The Phantoms are on a roll! They are confident in games and have a “can win” attitude. I’ve believe I’ve said it before, but this is a great group to coach.

The Distinctive Glass Blue Devils didn’t make it easy on us with great fielding and holding us to 3 runs in the first, 0 in the second, 3 in the third, 3 in the fourth and 2 runs in the fifth. But the Echelbarger offense was firing on all cylinders up and down the lineup with 15 hits, 7 walks and 11 runs scored. We had 2 triples from Chris and Alex R, 2 doubles from Chris and Jordan and Alex B had a nice first pitch single in the 2nd inning. Everyone else contributed with singles or walks.

Fielding wise Reilly is continuing to play solid defense with 4 putouts at 1st base. Chris had 1-3 combo with Reilly and caught a line drive at pitcher to end the first inning. The kids know what to do on a wild pitch pass ball and we almost prevented the run 2 times.

Chris was our starter facing 8 batters in 1.2 innings with 19 stikes, 2 strikeouts, 3 hits, and 0 walks. Christian closed out the game facing 7 batters, 15 stikes, 2 strikeouts, 1 hit and 3 walks. We’ve figured out Christian’s over throwing problem with his release point and will work to get him to release the ball in front of him instead of the 12 o’clock position.

If it wasn’t for the fact I was saving our pitchers for our next game on Tuesday, Ryan our MVP would have been benched for showing up after the had started. It turned out that it really worked in our favor to put him in as he really had an incredible game at pitcher. He pitched 2.1 innings facing 11 batters with 25 strikes, 5 strikeouts, 1 hit, 3 walks and 0 earned runs. Ryan had a pop up play to get the 1st out and a 1-3 combo with Reilly in the bottom of the 4th.

The Phantoms will face some tough competition in the next 3 games as they will play teams with winning records. I believe they will rise to the occasion and will give them a good match.

Our next game is Tuesday against Harbor Square on Lynndale Field 2 at 7:00 pm. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Phantoms 11 – Blue Devils 5

The Echelbarger Phantoms are playing like a great baseball team and won convincingly tonight. We’re getting good pitching, great fielding and showing patience at the plate. We are now 6 and 2 for the season!

The Green Machine offense is back! We had 11 hits, 11 walks and 15 runs scored. Ryan had a nice triple in the 3rd and Christian had big RBI double in the 4th. We also had contributions from Jordan, Benji, Sean, Alex R, Jack, Ian and Alex B!

We are getting much better as a team in fielding. Jordan had the first play in the game with a line drive catch at shortstop. Alex, Reilly & Benji had a 5-3-2 combo to get the runner at home and Christian had a diving catch at second. All this in the 1st inning! Christian got a 6-4 with Ryan to get the 1st out of the 5th.

Jack started us off pitching tonight facing 5 batters with 8 strikes, 2 hits, 1 walk and 1 earned run. Jordan pitched 2.2 innings facing 16 batters, 37 strikes, 7 strikeouts, 3 hits, 5 walks and 4 earned runs. Alex B relieved Jordan in the 4th facing 4 batters, 3 hits, 1 walk and 2 earned runs.

The MVP of the game was Sean who pitched the 5th facing 5 batters with 12 strikes, 2 strikeouts, 1 hit, 1 walk and 0 earned runs. He batted 2 singles, 1 walk and 2 runs scored. In the 2nd he caught a line drive at shortstop and got a 7-6 tag with Benji to end the top of the 4th.

The other teams in the league are starting to take notice in our team. I am confident that we can win any game, the kids play with a lot of heart and are focused on defense.

Saturday is Little League Day, the Phantoms will have team photos, go through Slugfest & games, participate in the parade and the coaches will try to hit home runs.

Our next game is this Friday evening 4/23 against Distinctive Glass at Lynndale Field 2 at 7:00 pm. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: 3D Roofing 7 – Echelbarger 15

The Phantoms win! This team is really starting to gel on the field. We took care of the baseball and didn’t allow any runs after the 1st inning.

The Phantoms offense woke up in the 3rd inning. I was a little worried that we were going to loose because our kids were not swinging even after I had told them that the ump has a huge strike zone. Jack had a nice triple in the 3rd and Alex R had a double in the 4th. We had 5 hits, 12 walks and 9 runs scored.

Reilly started us off in pitching today. Wilcox’s top of the order got to him early with a lead off double followed by a RBI single. He was discouraged after that and walked the next couple of batters. Jordan relieved him in his pitching debut after being out of the country for the last 4 games with 4 innings pitched, 7 strike outs, 6 hits, 0 earned runs and 1 walk. Christian closed out the game with 0 hits, 1 walk and 0 earned runs facing 4 batters.

The story of the day was great defense on the field. As baseball fan I love offense, but I always teach defense at every practice. This was the first game since the start of the season that we’ve had no errors on the field and didn’t allow a run to score on a wild pitch.

Reilly continues to be a solid 1st baseman with 3 put outs. Christian contributed with a line drive catch at 2nd base to end the 2nd. Ryan had a nice 4-3 in the 5th and Jordan had a 6-3 to end the game.

