From Cesar Rodriguez, So Cal Bombers:
It was one of the best tournaments we’ve played in, in terms of competition and environment. Brian Baillie and the people of Monkton did an outstanding job and the atmosphere was outstanding.
The team played pretty well. We came out of the gate well against Aspen and were able to take advantage of some mistakes and timely hitting to win the first game. Lucas Mata threw well and kept the Saskatoon team off balance all day. In the second game against Patsy’s, we got smoked. No EXCUSES, hear that critics! We played poorly and had poor focus at the plate. When you combine that with a top pitcher like Muizy and the bats and defense of the Patsy’s, you’re going to get your butt kicked; and we did. What you hope to do is regroup and play better the next one. We did.
We went on to beat the Twins (facing Koert and Scott), the Farm (Gervasutti and Gareau), the Gremlins (Kirkpatrick), and the Twins again (Martin). No slouches in any of those games. Our pitching was outstanding, we used Peeples, Whitten and Mata in our first game against the Twins, Mata against both the Farm and the Gremlins, and Whitten threw the final. Great performances. We got clutch hitting and did many of the little things we need to do to win.
Now I’ve been criticized before for stressing the process but I really believe this; Monkton’s win was satisfying but only because it legitimized us – to ourselves. We have a chance to win and beat good teams – we’ve been saying it and now we can start to believe we have that ability. We still have a lot of work to do and we know it. Winning at the end of June is great and we feel good about it but it isn’t August yet and we have to keep working hard on the process of getting better and that means improving some of the little things to be the best we can be.
Next weekend we travel to the Boys of Summer, and as many know we’re without Mata and Ghostkeeper (this past weekend we were without Potskin and Parra) but who is with us or not is really irrelevant. Our job is to continue to work on our overall game; get our at bats in against good pitching; our innings in against good hitters; and continue to work on plays and situations. If we win the tournament again, it will simply be another bonus.
I’m happy with our progress to this point, Monkton was a great confirmation for us and Rob, the Trejo’s and I are very proud of our club, but the World’s are still about six weeks away and there’s lots of work to do. See you at the park…….
C-Rod
So Cal Bombers