Troup Opening Day

Today was Opening Day at Troup for Carli and Ava.  Ava had pictures bright and early so we sent her and Keith off before 7:30 with instructions to bring us back some donuts!  When Carli woke up, her poor eyes were so swollen, watery and red.  I wasn't sure if she had pink eye or allergies.  So we gave her benedryl and warm compresses with some eye drops.  When Keith and Ava popped back in with breakfast, we decided to keep Carli home for now and sent them back on their way for opening ceremonies.

Ava and her team took their annual picture with the older 15u Thunder team.  Ava had a blast all morning at the ball field.  Meanwhile, we decided benedryl wasn't strong enough but Carli refused to take a pill so I crushed up a Tylenol Severe Allergy pill and gave it to her in apple sauce.  Within 30 minutes you could tell a major difference in her so we decided she had eye allergies and got ready to go to the ballfield for Ava's game.

Ava's team played at noon and Ava had a good game at the plate.  Her hitting finally clicked and she hit a scorcher of a line drive to Right Center, all the way to the fence!  She got a 2 RBI in the park homerun.  Her next two at bats were good hits that resulted in singles and 2 more RBI's.  Her team won 12 to 1.  She didn't get to see much action on the field as nothing really was hit to her at pitcher.

Carli took her opening day pictures in her sunglasses b/c she didn't want red eyes in pictures!  I told her that was okay!  It had started to rain before Carli's game but there was no thunder or lightening so they played.  We decided to let Carli play league ball so she'd get more time on the mound and help build her mental toughness.  I am pretty sure it is testing her mental toughness!  The team they played is the other Troup team.  Last Thursday they played the team and were beat 11 to 5.  The Shockwave has a select team pitcher who is in the 5th grade and throws in the 50s.  So yeah, it's a bit intimidating for most girls, but especially girls who have never played.  In our opinion our girls did very well considering the opponent.  It was much like watching David and Goliath!  Carli pitched that game and only 3 girls really hit off her but she had the mental game of overcoming her anxiety of playing against her friends.  She struck out 12 batters in 4 innings but walked 8 with 6 hits.  She threw 120 pitches.  She really did struggle to find her groove, but that's the point of playing!

Fast Forward to Saturday and they are playing the same team and the rain but guess what?  The select team pitcher was not there b/c she was playing tournament ball!  Carli pitched the whole game, striking out 10.  She walked 4 and only gave up 2 hits.  It was another 4 inning game and she only threw 84 pitches.  It rained the entire time!  Her team came back from behind to win 6 to 5!  They were so excited and I was so proud of Carli for overcoming her allergies, anxiety and weather to help her team win!  And another positive was that Carli slid, twice!  It's so fun to watch her improve and things start clicking!