Honors Tourney, Games 2 & 3

Monday was the hottest day of the year, topping out at 105 degrees in Hillsboro, the closest town to our home. And, as you know, the air conditioner went out (the repairman is here right now). It was 86 degrees in the coolest part of the house when Jack and I got in the car to just drive around and cool down with the Honda's AC instead of the house AC. And we talked baseball...

Jack started on the mound in our second Honors tournament game at Alpenrose. We were on the West field, on the visitor's side, facing directly into the sun. The temp at 5:30 game time was over 100, but there was a warm breeze blowing.

SunCreek LL faced the 11-12 Honors team from Beaverton Area Little League (BALL) and were held hitless and scoreless. BALL was victorious, 13-0 in four innings. Jack held them to one hit in the first, zero hits and one unearned run in the second, but in the third inning, the BALL bats exploded for 12 runs, including a homerun by their clean-up hitter.

The bright spot of the evening was the radio broadcast of the Oregon State/North Carolina finale in the College World Series. Between innings, the volume would be turned up with fans of both teams keeping track of the game and screaming for the Beavers. Also in the stands was the SunCreek LL 9-10 All-Star team -- they had cut their evening practice short and piled into cars headed to Alpenrose to cheer for their 11-12 Honors "brothers."

Jack's Grammie treated the team to snowcones, and they were out of the heat by 7:15. We raced over to Westlake Park to cheer on the SunCreek 9-10 Honors team in a game versus Raleigh Hills LL. In spite of losing, the 9-10's advanced past Pool Play and into the championship bracket! Yeah, 9-10 Honors Team (coached by Matt Brant and Joe Chitwood)!!!!!

Tuesday evening was cooler (90 degrees!) and our opponent for the 7:45pm contest on Alpenrose main was Evergreen LL, our friends from our regular season "interlocking" schedule. Under the lights, the SunCreek LL team got on the board first with three runs in the first inning! Woo hoo! On hand to cheer for SunCreek were members of the 11 Year Old All-Stars and 9-10 Honors teams. Jack knocked in the first run with an RBI single up the middle and scored when Chris S. singled. It was a tight ballgame until the 5th and 6th innings, when Evergreen LL pulled away with six runs in each of those innings. Final score, SCLL 4, EvLL 16. But hey, we played all six innings -- a moral victory!

Tonight, we close out the tournament with a 5:30 game versus Lake Oswego LL White team. We are on the West field again, but it is much cooler now.

And this just in: if you are following the saga, the AC unit is bad, and we will need a brand new Trane compressor. Wow, fun! Good thing I purchased that extended warranty...