Wayne County All Star Invitational

Kidron, Ohio

Sorry fans no internet access out in the middle of Ohio.

Kidron as this tournament is known is the coaches favorite tournament.  It offers some of the best competition of the year.  Many of our long term rivals are at this tournament.  Mad Dogs, Oilers, Bandits, Holly Hills, Ehrenfields, Emeralds, Outlaws. Lots of one run and extra inning games at this tournament over the years.  Metro played the second longest game in Kidron history, vs. our friends and now disbanded Boone & Darr.  We played for almost 4 hours and 13 innings in 95 degree July heat, unfortunately Metro lost 2-1 on a dropped fly ball with 2 outs.  I wish I had time to tell you about all of the great extra inning and late night barn burner games played at this tournament.  When we go to Kidron everyone there can tell you stories about Metro games.  And how can you forget to talk about the food.  Kidron has the best concessions of any tournament any place.  Ask you daughter about the apple dumplings and ice cream.

We played two exhibition games and played as good as we have all year.  Every one was hitting and fielding like they should at this point in the season.  We got great pitching from Keri and Amber.  Keri seams to be finding out how to handle herself on the mound and Amber finding her game and pitching like we all know she can. Alisha had and triple that drove in 3 runs in the second game, way to go girl. We won the first game 8-0 and the second 8-1. 

The double elimination tournament started on Saturday morning.  Metro vs. Ohio Emeralds at 10:45 am.  Metro had never lost a game to the Emeralds at any tournament up to this point.  Amber was pitching for Metro and the Emeralds had a big girl (6 ft) on the mound.  The game started kind of slow for both teams with three batters and three outs.  As the innings went by neither team could muster any offence, a runner here and there but not much of a threat to score.  Neither pitcher was a power pitcher by any means, but they both were great junk ballers.  As you play a game like this you are kind of waiting for something to happen and you hope it happens for you.  Well it happened, to us.  One mistake, one pitch and the Emeralds batter hits a line drive shot to left center field on a field with a deep out field.  Result is one home run, score Emeralds 1 Metro 0.  Its hard to muster a come back late in a close game like this.  You are kind of stunned and it takes a little while to get over the shock.  With only one at bat left we were not able to put up any challenge and found ourselves headed for the losers bracket.  Not exactly how we wanted to start out.

Well the losers bracket in any double elimination tournament is a killer if you lose your first game.  We were off till 3 pm and then would have to play 4 games back to back.  We guessed who would win and who would be in the losers bracket to play us and were sure we would win and get to the 7:30 pm game back in the main complex.  That would put us into a position to finish at least fourth, a respectable finish any year in this tournament.  Well when we arrived at the field to warm up for our game we got another shock.  It turns out that another team favored, like us, to finish in the top four had also lost their first round game and would be our opponent.  It would be Metro vs. Mad Dogs.  Wow, what a match up this would be.  The tournament directors place teams in the brackets so that match ups like this one don't happen until the last two sets of games on Saturday night.  Yes they do that and every one here knows that's how they place you in the bracket.  You are ranked by the tournament directors and seeded into the bracket so that they get the great match up for main show.  Well that's the way it was supposed to work.  This was going to be a barn burner type of game with two top ranked contenders battling for their life in a early round losers bracket game.  Yes this was going to be a dog fight, pun intended, both coaching staffs knew it and had a friendly conversation on their respective situation before the game started.  After the first inning and both teams got a taste of the others pitching we knew this was going to be a game where a run was going to be hard to come by.  The Mad Dogs had their huge (tall and meaty) hard throwing junk baller and we had little (in comparison) Sara throwing heat and junk right back at them.  Sara struck out quite a few of them Mad Dogs during the game and they did like wise to us.  Metro had more hard hit balls and more opportunities to make something happen over the normal seven innings, but just could not take advantage of Mad Dog errors or get a timely hit when we had runners in scoring position.  Our two good opportunities came with Allison on third with one out and could not get the fly ball or grounder to the right side we needed to allow her to score; and with Steph on second with two outs Keri drives a ball to left center field on what looks like a run scoring double only to have the Mad Dog center fielder make a spectacular over her head diving catch for the out.  The Mad Dog's never really had any good opportunities in the first seven innings.  Well into extra innings and at this tournament they do not use the tie breaker they just let you play the game straight up like it was intended to be played - one of the reasons this is such a great tournament and we keep going back.  However as with any extra inning game, tie breaker or not, the heat, pressure and fatigue will ultimately come into play and help determine who wins and loses.  Sure enough extra inning saw more hitting, not base hits but more balls put into play by both teams.  You tell your girls to put the ball into play hard and make the other team field the ball and hopefully make a mistake and give you the opportunity to win the game.  That is exactly what we did and it produced several great defensive plays  by both teams.  Well the game goes along and into the eleventh inning with both starting pitcher still on the mound, a great show of confidence by both coaches for their pitchers.  I don't know about other coaches but I always let the pitcher finish the game unless she gets hurt or asks to be taken out (never had that happen, yet) because  she has to learn how to finish strong and work past being tired both mentally and physically and get the win and because every time I have made that change I don't get the performance or outcome expected.  The starting pitcher has the feeling of the game, the umpire, the batters and the stuff you just can not describe and the team and I want her in there.    Remember what I said about extra inning games, that is exactly what happened in this game.  The top of the eleventh inning with two outs we make the mistake and allow a runner to reach base.  It never fails when you have a runner on base due to an error or you walk the lead off batter they always wind up scoring.  That is what happened.  The Mad Dogs only had two base hits the entire game up to this point and when an error or a big hit or something happens and the pitcher gets a little rattled or loses her focus, can't say I blame her.  The Mad Dogs got a hit and scored a run.  We were not able to match the run in the bottom of the eleventh and lost 1-0.  

Metro only gave up 3 runs total and only 2 in the actual tournament this past weekend to what I consider to be the best teams in the region. As my good friend and Metro coach Chuck used to keep telling me,  good defense and pitching is what wins championships, and I kept telling him, yes but you have to score a run or two along the way.

Just to put everything into perspective this is how the tournament played out.  The Emeralds advanced to the winners bracket semi-final vs. the Oilers and lost 1-0 putting them into the losers bracket final.  The winners bracket final on Sunday would feature the Oilers vs Ohio Bandits.  The Mad Dogs won the next four games and made it to the losers bracket finals vs. Emeralds on Sunday morning.  Metro could have been in one of the finals on Sunday if we had taken advantage of our opportunities.  Of course seeing the team that beat you advance is some consolation, isn't it.  The Emeralds beat the Mad Dogs 1-0 in eight inning. Mad Dogs finish in 4th place.  Oilers beat Bandits 1-0 in ten innings.  Both games won after errors allowed base runners into scoring position with two out. Imagine that.  The Bandits lost to the Emeralds in the losers bracket final 4-0,  they only had nine players left after injuries and their #2 pitcher was playing hurt at second base,  they were visibly shaken and tired after their loss to the Oilers and held off the Emeralds for 4 inning before succumbing .   In the championship the Oilers beat the Emeralds 1-0 in 9 innings. 

Just a little note to our Metro Express girls.  At some point in the season you have to look at where you have been and relate that to where you are.  For the most part all of the games that we lost by one run or on some late inning mistake allowed the opposing team to advance on and finish near the top of the respective tournament.  Several times our opponents won the tournament or finished 2nd. 

Is it how far away you are or is it how close are you.

Take the step to the next level.  It not easy but you can do it.

Kidron Statistics

This file was created on 7/09/2002 at 12:30:43

This file was created  on 7/09/2002 at 12:31:34

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