Sarah decided that she wanted to give baseball a try this season. Before, Eric and I could not talk her into playing t-ball. She loved to hit the ball with us in the backyard, but did NOT want to wear a mitt. We told her to play she would have to wear the mitt when she was in the field. This always ended in her telling us she did not want to play on a team. But, she has a new mitt this year and after a little convincing to put it on and just try it out, she was ready to join a team. We signed her up with a local sports league. She was too old for t-ball, so she is in a rookie (ages 6-8), machine pitch, baseball league. There was no softball option for the girls in this age group in this league. She is on a team of about twelve other children, nine boys and three girls, including herself. They had practices twice a week starting at the beginning of April to prepare for their games.
Sarah can hit the ball very well. She has a great coach at home... Daddy! He has practiced and practiced with her, getting her ready to play tough, and showing her how to do things correctly. We were a little shocked at the first practice when all of the kids got a turn trying to hit the ball off the pitching machine. The machine was throwing the balls in to the kids at 40-50 mph, with very little accuracy. There were only three boys who even made contact with the ball at that practice. After that Eric really concentrated for awhile on pitching the ball to her, fast, so that she would learn when to swing, and to swing hard. And, she got it! Since then she has hit every time off the pitching machine!
Her team, the Turtles, had two practice Spring games. Sarah got two BIG hits in both games! She was also the only one on her team at the Spring games to round the bases and score for her team...scoring the first and only run so far for her team. It is so much fun as a parent to watch her play and to watch her do well! I love cheering for her! During the second practice game after her first hit, I heard one of the boys on her team, from the dugout, exclaim loudly, "How does she do that?" Ha! I just sat there smiling my "that's my daughter" smile. Eric missed the boys comment, because he was standing up by the fence video taping her hits with a big smile on his face. I love this little athletic girl of ours! I see a lot of sports fun in our future.
Silas would really like to be part of this team. He is constantly trying to sneak out onto the field when we aren't watching him, and he loves to go into the dugout and talk to the kids on the team, and mess with all of their baseball equipment.
Sarah has some of the best fans around and one of the loudest cheering sections. We are hoping Grandma Sharon, Grandma Great, and Mike, and anyone else who would like to watch some baseball games with us, will be able to come be a part of her cheering section this season too. (She has heard the stories from Daddy about how loud Grandma Sharon cheered for her boys when she went to their games and she would love to have Grandma cheering for her at some of her games too.)
Coach Daddy and his mini-me are big Sarah fans.
Mommy and Phoebe are Sarah fans, even on a very sunny and hot day.
Sarah's first game is tomorrow evening. We are looking forward to watching slugger hit the ball and play with her team. Go Turtles!
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