Squires baseball

By Larry

The Squires had a big game with a team that hammered them earlier in the season. Benton Central, the leagues top team with a record of 7-1 was the opponent. We scored early. Nicholas had a single into right field first time up, hit into a double play and grounded out. With The Squiers leading 7-0 in the 5th inning, Nicholas comes up with bases loaded. A hard shot into the left center gap for a double clears the bases for a 10-0 final. (10 run rule)!!!

This makes Benton Central 7-2 & The Squires are 6-2 in The TCBA League.

Big tournament at McCaw Park this weekend.

Go Squires!!!!!!!!!!!

Squire baseball

Been a couple of weeks since I have posted about Nicholas' baseball games. Struggling a bit with the bat this year as his stance & swing have been a bit off. A little work at the academy and a chat with his coach and things certainly have changed. A 2 run blast that as soon as it left the bat knew it was gone. Next time up a deep shot that backed the center fielder up against the wall but was caught.

The Squires are now 5-2 in league play. They have a game Thursday night and a tourney in Lafayette at McCaw Park this weekend.

GO SQUIRES!!!!

Brand new baseball season for Nick

Nicholas will be playing for a new baseball team this year. It is a travel squad for his current school, Central Catholic. Last year CC won The Class 1-A State Baseball Championship. Below is a link that will provide some interesting info for youth baseball. First game is April 13th, 2008.

Go Squires!!!!
Nicholas' baseball team, The Squires!

Baseball season for Nick is on

Quick report of Nicholas' 1st 2 games of the season!! We started off the season 2-0 with both wins coming against Harrison. Nicholas is playing the outfield this year & really for the 1st time in his career. He had filled in on about 2 other times for like an out or 2 last year. Got off to a rocky start as they popped one up to him in center and he missed it. 2 innings later he got another chance and came through. 1st game he had no bat to speak of as he struck out 2x and grounded out to the infield. Had a single late in the game.

Pitching, it appears he is the absolute closer. The change in his delivery this year looks funky. They brought him in in the bottom of the last inning with the score 13-8, no outs, bases loaded and Harrison had just scored 2 runs. His 1st 2 warm up pitches struck in the grass infield about 3/4 of the way to the plate. I thought oh man!!! He proceeded to make a wild pitch to let in a run. (remember last year during rec season here in Lafayette he did the very same thing, then never gave up another run for like 20 innings. He shut em down getting the next 3 batters for a save and a final score of 13-9.

(Playin on Harrison's High School BB field)

2nd game, 4-4 at the plate with 2 doubles that went about 330'. The first was a towering shot to right/center (HRun wall was 361') that fell about 5-10' shy of the warning track. This thing might have had serious contention of going over had he not hit it so freaking high. It like towered over the lighting system. These 2 doubles brought in a total of 4 rbi's. He had another single for an rbi later, then another single.

He had his 1st diving catch in left field on a diving backhand to rob a player and saved a couple of runs. Had a single hit to him with 2 outs and a runner on 2nd. That runner tried to score from 2nd on a hit n run and Nicholas fired a perfect strike in the air from left field to nail the guy at home to end the inning.

Brought him in to close the 2nd game in the last inning after Harrison had just scored 2 runs to make it 10-7 and 0 outs & bases were juiced. He left those 3 base runners stranded for a final of 10-7 & another save.

On to the championship game

McCutcheon Tourney

Played 1 game Friday night and won against McCutcheon. Nicholas went 2-4 with a ground rule double that bounced once and went over the fence. Never pitched as they didn't need him.

2 games today and the 1st I know little about as I had to work. We lost against a prominent tourney team Pony Express 2-0. From my understanding those 2 runs came on an error so they were unearned which means this must have been an incredible game to watch. Nicholas pitched the last inning and had a 3 up 3 down inning. Unsure of what happened at the plate but surely not much.

2nd game today I was working but in touch with a friend via cell phone and at the same time finishing with a possibility of getting back to see some of the game at Wea. Bill told me Nicholas bounced a double off the wall in the 1st inning for a double and 2 RBI's. I had called him. He called back a few minutes later and told me he had just been robbed when he backed the center fielder up against the wall. The player got a glove on it but it bounced out for a double. I got there in the top 1/2 of the last inning, we were down 10-8 and batting. Bill told me Nicholas had had another double in the previous inning off the right center wall. We exploded for 15 runs in this inning!!! Nicholas had 2 base hits in this inning for a 5-5 day at the plate. They brought him in to close & did this with authority. A K-out, a fly out and a measly grounder to the 2nd baseman. For the 1st time since his drastic mechanics change pitching he had good form consistently.

McCutcheon tourney champs

What an incredible game to have watched from a youth baseball standpoint. Pony Express (who gets their players statewide), undefeated in the tourney and the team that beat us 2-0 yesterday was the opponent. We jumped on em early and had a lead of 1-0 at the end of one. They scored 3 runs in the 2nd to lead it 3-1. That score stood until Nicholas had a game tying 2 run double into deep right center with 2 outs in the last inning. (7th). That score stood for the next 4 innings & into the 11th when in the top 1/2 we got a run. Then Nicholas had a 2 run single into right center to make it 6-3 at the end of 10 1/2 innings. We have to hold em, so in comes Nicholas to close it & I'm pacing big time. Got a fly out to center. Puts a guy on with a walk and the next scenario I think is a coaching error. The next batter drills one over the left fielders head for a run scoring double. I thought the left fielder was way to shallow for their No. 2 batter because with a runner on and only one out, you want to keep everything in front of you. It's now 6-4 with one out and a runner on 2nd. Nick strikes out the next 2 batters, their No. 3 & No. 4 hitters in the order for his first tournament (travel squad) championship and the teams 1st tournament championship this year!!! Also awarded were National points towards a national ranking!!!

Bill Lodde (who owns The Igloos in town & has a son that catches) ran onto the field and got a ball from the umps, gave it to me to give to Nicholas for a game ball.

I had been thinking all week about this CC team and the losses they have incurred. They have lost 3 games by 1 run each. They lost 2-0 yesterday to a prominent Pony Express Team with both of those runs coming on an error. But, I was thinking that this team is really pretty good.

Feelings?? I ran up to the pitching coach and grabbed him for a hug and had to thank him for what he has done with Nicholas. I knew the change had to be made with his wind up and delivery to make it any further in baseball as a picther. This is the 1st year I've ran into coach's that actually teach. The Bronco coaches at some point should have corrected his wind up n delivery. And to have the patience to allow him thru the hard times in those 2 games in Indy when he got whipped. To know he was the guy. Besides, he is the brother to Nick Vukas' wife, who owns Nick's Bar & lord knows how much more I had made them rich in the past. Her and I talked at Dayton in detail about the times there and their other bar in Bloomington..Jake's.

Tournament Champs!!!!!