JUNE 28, 2007 - Thursday - Padres vs. Dodgers - City Center #1 - Padres Win 12-11

PLEASE NOTE: There are more images to come... Time has been precious.

The hillside burned as the game commenced.

What a difference an inning and one run make. Down by six going into the bottom of the sixth it was tough to imagine being able to come back from a 6 run deficit. We made it back with 5 runs with Adam on first and Nathan at the plate. And that is how it was left as Nathan tried to jump on the first pitch..... That's the ballgame!

Being late, the league gave us two options for game two. The first was Friday at 4:30 PM and the second was Saturday at 9 AM. We agreed on the latter and the Saturday morning game will decide the outcome of our season.

The 2 1/2 hour loss stings because we scored 11 runs, yet our defense allowed 12 runs to score against us. We played from behind the entire game.

We won the coin toss and Eli chose for us to be the home team.

Before the game started the umpires drew the players out to home plate and congratulated them on making it this far in the tournament. This was a classy move and added a nice touch to the tournament.

Eli takes the mound.

FIRST INNING - In the first inning they scored 4 and we only scored 3. They started the game with a walk and a double followed by a ground out to Aaron at shortstop and a deep hit catch by Julian in right center field.

Nate stretches

An error followed by a hard hit double ended the inning badly when a balk brought in their fourth run of the inning. The strikeout brought relief as we came back and tried to catch our breath from being jumped on so quickly.

Defeat at home plate.

They had done to us what we wanted to do to them. Playing from behind is never any fun. It causes pressures, stress, and muscle tightening. The only way to change the pressure is to come right back and even up the score... Padres 4.

Adam behind the plate. Eli turned things around when he started off the bottom of the first with a single, 2 steals and then brought home with a single by Adam. Nate followed with a single and Julian drew a walk and worked his way to third Zach and Matt grounded out to end the rally. Luckily Zach's sacrifice brought in Nathan to score and we ended the inning with 3 runs. Dodgers-3 Padres-4

Adam getting ready to bat with his last year's coach Bill Street looking on.

Eli scores with Adam stepping out of the box.

Adam gets a hit to keep things going.

Adam leads off at first against Caden at the mound and Colton at first.

Adam safe at third... Then smiling after scoring.

Nate has a huge lead off at third base.

Zach gets a key hit.

Julian with a lead at third base... We left him stranded at third to end our first inning.

Eli gets the wild pitch toss from Adam for the third out. SECOND INNING - The second inning started with a hit batter who got thrown out on a fielders choice at second. Their lead off batter hit back to Eli on the mound for the put out at first. The next three batters hit singles followed by a walk. This ended with a great put out tag at the plate for the third out of the inning, but they still brought 3 runs across. Padres 7

Brian grounds out hard.

Dylan gets hit in the helmet In the bottom of the second we went scoreless as Brian grounded out to second. Dylan was then hit by a pitch and then stole second and third. Nathaniel went down swinging and then Elijah grounded out to first base.... Bummer... We left Dylan stranded on third to end the inning. Padres-7 Dodgers-3

Eli behind the plate.

THIRD INNING - The Padres started off the third with a pop fly to Aaron at shortstop for the first out. Matt then scooped up a hard ground ball and made a strong throw to first and just beat out the runner for the first out. Their number 8 batter was then hit by a pitch followed by the number nine batter striking out. Padres-7

Being down 7-3 in the bottom of the third we knew this was a critical inning. Aaron started off the inning with a stand up double to deep left center field.

Aaron scores on balk.

Aaron then scored on a balk while Adam was in the batter's box. Adam then grounded out to the pitcher. Nate was then hit by a pitch. Stealing second Nate was ready to score behind Aaron as Julian came up with a perfectly placed single to shallow center field to score Aaron while Nate held at third. In the chaos of the hit Julian continued to second base as the shortstop and second baseman were in center field and the pitcher was firmly on the mound. Zach then hit into a fielder's choice and brought Nate home. Matt ended the inning with a pop out to the first baseman. This brought the score to 7 to 5 with half of the game over. Padres-7 Dodgers -5

FOURTH INNING - The fourth found the Padres getting a single, followed by a second hard shot was hit to Zach and he got the runner out at first. Brian got the batter to great ground out back to him and he threw him out at first. The next batter walked and this left runners on first and third. The final play of the inning was a crazy pickle play due to a huge lead off at third that ended with after four throws, the last of which was a bobbled catch by Matt at third resulting in a delayed throw to Eli at home who then spun and barely scraped the back of the runner for the out.

Dylan w/stand up double.

