Weekend of Sports

Friday night softball game.  a 13-12 victory.  After a big early lead, we went cold.  Scored only one run in last 3 innings.  Suddenly, we couldn't make an out in the field and they began to come back.  With the game at 13-11, they hit one to the outfield that was dropped by us.  They were running hard.  Luckily for us, the tying run stopped at 3rd, this caused the next runner to turn around and head back to 2nd, where the hitter now was.  Quick tag and she's out.  Well, more like, confusion, followed by a tag and "SHE'S OUT!" being yelled out by me.  Not my finest moment.  Next batter struck out to end the game.  It was a close one.

Some of our less experienced players seem to be unaware of the game situation, even though we (or the girls) yell it out between batters.  For four innings tonight, we had weaker players at 3rd base.  We made 6 plays at 3rd, but only 2 of them were outs.  Four other times, the ball was hit to the 3rd baseman, she got the ball and stepped on 3rd, even though no one was running there.  In one inning, the 1st two batters hit it to 3rd and we made a play there to get out the imaginary runner.  Two batters later (bases loaded now), the ball was hit to 3rd and this time we got the out.  It would have totally confused them to try to get the lead runner at home, so I was very happy with the out.  Combined with out right errors (2 by K in last inning) and weak throws, it was a frustrating last few innings.

Lacrosse on Sunday.  K finally gets to play and she ends up in goal for the whole game.  Yikes!  There is a strong goalie at the next age level, also named K.  I think the coach was hoping for some magic.  Lost 7-1, but I'll admit that K did a perfectly fine job in net.  Paid attention to what was going on, but we were simply overmatched.  A few of the experienced players have been moved up to the next age group, to fill out the team.  This leaves the squad made up of mainly 1st year players.

This is the 1st sport that I've watched from the sidelines in a long time.  I saw a small ugly portion of youth sports in this game.  The other team was clearly superior (that town starts lacrosse in grade 1, so most of the team had played for a couple years, at least), yet the coach was continually having the girls race past the net and make short passes in an area with little defense (less experienced players tend to avoid going behind the net on defense, assuming it is out of bounds.  A soccer vs hockey mentality).  As the girls get older, that trick will not help them make passes in the field of play.  This should have been seen as an opportunity to have the girls practice contested passes in front of the net, rather than some trick that might help them win a U11 game in a league with no standings or playoffs.  They would have still won easily.  Even if they used the trick in the 1st half and then adjusted, that would have been reasonable.  It will be extra satisfying to beat them in later years, when the games count toward post-season, etc.