After a long midday spend at Little League Day. The Phantoms had a game at the Edmonds-Woodway HS softball turf field against the NWK8 Blue Thunder. Team Coldwell Banker had a better defensive game against this team by getting 18 outs in six innings. The previous game we only managed 10 outs in five innings.
We’ve won just about every game where we’ve had 10 or more outs by fielding or strikeouts. It makes sense since we don’t let 5 runs come in for the other team stopping the half inning.
Christian didn’t have a great game offensively. He walked in the 1st and struck out the next 2 plate appearances. He had changed to an open batting stance and it has made him take some bad swings. I hope to correct this for the next 2 games as he will be the lead-off batter while Chris is away for the weekend. Christian is usually a patient batter and leads the team in walks due to his small strike zone. He’s also one of the fastest guys one the team and is a threat on the base pads. He has stolen home a couple times this year.
Defensively Christian had a better game and got a 4-6 out with Drew at short. Since we’ve had the prior experience on the turf field, the Phantoms played their positions deep while NWK8 played at normal depth. This became a huge advantage for us as balls rolled fast by the opposing team when we got a hit.
It was good to see former teammates Jordan and Charlie on the baseball field, even if they were on the opposite side. Charlie pitched well and manage to strike out Christian. Jordan was playing mostly outfield. Their manager uses a 2 squad system where players play all outfield one game and all infield the next. Not exactly legal according to PLL minors rules, but I think it’s a huge disadvantage for them when their strongest players are not in the key positions.
We have another set of back to back games next Friday and Saturday. The first 6:00 pm game against team Distinctive Glass at EWHS and a 7:00 pm rematch against NWK8 at Lynndale Field 2. Christian is scheduled to pitch against Jordan and Charlies team. See you there!
Final Score: NWK8 3 – Coldwell 9
