The end!!!

Ok, so our Peaches merged with the Carolina Xtreme and in my last post I said I had a feeling we haven't seen the last of the Peaches uniforms. Well I was right... kind of. The merger fell through when none of the Xtreme players showed up for tryouts... thus the PEACHES are back!!! Unfortunately for us it is only the 14U Peaches. No 12U team. I was kind of bummed because the 12u team was never even mentioned in the tryout messages posted on the various fastpitch message boards. It was almost like the 12u team was an afterthought. It seems that there were about 6 or 7 14u players already AND they decided to move 2 other 12u players up to pretty much give them a full team. That left us 12u parents looking for a team. It sucks but that's the way it goes. I know the coach was trying to merge with someone else to keep the 12's but when that fell through it felt like they were saying "let's just keep the 14's and forget about the 12's". I am sure it is a lot of work to get the required number of players for a team so I cannot fault anyone. Just wish it was different.

I don't know where the other 3 girls will go but I am hoping they will join the team my daughter did. Bubbles is a proud member of the 12U Denver Dazzle. Now let's hope everything goes ok with them!!

The end...???

Well since my last post the Peaches played in 2 other NSA tournaments. They finished both of these in the A bracket which is a major accomplishment for this team and the coaches. NSA is the toughest sanction at this age group and they faced the best teams and won their share of games. The last tournament, though, they had 2 bad games as far as errors go and both were against YAK fastpitch. That was the only team they lost to and they lost twice. Still they finished fourth out of 9 teams in the A bracket and best the other teams they played.

Elizabeth and Caiti were really hitting the ball (crushing the ball actually)  the last few tournaments. Ana was diving for everything in site. Cary made great plays in RF throwing out runners at first base as well as bunting and hitting very well. Graycen, Sarah and Caiti were pitched great. Sarah and Jenna had some great drag bunts. Elizabeth gave me the opportunity to take some great pictures with her catches in CF. Molly had some good drags and stole every base she tried and did great SLIDING!!! Kyndall threw out a bunch of runners and picked off a lot also during her time behind the plate. Jeannie K played 2B great and was a great hitter this year. Carolyn's hitting improved a lot and so did her catching! Bubbles played some good OF and started hitting again and laid down some great bunts. Hope had our first real squeeze play (now I do remember Bubbles bunting on a safety squeeze earlier in the year) with a wonderful bunt and she hadn't even practiced that yet. I hope I didn't forget anyone.


Now for the sad part. After our last tournament we found out the team was combining with the Carolina Xtreme and the Peaches name would be gone. Half the team needed to move up and half was staying down and they had to do something to try to save both teams. I just wish we could have kept going as the Peaches. As much improvement as I have seen with this team I had no doubt that both teams would be very good with a little time. But, that is not my decision to make. I wish everyone the best of luck. Especially the one player that is actually reading this... Elizabeth!!


you know... i have a feeling we haven't seen the last of those Peaches uniforms though...

Emily Beamer Memorial Softball Tournament - Hillsville VA June 8th and 9th

    Our team decided to play in the Emily Beamer Memorial Softball Tournament for a few reasons. It was a last minute decision when our Virginia parents brought up the tournament to Coach Tim. We talked about it and we all decided it would be a great time. Also it gives our 3 kids that live there a chance to play in a tournament where they do not have to spend the night for a change. Since both Coach Mike and Coach Tim would be with the 18U team, it would give Scotty some great experience being the head coach. And the main reason this would be a great tournament to be in was that this is a benefit for Emily Beamer. Emily loved softball and passed away not long ago from cancer. This tournament is a way to not only remember an amazing girl but also to benefit "Emily's Wagon", which was started by her parents and provides supplies to kids like Emily and their parents. They provide supplies for the parents whose children are in the hospital and art supplies to the kids. Please visit http://www.bikersforchristnrv.com/helpemily.html for more information on this great cause.

