The Scott Cubs

It's been a while since I've updated the site. This will catch us up to current.

First off, a second-round loss placed us in the bottom bracket. The Cubs fought back with some good playing to meet the Padres again in the championship game. After struggling for the first couple of at-bats, the offense finally got going. Mason Baker earned the Silver Slugger Award for a triple with three runners on. He was 75 feet short of a Grand Slam. The Padres beat us and the Cubs won second place in the pre-Season tournament.

The first week of league play was marred by rainouts and a game delay due to a lighting issue at the park. The next week the Cubs faced the Redhawks. Good solid game play resulted in a victory.

The weekend of April 12th the Cubs played in a tournament at Moore. The defense played very well, but the bats never got going. The highlight play - and a Golden Glove Award - go to Andy Gatlin for an outstanding catch he made against the Tribe. The batter swatted a deep foul toward Left Field. Andy flew in and made a one-handed grab. Good job Andy!

Week three rolled around and once again, the Cubs played the Redhawks. Once again solid play on both sides of the ball resulted in a victory. On Wednesday, April 16th, the Cubs faced the Angels (who had revenge on their minds). Each inning the Angels scored on errors. The Cubs got their bats going solidly but were never able to pull ahead. The Cubs dropped the game in a 12 - 7 loss. However, Garrett Parker earned a Golden Glove Award (maybe a "Golden Mitt" Award) for a great catch on a pop-up at Home Plate. He and Ian Hudson also stopped a run from scoring on a passed ball with the old "find and flip".

Stay tuned to see what happens next.

--Coach

Labels: baseball, Game Report, Spring 2008, Tournaments

The Cubs faced the Padres in Game 3 of the tournament. The game lasted 5 1/2 innings. Colton started at Pitcher. Cal relieved him in the 5th inning. The best highlight from this game was the single-handed double-play by Colton Scott in the 4th inning. After the first batter got tagged out on a steal at third by Ryan Brantley, the second batter got walked. He stole second. Then, on the second pitch, the third batter popped up a fly to the infield. Second base and short gathered in to assist with the catch, but Colton reached up and grabbed it. The runner on second was almost all the way to third base. Colton raced back to second and stepped on the bag just mere moments before the runner returned. A solo Double-play! This earn Colton the Golden Glove Award for the game.

In the end, the Padres held on to win 8 - 4 in a well-played, defensive struggle by both teams. Both teams had very solid pitching and defense. Good game to both.

--Coach

Labels: Game Report, preseason, Spring 2008, Tournaments

Game 2 of the Pre-season tournament began like Game 1 - the other team won the coin toss. Unfortunately, the bats didn't start the same as in Game 1. We scored one run in the top of the first inning. Then with Ryan Nelms on the mound, the Cubs allowed the Angels to score 5 runs before shutting them down. In the second inning the Cubs went four-up, three-down. A dejected team took the field and Calvin Miller took the mound. The Angels hit two singles, scoring one run before Cal ended the inning with two consecutive "K's". Showing a little bit of life, the Cubs managed to scratch out three more runs in the top of the third inning, bringing the score to 6 - 4. In the bottom of the inning, Cal allowed only one run and struck out three of the four batters. When we got to bat, Ryan Brantley managed to get a base on balls. Then Cal hit one that turned into a triple! Colton got walked and eventually stole second. Ian Hudson managed to steal first on a dropped third strike, setting things up for an interesting finish. Ryan Nelms got walked forcing in a run, making it a very close ball game at 6 - 5. Then, with two outs and bases loaded, Andy Gatlin, struck out, but the catcher dropped the ball! In this situation, he was able to steal first. The catcher mishandled the throw to first allowing Andy to get to second base safely. The Cubs were in the lead, 8 - 6. Mackenzie Couser took one in the cheek (not the face) from a frustrated pitcher. Then Nicholas Scott got on base. Ryan and Andy eventually made it home making the score 10 - 6. Cal closed out the game, with a save, by striking out the next three batters in 14 pitches. Final score: Cubs 10 - Angels 6.

This was a great comeback for the Cubs.

