End of Softball and Baseball (Pink Jaguars and Tin Caps)

The regular season of softball and baseball has ended and both kids had a great experience. Thatcher improved tremendously from last year. Hitting, throwing and catching clicked and he loved having Daddy as one of his coaches. Samantha's first year of softball was so fun and she continues to surprise us with her athletic ability. We are pretty sure that there are many more years of sitting in the bleachers watching softball and baseball to come! 

Here's a look at some pictures and videos from the second half of the season:

Jack and Thatch playing against each other.

Video: Check out these two on third base. How serious do you think they were taking the game? 

Video: Pitching practice with Daddy. Samantha actually got to pitch an inning for one of her games. No pitching opportunity for Thatcher in his league as it was machine pitch. Maybe next year!  

At the end of each Pink Jaguars game, Coach Jules would give out a game ball. 

Sammy received the game ball for making the winning hit!

Sweetest carpool ever.

These girls practiced three times a week! 

Proud softball mom. 

 

The fact that we lucked out with Coach Jules again was awesome! It was also VERY lucky that the entire list of friends that requested her got her. Next year Sam's age group will be evaluation/draft-style so just like basketball next season, there is no requesting a coach. 

Fun mix of Sam's neighborhood friends and school friends. 

Celebrating a win at their last game which sealed the deal that they were undefeated the entire season! 

Grandma and Poppy were in town to see the final game. 

And they got to see Thatcher play earlier in the day too!

These two have been playing sports together since kindergarten. 

Collecting their first place trophies at the closing ceremonies.

Team Party Autographs!

Video: Samantha receiving her Pink Jaguar Beanie Boo (I felt like a crazy lady helping Coach Jules find 12 of those stuffed animal key chains hitting up every store in town only to find them sold out or with just one left.)

Lila's mom, Brianna, writes a column for The Sentinel and wrote a fun piece on the Pink Jags. (Pardon the layout, had to take screenshots). 

Watching Thatcher play ball. 

Happy Thatcher after hitting a home run!

One of the family's on Thatcher's team owns Pure Order Brewery and hosted the entire team after the last game. 

Coach Wes handing out awards.  

We loved Coach Wes and how kind he was to all the kids. He made the entire season super fun and was always prepared at practices and games with a plan. 

Video: Here's the highlight reel for the rest of the season!

And that's not all folks....both kids made All Stars! More on that later...

Softball and Baseball - Pink Jaguars and Tin Caps

I caved. I let Samantha play three sports that all coincided with each other. Last year, I did a big N-O to softball. This year, with Samantha dropping flamenco dancing and really loving playing sports we decided to give it a go. With the end of basketball season, she is now just playing soccer and softball which is kind-of, sort-of more manageable. I think. 

First practice!

Second practice (did I mention that there are two practices a week AND two games a week?!) 

Thankfully we have Coach Jules again and a super fun team of friends and families. 

First one to the base wins! 

Yes, there was a serious collision here. No one was hurt, thankfully! 

Thatcher is getting some extra pitching and catching in. He is the official ball boy (or Ball Shagger?) for the Pink Jaguars. 

The girls practice as the sun goes down.

 Most of the girls on the team are first-time softball players. 

It's baseball season for Thatcher too!

He's on a team with mostly his classmates from Peabody. 

We lucked out with a late add to the Tin Caps. It's nice to have a Pirozzi on our team!

Cutest softball team there is! 

Pink Jaguar field trip to the UCSB softball game. 

Thatcher's first game!

Todd is assistant coach for the Tin Caps. 

The girls do not get a machine pitch like Thatcher's league. 

Samantha isn't quite there yet to be a pitcher. 

Thatcher is doing a great job at keeping the snack shack in business. 

Ready position!

Samantha's been rotating from short stop, second and catcher. 

Thatcher's league doesn't allow kids in the Snack Shack during volunteer hours but Sam's league does which is awesome because these kids LOVE working it. 

I'm not sure about correct change given but I love that the league sees this as a teaching moment and is very relaxed about letting the kids participate. 

Todd had to fill in to take score at one of the games. It was a lot more involved than he had expected! 

Dropped the girls off at Coach Jule's house to go to another Gaucho game and clinic!

Here are some video highlights from the season so far. 

And here is Samantha getting her best hit so far, a double!

The Pink Jaguars are so far undefeated with 5 wins! A highlight for the girls (and me) is that they do cheers the ENTIRE game. 

Not so much a highlight is the few times it has rained it is ALWAYS on a game day. Just today was another canceled game. 

Making the best out of a rained out game, Sam is getting pitching lessons from Vienna who is the superstar on our team. There are only 3 girls on the team who know how to pitch and should one of those girls not be able to make a game, we'd be in a bit of a predicament because you have to rotate pitchers every two innings.

The Shetland level does not keep score and they let EVERYONE hit on the roster each inning which can be quite long (and boring). I'm looking forward to next year when Thatcher will be old enough to play for real. So far Thatcher has not missed a hit off the machine and has had two doubles!