Up!

Eli had his second game last night. He loves baseball so much! He still has his heart set on first, but since he barely touches the ball when it's in play, he's still in a rotation of any position EXCEPT pitcher and first base. This time around he did make huge improvements during his inning as catcher and he even picked up the ball a few times while he was playing second base!

The line-up for Eli's evening was: center field, catcher, and then 2nd base twice. Nothing in center field, but while he was catcher he stopped every ball and threw it back (with great success) to the pitcher. Eli wanted to catch a foul ball, but he has yet to come even close. His first time at second base yielded no play, but during the last inning the ball came to him and he picked it up to throw it to first base. YAY!

Every time at bat, Eli crushed it. He's really got a lot of power behind his swing right now, and he's finally learned to pull it a little towards third, to give himself more time to make it to first base. The first two times, Eli got out at first. The ball beat him to first on his first hit, and while he slammed the second one in a line drive up the middle, the pitcher caught it, by surprise. Eli really got upset when he got out, for the first time ever. He could not understand why he'd gotten out because he KNEW the first baseman didn't get the ball and tag the bag. I told him he hit the ball SO hard that the pitcher threw up his glove to protect himself and ended up catching it - just lucky. The inning ended with his out, so he accepted my explanation and got out on the field without any more fuss.

Eli made it to first on his last at bat, but almost got out because he didn't tag the bag right away. He then proceeded to progress around the bases another time and cross home plate for the first time this season.