Phoebe Softball Season 2023

 ** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

The 12u team that Phoebe played on last year decided to become a traveling tournament team.  A few girls left the team and asked me to coach a 14u team this year.

Back row, left to right - Coach Emily, Coach Eric, and Coach Kyle

Middle row, left to right - Rayna, Gabbi P., Haylee, Phoebe, Zoe

Front row, left to right - Kaytie, Kylie, Maddi, Annalee, and Gabby Z.

(missing: Chloe, Adreana)

May 18th - Game #1 vs. South Haven

The first game didn't start off so well.  We gave up 6 runs in the first inning.  The runs were not due to poor pitching, but due to poor defense.

Phoebe started at 1st base and also played shortstop and left field.

South Haven had a fast pitcher.  When she was in a groove, she was hard to hit.  She seemed to be in a groove every time Phoebe was at the plate. Phoebe struck out three times but did swing the bat well.

We fought back from that early 6-0 deficit and had the lead going into the last inning, 12-10.  The other team tied it up and we ended up losing 13-12 in extra innings.  It was a tough loss, but I liked seeing the fight to come back.  I was encouraged with Haylee's pitching and our baserunning.  The defense made some good plays but struggled for the most part.  Overall, it was a good start to the season.

May 19th - Game #2 vs. Oxford

rainout - rescheduled to June 5th 

We played another good game against another good team.

Phoebe played shortstop and first base.  She will likely be playing more shortstop.

Oxford's first pitcher was pretty good and their second was really good.  As a team, we hit really well against them.  Phoebe had a ground ball single, ground out to second, and a strikeout.  

Popee, Lindsee, and Will were the super fans of the night.

We lost 16-10 but had a few plays gone differently, it really would have changed the final score.  We had opportunities to win this game.

May 23rd - Game #3 vs. Haysville 2

We played the other Haysville team.  We didn't start off great giving up two runs the first inning.

Phoebe's first hit, a soft liner over the pitcher's head, was caught by the pitcher (a good catch).  It resulted in a double play.

The girls slow start quickly changed and we scored 12 runs over the next two innings.  We won 14-2.

Phoebe played shortstop and first base.

Popee loves watching his grandkids play.

May 25th - Game #4 vs. Winfield

We played a good Winfield team.  We had the lead 6-2 going into the 4^th inning when we had a poor defensive inning giving up 6 runs.  In the 5^th, they had a poor inning and we were up 12-8.  

We ended up winning 12-10 after throwing a girl out at home.  It is the reward of games like these that brings the desire to keep coaching.  

I was pretty pumped up when I gave this post game speech.

May 30th - Game #5 vs. Derby

Played another good team tonight.  This team won the 12u tournament last year.

Phoebe has been playing first and shortstop with an occasional left field assignment.  I am going to be playing her more at shortstop.

Haylee and Chloe are a great pitcher/catcher duo.  Chloe threw out a girl at second base with Phoebe covering and had another they called safe. 

We played a really good game.  We were down five in the last inning and tied it up.  We ended up losing 17-19 in extra innings.  The parents were very pleased with their kids.  Phoebe had a single, 3 walks, and a double.  The single was an infield hit to short and the double a line drive to center.  The double was a big hit in the last inning of regulation to score a few runs.  I loved our ability to fight back.  We hit pretty well, are discipled at the plate, and aggressive on the bases.  The only area that struggled was our fielding.  

June 1st - Game #6 vs. Oxford

rainout - rescheduled to June 12th

The rematch against Oxford didn't go as well as we had hoped.  I believe this is the best team in the league.

Phoebe had a pop out and a strike out.  The strike out was a bad strike call.  I didn’t get on Phoebe for not swinging at it.  

Phoebe made a good catch in left field and also played shortstop.

We didn’t play badly, but the ending score was bad.  We lost 14-4 in 4 innings via run rule.  We hit the ball but the other team made plays.  We made some good plays but also some bad ones.  We pitched well but they pitched better.  We were just overmatched.  

June 6th - Game #7 vs. Clearwater

This was our best overall game of the year.  We were good at hitting, baserunning, pitching, and fielding.

Phoebe had two strikeouts (the third strike calls were close but should have been called balls) and a ground out for an RBI.  Phoebe's swing looks good.

Phoebe played shortstop and left field.  She was involved in a collision with Gabby Z going for a pop fly where Gabby Z still made the catch and got the double play.  We also got another double play later in the game.

We were able to pitch Rayna and Gabbi Z and won 13-2.

June 8th - Game #8 vs. Mulvane

We had another dominant performance scoring 6 runs each inning and only getting 3 outs against us the entire game.  We walked a lot but hit well for the few strikes we did see.

Phoebe had two walks.

Haylee pitched a scoreless first inning and we got another double play (our third in two games).  Gabbi P and Rayna also pitched.  They struggled some but we still won 18-9.  I also played some girls at positions they haven't played before like Chloe at first base.

June 13th - Game #9 vs. Winfield

Rematch against Winfield.  They were 5-4 and we were 4-4.  Winner would make it to the post season tournament.  We gave up 6 the first inning but then scored 6 the first inning.  However, Winfield scored 6 both the 2nd and 3rd innings and we only scored 1.  We lost 18-7.  Missed plays on defense and Haylee walking more girls than normal, is what lead to the lopsided score.

Phoebe had a few walks.

We won't be making the post season, but have an opportunity to be 500 with a win on Thursday.

June 15th - Game #10 vs. Haysville 2

Little bummed that it was our last game of the season.  I have really enjoyed coaching this team.

At the pre-game pep talk, the girls were much more fired up than usual.  It was good to see.

The team hit the ball really well the first inning.  We scored six runs with hitting, not walking.  Phoebe had a ground ball single.

The game was called after 2.5 innings due to incoming bad weather.  We won 8-6.  We were up 8-0 and I knew it was the last inning so I had four of our girls pitch to two batters a piece.  We ended up winning 8-6.

I gave a lengthy end of season talk and then we took team pictures.  Kris along with the other coaches also spoke encouragement to the girls.

Look at the sky. You can see why they ended the game due to weather.

The girls did their llama song.  I wouldn't be surprised if our name changes from Poison to Llamas next season.

Jax came to watch Phoebe and the team tonight.

This was a very enjoyable season for me and I believe for the girls also.  We are only losing three girls due to aging out so we should have a solid team next year.  Go Poison!