Surf City Sluggers victorious

The 7U Coach Pitch Surf City Sluggers won the Fountain Valley Memorial Day Tournament on Monday.

After losing 18-8 to the Los Alamitos All Stars, the favored team in the tournament, in game 1 the Sluggers fought their way back into the championship game to meet the Los Al team once again. The Sluggers improved their play with each game and the Los Al team had to deal with the best the Sluggers could dish out in the championship game.

The Surf City Sluggers are from 3rd to first, Sean Muirhead, Karson Moore, Chase Bullock and Andrew DeCarlo. The outfieldd Lucas Hansen, Wade Oliver, Nicholas Deleske and Colton Meyer with the battery of Garrett Runyan, Seth Knorr and Mason Stinson. Coaches are Shawn Runyan, John Muirhead, Doug Moore and Manager Michael DeCarlo.

Reason # 2 on why baseball is the greatest game.

When each player focuses on his responsibilities and fundamentals the team plays better than the sum of its individual parts.

There is a certain beauty and rhythm to a baseball play in which teammates connect to make outs. A ground ball to 3rd starts out with some nifty glove work, then some footwork to put the body in position to make a strong throw as the first baseman lies in wait to glove the throw with a stretch in which his foot must stay in contact with first base. A batter drives a hard shot into the outfield ticketed for extra bases and the outfielder swiftly tracks the balls path, anticipates were the ball will be coming down for a safe landing and eliminates the hitters need to run by putting the would be double into the coffin on his hand. With a man on first and a line drive hit up the middle the shortstop snags it out of the air and reverses its path back to first base quicker than the baserunner can giving his team 2 outs on one batted ball. The rhythm of a batting line up moving like a congo line with hard hit shots coming off every musicians bat as base runners sprint around the bases while not going to far as to run into and out. We expect to see these things of beauty at a big league game but when a team of 7 year olds architect a baseball Picasso like that it is special.

All of this can only be accomplished if players focus on their duty at hand whatever that may be during the ebb and flow of a ballgame. If the 3rd baseman is worried about the first baseman catching his throw he probably won’t even catch the groundball to make the throw, if the outfielder is worried about his outfield neighbor not covering his ground he probably won’t be in position to track the fly ball once hit into his neighborhood, if the shortstop is worried about his second baseman covering second for him he probably won’t be ready to catch a line drive let alone know where to throw the ball if he does catch one and if a hitter is worried about what the next hitter will do after he hits he probably won’t be on base when the next batter hits.

The Surf City Sluggers improved every game this weekend because they simply focused on their fundamentals with every pitch of every inning all weekend long. That doesn’t mean errors didn’t happen but it does mean the errors were not contagious. Instead fundamentals were contagious, the hitting was contagious and the increase in confidence was contagious. After the 2nd inning of the Championship game our players new they could beat the Los Al team. Before the game they were worried about playing the ‘really good team’ but they kept their focus and learned they were just as good as ‘the really good team’ and after the 6th inning they learned that they were even better. They earned a hard fought championship today by beating two very good teams.

I believe all our players learned something about the greatest game of baseball this weekend and more importantly also learned a life lesson of perseverance. And for all you fans who supported us I hope you now understand reason #28 on why baseball is the greatest game if you didn’t already. Because when you care about who wins each pitch is an opportunity for a special play to happen for or against you and you never know what play may alter a players or teams focus therefore making every pitch count!

Congratulations to the Surf City Sluggers, 7U Fountain Valley Pony Baseball Memorial Day Tournament Champions 2008.