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!

Not a Happy Baseball Day

We lost, 12-1 in 6 innings. To a school that was really ugly to us after our football loss in the playoffs last fall. And the umps BLEW three calls. (Jeff was reading aloud from the baseball rulebook app on his phone!)

Not a happy day. Nathan walked once, struck out once, and had a nice fly ball to the outfield, but it got caught. He did make some good plays in the field.

Hoping the next game will be better, but the scouting report for the next time isn't in our favor, either.

The Bats are Hot!

Another win, this time 16-2, ending the game in the 5th inning. Our bats are hot--including Nathan's! He grounded out once, hit a nice single into left field, and reached on an error. Good base running as well. Things seem to be falling into place for this team. If we can just keep it up for a few more weeks!

Back to Baseball

Sorry I got a little behind. Last night was our 3rd baseball game of the season. Nathan pitched 5 of the 7 innings, but we lost a nail biter, 7-8.

Nathan had one really good single and I think got on base another time as well. He struck out twice. But he threw 3 strikeouts and walked 4. They are looking so much better than last year so we are actually thinking playoffs might be possible! It's a short season. Only about 6 games left before the district tournament for playoff berths, so stay tuned!

Another Season at an End

Basketball ended last night with a loss in the bi-district game, 38-65. The team played hard, as usual. And they looked like a basketball team in spite of their youth and their height disadvantage with the team we played.

Aaron played point guard most of the game and almost his only stats were in the turnover category, but that is to be expected I guess when playing a good team. He spent a lot of time on the floor and actually had charging called against him--twice. Usually he's the one being charged. But he did manage to get inside for a rebound and had 2 assists.

Nathan has improved so much this season. He played well, too, scoring 6 points (2nd highest), grabbing 4 rebounds, an assist and a steal.

It was a bittersweet loss, but there are so many good things to come with this young team. We will just miss watching Aaron have a part in it, too.

4th Place

We finished in 4th place in our district, which earned us a playoff spot. The first in 5 years! But our final district game didn't go so well. We lost 43-56. The boys played hard, though. And the team is still young. It bodes well for the future.

Aaron ended the game with 11 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal while Nathan had 1 of each of those things.

It's off to bi-district now, but being the 4th place team we get the privilege of meeting up with a 1st place team. It won't be pretty. It will end the season. But sometimes it's better to know that going in!

Back to Back Losses

Because of game reschedules, we ended up playing the same team on back to back nights--and coming out on the losing end both times.

Friday night we lost 52-57. The boys played hard and were down by a lot more earlier in the game. They fought until the end. Aaron ended that game with 11 points, Nathan with 2.

Saturday night was much the same except we were short a player (out sick) and got in major foul trouble early. Nathan had his statistically best game of the year. He led the scoring with 8, assists with 3 and steals with 2. He also had 2 rebounds. Aaron did great as usual, too. He came in right behind his brother with 7 points, 2 assists, 1 steal and 2 rebounds.

It's looking like we'll make the first round of the playoffs, but I don't see us going any further. I'd love to be wrong, but I'm too realistic to think otherwise. As the season ends this week, it will be hard to say good-bye to watching Aaron play basketball.

Trounced

After almost a week off school due to snow and ice, we finally resumed our season last night--and we got trounced, 51-76.

Aaron did manage to score 14 points, pull down 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. Nathan scored 6 points and had a rebound and a steal.

We had to cancel one of our games rescheduled from a snow day due to ice, but it looks like the weather will stay clear through next week, so we should be able to finish our season, which hopefully includes at least one playoff game!basket

A Blowout

In past basketball seasons, a title like "A Blowout" has not been a good thing. But this year is different. We won this blowout, 48-15. It was against the school who is our rival in both basketball and football, and for the first time in many years--if not ever!--that we've been them in football and both basketball games in the same school year. And it was senior night for our two seniors, which was fun for them.

Aaron started out hot, scoring all four of his points in the first few minutes of the game. He didn't score any more, but he pulled down 5 rebounds, made 3 assists and 5 steals. And the one stat I don't keep but my brother, who was at the game tonight, kept for me: Aaron hit the ground at least 15 times. No wonder he's always sore after games!

Nathan played well, too, also racking up 5 rebounds to go along with his one assist, one steal and two points. All I can say is the next two years will be fun to watch, for we have a slew of sophomore boys who just keeping getting better every game.

2-0 in District Play

We won a squeaker last night, 44-42. I was so proud of the boys to be able to hang in there and pull it out in the last few minutes of the game. Both Aaron and Nathan played hard, though Aaron wasn't feeling well. (He's much better today.)

Aaron ended the game with 2 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal.

Nathan finished with no points, but he played great defense, pulled down 3 rebounds and managed 2 assists and a steal.

Next up: our cross-town rivals and the hardest basketball team in our district!

