Above: Demonstrating the true meaning of “laying it all on the line,” Kole Anderson slides just below Ryan Christiansen’s tag to reach safety at third base in a recent Little League game. Left: Paul Dorr gets ready to make a catch in the field. Dorr pitched his best game of the season last week.
This year the Cook County Community Education summer baseball season has been a tale of great weather for two of our programs and terrible weather for the other. To explain I’ll describe our three levels in the Community Ed. program.
Terrible weather for T-Ball
The first is T-Ball (4-6 year old players). T-Ball is played on Monday evenings at 5:00 p.m. We have five teams with 70 young kids playing. Open to girls and boys, T-Ball is intended to be a fun introduction to baseball.
This year however has been marked by rain. Four of the last six Mondays have been rained out. With a little luck we can get some extra games in the last few weeks of our season. The five teams are Blue Jays, Turtles, Moose, Hornets, and Thunder Birds. If you see any of these hats or shirts running around the county ask them if they like baseball and how their season is going.
If you want to check out a game stop by one of our fields on a Monday night. It’s great fun. It’s the future of our baseball program chasing a ball all over the fields.
Perfect weather for Parent Pitch
Our second program is Parent Pitch or Coach Pitch. We have four teams this year and the weather has been great. We have not had one game rained out all season. The four teams that take the field every Tuesday evening are the Lions, Yankees, Wildfire, and Lumberjacks.
The Yankees won the championship last season over the Lumberjacks. This season the Yankees have a young team but have improved every week, and are looking forward to a strong finish to their season.
The Lions have had a slow start, but are playing their best ball when it counts at the end of the season. They have a tie with both the Lumberjacks and Wildfire, and a recent victory over the Yankees. The Wildfire and Lumberjacks have identical records. They each have one loss and one tie. Earlier in the season the Lumberjacks handed the Wildfire their first loss with a one run victory. Last night Wildfire returned the favor with a four run victory handing the Lumberjacks their first loss of the season.
The Lumberjacks and Wildfire have been the strongest teams in the first part of the season, but the Lions and Yankees are playing great baseball heading into the end of the regular season. The playoffs should be very exciting.
If you would like to see a game, we play Parent Pitch on Tuesday nights at 4:30 p.m. You will see some really fun baseball action.
Exciting action in Little League
Community Ed. Little League has also seen some very good weather this summer. Three teams Twins, Cubs, and Dodgers play every Tuesday and Sunday evenings at 6:30 p.m. This season all teams have been very equally matched. The Twins are in first place and have not lost a game. However every game has been very close.
The best example of this was last Sunday when the Twins and Dodgers played what was one of the best games I’ve seen in the five years I’ve been involved in youth baseball. A 4-3 extra inning victory by the Twins was a great baseball game to watch.
The Dodgers sent young Paul Dorr out to the mound to start the game. He pitched his best game of the season. He only let 2 runs score and left the game after 5 great innings with his team leading 3 to 2.
The Twins however would not be denied. They scored one run in the top of the sixth and one in the top of the seventh to win the game. They also had great pitching, but to me the star of the game was Aram Falter with his batting. He scored two of the Twins’ 4 runs and was on base every time.
The Cubs last night took it to the visiting Silver Bay Twins (different team than our Twins team). The Cubs controlled the game from the very first pitch handing the Silver Bay Twins a 14-5 loss.
This Sunday all three Little League teams will be in action starting at 3:30 p.m. Stop by and watch some great baseball before the summer is gone. This season is almost over and the championship games for both Parent Pitch and Little League will be held at the Rec. park field on Friday, July 31 starting around 4 p.m.
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