I could have given the game ball to several players tonight, but the MVP of the game was Ian. He had two 5-4 combos with Ryan in the 3rd and very nice 5-3 combo to get the 1st out in the 5th.

Christian is finally starting to swing at the plate again. He didn’t do anything in this game other than get 2 walks, but it’s nice to see him swing. Saturday will be a test as he’s going to be the lead off hitter.

The next 4 games are going to test our defense, pitching and patience at the plate. The opponents have aggressive coaches and players that can hit. But I’m hopeful that our team will remain confident and weather the storm.

Our next game is Saturday, April 17th against 3D Roofing at 5:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 9 – Wilcox 4

The Phantoms offense got shut down today and loose a low scoring game. On a positive note overall we had really good fielding.

Chris lead the team today with 2 triples and 1 single. We had contributions from Benji, Ceasar, Ian & Sean to combine for 8 hits for the Phantoms today. But we stranded a lot of our runners to only score 3 runs.

Jack got his 2nd start at pitching today. He had trouble getting the ball to the plate but got 1 strikeout. Chris relieved him and pitched 3.2 innings with 7 strikeouts to keep the game close. Ian was shaken up today and loaded the bases in the 5th. Christian came in and struck out a batter and got a 1-2 play with Alex R to end the top the 5th.

We took better care of the baseball and held the Showcase runners at 3rd base in the early innings on passed balls at home plate. We had contributions from Reilly at 1st, a 5-3 from Jack and a 2-3 from Alex R.

Ceasar was our game MVP. He had a nice game going 2 for 2 at the plate including a double. He also backed up the 3rd baseman in the third inning to get a 7-2 play with Benji.

I’m pretty happy with the progress of the team. The kids even did the around the horn play in the game after a called strike 3. We still had some mental mistakes on the field and we will continue as a coaching staff to work on those at practice. Even though we lost the game today, we showed improvement in our game.

Our next game is Tuesday the 13th against team Wilcox at 5:00 pm. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Showcase Sports 7 – Echelbarger 3

The Phantoms win another game! They have now won 4 in a row and are steamrolling the opposition with offense. This is a fun team to coach, no bad attitudes to deal with and players who want to play no matter what position they are placed in. I can’t ask for anything more.

The team in green had 14 hits, 7 walks and 10 runs scored, while Olympic Paving officially had 5 hits, 7 walks and 6 runs scored. Chris had a nice triple, Ryan & Ian each had doubles and we had 11 singles from Chris, Ryan, Reilly, Benji, Caesar, Ian & Alex R.

As of this game all of our eligible players have now pitched an inning. Alex B started us off in his pitching debut, he gunned down the 1st batter with 3 pitches. He would end up with 2 K’s for the game! Chris continues to be our ace with 2 K’s and 0 hits in 1.1 innings. Reilly had some trouble in the 3rd, but Ian helped him out of jam with a side ending strikeout in 5 pitches.

Benji also had his season debut pitching the 4th, his fielders Ian and Christian helped him with 2 outs and he got a swinging strikeout to end the inning. Christian closed out the 5th with a 1-4 play with Ryan and 2 strikeouts to end the game.

I’ve noticed that other minors coaches only put the same pitchers in every game. Although I have done that in a couple games this season, I don’t agree with it and my philosophy is to develop our pitching staff. The only way for the players to learn is to have all of them pitch in a match. PLL minors is a developmental division and our goal as coaches should be to get them ready for majors not focusing on wins.

Fielding wise the Phantoms took better care of the ball, but we still had some errors that cost us runs. I do like the aggressiveness that our catchers are showing to throw the runners out at 3rd base. The team as a whole is improving in moving when the ball is pitched and not just standing around.

Alex R was our MVP with a self double play by catching a pop fly and tagging 1st base when the runner didn’t tag up in the 3rd inning. Our 1st double play of the spring.

I will be focusing on pitching, plays to 3rd base and introducing bunts at our next practice. My hope is to try it out soon.

Our next game is Saturday 4/10 against Showcase Sports at 3:00 pm on Lynndale Field 2. Should be a good match. See you there. Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 10 – Olympic Paving 6

The Phantoms win another one on a very cold windy afternoon! My Field 1 curse is broken thanks to Team Echelbarger! It feels pretty good to be 2 & something and not be 0 & something!

We had pretty good pitching today. We only gave up 7 walks, 7 hits and we had 10 strike outs. Jack pitched his very first game with 14 pitches thrown, 0 hits and 1 walk. Ian also pitched his 1st game with 16 pitches, 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 strike outs and 2 runs.

The Phantoms offense had 11 hits and 6 walks. We scored 3 quick runs in the bottom of the 1st to take the lead. 2 runs in the 2nd and 4 runs in the 4th to seal the deal. Benji lead the team with 3 singles & 1 RBI and Chris, Ryan, Reilly, Caesar, Alex and Jack all contributed with singles.

Our MVP of the game was Alex B with his 1st hit of the year! Great job Alex!