Coming up Short

Our team has a tendency to take awhile to get going. And sometimes that means digging themselves a hole they can't climb out of. That happened last night in our 51-60 loss. At least it wasn't a district game!

The boys played hard, they just couldn't shut down the other team in the first half. Down by 11 at half, they only lost by 9, which means they won the second half. Coach was pleased with their progress but I think the boys were a bit frustrated with themselves.

Aaron got in foul trouble and didn't play any of the third quarter. He ended with only 4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.

Nathan played aggressive defense in the second half and managed to 6 points, 2 rebounds and an assist.

Back to district play next week. Should be fun!

First District Win

It's our first district win since 2008! We won 57-36 in our first district game of the season. Aaron ended the game with 8 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals. Nathan finished with 2 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal. Very proud of all our team!

Another Heartbreaker

We came out flat in this final game of the tournament. We ended up down by 17 at halftime. But the boys battled back, tied the game late in the 4th quarter, but couldn't hold on. They lost 57-61.

Aaron had a rough game--literally! He got knocked around, deliberately kicked when he'd fallen to the ground (the other kids got a technical for it), and in the final seconds of the game dove for the ball and his eye connected with a kid's knee. Not just a shiner--a goose egg AND a shiner! But I think he'd say it was worth it. He led our team in scoring with 16 points and in rebounds, with 9. He also had 5 assists and a steal.

Nathan played well, too, though he only made one basket and pulled down 3 rebounds.

District play starts next week. I'm already nervous!

Catching up on Games

It's hard to keep up with reporting basketball games--especially when we hit a tournament and instead of two games a week, it's four!

So here's the catch-up report.

TUES:

We played an old district rival that is not in our district anymore. They played really well, led most of the game, but came up short, losing 49-53. Aaron ended with 5 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Nathan had 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals.

THURS:

The first game of the tournament, we played terrible but managed to stay in the game until the end, losing 40-48. The dismal play showed in the stats. Aaron: 3 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 3 steals. Nathan: 5 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals.

FRI:

The team we were supposed to play didn't show, so we played the host team's JV. We won (with most of our younger guys playing the majority of the game), 57-43. Aaron (who didn't play much) ended with 2 points, 1 rebound, 6 assists and 5 steals. Nathan played more, but only managed 2 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, and 3 steals.

Hopefully I'll keep up better from now on!

Winter Mission Trip

Here's a little bit of what the boys have been doing down in Mission, TX. They finish up today and come home tomorrow.

Aaron helped put siding on a house.

Nathan helped replace a roof.

Tournament Game 3: Not a Pretty Performance

And we thought the second game was bad! As a team, we committed 42 turnovers. Every single player that made it from the bench to the floor committed at least 1. At the end of the half, we were down by 20. At least we played more respectably in the 2nd half, finishing with a 57-43 loss.

Aaron and Nathan worked hard, as usual, having their share of mistakes. Aaron ended the evening with 7 points (2 of 5 from the free throw line), 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals. Nathan managed 5 points (1 of 2 free throws), 3 rebounds and 2 assists.

We get a break now until after Christmas (at least for games!) and I'm so glad we get a few warm-up games before district play begins. Hopefully we can get it together, because the fact of the matter is that this team could be good. Not great. But definitely good. And coming off two seasons of zero district wins, that is has the potential to be huge. If they can find the basket and quit turning the ball over, that is!

Second Tournament Game

Not such a good day today. We were dismal in our shooting percentage, both from the field and from the free throw line. Aaron ended with 2 points, Nathan with 6. Aaron managed 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Not up to what his numbers have been.

Nathan pulled down 3 rebounds, had 2 assists and 1 steal.

As a team we had a huge number of turnovers, which didn't help, either, although Aaron only gave up 1--his best game yet in that area! We'll see how it goes tomorrow. A win gives us 3rd place. A loss? Well, we won't think about that possibility right now!

Wrapping Up Aaron's Football Career

Our annual fall sports awards banquet was last night, the final wrap up of Aaron's football career. To be honest, we weren't expecting anything in the way of awards. He did well this season, but not necessarily outstanding. But we were all pleasantly surprised. Here's a rundown of Aaron's final football awards:

Team: Christian Character award

District: 2nd team kicker, 1st team cornerback

State: honorable mention cornerback, academic all-state

The state honors were huge, especially the academic one. It requires a junior or senior to have received a first team all-district award and to have at least a 90 average in school. Aaron works so hard in his classes but always feels he doesn't quite measure up. Thankfully his elective classes brought up his average enough to qualify for this honor. It is such an accomplishment for him! But beyond the hardware around his neck, we so appreciated the things said about his character and his leadership by the coaches. It was a lovely end to his career in a sport that was never his first love but that he worked to do well. We are so proud of him!