Grassland Braves

This spring, besides both boys playing soccer, we also signed Carter up for baseball.  The boys have been playing Lil Sluggers for awhile now and love baseball (especially Rylan).  I knew there was going to be some overlap with soccer, but when a bunch of our friends decided to sign up their kids, I couldn't resist signing up Carter as well.  We requested that all the kids be put on the same team and they honored the request.  So Carter is on a team with Carson, Chase, Riley, and McCabe.  We are playing in the Grassland league which is super convenient for our friends, but a bit out of the way for us (but it's more fun to be playing with friends!).  The kids are on the Braves team.

We missed the first 3 practices because we were in Disney World but had two practices last weekend (the practices are normally Tuesday and Saturday).  We were a little late to Saturday's practice because Carter had a soccer game at 11 am and practice started at noon.

We had told Carter before practice where he was going and who was on his team but he apparently didn't get it completely.  When we pulled into the parking lot at the fields, he said, "I'm playing REAL baseball?!?!?"  He was so excited then.

Carter is doing great at practice so far.  He appears to be a little nervous and uncomfortable because it's something new, but he hasn't said that to me either.  He's been actively participating in practice and paying attention.  There have been a few times when Carter's standing and waiting for a bit for a ball to be hit to him and he's not completely paying attention anymore, but he's not picking daisies either.  Carter's Lil Sluggers skills are shining through and he's holding his own.  We need to work on being a little more aggressive sometimes and not being scared of the ball in some situations (he's not used to other kids throwing it to him from short distances), but I'd be scared too!

After practice on Saturday, both boys wanted to play baseball in our yard the rest of the afternoon.  As long as Carter is enthusiastic about it, we'll keep practicing on our own.

Carter's coach is good so far.  It's his first time coaching and his stepson is on the team.  He has a lot of help at practice from other family members and a few of the other dads so that helps a lot with breaking up the kids into small groups.

I tried to take a few pictures at practice but didn't get anything great.  It's hard having so many friends in the stands too - I get talking and am distracted easily :)  I'll try to do better at our next practice next week (the coach had some out of town commitments and we've had this week's practices cancelled).

One of the coaches was standing on the other side of the plate throwing wiffle balls into the air for the kids to hit.  Carter missed the first couple but then hit every single one after that.  He got into a rhythm and did amazing!

We got the schedule for the season yesterday and will have a couple of overlapping games for soccer and baseball, but it's not horrible and I think it's to work out fine.  We're looking forward to more practice and seeing how the games go for these guys!