Thanks to Cesar Rodriguez for this post:
Portland Rose Cup 2007
Placing at a tie for 3rd at the Rose Cup was not what we had hoped and yet the coaching staff was ok with the overall performance. I continue to stress that all tournaments leading up to the World’s should never be more than being all about preparation. Winning any of them is simply a bonus and I’d rather being putting it all together toward the bigger goal and have it come together at that time , than peaking now.
In Portland, we saw some good solid performances and we continued to work on our game. We ran a little more, we tried some plays, and we adjusted and established a new pre-game prep. We lost two games, the first to Broken Bow as closer than the score indicated and everyone at the park knows we should have won that game. Whitten gave up four hits, we had eight. They scored a run in the first inning (on a very un-typical error) and held it until we tied it in the 6th.
In the 8th, we had the 3rd out (struck out) but got a questionable call (ball 3 instead of strike 3), before the single that put them ahead. We get that out and we are undoubtedly in the right position to win the game. So we had a few bad breaks and a couple of calls that didn’t go our way but stuff like that happens and you have to learn to overcome it…and we will learn from that. The key here was that everyone in the park knew we will be equal to the task in another month and a half of work.
In our final game, our pitching just had a rough outing – a lot of walks, and we just have to be better in that department. We had five walks in the first two innings and four of those scored. The fifth run scored on a passed ball, one pitch before the 3rd out; and it seemed we struggled all game finding the plate.
I don’t see that happening again all year, our pitchers have been much better than that in every other game and this stands as a great reminder that you just can’t afford get behind good hitters. As our pitchers get more innings in and trust our defense, we will see them going after the hitters more effectively and I would be very surprised to see a similar outing.
As we add Lalonde, Devine, Parra, Evely and Mata back into the mix; our lineup depth and flexibility strengthens and we will be right where we want to be. Next weekend in Monkton we expect another solid performance and will continue to build on our process toward August. Hopefully see you there…….
C-Rod
So Cal Bombers