Opening Day - Dodgers vs. Yankees

Yesterday was FINALLY a beautiful day, and Zachary's team finally got to play their first game.  Their opponent was the Yankees, and the Dodgers were the home team.  Rather than give a play-by-play, here are the highlights.

They played 5 innings.  Zachary had 3 at-bats, and got a hit each time - all singles.  Although his 3rd hit was a line drive right up the middle of the field & into the outfield.  Had he not hit it right behind 2nd base, that one easily could have been a double.  He got thrown out at home on his first hit (it was a good play by the Yankees - just very unfortunate for Zachary.  Our kid hit it right to the pitcher, with bases loaded, and the pitcher ran it home and got Zachary out).  He got stranded on 2nd base on his 2nd hit.  But he finally scored a run on his 3rd hit.  This was following a string of foul balls by one of his teammates - at least one of which was questionable.  The ball definitely hit the line, but the ump called it foul.  This wasn't the only questionable call by this same ump.  Zachary was playing 2nd base in one inning, and someone threw him the ball to make a force out.  He caught the ball and had it solidly in his glove, and his foot was definitely on the base before the runner got there, yet for some reason the ump called the runner safe.  All the Dodgers parents were going nuts over this guy's bad calls, but what can you do.

In this age division, it's coach pitch, and the kids get 5 swings (or strikes), before they strike out.  The inning is over after 3 outs or 5 runs - whichever comes first.  In the first inning, both teams pretty much maxed out runs.  But then in the 2nd, both teams got in the groove and got 3 outs before runs were maxed out.  It went back & forth like that, and it was a very fun, and exciting game to watch.  After the top of the 5th inning, the Yankees were up 13-11.  The Dodgers wound up scoring 3 runs, and the game was over.  They were SO excited!  This is the first age division where the score is kept, and where wins & losses matter.  So it was a huge boost to win their first game, especially after only having 2 practices before.

They're supposed to play again tomorrow, but it's also supposed to rain.  So it may be next weekend before they get to play again.  Hopefully they will keep the momentum & win some more games!