Lost a wild one in the tourney

We lost a wild one in the tourney 4-3. Thought we might have to use Nick to pitch again. Our starter walked batters, hit batters until it was 3-0 with 0 outs in the 1st and bases still loaded. Changed pitchers, bringing in a senior and finally got out of that jam. 2nd inning they get another unearned run on walks & hit batters. 4-0 end of 2. We get a rally in the 6th to make it 4-3 end of 6. 7th inning Nick is 4th batter in the order. He has thrived on this scenario in the past and has always either won the game or tied it with clutch hits in the past, including a home run on a couple of ocassions. Clearly a HR was not going to happen because of the use of wooden bats. Two outs now & the batter before him gets on, steals 2nd. The stage is set!!! Nicholas battles to a full count, fouls off a couple of pitches in that full count, fouls off a couple more after the count went full then sends a fly ball into deep center. The wind (40mph gusts blowing in from right field) held it up long enough for the center fielder to make a play on it. All in all it was a decent run as we won the league but finished 2nd in the tourney.

Tourney time

Nicholas got the call to start the 1st game of the season ending tourney. This surprised me a bit as I was thinking he might come in and close this game out. He has never started a high school game on the mound. Needless to say Nick Stone (my son) was on fire. As he has done on the previous 1st 2 batters he had faced when entering a game, he struck the batter out on 3 pitches. In his 1st complete game he had I think 8 strike outs, gave up 1 hit, gave up 2 walks, 0 runs. He now has 16 K's, 4 walks, given up 2 hits, gave up 0 runs, has 2 wins & 1 save as a rookie high school pitcher. He pitched 9 full innings of high school baseball.

The team will play in the championship game today at 4pm!

GO CARDS!!!!

High school league season ending

The high school league that Nicholas played in at Loeb Stadium is coming to an end. Today was the last regular season games. Nicholas had good solid contact on his 1st at bat after we worked on his batting stance yesterday. A grounder to the shortstop that resulted in a fielders choice so he ended up on 1st. He then proceeded to steal 2nd and later score. He got a good solid base hit down the 3rd base line in a later inning.

In the last inning & his team leading 4-2 he made a spectacular diving catch in center field to get the 1st out and prevent a potential rally by the opposing team.

Next week the tourney starts and he has a 10am game at beautiful Loeb Stadium.

Go Cards!!!

1st high school pitching win

By Larry
Nicholas had a terrible day at the plate. But, they brought him in to pitch in the 2nd game with the team down 4-2. He pitched inning 5, 6 & 7. He struck the 1st batter out on 3 pitches. Then proceeded to strike out the side in this the 5th inning on 13 pitches. We're still down 4-2. In the 6th he struck out the 1st batter, walked the next, got a fly out to center, struck out the last batter. He now has 5 strike outs in 2 innings. End of 6 we trail 4-3 now. In top of the last inning our team gets 6 runs giving us the lead 9-4. Last inning he strikes out the 1st batter, the next batter gets a single, the next batter hits into a double play to shortstop to end the game. Nicholas gets his 1st high school pitching win!In 4 innings of high school baseball as a 14 year old pitcher Nicholas has given up 0 runs, 2 walks and has 8 strike outs!!! Averaging 2 K's per inning. He has given up 1 hit. He has 1 win, 1 save & 0 losses as a high school pitcher!!!