And that's how you open up a season

WWSB started it's defense of three league championships Friday March 14th against the queen of beers. WW has done a pretty good job of handling Budweiser in the past and this past Friday proved to be no exception. Every WW player in the lineup reached the plate in the first inning putting the game out of reach for the brew crew. The game was highlighted by a breakout out performance by Big Daddy Rik. Riky went 4-4 with at least 5RBI and made a spectacular diving catch in the centerfield gap to rob extra bases and also had an outfield assist. I was nice to see Rik hitting P rods again as this will help boost the lineup while WW waits for Chris W. to come off of the disabled list. Next week will be a off week for WW and then we will take to the field again March 28th against ESI who has always played us though in the past. Questions surround the pitching staff as both Mike and Pete will not be available to make the start. The coaching staff may have to look to the young phenom JW to deliver Friday night. This would bring Rik in from the outfield to play short. Either way you slice it, the shorthanded WW team will have their hands full.

HOTG Blog : Your source for WW softball's latest breaking news... Two weeks later

After a lengthy off season WW softball hit the field in the Plano Pre-season Tournament. This Event combined A level with competitive AA giving us some of the toughest competition I have seen since I've been writing for WW. The boys opened up against Long Gone ( I think ). After a rough first inning where some IF errors spotted LG a couple of unearned runs WW offense was boosted by a Towering Bomb of the bat of Mathew Jenkins. WW was able to take a commanding lead and hold of a late surge from LG which included to HRs off of WW pitching. A two hour break in the action sent some of the guys over to Brooklyn's for a couple of pizzas and a cold beer to 'prepare' the team the long road ahead.
This is where things start getting a little fuzzy for me... Yeah, One beer will do that to me. While waiting for the next game to start Byron was traded to Long Gone (the team we played in the first round) as they were down a man... Hilarity ensued. Byron was stuck out in left field where he looked like a retard trying to hump a door nob. After getting burned a couple of times, he missed a routine flyball with a runner tagging at third and 1 out. Byron's comments about the play. "I felt pretty good out there, I beat the ball to the spot, I had the timing down for the throw to the plate and then the clouds parted for a brief second and the sun was right in my eyes. There was nothing I could do about it". This beats his last excuse of "I was running an a gopher just popped up out of the ground and tripped me". Byron hit well for LG sparking a couple of rallies sparking a late comeback and a LG win. The error machine that is Byron was then sent packing back to WW.
The next game on the clip for WW was against a AA team that hit lights out. These guys were pretty good and WW looked a little dead... Even though Pete brushed of a bruised elbow from a wild through throw during warm ups it wasn't enough to hang with what ever the hell that team was named. Needless to say we lost that one.
That loss pulled the team together as they were now 1 loss away from elimination. We played WW style softball for the next couple of games, stringing together hits and playing tight defense.
With a shot to make it to the final four WW faced off against Last Call. LC was beaten at the hands of WW twice last year and was hungry for revenge. Fatigue had started to set in for WW whose line drives were turning into fly outs. We were never able to really mount a comeback attempt or a late rally. If you ask me, I think we were all ready to pack it in and head over to Pete's for the cookout.
WWs finished the Tournament 5th place which isn't bad seeing as this was a combined A and AA tournament. The Defensive Player of the tournament goes to JW who was constantly make plays that a man wearing 3 leg braces should not be able to make. The Offensive Player of the Tournament is going to go to Mike C. It seemed like every time I came up to bat he was on base.
After last weeks rain out WW will play it's season opener March 14th against Budweiser at 8:00PM.

Pitchers, Catchers and Old Men Report

WW softball held a small workout this past Saturday at the High Point athletic fields in preperation for the February 23 preseason tournament. Nothing much to report here but here are some highlights.

-Those in attendance, JW, Al, Mike and Byron

-Mike's Z06 kicks some ass. Can't wait to see him and Brian race... what who said that.

-Not throwing for a while and then throwing again sucks.

-Infield looked pretty good, we should be ready in time for the tourny.

-We had a couple of rounds of good BP. Everyones back should be hurting by now.