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.