How are your pre-HSer's doing?

Christian is doing very well. He is hitting well over .400 and has thrown well from the mound. He has thrown out over 1/2 of the runners trying to steal on him behind the plate.

So far, we are 15-5 playing up vs. 12U's.

We've had trouble with weather so far and had to cancel 3 games but were able to get in a CABA WS Qualifier tourney. We won and are 4-0 (7-0 counting scrimmages).

Boy's 11U team is 16-3 in Tournament play (3 USSSA and 1 Super Series), winning 3 of the 4 (2nd in the other). The boy is having a hard time at the plate so far (11 strike outs) but his swing is slowly coming into form and getting more comfortable at the plate. But in fairness his numbers are above the team average in all offensive catagories but that is because all the boys are struggling with the Stick and the team is very stringent on counting reached on errors, which I think is a good thing. His pitching is starting to come into form as well, his first outing was rough but has been throwing nicely since then. He seems to be getting right in form for the big tournaments starting on Memorial Day (atleast we hope so because he is supposed to be the big stick and our power pitcher). The one thing I am proudest of though is that although he is upset about all his strike outs, he is not pouting about it and is recognizing it as a lost battle to a pitcher who's sole purpose is to get him out. Very proud that he is starting to learn by his misfortune vs. pouting that things aren't going his way.

My son, Zack, just started majors this year. He has pitched 24 innings with 57 strikeouts, 3 walks and 7 hits. He is also hitting over .400. He really needs to be playing more travel ball. They are "off" for the LL season. My 9yo, Jake, just started pitching this year and has become a very dependable closer for us. We are very proud of both as their hard work is paying off.

My son's 11U team is 8-2 in two tournaments, winning one. He's hitting .448 with one HR and 10 RBI. What I'm most proud of though, is his improvement on the mound. He was a wild lefthander last year, but so far (knock on wood) this year has pitched 13.2 innings striking out 16 and walking just 9. He's 3-1 with a 3.07 ERA.

Lefty's Dad,

Which team? I coach an 11U team in VA.

One of our former players in playing out of Savannah and, of course, Callaway's son is playing in SC.

First year team in Pony. The second year teams are dominating as expected. My son is having a so-so year at the plate and on the mound but has exceeded expectations in the field at least. He's done well in tournament play both at the plate and on the mound.

Redbird,
He plays for the Carolina Rebels from the Anderson/Greenville area (actually we have kids from about 4 small towns, but Anderson and Greenville are the closest that anyone may have heard of).

Lefty's Dad

Have you played against or seen the Spartanburg Phillies 11U? They are the best 11U team that I have seen in our region. My son has a good friend on that team and played against them a number of times when he played for the Carolina Stars. The Phillies are playing 12U Tournaments right now in preparation for Disney.

Another very good team from the Columbia area is the Palmetto Titans 11U. They are also playing up.

After Dixie All Stars, my son will be hooking up with a team again and maybe we'll see you in the upstate.

Continued success with your lefty. Gotta love lefties!

Redbird

Great to hear about "Chico". Never had any doubt though, he has a great coach! I must admit that Boomer really misses the weekend tournaments, but facing quality 12U pitchers from 46' is a great tune-up for the summer. We're hoping to get called back to join the Disney bound team but that will probably depend on how All Stars goes (assuming he is selected of course). I'll keep you posted because Boomer and I would love to see you guys in FL.

R.

Calloway,
I haven't seen the Phillies, but have heard of them. They're in the Major division and we're in AAA. We did play the Stars twice in a December tournament and split with them. I'd love to meet y'all if we happen to be at the same tourney sometime. Good luck to Boomer.

My 12u is having a great time. His hitting is a bit rusty so far, but he has been doing great behind the plate. He has been involved several times already in what I think is the most exciting play in the game, the play at the plate. So far he has tagged out every baserunner at home that he has had an opportunity to put out. He does a great job blocking the plate and applying the tag.

Ain't baseball great!!

I have avoided tooting the horn in these kinds of posts in the past, but I could not be prouder of my 12-year-old son this young season. Originally he was not going to play the local rec, and concentrate on AAU travel ball. With travel only playing double headers on Sunday, he chose to play rec as well at the last minute.

We are now 3 weeks into the 2 seasons.

He is batting 1.000 in rec. Every hit has been for extra bases. SLG 2.333 I can honestly say this is the weakest rec league I have ever seen so these stats are not that amazing, Though he has faced some decent pitchers.

In AAU he is hitting .667 and an OBP of .972, SLG .750

All this while playing solid D at catcher.

Hello everyone, great to hear that everyone is having a good year.
Garrett is still with the Banditos baseball club. He started on the White team this year which is "the second team" but he is now playing with the Black team for the last two weeks. G is sharing time behind the plate, but doing very well. We play up at 12u most of the time and now we are playing 12u major for the next couple of tournaments.
We have already qualifed for elite 24 and I was wondering if anyone else had plans on going.

Good luck to all for the remainder of the year.

www.banditosbaseballclub.com

banditodad,

Good to hear about Garrett. We (Va Wildcats North) are not going to Elite 24. We had already made plans to attend AAU Nationals (as 11U) and Cooperstown (as 12U).

I saw that the Carolina Lightning won a Super NIT but did not accept the bid. The bid was passed down to the previously mentioned Spartanburg Phillies.

Best of luck in Orlando. Are you still going to AAU Nationals?

My 12 yr old's team is 7-2. He is batting .565, slugging .739, and has an oba of .615. He has been playing the field pretty good at shortstop with a .917 fielding %, and has a 3-1 record with 1 save and 29 k's.

My 8 yr old's team is 3-3. My 8 year old plays up in the 9-10 year old age group. He is batting .300, has .500 slugging %, and has a .650 oba. He has a pitching record of 2-1 with 22 k's.

