Little League Opening Day 2015

This morning Peter kicked off his 4th season of T-Ball.  

I know that sounds kind of pathetic, but remember he started playing in the Start Smart program on base just about a month after he turned 3.  He played a second season of Start Smart when he was 4 and then transferred to our local spring city league last year.  Next year he'll be eligible to move up to rookies (machine pitch.)

I love our local league.  They have a really good program.

Anyway, this year, Peter has entire new team.  They got a lot more kids (it's seems) this year, so they have more teams and they put him on a team with a bunch of the other kids from his school.  It's nice because they all know each other and were friends already.  I might be biased, but it seems like they are already playing very well together since they all know each other well.

So this morning, to kick off the season officially, everybody gathered at the ball part at the crack of dawn for the big opening ceremonies.  All the teams line up with their banners, run a lap around the field and then line up for opening remarks.  Somebody sings the national anthem and they have somebody throw out the first pitch and the whole thing is really nice.

Our team is smaller this year, and we were missing a few, but the boys carried on with gusto anyway.

A couple hours later, at about 11:00, we then had our first game.  The boys were very cute warming up.  

As the away team we were at bat first, and Peter was first in the line up.  Not sure why or how that happened?  He was strangely confident.  Maybe he's used to it by now, but this was the first at bat, of the first game of the season.  I expected a little nerves.

Not a chance.  He was solid.

He took a couple practice swings and then the coach put the ball on the T.  He missed on his first go.  So maybe he WAS a bit nervous after all, even if he was hiding it well.

In any case, he reset, took a breath...

Went for it.

The rest of their at bat went smoothly.  The kids did really well and it was hard to believe it was only the first game.  

When they went out to field, coach sent Peter to play first base.

He did okay.  Didn't catch the ball once when it was thrown to him, but he tried hard and didn't give up.  So that was good.  I wondered what would happen as the game went on.

running in

He batted first again, in the next inning, and did well.  He's not hitting it super hard, but he got it on the first try the second two of his three at bats, so that was good.  And he beat the ball the first each time, so that was extra good, even though they weren't really doing "outs" yet this early this season.

Oh, and when he got there, he slid home.  Hahah.

He went back out to fist again.

I moved around the field to be closer to him and try to coach him a little.  Help him pay attention and focus.  I guess it worked because soon enough he was straight up catching the ball many of the times it was thrown to him.

This time he was so surprised and pleased to catch it that he forgot to tag the base before he threw it home.  Oh well.  It was a nice catch anyway.

He did better in another try or so.

He didn't catch it every time of course.  

Look at that effort.  

Apparently I can't stop taking pics of him waiting for the ball to be hit.

He looks big to me now and yet, still so small in comparison to the kids who play in the older divisions.

Here he is before batting in the third.  Seems to be giving me the "enough with the camera Mom" look.

I didn't get a single get shot of hi hitting the ball this game.  Ugh.

In the third inning, coach but him at pitcher, which really is more about catching since nearly all the hits off the tee go straight to the pitcher.

All in all, for the first game, he did great.  GREAT!  All the kids did actually.  I was very proud of them all really.

Can't wait until the next game!