Padres vs. Tigers (Game 5)

League game #5 anyway. We lost a 9-5 exhibition game with the Cascade LL Rangers team on Wednesday. Some victories though in terms of getting some players additional game experience and keeping it close against a pretty good team. Also Jacob Hearne made what has to be the defensive play of the year thus far with his catch in the outfield and quickly getting it back in to 2B to double up the runner. And, Jalen came in and threw 1+ inning of really solid relief to give us a chance.

On Thursday though the Padres played by far their best game of the year. For a good part of the game we clung to a 2-1 lead with some fine pitching from Charlie and lots of good defensive plays. Our corner infielders, Austin and Jacob Collier were fantastic. The play that we got an out on their player attempting to score after getting him in a pickle really typified our effort. Not all was perfect, but we didn't compound errors - we came back and made up for them. And that I guess is perfect enough.

Lots of really good at-bats. I think we outscored them 11-4. One at bat that really stood out to me was in the 4th inning I believe. Their pitcher was pitching a pretty good game, but his pitch count was getting up there. I told all the boys to make him work and don't give him an easy low, pitch count inning. Zach came up in that inning worked the count full, fouled some pitches off, then broke their hearts after burning up all those pitches by ripping a base hit. I felt that one at bat was a huge turning point in the game, but there were many like it earlier. Some resulted in hits. Some didn't. However, all were quality at bats that got us to their relief pitcher and an opportunity to do what we do - hit the ball and score some runs.

Great job Padres. Next up the Giants and a chance to go through the first round of league games 4-2. That'd be sweet.

Padres vs. Angels (Game 4)

The Padres were able to even their record to 2-2 with a 6-3 win. It was a solid effort all the way around against a pretty good team. After going down 2-0, it was all Padres. The pitching came around. We made some plays on defense. And, the hitting was good enough to get us all the runs we needed. Great job guys.

Padres vs. Astros (Game 2)

A thriller with all the excitement that makes LL Baseball so much fun, that's for sure! After trailing 6-0 and 7-1, our boys charged back and lead 10-7 going into what was likely to be the Astro's final at-bat. A dramatic 2 run HR by Joel broke a 7-7 tie. We added one more after that. The Astros wouldn't go quietly though. In that final AB they eventually loaded the bases. Down to their final strike, one of their boys came up with a huge bases clearing double into the gap in right-center to apparently tie the game.

Then one of the craziest plays that we'll likely see this year happened. The runner who came around from first to scored missed home plate. We got the ball in, but Cordell didn't realize all he had to do was step on the plate for the chance to appeal for an out to the umpire. Instead he went into the Astro's dugout looking for that baserunner. In the process he tagged about 8 different players and an assistant coach. After what took on the look of a rugby scrum where kids were blocking Cordell and trying to get their guy out the door and back to the plate, we finally got our out at home and sealed the deal on a very heartbreaking loss for a really game Astros team.

Your 2010 Sprague Majors Padres

Jersey
Number---Name---Age

1 - Zach Lovell 10
3 - Grant Webb 12
6 - Joel Susee 11
7 - Trevor Herigstad 11
8 - Jacob Hearne 11
9 - Jacob Collier 12
10 - Jeron Burch 12
11 - Jalen Lomax 11
12 - Charlie Davis 12
13 - Austin Kleinman 11
14 - Lucas Webb 12
20 - Cordell Strubel 12