Joes Give Norwood All They Can Handle

This game taught the Joes two things. First, they have the talent to play with one of the best "knothole" teams in the city. This Norwood team is a true select team made up of kids from all over the city who have played together for the last 4 years. They play about 50 games a year so they are talented, well-coached, and battle-tested. The second thing the Joes learned is that too many mistakes will cost you a game. This game was much closer than the 15-9 score would indicate and easily could have been a Joes win. However, preventable mistakes cost us on this night. We told the kids after the game to be very proud of their effort and very proud of how they came out attacking. We are getting contributions from every player and given our lack of practice time, they are playing well. However, we need to refine our mental approach to the game so that we can progress and continue to develop as a team. We refuse to coach this team as a "rec" team as they have proven they are not that - they are team that can play with the loaded teams and select teams in our league and we will continue to coach them up so that they can reach their full potential.

Matthew and Jacob stared down a very good-hitting team and pitched very well. Matthew started and hurled the first 2 1/3 innings and Jacob finished the last 2 2/3. That was Jacob's' longest outing of the year and he only walked 3 batters. Norwood is a great hitting team and they had the bats working but Matthew and Jacob kept us in the game.

The bats came out smoking as we put 4 runs on the board in the first. Nick, the G Man (2), Henry, Taco, Kai, and Hans (2) all had hits. Taco once again came thru in the clutch as his 3rd inning hit was another 2 out, 2 RBI blast. Henry's hit in the 1st also scored two. Not to be outdone, Kai continued his hot start with a 2 RBI, 2 out single in our 5 run 3rd inning. Two out, run-scoring hits are HUGE! Runs were scored by Mark, Matthew (2), Nick, the G Man, Adam, Jacob, Henry, and Taco. Peter hit a ball as far as you can in the 3rd but it found a Norwood glove in CF. Mason hit a ball as hard as you can in the 4th but it lined to the first baseman.

Defensively, Kai had two great catches in the outfield to save runs and Mason also snared a bomb from his CF spot. Mark snared a pop-up from 2B and also fielded grounders from his 2B spot in the 1st and 2nd. Nick snared a pop-up from 3B in the 2nd, and Mason snagged a pop-up from 1B in the 5th.

So this one got away but knowing the Joes they will learn from it and come out smoking next week!