Defensively we had contributions from Benji, Chris, Christian, Ryan, Ian and Reilly. We missed some opportunities in the top of the 4th which allowed the IRG Flames to tie the game.

The Flames did manage to go ahead in the 6th, but due to time the game ended before we could complete the inning and the score reverted back to the 5th.

This was the first game I tried to score with my new iScore app on the iPhone. You can see live updates during the game here: http://baseball.abella1.net/gamecast I’m still getting used to it and was a little difficult coaching a base and scoring at the same time. But it’s pretty cool. I do need to go back and change a couple things in the later innings as I got messed up in the bottom of the 5th.

Our next game is Monday, April 5th against Olympic Paving on Lynndale Field 2 at 5:00 pm. See you there! Go Phantoms!

Final Score: IRG Flames 7 – Echelbarger Phantoms 9

Wow!  What a game!  The Phantoms came out of a heated battle to win a close one with Bennett & Bennett.

I can’t tell you how much this was a stressful game to manage, especially when I was already without my starting catcher in the line-up and learning right at game time that I was down another player.  I had to make on the fly adjustments and made mistakes on who was suppose to sit out an inning.  I like to have things dialed in at least a day in advance.

The Phantoms had 9 hits and 12 walks while B&B had 6 hits and 8 walks.  The team had 3 doubles by Benji, Sean & Ian and 6 singles by Alex R, Chris, Reilly & Ryan.  The game started with 2 runs at the top of the 1st inning for team Echelbarger, but B&B came back with 5 runs in the bottom half.  We went ahead in the 4th with 5 runs and scored a run in the sixth.

Christian didn’t have the best of games.  It’s a struggle to coach him sometimes because he doesn’t listen to my advise.  I don’t believe he properly warmed up before the game because I was too busy prepping the field and it showed with the lack of control at the mound.  His pitches were in the ground, it didn’t help that B&B has a good hitting line up.  He gave up 5 earned runs, 3 hits, had 3 walks and 0 strike outs, but the they did get 2 outs in the inning.

At the plate he struggled and was letting the umps big strike zone get to him.  At least he struck out swinging and got walked.  I’m forced to put him down the line-up until he starts getting hits again.

Chris was our MVP of the game.  The kid is as cool as ice in both batting and pitching.  He pitched 4 awesome innings of shut out baseball with 9 strike outs, 1 hit, 3 walks and 0 runs scored.  I’d like to give special honorable mention to Reilly for solid playing at 1st base.  He leads the team in put-outs with 9.

Defensively we made a few mistakes…Kids didn’t cover home plate and we bobbled a couple plays in the field.  I’m trying to teach the kids to move to the ball once it is put in play.

Christian did get a 1-3 play during the 1st inning.  He should have had a 4-3 out in the 2nd, but he didn’t charge the ball and Reilly’s catch was after the runner got by.  Matters got worse in the later innings where he bobbled the ball in routine plays.  One of those plays should have been a 4-3 out to get the last out of the game, instead the tying run crossed the plate.  A couple missed opportunities cost us 3 runs in the sixth.

I was hoping to try out Jack pitching tonight, but didn’t want to put him in a high pressure situation for his first time out this season.  He and others who haven’t pitched yet will get a chance in the next couple of games.

I remembered a rule from minors last year that if the game results in a tie at the end of the game and no more innings can be started, the score reverts back to the previous inning. So the score of last nights game is 7-5 in our favor!

All in all we played hard.  I’m proud that the team held it together and didn’t get down on themselves too badly when we were behind.  Our offense will give us a chance to win in every game.

Our next match is Thursday, April 1st against Insurance Resource Group @ 5:00 pm on Field 1.  See you there!  Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Echelbarger 7 – Bennett & Bennett 5

Great game last night!  The Phantoms had outstanding pitching by Chris, Christian & Jordan and our offense was relentless.  We managed 10 hits and 17 walks and held Windermere to just 7 hits and 2 walks. What a turn around from Saturday’s game where we had a league high of 150 pitches in a game to the league low of 88 pitches.

I made a few minor changes to the batting order based on our previous game. The experiment worked! The Phantoms have a potent offense that will scare opposing teams. We had 2 triples from Reilly & Ryan, a 2 RBI double by Chris and 7 singles from Chris, Jordan, Benji, Caesar, Reilly, Jack & Ryan.

Defensively we got 15 outs and took better care of the ball. Reilly leads the team with 4 put-outs. I’m eagerly waiting for the Chris & Christian double play combo. Although we may not see it until we build up the rest our pitching staff since both are pitching a lot right now.

Christian was the MVP of the game. He pitched lights out not allowing a hit, walk or run and got 2 strike outs.  Hitting wise, he had a couple problems swinging at high pitches and struck out twice.  Hopefully he will calm down and be patient at the next game.  I plan on starting Christian pitching against Bennett & Bennett.

Our next game is this Friday against Bennett & Bennett on Lynndale Field 1 at 7:00 pm. If you are not able to make to the game, you can watch via web-cam at http://www.pacificlittleleague.com.  Go Phantoms!

Final Score: Windermere 4 – Echelbarger 18