We're a MS team with 13 players. Half are 6th graders with less than two years experience, a few 7th and a few 8th graders, only two of which have more than two years experience. Last year 3/4 of our team had never played at all and it was brutal. This year our practices showed a much better team. We were invited to a tournament last weekend. We started pool play against a catholic school full of recruited 8th grade linebacker types with a pitcher clocked at a legit 61 during the game (they won it all), with razor precision. They put 16 hits on us (not the least bit surprising) with a three inning 15 run mercy, but we made almost every routine play presented, and they never had to step off the base to end an inning. Our cut throws were almost flawless, and they took care of the ball. Made great decisions. We were really excited about it, because we'll never see a MS team like that this season.
In the first bracket game we played the same way, and it was a one run loss. Our first losers bracket game we won 10 - 1, and in our last game, which was against the eventual third place team, we played almost mistake free again and it was tied up until they scored 4 in their last at-bat. Overall, we were very satisfied with the way things went, because the two public school teams that beat us are similar to what we'll see in our district.
Then came official game #1 this past Thursday. A very beatable team, similar in skill level, and we got waxed. It was brutal. Almost no hitting. Decent pitching on our side for the most part, but error after error on routine plays. They really only had three real hits. Everything else was field errors, terrible cut throws, one handed catches with balls hitting the pocket and popping out, and abysmal ball protection. The JV game went about the same.
Second game was last night. In addition to the exact same bad defense, this team demolished the ball. 18 hits off the same pitcher and most of them were rockets. I give them all the credit for that. We never had a team in or out of our district do that to us last year. I think it even surprised them. In the field they were maybe slightly better than us, but nothing special. We actually did hit the ball some against their fairlyaverage pitcher (threw 45 or so. Pretty consistently in the zone), but a lot of it was just dinkers. We're very aware we need better hitting. That much was taken away from the tournament, but half of them had really never faced a pitcher in a game, so we expected hitting to improve. Most of them can make contact fine in practice. It's been more about judging speed.
But we were just floored at how bad our defense was on routine stuff. It was like a different team. And we're just scratching our heads now, trying to think of a way to replicate that pressure. I honestly thought we had already done that. We speed up the practices quite a bit, and create that sense of chaos to get them past panic. But I think they still know it's just practice, and I think at the tournament they were more focused simply because of the environment. We had never played any of those teams.
So after this long story...can anyone suggest ways we can replicate the real pressure? The consensus after the beat-down was that they were nervous. How can we help them get past that tunnel vision, and pay attention to the runners and make better decisions. We wouldn't have won against that batting regardless, but they wouldn't have hung 18 runs on us. I can't let these kids have last year's experience again. They were miserable. They deserve a fun experience, and they're already showed us they can play better. They were taught better than this.
HELP, please...lol
In the first bracket game we played the same way, and it was a one run loss. Our first losers bracket game we won 10 - 1, and in our last game, which was against the eventual third place team, we played almost mistake free again and it was tied up until they scored 4 in their last at-bat. Overall, we were very satisfied with the way things went, because the two public school teams that beat us are similar to what we'll see in our district.
Then came official game #1 this past Thursday. A very beatable team, similar in skill level, and we got waxed. It was brutal. Almost no hitting. Decent pitching on our side for the most part, but error after error on routine plays. They really only had three real hits. Everything else was field errors, terrible cut throws, one handed catches with balls hitting the pocket and popping out, and abysmal ball protection. The JV game went about the same.
Second game was last night. In addition to the exact same bad defense, this team demolished the ball. 18 hits off the same pitcher and most of them were rockets. I give them all the credit for that. We never had a team in or out of our district do that to us last year. I think it even surprised them. In the field they were maybe slightly better than us, but nothing special. We actually did hit the ball some against their fairlyaverage pitcher (threw 45 or so. Pretty consistently in the zone), but a lot of it was just dinkers. We're very aware we need better hitting. That much was taken away from the tournament, but half of them had really never faced a pitcher in a game, so we expected hitting to improve. Most of them can make contact fine in practice. It's been more about judging speed.
But we were just floored at how bad our defense was on routine stuff. It was like a different team. And we're just scratching our heads now, trying to think of a way to replicate that pressure. I honestly thought we had already done that. We speed up the practices quite a bit, and create that sense of chaos to get them past panic. But I think they still know it's just practice, and I think at the tournament they were more focused simply because of the environment. We had never played any of those teams.
So after this long story...can anyone suggest ways we can replicate the real pressure? The consensus after the beat-down was that they were nervous. How can we help them get past that tunnel vision, and pay attention to the runners and make better decisions. We wouldn't have won against that batting regardless, but they wouldn't have hung 18 runs on us. I can't let these kids have last year's experience again. They were miserable. They deserve a fun experience, and they're already showed us they can play better. They were taught better than this.
HELP, please...lol
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