On to State!

After Aaron's sophomore year football season I honestly never thought I'd again utter the words "On to State!"--and especially not in conjunction with track! But Aaron defied the odds. Thanks so a coach who wanted him to have both the experience and the honor of running in the state meet and so chose to place him on a relay team that had a shot at qualifying!

Aaron ran his personal best yesterday as the third leg of their 4 x 400 relay team--a team of 1 senior and 3 sophomores! They breezed into third place at regionals, guaranteeing their spot at the state meet. To medal would be beyond our wildest dreams. Just getting there is such a amazing way to end his four years of high school sports. We are so proud and so thankful. 

Just Missed Playoffs

Baseball season ended last night. We got run-ruled in the 5th inning. But I guess that is better than losing a playoff spot by 1 or 2 runs!

Nathan came in to pitch in relief and did well, walking two and striking out two. He made a couple of good defensive plays as well. He also had at RBI, one of only 2. (I believe cousin Chris had the other.)

They are getting close and they are still young. Looking forward to next year!

Still in the Hunt

Two baseball games this week in our district tournament--won one, lost one. But we earned the right to play in the consolation game for the final playoff spot from our district. So we're still in the playoff run.

The first game this week was a squeaker. We won 2-0. The wind was ferocious and the game was called in the fifth inning due to lightning. From there we went on to a beating in which the game was called early when the other team went up by 15 runs. Not pretty. But in that one, Nathan got 1 of our 2 hits and our only RBI.

Track is still off and running as well. At the district meet this week, Aaron qualified for Regionals in all 3 of his events! In his four years of high school he has reached regionals every year but never in the same event. This year he will compete in triple jump, 4 x 200 relay and 4 x 400 relay. The only one where they might have a shot at qualifying for the state meet is in the 4 x 400. We'll see. But even if he doesn't go on, making regionals in all three of his events was a nice cap to 4 years of varsity athletics.

A Win and a Loss

I'm having trouble keeping up with baseball--and especially with the stats since Jeff doesn't keep them!

But here is the latest update.

Two games this week.

The first we won pretty handily, though we played all seven innings. Nathan had a couple of hits and some good plays in the field at shortstop.

The second game we got soundly beat, 16-4, in 5 innings. Nathan started out pitching. Walked three, I think, including walking in a run. But several errors led to runs as well. To put it in perspective, the pitchers that came in after him did about the same as he did. Lots of walks and errors in the field.

So next week is a single elimination district tournament to get into playoffs AND the district track meet for Aaron. Next week it all could end or baseball and/or track could continue. Honestly, I hate the limbo in my schedule when we get to this point in the season!

Another Win

It seems like our district in baseball this year is comprised of really good teams, really terrible teams, and us--kind of in the middle.

Today we played one of the really bad teams. Nathan pitched 5 innings (the game ended then), threw 10 strikeouts (many of them called strikes, not swinging strikes), and walked 1.

We scored most of our runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning--12 of them, to be exact. Nathan batted twice. The first time he hit a beautiful triple down the first base line. On his second at bat that inning he knocked one into the outfield and made it to second on an error. His final at bat of the game, two innings later, he whacked a high fly to left field that the other team missed, which again put him at second base.

All in all, a fun game to watch!