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...

http://youtu.be/t24On6Aq4bg

After spending the entire spring season alternating between outfield and third base for the Katy Tigers where he was not called upon to pitch after the regular season started, Matthew is in the process of ironing out the rust and getting his arm back in shape, as he will most assuredly be called upon to pitch during the Allen Baseball Summer season, and might even make an appearance or two for the Katy High School Summer team.

We aren't sure exactly what his defensive role will be as the future looms ahead; although, we are pretty sure that his ability at the plate will definitely keep him on the radar. 

Matthew feels comfortable and shows a well above average ability to play third base and any one of the outfield positions.  He can also play any of the other infield positions.  His arm is above average and he has had some success as a pitcher; although, that position tends to cause players to be pigeon-holed to where the bat can be taken out of their hand at the high school varsity level and above. 

We feel like his bat is too dominant for that to happen, so I guess that it is safe to say that the future is yet to be determined.

18U Tournament Weekend

http://youtu.be/dQM-Q7H5nJ0

Matthew's team did not have anything scheduled for the weekend, so instead of letting him sit around twiddling his thumbs, Coach Skip invited him to come out and spend the weekend with the 18U Allen Baseball team. 

He was able to get into a few of the early games as a pinch runner before being called upon to pitch in the final game with the score 1 to 0 in our favor, no outs and one man on base.  He was able to finish the inning giving up one earned and one unearned run.  We ended up winning the game 3 to 2.

As Requested:

This was written at the end of the Fall season last year as all of the boys were involved in High School try outs throughout the Houston area:

Baseball

The end of January with the cool Winter weather showing signs of improvement brings certain memories to people.  As for myself, I am always given to fantasies of baseball.  The slightly uncomfortable, yet euphoric feeling of throwing  the ball back and forth with an ever increasing intensity as you slowly distance yourself from your partner, ever increasing your efforts, watching the steam as you exhale warm air from your lungs as it is introduced to the cool morning air as the muscle and tendons in your throwing arm loosen and become acclimated to the stress required to throw harder and harder in an effort to show others around you that, hey, I'm strong than you, I can throw harder than you, I am special.

The end of January brings the stress and excitement that can only be experienced with the impending spectacle of Texas High School Baseball tryouts.  A time when the thousands of Freshmen throughout the state contemplate showing up on Friday afternoon when all of the other students are heading home after a long week of school work, to put their baseball skills on display in hopes of securing one of the coveted spots on their high school baseball team.

Of the many who think that they have what it takes to make it to one of the final teams, only about one in four will actually make it through the cuts, and only about 60 to 70 percent of them will play regularly throughout the spring high school season.  Yet, they will go straight to the ballpark right after school on Friday and compete until 7 or 8pm, go home and sleep a few hours before showing back up for a long grueling day of workouts on Saturday that are designed to separate the weaker players from the ones who have been dedicated for years in order to be successful on this particular weekend, thus making the coaches inevitable decisions a little easier.  

At the end of the weekend, after all of the hard work that has been put in, and all of the data and film has been reviewed, the coaches have to determine who will make it through the first cut, which is usually posted for all to see on Monday morning.

Even those boys who have worked in high level baseball programs throughout the entire Fall and Winter off season have to go home and spend the rest of an extremely stressful weekend wondering if they performed well enough to grab the attention of one or more of the coaches.  Did they run fast enough, throw hard enough, swing the bat well enough or even display the proper attitude that would impress the coaching staff, making them believe that you are that kid...  The one that they want to dedicate their time, talents and efforts to attempting to turn you into a real college, or possibly even professional prospect.

It is a difficult thing to watch one of your own children have to deal with this level of stress for probably the first time in their life.  Walking around the house with an uncharacteristically surly, quick tempered demeanor, with an obvious fear in his eyes that you have never seen before.  Watching him struggle to sleep, while trying to hide the fact that the longer the wait, the more fear and anxiety emanates from his voice as he goes through his every day activities.  

The first cut is devastating to the 40 or so boys that are unceremoniously removed from the program on Monday, given the standard speech attempting to inspire them to continue working hard so that they can come back next year.  

You feel their pain, but underneath your stoically calm exterior, you are incredibly relieved that your son will live to fight another day.  You know in your own mind that his talent level is on the upper end of the spectrum and on the level with the best players on display, but there is always that reservation that something could go wrong, that there could be some type of unseen forces at work that could derail his hard work after he has gotten so close to achieving this goal, allthewhile knowing that this in only the first step in a long term goal toward which he has been working unceasingly for the past few years to conquer. 

He has worked incredibly hard by pushing himself past all of the others around him and has outdistanced each and everyone who he has been pitted against simply due to his tenacity, hard work and raw talent.  You know in your heart that to fall short at this point would be totally devastating and could cause irreparable damage to his confidence and spirit, so you worry and lose sleep over it, regardless of how much you try to think about something else in order to take your mind off of it or convince yourself that there is nothing to worry about.  

As for now, we continue to wait, hoping that he will show up after school with good news.   And wait...  And wait... And wait...

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