--Coach

Labels: Game Report, Tournaments

Game 1 of the pre-season tournament was well-played. As the visitors, the Cubs came out scoring. We batted all the way through the line up in the first inning, scoring 4 runs. Then, Colton Scott - the winning pitcher - started off right with two strikeouts in a row. The first inning was three-up, three-down for the home team. We batted around again in the second inning, this time scoring 4 more runs, but with some very dramatic action (more on that later). The home team scored three runs in the second inning. We scored another in the third. Then Calvin Miller came in as relief for Colton and struck out the first two batters, allowed a couple of hits, but shut the game down with a solid strikeout after time had expired. The final score: Cubs 9 - Predators 5.

One of the most exciting memories from this game came in the second inning. Ian Hudson was on first base when Ryan Nelms came up to bat. On the first pitch, he took a strong swing at it and it sailed out over the center field fence! An out-of-the-park two-shot homer. This earned him the Silver Bat award. He also earned the game ball.

Good job Cubs!

--Coach

Labels: Game Report, Tournaments

Although there were many highlights, the quick summary is that the Cubs went 2 - 3 and took fourth place in this tournament.

Here's how the games were scored:

Cubs 4 - Predators 6
Cubs 13 - Bullets 6
Cubs 3 - Knights 16
Cubs 7 - Toros 6
Cubs 6 - Toros 9


--Coach

Labels: Tournaments

Keep the funds rolling in...
--Coach

Labels: Fund Raiser

Labels: Fund Raiser

The cold, damp air didn't stop the Cubs from playing in their first tournament of the season. On February 23 with the temperature hovering just below 40 degrees and the wind-chill feeling more like something in the low thirties, the Cubs faced the PCO Indians. They played for 3 innings before time expired. The score: Indians - 14, Cubs - 5.

Game two was settled by the weather. The PCO White Sox had enough of the cold in their first game and threw in the towel for the day, forfeiting to the Cubs.

Sunday was a contrast in weather compared with Saturday. The wasn't any wind and the temperatures rose into the 50's (although it seemed much warmer to me). It was a beautiful day for baseball. The first game of the day was with the PCO Broncos. The Cubs really looked good and played with a lot of enthusiasm.

It just so happened that it was Don Dobel's birthday. He was the lead-off batter and in both of his at-bats made great hits. For this effort, he earned the Silver Slugger award for the team. His hitting sparked his teammates and before it was all over the Cubs won the game. The Cubs - 7, Broncos - 3. The winning pitcher was Calvin Miller.

The fourth and final game of the tournament saw the Cubs take on the Edmond Storm, a traveling team. As the temperature dropped, the Storm clouds grew. However, there was at least one bright spot in the game. With a left-handed batter at the plate, Short Stop Ryan Nelms was holding the runner at second base. The hitter drove a hard, line shot just to the right of second base. In a very athletic move, Nelms caught the ball, robbing the batter of his base. Ryan had made other great catches in the tournament. For his great performance, Nelms was named the Gold Glove winner for the tournament.

In addition to Nelms' spectacular catches, Ian Hudson made two excellent grabs in center field. In the first and last games of the tournament. Both catches underscored the benefit of having great speed and good catching skills in the outfield. Other noteworthy plays included a late-game throw in from left-field by Calvin Miller to Catcher Garrett Parker that deprived one Storm player from scoring.

All in all, the team played well as a TEAM. Everyone did his part. Did we play perfect? No. Do we have room to improve? Always. Did we have fun? Yes. Will we continue to improve? Definitely.

In the end, the Cubs went two and two, taking third place in the tournament. Certainly not a bad starting point.

Keep up the good work and Go Cubs!

--Coach

Labels: Game Report, preseason, Spring 2008, Tournaments

Labels: Fund Raiser, Spring 2008

You all did a great job pulling together as a TEAM tonight. You were rewarded for your efforts. The Cubs pulled into an early lead with only 8 players(!!!) and managed to hold on for the victory. Good solid offense and a stiff defense held off the Bullets from coming back.

Mack Couser hit an in-the-park home run in the first inning to highlight the offense.

The defense was led by very solid pitching by Calvin".50 Cal" Miller.

One of the funnier moments was when Colton Scott dredged a third strike out of the dirt and threw the ball to Mack on first base. The umpire cried "he's out" while making a "safe" motion with his hands. The ump didn't anticipate the stretch and snag by Mack for the out.

Our thoughts go out to Garrett Parker who tore a ligament in his foot. With "the G-Man" out and Don Dobel in Okinawa, the Cubs are little slim, with only nine players for the bulk of the remainder of the season.

Good job to the TEAM.

Coah