Carli's first Glory Tournament

Carli played in her first tournament with her new Texas Glory team yesterday.  It was a one day tournament with 15 10u teams.  Pretty much, it was a whole different experience from what we were use to!  Their first game started at 9 am and we didn't leave until 7:30 pm!  There were four games squeezed into that day.  Carli got to pitch two full games and play in left field one game.  This was the first time the girls had all played together and for some the first time they had played kid pitch ball.  Overall they did well.  We didn't win but really we didn't expect to.  Many of these teams have been playing together and in tournaments all year long.  We had a mixed bag of experience and the girls just needed to get on the field and get comfortable.

Carli faced 47 batters and pitched 156 pitches this wkd.  Only gave up 4 Earned Runs and 4 bases on balls with 5 strikeouts.  Her pitching coach calls Carli a contact pitcher right now b/c she throws strikes and depends on her defense to help her get the outs.  She averaged a 63.5% strikes with 63% of the batters she faced seeing a strike on their first pitch.  Many times the ball was put into play and tested her defense.  Her defense was fully capable of getting the outs for her but nerves, error and a few times a bad call worked against them.  But that means there's room to grow.  And for Carli too, she's learning that her body language is the scoreboard.  So she's got to be able to show her teammates that she believes in them just as much as they believe in her.  Overall, I think she grew a lot this wkd.  She was put in some tough spots.  In one game, we had 2 outs and a legit blown call at 1st that would have been out 3 and turned around and gave up 6 runs on a multitude of errors.  Another game, we got a very experienced team held at 1 to 1 with 2 outs in bottom of second only to make error after error for them to take a substantial lead.  A lot of what the girls need, Carli and her teammates, comes from mental toughness and believing in themselves that is gained from game experience...the ability is there.  

Carli's siblings did a very good job cheering her own.  Drew even managed a 1 hr nap at the restaurant!  We had a great day and overall were pleased with the whole experienced.  We wanted Carli to gain game experience b/c that is something you just don't get from practice and this wkd she gained a lot!