Game 1 Recap Yankees @ Athletics

Bridlewood Park

After a long delay, the Yankees officially kicked off their 2017 Spring Season.

Despite being dropped immediately into Game#1, the players all did a great job hustling into position and understanding what to do during the game.  It was immediately clear that we have a  very keen, very coachable team.

Thanks to all the parent volunteers for helping.  Whether you are scoring, counting pitches, supervising the bench, helping with the catcher's gear, or just cheering the players on, every little bit helps to keep the game moving and allow me to spend more time instructing.  

The first few games and practices will be spent assessing the players' strengths and weaknesses.  Although we only have about 6 weeks together, you will be amazed at how far they progress in such a short time.  I'm looking forward to watching their skills develop and hope they'll have a fun time in the process.  One of my goals is to welcome them back next year.

A quick recap for anyone who missed the action:

The Athletics threw some strong pitching our way, and it was good to see the players look for a hittable pitch that they could put into play.  Daniel and Isaac started off the season with a pair of hits.  Kai came through with a two out base-hit that scored both runners.  Kai would then score on Ben’s base hit later that inning.  Ben strode out to the mound to start the bottom half of the inning and set the bar pretty high for the rest of the pitching staff as he threw a stingy eleven pitches in a 3-up and 30down performance.  Of course he had stellar back up thanks to Sam B’s catch in Center-Field and Finley’s snag of a line drive to third base.

The second inning allowed some other players to shine at the bat as Jack, Brandon and Finley all reached base.  Jack had to hustle down the line in order to reach on a close call at first.  Josh brought home two runs with a single, while Ken also knocked in a run and scored on Sam B’s base hit.

The A’s were not to be denied though, they stormed back in the bottom half of the inning.  Sam S dug deep for his first pitching stint of the season.  It was good to see him zero in on the strike zone and give a fist pump every time he fooled a batter.  Jake helped out with some great defense, racing a ball in from right field to force an out on a close play at first base.  Ethan and Kai kept the ball in the infield to stop runners from getting too greedy on the base-paths.

In the top of the third Jake smoked a ball for what easily could have been extra bases, only to have the A’s fielder make a solid play of his own, snagging the ball out of the air.  The A’s pitchers were starting to find their groove along with some solid defense.

Sam B took to the mound in the bottom of the third.  He had a few two-strike counts that we couldn’t close out and a somewhat lively ball seemed to just bounce off a glove or get misdirected when it was hit into play.  None the less, I was encouraged to see some excellent positional play.  The players moved in to correct positions and were communicating to each other. These are plays that will quickly become routine for them and help their pitchers out of a jam.

In the fourth inning, Brandon shook off a pitch that hit him in the back and hustled to second safely on Josh’s single, but that was as much offense as we could muster to close the game out.  Despite the A’s having the lead, we took to the field again so they could have one last turn at bat, allowing Ken to come in and gain experience on the mound as well.   The A’s had a few hard hits which meant that Ken was finding the centre of the strike zone.  The defense was quick to retrieve the ball and limit the damage.  Ken and Ben teamed up on a nice play at the plate forcing out a run when Ken quickly fielded a ground ball and had to hurry the throw.    Ben snapped his glove up to snag the ball just beating the runner racing for home.

Hats off to Ethan, Daniel, Brendan and Ben for some solid work behind the plate tonight.

The A’s walked off with a 15-7 victory over our Yankees, but I saw lots of potential from all our players.

I think we're off to a great start.

Thanks for coming out tonight and cheering on our players.