   This is a small tournament up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia put on by the Carroll County Parks and Recreation Dept. Our 3 VA girls also play in their rec ball league. They have also played against a lot of the players that were there so that was a plus for them. The fields are nice. The umpires are volunteer I think so the strike zone wasn't the most consistent and some of the calls were suspect (of course we always think that... haha). But considering they are volunteering for a great cause no one was complaining.

   We got to go Elizabeth's house after the first game for lunch. It was a great time hanging out with everyone. I hope we get to do it again. Thanks again Dan and Paige for everything!!


   The first game was interesting for me and Keri because the team was the same team she had played filling in with the Cardinals last November in 10U, the Grayson Ghostriders. Keri's Cardinals had played them in the final of a 1 day tournament in their 5th game of the day. They had nothing left in that game and lost to a big Ghostriders team like 19-0. It was terrible. Today Keri and the Peaches got them again for some sweet revenge and it came in the form of 2 HR's. One by Elizabeth and one by Jeannie K. Graycen also pitched a no hitter!! Keri scored after a walk also and the Peaches run ruled the Ghostriders after 4 innings 10-0. Kyndall picked a girl off 1st also but got hit stealing second and had to be taken out of the game. Carolyn came in and did great the rest of the way.

    The next game was at 5:00PM against the Aftershock. The game started badly for the Peaches as the Aftershock loaded the bases with no outs. The next girl hit a high long fly ball to Jenna who made a great catch and almost got a double play at 2B. The runner on third did not tag. The next batter hit one back to Caiti (who pitched this game) and she promptly threw the ball home - Kyndall then threw to first for the double play and they got out of inning giving up no runs. There were really no big innings in this game but the Peaches scored 1 here and 2 there and eventually won 7-1.

   Sunday is the finals of the winners bracket at 12PM. A lot of the girls are staying at Elizabeth's house. I will be interested to see if they get any rest and are ready to play....

  Ok Sunday now 12PM game playing the other undefeated team the Daredevils. Peaches hit first and are promptly dispatched with 3 strikeouts! Wow, haven't seen that done to us ever. I am thinking this just might be a long game. The Daredevils did not score in their half. The Peaches then had a much better time of it scoring 2 in the 2nd inning and 4 in the third eventually winning after 4 innings 11-1.

  The championship game was against that same team who had just beat the Aftershock by run rule 15-4. The Peaches started out strong despite an early baserunning blunder and took a 6-0 lead. The Daredevils had a good 3rd inning though and scored 3 runs to make it 6-3. Peaches came back in bottom half to get those runs back and then some. We eventually won that game by run rule when Caiti ended it with a 2 run HR. Final Score 14-3!! Yay Peaches are the Emily Beamer Memorial Softball Tournament Champions for 2012!! I hope the tournament
provided a lot of great donations for Emily's wagon!

May 26th and 27th Juvenile Diabetes NSA Tournament

Peaches had another great tournament and another heartbreaking loss to end it. They ended up finishing in the A bracket in fourth place! Saturday started out on a high note when they beat the Southern Crush in the warm-up game 5-1. The Peaches then played the Lady Legends and won a close game 9-8. Next came the Carolina Stars. While the game was close for a long time a couple of errors led to a big inning for the Stars and they ended up taking it 8-3.Now in the losers bracket of the A bracket they played the Southern Crush again. This time was much tighter but the Peaches won out 5-4 in an International Tie Breaker. Now came a great team - The Carolina Angels- who had lost to the eventual champions (Piedmont Braves) by 1 run earlier. This was a great back and fourth game. Every time the Peaches went up by a couple of runs the Angels came back to tie it in the bottom of the inning. Finally we had to go to a International Tie Breaker in this game also. In the top of the inning our offense really came alive. Caiti had a big double with the bases loaded. Bubbles and Carolyn also had big hits that scored runs and we went up by 5! But guess what... we had a call not go our way and the Angels hit the ball well (plus  a couple mental mistakes that should have been outs) and that allowed the Angels to score 5 in their half. We couldn't score the next inning and the Angels won by 1 run. Once again so close.

This team is head and shoulders better than they were just a couple months ago. You can just see the way they play and that they really believe they can win. It is really fun to watch them play. I cannot wait until they finally get some breaks. Then they will really be dangerous!!

