WEST COAST HURRICANES

Count down to game time...

Our brackets are up for next week. Almost time to get down...

http://www.usssa.com/sports/Bracket.asp?Type=Winners&Tournament=557765

Fearless Leaders

Offensive leaders for the weekend:

Hits: Roman, Cody - 5; Jordan, Justin - 4; CK, Devin, Vince - 3

Average: CK, Devin, Cody, Justin and Roman - .500

Doubles: Roman, Cody - 2;

Triples: Devin - 2; Brandon - 1

RBIs: Justin, Todd - 4; Jack, Vince - 3

Runs: Cody - 5; Devin, Vince - 4; Jordan - 3

Walks: Devin - 4, CK - 3

Walk off, game winning, pressure treated Bunts: Todd - 1

On the defensive side of the ball, Todd, Cody and Vince were exceptional... Cody pitched well as he threw strikes in his two appearances and made a nice diving catch at second... Todd made a few excellent throws from first to nab runners. Vince had a no-pitch inning, picked off two, back doored a runner at third for a double play and gave many "Boosts" to our defense.

Honorable mention on D? Jordan's execution of the 1st and 3rd rundown in game one was excellent. He ran the runner at first back, saw the runner at third break, then gunned him at the plate... Roman behind the dish in game 4 showed us that Roman can be one tough kid. Despite 120 plus degree heat and his coach leaving him in for all 6 innings (what was I thinking?), he never once complained about going out for another inning... Torin made a diving play on a ground ball to his right, fielded, turned and threw the runner out from his knees in game 3...

Keep up the good work guys.

Stung

Sting 8, Canes 1.   ...12:45pm  105 degrees at game time. By the third inning: 126!

The Sting came out ready. Although Devin threw well to start the game, we could not provide the offensive support. After three innings, we were still hit-less while only getting two runners on with walks. The opposing pitchers had only thrown 35 pitches. With no errors.

We finally got two hits in the 4th as Devin blasted yet another triple to knock in Cody. Devin's triple was more than the average three bagger by our clean up man. If you ask him, we have put in some serious time working on hitting to the opposite field. It has been extremely frustrating for him in practice. Devin has not been able to drive that outside pitch very well... Until Sunday! (To Devin and I, this was MUCH more than just a triple- it was a wonderful break-through)

In the end, we managed only 7 hits and 2 walks. We have to give the Sting some credit- We have averaged approx. 8 runs a game to this point and they flat shut us down. They played clean, error-less baseball and deserved to go to the ship.

Devin went 2 for 2 with a triple, a walk and an RBI. Cody was 2 for 3 with a run scored...

EX-SQUEEEEZE ME!!!!

UPDATE ON RAFFLE!!!! WE DRAW TOMORROW! GO TO THE RAFFLE POST (7/9) TO SEE THE UPDATES ON NUMBERS AND PRIZES...

Sunday came and we were up and at 'em early. 8am game time, but I wasn't complaining... YET. I will take the early game ANY DAY when I know it will be hot enough to boil Menudo on the turf at noon...

Hurricanes 8, Colts 7... 78 degrees@8am

Once again we came out SWINGIN and I love it. After giving up 2 runs in top of the inning on a couple of walks and a triple, Cody came in and shut down the bats with two strike outs to end the threat.

Then came the Canes.

Jordan: Base hit... Cody: Double...  Brandon: Double... two more walks and we are up 4-2 after one. Nice.

After going back and forth and riding Cody through the 5th, we find ourselves locked at 7 going into the top of the 6th. In comes Brandon and after only three pitches, we have two outs as Brandon made some great pitches to force a couple of easy ground balls. After walking one, the kid Struck out the number 2 hitter on a nasty breaking ball to give us the opportunity to close out the game with only one run needed for the win...

Vince leads off the inning with a base hit to right center on the very first pitch he sees. He quickly steals second, then Roman drills the third pitch to left. Normally I might send Vince for the win, but Roman almost hit it too hard as the left fielder had the ball and was ready to throw before Vince reached third... I held him there. Now we have first and third with no outs and SEEEEK-AYYYY (CK) up to bat. The Rays call time out and change pitchers. We gather and call for Roman to steal early and get into and stay in a rundown until we score Vince. As soon as we break, the umpire tells me (perhaps he shouldn't have) that when play begins, they are going to walk CK to load the bases... BINGO! With CK put on first, Todd is up. Then Torin. Little do they know, our best bunters are coming up and ready to go like snipers in a tree. We change our play and have Vince running on the pitch. We ask Todd to lay down a bunt...

//// Side Bar: We all know these guys are 11 and not only recognize the pressure, but are nearly ready to buckle under it. It one thing to draw it up, It is ANOTHER thing to actually have it work. But why are we here? To play for a tie? ... ////

Vince takes off. Todd squares. He bunts. Vince crosses the plate before the other team can even blink. We win! We win! WE WIN!!!. Todd and Vince are mobbed.

Awesome.

Vince was 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored. Brandon went 2 for 2 with a run scored. Roman was 2 for 2 and Todd was 1 for 2 with 2 RBIs and the Game winning hit.

Cody scattered 4 hits and one walk while striking out 3 in 4 and 2/3rds.

 

Manteca HEAT...

