Here are some pictures from Ryan's last Little League adventures. He is a 12 yr old, so this is his last year. Next year he will play Pony if he decides he wants to continue with baseball. (I'll continue to umpire LL, though...)
Ryan's team is the Rangers. They finished the first half of the season undefeated, so they are guaranteed a spot in the league playoffs. If they win the NASA East league, they will play the NASA West champs for the grand championship.
Ryan is playing first and pitching. The first three shots are from pitching practice:
Here is a couple of shots of their pregame. In the first, Ryan is doing a grounders drill. The coach is taking turns hitting fungos to each line. There is also a wiffle ball batting drill going on. The, just before the game starts, the starting infielders, including Ryan, take infield practice. Outfielders do a fly ball drill.
The second picture is in the dugout before the game. Coach Gus is pointing out something on the field. Gus is an excellent baseball coach and a taskmaster. Ryan has played for him every season since he left machine pitch at 9 years old. We feel really fortunate to have had good coaches all through Little League. Some kids have not been so lucky. Ryan is sitting next to Gus on the other side.
Finally, here are a couple of shots from during the game.
The first is Ryan taking a throw from Josh Connell at first. Josh had fielded a bunt. The runner was out. Still, this was a tough game. Every team we play seems to play their best against us. To beat the Rangers this year will make the season for a lot of teams.
The second picture is Ryan in Rally-Cap mode. The Orioles were winning this game at the time, and in fact went on to hang a defeat on the Rangers for the first time this season. The Rangers played well, but it seemed that the balls hit by the Orioles just had eyes... Sometimes you have to be lucky AND good.