Top Gun Spring World Series May 19-20 Concord

There is so much to write about. It will be hard to do it without sounding like a sore loser... but I could really care less..

First of all this was the absolute best softball the 12U Peaches have played in the 8 months or so the team has been around. this team was put together with a lot of raw talent. Many players had never played travel softball in their life. The fact that they have come this far so quickly is a testament to the coaches desire to teach these girls the fundamentals of great softball. They do all the little things right and that is why they are having success I believe (along with the fact that these girls really get along well and LOVE playing the game).


Now, we finshed in 3rd place out of about 15 or so teams. Our first game Saturday was a warm up game against a very good team Hit N Run. We lost that game by one run 4-3 where 1 bad inning was our downfall. Luckily that one doesn't count.

The first real game in the bracket was against the Carolina Heat. The heat are not a bad team but The Peaches were on and really hit well. The defense was on also and we run ruled them in 4 innings 10-0.  One of our best games. And the best was yet to come.

Second round was against the UC Shock. this was a tight game throughout and we edged them 3-2.

The 3rd round was against the QC Spirit Blue who had beaten the IL Warriors 9-4 in the 2nd round. We had the lead 3-0 when they had a big inning  and took the lead 4-3. we put 4 more on the baord the next inning and won the game 7-4. We finished Saturday as 1 of the only 2 teams that won their first 3 games. The other team? Hit N Run who had beaten us in the warm up game setting up a showdown the next day.

Sunday the girls were loose and ready. Hit N Run struck first and it looked bad for the Peaches. We were down 4-1 in the last inning. Then the magic happened. Bunts and hits and all of a sudden we had tied the game. We had a runner on 2b with 2 outs with Caiti up when it happened. She hit a line drive down the right field line that landed just inside the foul line that scored the winning run and we had finally beaten Hit N Run!! .... wait a minute... despite the fact that everyone in the park (including the opposing coach) saw the ball inside the line the home plate umpire apparently was not paying attention and called the ball FOUL..... what??? Oh what a time for this crap. Caiti eventually got out and with the wind taken out of our sails we lost in the extra inning.... It was a horribly disappointing loss and I will never understand how an ump can call something he obviously didn't see.

So now we have to play Chair City to get to the championship game against Hit N Run so we can get our revenge. Well it was not to be. We led the whole game but CC won the game with a big last inning and we lost with Bubbles on 3b  4-3 and the Peaches finished 3rd in the tournament.


Despite the 2 Sunday losses, the girls never gave up and played amazing softball the whole weekend. It would have been nice not to have been robbed our rightful place in the championship game but 3rd is a great in such a big tournament. Even a month ago there is no way they would have done so well. They are really coming into their own as a team!!

 Some standouts:

Graycen was a pitching machine.
Cary made some good catches in RF and bunted very well all weekend.
Kyndall's bat was super hot and her defense was spectacular blocking balls and throwing out runners.
Sarah's bat was awesome.
Caiti hit well and had the game winning hit that SHOULD have put us in the championship game except for the blind umpire.


There were many more also...

There are so many people that are so proud of these girls for playing their hearts out this weekend. It was fun to watch even if it was very nerve racking. I am very proud and look forward to seeing them grow even more as a team. GO PEACHES!!







Cannot wait to see what happens next week!!

2012 Top Gun Super Regional April 28th-29th

As you can see from the picture we finally had a great tournament. The girls played very well and ended the tournament with 4 wins and 2 losses and the BB Bracket Champions!!

 They started out Saturday by beating the AA bracket team PC Magic in the warmup game. Can't remember what the score was.

Their first bracket game was against the Lady Wofpack. The bats came alive and they won 9-3.

The second bracket game was against the C.C. Untouchables. This was a great defensive battle
but the Peaches came up just short 2-1. One timely hit would have made the difference as we had runners in scoring position several times. That team actually went on to finish second in the B bracket.

Sunday started on a sour note. The only bad game of the tournament for the Peaches. They played the Charlotte Chargers. After we took the lead 2-1 we proceeded to give up several runs on errors. Could have easily won this game but ended on the losing end 5-3.

