http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F67gK0HCaHk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtGpIb0x358

Katy High School Summer Baseball

After several disappointing  rain-outs, the Katy High School Summer baseball program finally kicked off this week with three games back to back on three consecutive nights.

All of this in conjunction with a five game weekend where Matthew and the Allen Baseball club's 16U Navy team won three and lost 2 in the 16U Heat  Tournament that consisted of more than 20 of the top 16U teams in the area. 

Top all of this off with two six hour practice sessions on Tuesday and Thursday in the 100 degree heat makes for an extremely grueling baseball schedule that would rival most college programs.

Allen Baseball Cub at the 16U Heat Tournament:

We handily beat the 16U Heat Silver team, which is a very respectable team as well as one of the "Twelve" teas out of College Station, which put us in the second bracket on Sunday where we came up against the top team from the "Kyle Chapman" program.  

As we pulled into the parking Lott, someone was getting out of the car next to us with a KC uniform on standing several inches taller than my 6 foot 1 inch frame and weighing all of 220 pounds.  My wife said, "I sure hope that is one of the coaches."  Unfortunately, she was wrong.  Despite having the body and facial features of a large college athlete, this was the kid who recently pitched the winning game in the Texas High School Varsity State Championship game.

He pitched 6 strong innings against us where he never threw a pitch under 90mph in route to a 8 to 0 score.  Matthew came in and pitched the final 2 innings for us, striking out 2 and not giving up any runs.

Matthew ended up drawing several walks, one hit-by-pitch and only one hit for the weekend with a screaming double into the left field corner.  Despite several hard hit balls that seemed to find a home in someone's glove Matthew seemed to have convinced himself that he was in some sort of hitting slump, which is only psychological as it would prove out during the following week long Katy High a school campaign.

He also made one of the most amazing plays at third base that I have ever seen at this level and would have made the MLB highlight reel on ESPN.  He was playing about 6 to 10 feet off of third base and about even with the bag, when a very sharply hit ball was hit right down the line across the bag.  Matthew took one step toward the foul line behind the bag and dove with his glove arm outstretched, catching the ball and springing back to his feet, throwing a perfect strike to the first baseman all in one graceful motion, beating out the runner by close to a full step.  I don't know anyone else who would have come close to making that play.

Katy High School Summer League

After a long weekend of Allen Baseball, we started the new week over right away with Katy High School games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, on top of the regular Allen Baseball 5 hour practice sessions on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Matthew drew several walks, and hit several balls hard that were caught for outs; however, he managed to go 1 for 2 on Tuesday with a line drive into the outfield and 2 for 2 on Wednesday with a long double through the gap in left center field and a sharp single through the infield on the left side.

We are looking forward to an upcoming weekend off so that Matthew can rest his arm a little, as it has been bothering him for the past few days and he has been holding ice packs on it at night. 

http://youtu.be/zkgqdgD-VPU
Matthew had a decent weekend of baseball going 1 for 3 with 3 walks.  His lone hit was a monster shot that one hopped into the left field fence for a stand-up double with a RBI.

We ended up winning 2 games and losing 2 games.

At the end of an exciting game yesterday against a very good 18U team, we came out on the losing end of a 10 to 2 score.  There were a few exciting moments for Matthew; although this time they were of a defensive nature.

First of all, the opposing pitcher was a fireballer who'se fastball was consistently in the low 90s.  Matthew had 2 at-bats where he drew a walk after fouling off several pitches and working the count to 3 and 2, afterwhich he hit a hard ground ball to the third baseman and was thrown out at first.

His bright spot in the game came in the 4th inning in right field after the lead off batter hit a stand-up tripple and the following batter hit a 250 foot fly ball to right field that shold have easily scored the runner at third.  Matthew fielded the ball with a perfect two step forward motion and threw a rocket to the plate that never hit the ground and never got more than 10 feet off of the ground caching the runner by surprize who thought that he could easily tag up and score from third.  The catcher tagged him out without having to do anything but catch the ball while blocking the plate and make the tag.

I always had an above-average outfield arm, but i never made a throw like that.  Come to think of it, i don't remember ever seeing it done quite like that before.

Pretty impressive kid...

Well, summer is definitely here with a bang.  Wednesday was the last day of school and today marks the beginning of an incredibly busy baseball Summer.  Matthew starts off the Summer season today with a 2:00pm game at Goose Creek Memorial High School, which will be followed up with two games tomorrow, one game Sunday, four hours of Allen Baseball field practice on Tuesday morning, one Katy High School game on Tuesday night, one Katy High School game on Wednesday night and four hours of Allen Baseball field practice again on Thursday morning.

That adds up to six games and 8 hours of practice over a seven day period in the heat of the Summer sun, which is enough to separate the wanna-be's from the ones who refuse to accept failure.  This is exactly the rigorous schedule that can be expected for those who strive to make it to the next level and play college baseball.

 One of the exciting things about working with Skip Allen and the Allen Baseball Club is his ability to find kids that have the heart and desire to move to the next level, motivate them sufficiently to put in the necessary work to achieve their goals and drag every ounce of ability out of them through a demanding practice regime, an active playing schedule and teaching them integrity, work ethic and team work.

Matthew's summer team is a collection of slightly over achieving 16 year olds who will play throughout the Summer in a predominantly 19 and under bracket, which will give them opportunities to face higher levels of competition, especially high 80s to low 90s pitching.  In theory, this should heighten their abilities and harden their resolve to move to the next level.  We shall see...