With that enthusiasm Brian came to the plate and drew a walk. Dylan then hit a huge double scoring Brian and then Dylan stole third on a passed ball. Nathaniel took the pitcher to a full count and then struck out swinging. The next play was totally the design of Eli, but he did not inform any of us of his intentions. He came to the plate with one out and Dylan on third and bunted. Dylan charged home and slid in hard but was tagged out.... Bummer.... Eli then stole second and third but Aaron went down swinging to end the inning. 8-6 is a close score, but the one run inning is not the inning that we really wanted. Padres-8 Dodgers-6

FIFTH INNING - The fifth inning started off just the way the third inning did as the Padres player Easton popped up to Aaron at shortstop. The next batter drew a walk, followed by a grounder to Adam at second for the put out at second. The final batter hit right back to Brian on the mound for the third out.

Coming to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning we were excited to see Adam draw the walk, but disappointed when the catcher threw him out stealing second.... Bummer... Nate then hit a high fly ball to the left fielder for the second out. Julian ended the inning with a pop up back to the pitcher. This was the second inning in a row where we started off great and then it all fell apart. Padres-8 Dodgers -6

SIXTH INNING - Being down by two runs going into the last inning was obviously too much pressure because we missed the routine plays that we have become accustomed to making. The first hit was a line drive to Dylan in left field. He hustled to make the play and it hit his glove. His body stopped it and the runner was held to just a single. The next fly ball was hit to Nathaniel and he covered a lot of ground but he couldn't come up with it. The third hit was a fly ball to Julian who looked to be there but the ball hit the grass. Bases loaded with no outs and their grand slam hitter was at the plate. Colton hit the ball and we got their second batter out at the plate. The fifth batter of the inning hit back to the mound and Brian opted to throw the batter out at first rather than getting the scoring run at the plate... Bummer... We had two outs midway through the next batter Coach Cornett decided to put Eli back on the mound to finish out the game. He walked the batter and the next man up hit a single scoring their 12th run of the game. Eli then concentrated and struck out the 8th batter for the final out of the top half of the sixth.

Was there a chance? Could we come back with 6 runs to tie the score and 7 to win? Being down just two the inning before, 6 seemed a little unrealistic, but the ensuing rally was really fun to watch.

Zach started us off with a single. Matt then struck out. Brian hit a great double. Dylan grounded out to third. Nathaniel then drew a walk. Elijah hit a single. Then Aaron drew a walk. Adam hit a high fly to shallow center to bring across the fifth run of the inning and he stood proudly on first base waiting to be brought in to score. Nate then jumped on the first pitch and hit it to the pitcher who ended the game with a throw to first base. Padres-12 Dodgers-11

COACHING DECISIONS - They say that when the team wins the players get the credit, but when the team loses the coaches get the blame. In this case the coaching staff did what it promised that it wouldn't when we totally changed the look of our defense in this game of the tournament. We worked hard all season to find the defense that was most effective and then changed the entire feel of our team in last nights game when we took the field in the third inning.

I feel that by placing Eli behind the plate instead of his normal position at shortstop we took our primary infield playmaker and made him have to to cheerlead and lead the defense from behind the plate. This is tough to do and there were times when the team looked disarrayed. Think about this for a moment, Eli was not at shortstop, Aaron was not at center field, Julian was not at second base, and Adam not behind the plate. Playing in their secondary positions hurt us defensively because nothing was routine anymore. Sure they can play the secondary positions, but their reactions were forced instead of routine. This repositioning of players may work to shake things up for an out or two, but in my opinion this took its toll on the rest of the team as they have come to rely upon Eli at shortstop both to make great plays and to back them up when the balls are hit.

CONFIDENCE - Confidence is the key to winning. And that is why the defensive shake-ups did not work. We were not playing in our confident positions. We were in our secondary positions for too long and it ultimately showed up as the wheels fell off our bus in the top of the sixth inning. The 3 fly balls that fell in the outfield to start the sixth inning led to crazy base running that resulted in a chaotic attempt on our part to pick off, throw, and tag base runners. This included passed balls and scores at the plate, and two pickles, one which was successful in a crazy spinning tag at the plate and the other resulted in an over throw to left field that brought in the ultimate winning run. There were only a few times in the game when we actually looked poised out on the field.

THIS TEAM HAS HEART - We were most impressed with the fact that the Dodgers never gave up and fought back into the ballgame right up to the very last out. It was a prime opportunity for our team to throw in the towel being down 6 runs in the last inning. Considering the fact that it took 5 innings to score the first 6 runs it may have seemed a little silly to thin we had the chance. This is where the confidence from the entire season really kicked into gear. Our players knew that with even one out that we had a chance. Not totalyy dejected, I have good feelings about our next game.

With Thursdays loss we will have to wait and see what Saturdays game brings.... Champions?.... Or second best???