Please remind me to NEVER sign us up to play in MANTECA in the middle of JULY again. Temps on Sunday were over 105, with field temperatures reaching 125... No kidding. It is no wonder why we had a few more tears, short tempers and whole lot of sweat.

Our Hurricanes come out of the tourney 2-2 as we ran out of gas and lost 8-1 in the semi-final to a solid Sting team on Sunday.

Game one we came out of the blocks quickly and went up went up 2-0. By the end of the second, we found ourselves down 4-2 and played catchup from then on. We tied it up at 4 in the 3rd when Devin crushed what looked to be a 600 foot triple to give us a spark and a reminder that we can catch-up to anyone real quick... As we matched the Valley Rays with runs on the board, it just got to be too tough overcoming our walks given.  We gave a solid, hard push to score some late runs to pull to a 7-7 tie in the top of the 5th, but The Vally Rays scored in the bottom of the inning on a throwing error to close the door and seal the win. Justin was 2-2 with a run scored. Cody and Devin both scored twice... Vince clearly came with his defensive hat on today as he picked a runner (our first pitcher to come in and get out of an inning without throwing a pitch) , Vince also made a sweet throw to back door a kid at third...

In the end, we walked 8 batters, 5 of them ended up scoring. 5 errors with 2 runners crossing the plate as a result. Ouch. Rays 8, Canes 7.

Game two: Canes 7, Colts 0. Temperature? 103...

Our second game of the day was much cleaner. Our Canes came out early and put up 10 runs in the first two innings. Jack was in complete command on the hill as he gave up only 2 runs, 4 hits and ONE WALK in 4 innings. Roman was 2 for 2 with a double and a run scored, Jordan went 2 for 3 with a double and 2 runs scored. Devin scored twice.

Although the score on the field was 10-2, the Colts manager made a mistake and had players re-entering the line-up in wrong positions... This was a little more than just batting out of order- The game was then called a forfeit and the final score on a forfeit is 7-0. We were just happy to get out of the heat and save a little pitching...

Brackets up for the weekend...

Brackets  

Our last local tourney...

50/50 RAFFLE!!!! (update 7/21/09) 2 days left...

OUR 2009 50/50 RAFFLE !!!

Check this page regularly for additions of prizes and to watch the Grand Prize money  grow in value...

Today's Grand Prize: $855.00!!! (This will raise as we continue to sell tickets)

also giving away:

• Two rounds of golf at Chuck Corica Golf course in Alameda
• Two rounds of golf at San Ramon Golf course in San Ramon
• Two home made Apple Pies from the Porter family
• Total of 12 A's tickets (will give out 3 groups of 4)
• Starbuck's coffee basket
• Gift certificate to Skin Wellness in Fremont
• West Coast Hurricane Gift Basket (hats... shirt...)
• Hawaiian gift basket  
• Date night package (2 movie tix and $25 gift cert. to Cheesecake factory)

If our club sells 750 tickets, they will get to shave my head into a Green and Orange Mohawk!!!!

Tickets sales end on July 22 as winning tickets will be drawn at 7:30pm at our practice field. Need not be present to win.

The player who sells the most tickets wins an IPOD NANO!!!!! (a heads up: our leader has sold 73 tickets as of 6 pm 7/22)

4th of July Brackets

We are playing on Friday night!!!!!

This is a "Round Robin" tourney (we play everyone)

We have our first game at 7:40pm Friday night against the Head First Gamers at Twin Creeks. We play our second game on Saturday (1:50pm), then at least two games on Sunday.

This is a tough tournament with some very, very good teams and it should prove to be our greatest challenge yet.

Wear your mouthpiece.

4th of July Tourney brackets and times

We need help!!!!

Fund Raiser time! In efforts to raise funds to help with getting us to L.A for the AA World Series on July 27th, we are giving away cash!

We are beginning a 50/50 raffle tomorrow. Winning ticket will be drawn on Wednesday, July 22.

The winning ticket will get 50% of all funds taken in by the team. We will post the 'Pot" value here on our site. We will also have many other prizes given out.

Players will have prizes for most tickets sold!!!!

We are looking for many tickets to be sold as well as other donations of goods and services!!! Please help!

Don't forget our Poker Tourney on July 11th at the Toribio house!!!!

High Tee

Batting practice on Monday went well... Usually on Mondays we run a little light because it is a voluntary practice. Having 9 on a Monday was solid. We breezed through our hitting stations, played catch and ran a quick whiffle ball game to close it out.

One of the drills we have been using a lot lately is the "high tee" drill. The "high Tee" drill has and will help our hitters with their hands and the path to the baseball. Many players start with low hands or drop their hands as they load up for the swing. When the hands are low, it becomes difficult to not only hit the high fastball, but many times it causes us to drop the bat head before contact and hit weak pop-ups and ground balls. In order to keep the bat head above the ball before contact and be on "plane" at contact we need to start with hands high.

The boys could do these at home...

Set up Tee with baseball high in strike zone- slightly above belly button.

Front foot after stride is even with the ball.

Start with hands high (at ear), load and swing through the baseball.

Keep shoulders square, explode with hips and keep nose on the ball with the head quiet.

Balls hit should be line drives directly into net... These can be done daily!