Silas - Baseball 2020

** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

Unfortunately with this coronavirus we have a shortened machine pitch baseball season.  Thankfully, we are having a season as some surrounding towns are not having one at all.  We will only be playing other Haysville teams and will actually be playing some older boys from 10u as they were combined with machine pitch.

I have a number of boys I had from last year plus some new faces that are friends of Silas's from his school.

We started one practice with learning to slide.  Silas did the demonstration for me and didn't do the best.  He is a pretty good slider though.

After three weeks of three practices a week, we were ready for our first game.

Game #1 - June 18th

1st game.  The boys are pumped and ready to go.  These were the first three to arrive for our double header, Silas Tyson, and Isaac.

Silas has a great swing and his hitting was on showcase this evening.

Silas ended up with two home runs, one a line drive to left center and the other a line drive to right field.  We won the game 4-1.  Good start to the season.

Game #2 - June 18th

The second game was against the same team.

The fans are getting a little bit rowdy.

You see I am coaching first base and not running the pitching machine.  Instead, due to the coronavirus, they were having the umpire run the machine.  The umpire had never ran a machine before and plunked (6) batters.  I talked to the commissioner afterwards and asked if the coaches could go back to running the machine.  He told me the next day it would change to coaches pitching.

Another coronavirus change is there is no "good game" handshakes at the end of the game.  Instead, we stand from a distance and tip our hats.  We won the game 3-2.

Game #3 - June 22nd

Tonight we played a 10u team so the boys are a few years older and bigger than us.

I am back to running the machine.
Silas reminds me of Albert Pujols (great hitter for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Angels) when up to bat.

Silas mainly plays 1st, Pitcher, and Catcher.

 Below, Owen on third, after his big hit - triple...smiling.

 Below - Silas's HUGE hit!

Silas had the hardest hit of the night.  He smashed a line drive by the 3rd baseman.  The 3rd baseman stuck out his glove, jumped a little, and made a great catch.  Silas also struck out at one at bat.  Our boys lost 1-6 but I was super happy with how they played.  They hit the ball well and played well in the field.  Unfortunately, the older boys made some good plays in the field for outs.

Game #4 -

We played another 10u team this evening.

Silas had a strikeout his first at bat but had two foul balls.  The second at bat he had a ground ball to the shortstop for an out.

He has a great looking swing!

Silas played pitcher, shortstop, catcher, and first base.

Silas likes to run down baserunners and got one out trying to make it to homeplate.

This wasn't one of our better games, but we did play ok.  We lost 7-1

There are no team pictures (professional photographer) this year so we took one after the game.  Top row left to right, Coach Spencer, Coach Kyle, Coach Eric, and Coach Jayme.  Middle row, left to right, Deklan, Silas, Knova, Elliott, Owen, and Isaac.  Front row, left to right, Layton, Alex, Daxton, and Tyson.

Game #5 - July 6th

The boys had their best game hitting tonight.  Everyone joined in the action.  One of the boys had not had a hit all year and had two hits tonight.

Silas had a hard hit grounder to center field for a bases loaded triple.  He also had a ground ball to the pitcher that resulted in a single and hard ground ball to shortstop for a single.  We had two innings were we scored 4 runs (maximum per inning) and one where we scored 3.



We won 11-2.  All the kids wore masks in the dugout, as "enforced" by the HAC.

Game #6 - July 8th

Tonight was the last game of the year and we might have saved our best for last.  I believe every boy had a hit tonight and we won 11-1.


Silas had a hard ground ball to center field for a double, a hard ground ball to the shortstop for a single, and a ground ball to left field for a single.  Silas only got out a few times this year.

Alex, who had not had a hit all year until he had two hits his last game ended the season with five straight hits.  I was very happy with how he and his brother Daxton played this year.  I really enjoyed the players and coaches this year and hope to have them all back (except those that age out) next year.