So far, they both have been doing very well. I am glad to hear that the other players are doing well that belong to the other posters on the board.


Scooter P

Redbird, We were trying to get the White team to go and we were making plans to go when they moved two kids to the black team. We were going to go to both AAU and Elite 24. Now there is a little bittnerness and I don't know where the white team is going.

Do you know why the lightning turned down the spot?

I wish we were doing both. Last year we did Superseries and USSSA on back to back weeks and most parents can't get off work for two weeks.

banditodad,

In VA and NC, AAU is more popular. I know most teams had already made housing arrangements back in Feb for AAU Nationals (we did). I would assume that is the case with them.

How does your team work the 'A' team and 'B' team? It seems like there would be a LOT of problems with this concept, especially if the 'A' team can call up 'B' team players.

My 12 yr old is having an impressive season. 1st game he pitched he struck out 16 out of 18 in a little league game. He is batting above .800 and has been intentionally walked 3 times this year. His travel select team has won 3 out of 4 tournaments dating back to September. The most impressive part is his hard work and motivation to get better and improve on his defense. He has great stamina as a pitcher and is pretty dominant as a closer for his select team. Hard work and dedication has really put him in a nice position to look forward to High School.

As a parent I watch his pitch count and also make sure he is not abused as a pitcher. The select team he is in is also very careful with innings pitched and pitch counts, since the majority of kids are playing Rec Ball they do not enter tournaments as often as other teams and I for one am happy for that.

Redbird,
We have four teams with the Banditos at 11u.
Black- #1
White- #2
Silver- #3
Gray- #4
Under normal circumstances the players would not be changing between teams. After USSSA World Series last year we had another team join ours, Texas Heat and they were a very storng team as well. Garrett and another player were playing with the White team to give them some leadership and to get both of them more at bats.
The plan all along was for them both to go back to the black team for the elite 24.

Regular season is now over (already!). My son's team won the conference with a record of 10-4. He finished 6-2 from the mound and led the team with a .516 batting average (100+ pts. higher than the #2 batter). He finished 1st in his conference and second in the league! His goal during last summer's workouts was to finish in the top 3 hitters moving up to Majors.

Congratulations Boom!!

Well mine finally got around to having a decent game. Went 5 innings (league limit - why they have it for 13/14yo I don't know) gave up 2 hits, struggled with his control walking 3, but only faced 2 over the minimum due to 3 DPs. Went 2 for 3 at the plate with 1 rbi as we broke a scoreless tie in the top of the 7th. Reliever gave up 2 hits and 2 walks in 2 innings and got the win. He deserved it since he was involved in all 3 DPs, drove in the first run in the 7th and scored on my son's hit. The kids also turned a DP for the reliever. Two 6-4-3s, one 4-6-3 and one 1-6-3.

Now that the 04 is neatly tucked away at college, (just finished his freshman season) it's time to get my 10 going.

Hopefully all my mistakes from the 04 will not be repeated with the 10 (2010, 13yr old)

He is a pitcher as well and he is doing quite well for a tall lanky kid (6'1") 145lb.

What I am excited about is that he has embraced the change up (would not allow him at this young age to throw a breaking ball) It has worked out picture perfect becasue he has plus velocity and when he backs it up with a change the batters swing right through it and it is a thing of beauty. Great second pitch and it does not hard the arm.

Please Please all you dads don't fool yourselves and think that your 12-14 yr old has to throw the curve in order to compete. Stay the course with the Change and it will pay off. Second time through for me and it is working out even better the second time around for son no. 2.

My son's name is Ryan Beyel and he plays for Byrd in Roanoke , Virginia. His team won the Virginia Dixie tile last season for 12-13Us...Had good middle school season and team won AAU tourny at Salem Stadium past weekend...He went 9-13 with 4 walks...how's it going out there for younger players?

Well, this school ball season is over[8th grade]. Tim won the MVP for 8th grade. He went 7-1 on the hill, and batted over .400, playing a lot of freshman. He was throwing 68-72 before the season started and then he pulled a back mucsle during his 4th start, missed about 2 weeks. He is just now getting back to 68-72. Now we are gearing up for freshman summer ball in the pure prarie league. Good luck to all!! Rob

My 8th grader's summer team is really just getting started; we've had awful weather for two solid weeks, and have played only three league games so far.

He was just asked to play with the high school JV summer team in addition to his 14U team. The high school has a great BB program (state champs last year, headed into state playoffs this year) and so it is quite a compliment to be asked as an 8th grader to be on JV.

In his game Friday night he just missed his first home run - hit it high off a 325 foot fence.

Rob, congrats to your son - is he still catching - quick brag - my catcher nailed one over the 350 sign with a hill behind it - no idea how far it would of gone.

Baseball is great and the most underated position by fans is the catcher

Yesterday's win was very satisfying. We selected all-stars during the week and our team got overlooked to say the least. I spoke up during the selection and noted that of the 3 mostly 13yo teams we had only gotten one player on the A team while the other two had 3 apiece. I noted that we had split with one of the other 13yo teams (1-1-1) and that we were 1-1 with one game left to go with the other. The manager of that team proceeded to tell me just how much better their team was than ours and how much better his son was than mine.

We won. My son was 2-2 and also walked. His son was o'fer. I heard his 3rd base coach muttering "That's about as far as he's hit one." when he flew out to short left. My son had thrown 5 shutout innings the previous game so I rested him. His son came in with two outs and bases loaded and walked in a run then gave up a hit to let another one score, eventually clearing the bases. He only got an out when one of our players stepped off second and was tagged out.

Just an interesting side note, we lost a game by a run when one of our players didn't slide to break up a game ending double play 3 games ago. We probably won our last two partly as a result of two great slides breaking up double plays.