That dropped us into the BB bracket. The girls never gave up hope though and beat the Spirit Blue 5-2 in the first game which put them into the championship game of the bracket.

The championship game was a rematch of the first bracket game with the Lady Wolfpack. The girls bunted well, hit well, played awesome defense and ended winning the championship 8-1 earning a 4-2 weekend record. They each won batting helmets and 2 free entries into 2 World Series tournaments later this year!

There were too many great plays to list them all and I would forget something I am sure. I will mention that Elizabeth had a bases loaded double in the championship game!! That was a huge hit! I am proud of all the girls.  It was a great weekend for the PEACHES!!

Now the bad news. Molly, who is by far the fastest runner on the team, broke her ankle in practice and will be out for a while. Hopefully not too long. Graycen got hit with a ball pitching today. Hopefully it isn't serious but we don't know yet.

Spring Top Gun World Series

Peaches played in the Spring World Series in Concord in the B Bracket. Once again it was a little dissapointing only because I know they could have easily won every game they were in. they had chances in all of them but it was not to be. They lost 1-0, 5-3 (I think), won 12-5, and then lost 4-1. That last game was especially hard to take because witht he bases loded Ana hot a shot to right field that would have scored 3 and might have had us off and running for a huge inning but the right fielder made a very nice play to catch the ball. The bats finally started coming around int he 3rd game and they will be just fine I think. We will get them next time. Ana and Kyndall had some nice hits as did Sarah. Molly and Jenna had great drag bunts for hits. Bubbles hit the ball but popped up a bunt and didn't get a hit this time. Everyone did something good during the tournament. I am forgetting something I am sure. Go PEACHES!!

Huntersville, NC March - Rain Shortened

      Rain Rain Rain. Saturday the tournament was cancelled and the whole thing was moved to Sunday. All the other tournaments were cancelled early but ours was the last to be cancelled (for Saturday). We left really late and were only a few miles out when we found out. If they had had it we would have been late for sure!! Rolled the dice for that one..

     It rained all the way there and then rained all the way home that evening but the whole time we were playing the weather was fine. On a side note, the storms must have been horrible around 77. Traffic was backed up and we took a detour where we found the craziest hail storm aftermath I have ever seen. It literally looked like a snowstorm hit the whole area.

I really thought I was dreaming for a minute or 2...

    I waited too long to post this one. A lot of the tournament is gone from my memory. I do remember the Peaches won their first pool game 17-1 then lost the second to a definite A bracket team 5-3. They were in the game until the end and a couple of mistakes cost them a tied as the time expired. The tournament was changed to single elimination because of the weather and cancellations of the Saturday games. We drew the AA bracket. Not too bad. Our bracket game was more of the same story of the last game. Good team that we should have done better against. We lost like 6-4 or something like that. It was a messy weekend but the team played well most of the time. All we need is to start hitting the ball like I know they can and we will be hard team for anyone to beat!!

Some of the plays and hits:

We had a girl tryout last week. I didn't get to see the practice but we haven't seen her since.

Next is April 14th in Concord. Go Peaches!!

Peaches 12u Spring Fastpitch Softball!!

PEACHES 12U

Courtney, NC

2012

Sarah (pitcher - 1b - OF)
Graycen (pitcher - 1b)
Jeannie Kaye (2b -rf)
Jenna (lf)
Ana (ss)
Keri (rf)
Elizabeth (cf)
Kyndall (C - 3b)
Caiti (3b - 1b)
Molly (cf)
Carolyn (C- 3b)
Kary (rf -2b)

TOP GUN Spring Nationals Charlotte, NC March 17-18

The girls played their first tournament of the year. They won their second pool game and first bracket game and came within an eyelash of making to the championship game of their bracket (they lost 3-2). Overall they played well.

 

 Here are a few plays. There were great plays

I didn't get. For example Jenna made a

couple of great catches I wish I had caught. I

 am sure there are more that I cannot think

of.

Here are just a couple of pics from the tournament