Tuesday, March 27, 2018

Fall Nationals w/ SLAM Toros



I was so excited for this tournament! It was a weird feeling. It was our first tournament with new coaches. I told myself I would not get close to the coaches on this team because it seemed so hard to leave Classic Baseball. Alex and Jesse were our family and been coaching Xander for so long. Wasnt sure how I would take another coach telling Xander how to play. 
With this team, I knew some of these boys..Manny, Smiley, Alex, Adam and of course Cesar. So I was excited to see these kids play together. I had Adam and Cesar spending the night, and we drove to Boulder City early in the morning.



 Ready for game day!





















Below is Ozzy, Cesar, Xander and Adam.

I have to say that this field even though its far, is my favorite field to play on. Out of every field Xander has EVER played on. There was lots of grass and trees, but the snack shack was amazing. Its family run, they had watermelon cups, apple slices with peanut butter. They had a taco bowl. Homemade beef, cooked in a crock pot, chips and every topping you could want. They also had snow cones which was great for this very hot day.

YUMMMM



 Smiley  


Alex 







Cesar














  Adam taking the mound^^






















We won game 1 6-4! Xander played 2nd base almost the entire game. Ozzy played SS. I didnt know Ozzy well yet. But what I saw was an amazing duo. They gelled so quickly. 


































We lost game 2 3-4


DAY 2










Game 1 we got to play CBA Matadors. Xander was asked to guest play with them along with Ashton, but Xander was set to play with Toros already. Ashton did play with them, so I was super excited to hang out with his family during the game!! 
































 Coach Joe talk. I didnt know Joe well. We had Smiley guest play with Classic a couple times, but he was usually in the distance with the dads. I was really enjoying watching how he is with the boys. His coaching style isnt what I was used to. His son is on the team, however he for sure does not play daddy ball. If anything he is much harder on his own son. He doesnt yell too much during the games, he allows the boys to play, and with the group he has it is easy to do it. He has a strong team full of great players. In the dugout the boys get more of a talking to. Which probably helps them on the field, because they are enjoying the game (as it shows when they play)
Our other coach was coach Moe. He works at the school. I dont know him well, (still to this day (3/27/18) I dont really speak to him.) He deals with the boys directly. Which is good.






























We had a break between games.
















































Our last game was a tie. Which put us at #4 seed, so we were set to play day 3!

However later that night we found out one of our players pitched 1 inning too much. So that disqualified us to play day 3.
We were bummed. but all in all that was an amazing tournament. Coming out as a new team, and to do as well as we did! Watching this group of boys was amazing. 
I have to say that of all the teams Xander has been on, I had never witnessed a team like this. Everyone says once our kids got to highschool we would see amazing connections. This connection between these boys was awesome to see. And being that we are from a small school, these boys are in so many classes together. It makes a huge difference in the team.
There was a small divide, between the age group. however Zakk, and Tyler meshed well with all the ages. Adam looked like he wasnt having as much fun as he used to on the field which was sad to see. There was another boy Colin who also didnt seem to find his fit with the older boys.


Up Next: Tournament of Champions with CBA