Xander's Baseball Season

A few years ago Xander's baseball team, the Orioles, made it to the championship game and they were told they were going to be playing on the big field under the lights. For some reason that didn't happen and all the boys were so bummed to have to play on just one of the regular fields. Ever since then Xander has been dying to play on the big field. Although this had been a fun season, Xander's team was by no means one of the better teams and so it looked like once again Xander would miss out on that big field dream. Except at the end of the season the league decided to draw  team names to see who would get to play on this most coveted field. The gods were smiling down on Xander because his team was selected and on a Thursday night in June he and I headed to Cal Ripken Sr. Field for his big playoff game!

The boys were in heaven hanging out in the dugout!

A final pep talk by the coach...

and one last cheer!

My cute baseball player living his 11 year old dream!

First time up to bat...

and he's on.

Xander playing in the outfield.

He's definitely got the arm for it!

Another time up to bat and he got hit.

He was able to eventually make his way to home and get a score.

His coach was really great and was able to help Xander improve in so many aspects of his game.He was always positive and very encouraging.

Close call!

And we're still working on the whole sliding thing.

In the field he played first...

as well as short stop.

At 10:30, when they started another inning, I realized they were going for a full 9 innings which to me was absolutely ridiculous. School night, people! Plus I had Savannah's graduation in the morning, a lot of packing, and then an evening departure for our vacation. The other team was ahead with little to no chance of us coming back for the win so, although I hated to do it, Xander and I headed home. He was such a good sport about leaving early and told me that he was so tired and just wanted to go to bed. One of the moms messaged me later to let me know that we had indeed lost. Oh, well, it was a great opportunity for Xander and another fun season.