The first Pool Play game of the day at Bay City SW Little League is over. I don't think I mentioned before that we are doing 4 pools (A-D) of 4 teams and all of the games are divided between two Little Leagues, Bay City SW and Bay City NE. The three games I'm in today are all at the SW field and let me tell you, this complex is awesome. I spoke with the grounds crew earlier and they said they work on the fields 7 days a week to keep it in such good shape. Now I think my home fields are nice, but pails in comparison to the one we're playing on here. I have not been over to the Bay City NE fields yet but I'm looking forward to seeing how they have prepared for the tournament too.

But back to the game. The game was between District 11, Marquette Little League and District 12, Tri-Cities North Little League. Marquette won the game in 3 1/2 innings by a score of 10 to 0. In Little League, there is a mercy rule that states if the home team is ahead by 10 runs at the top of the 4th inning or the home team is ahead at the bottom of the 4th, it's a "mercy" and the game is over. That was the case here. Tri-Cities only had 1 hit in the game and that was the very first batter. Marquette's pitcher, Tyler Linquist pitched 3 innings and also scored 3 of the 10 runs with two singles and a fields choice. Linquist looks really big on the mound standing at about 5' 10" tall. Other than allowing that first batter to reach base, he and his defensive team shut down Tri-Cities with great defensive plays.

One player stood out in the game for me but not for any plays he made. His name is Brad Brow and he played Short Stop. Through out the game while on the field or in the dugout, he kept encouraging his team mates very vocally. To his pitcher, he kept yelling "go get him", "you got him", "don't worry if he hits, we'll back you up" and on and on. This was for every batter and before just about every pitch. From the dugout, it was the same thing, encouraging the batters. During a break in one of the innings I asked him how long could he keep this kind of chatter up? He told me he'd been doing it since he was in the Minors (third grade) when he was a Catcher. He would be talking up to his Pitcher and when he moved to Short Stop, he just continued. Now that's what Little League is all about!

The next game is going on now as I write but I have no idea what the score is so I think I'll go out and watch a few innings; maybe take a few pictures and then get ready for my next game which follows this one.

Until later then.... don't forget to visit www.llbmichigan.org where you can see what's going on around the State of Michigan.