First Pinto Game

Eli had his first game in the 'big leagues' last night; his current team is the Mudcats. This league has faster pitches, the potential to strike out, less players in the outfield, and bigger, stronger, faster boys. One of the cons of this new league is later games and practices. Last night's game didn't start until 7:15PM. We are an early-to-bed family and Eli and Maddux are in bed between 7 and 7:15 each night during the school year. Yikes. But he rallied and did really really well.

Eli played mostly in left field, which he loved. The outfield positions in this league are very active and necessary as most balls get hit pretty far. He threw it in several times to help stop the play. Somewhere around the 3rd inning he was assigned the position of pitcher. This position is scary for me because of the power behind some of the line-drives hit by the boys. In addition, we are still in coach-pitch mode, so the coach is sometimes slightly blocking the actual pitcher's view of the batter. (He does wear a mask, which helps!) Eli absolutely rocked that inning. He got all three outs, getting to the ball quickly as it was hit and throwing it quickly and accurately to first base. The Mudcats shut the other team out that inning.Really well...getting three outs in a row during his first game (as pitcher).

On the batting front, he did well also, scoring each time he was up except for once when he was stranded at second base. All around a REALLY good start to the new season!