Rylan - Baseball

We decided to sign Rylan up for baseball this season.  We are officially crazy with having both Carter and Rylan both play baseball and soccer.  But somehow the schedules worked out really well and we have a lot less overlap than we expected.

The boys are playing baseball through the Brentwood Baseball Club.  Rylan's team is the Colorado Rockies.  His coach is okay (he's definitely not Carter's awesome coach), but he's volunteering so we can't give him too much grief.  No matter what, Rylan is super happy to be on the team with one of his best buddies, Luke.

The boys got in 3 practices before their first game.  The weather was not cooperating the last few weeks but at least there were able to do something before their first game tonight.

Rylan really wanted to wear his uniform all day but I convinced him to wait until this afternoon to put it on.  He looks pretty good in a baseball uniform!

One of our main reservations about Rylan's coach is that he doesn't seem to ask for parent involvement.  The boys need more than just one coach and one assistant coach for practices and games to really learn anything.  I think I have officially stepped up to handle the dugout during games and Brian will be out in the field whenever he isn't coaching soccer or at one of Carter's baseball games.  Today I had Grayson in the Bjorn as I ran the dugout.  Luckily he did fine!

Rylan did GREAT today.  The coaches decided to skip pitching to the kids and just let them hit off the tee (which is great - not many of them can regularly hit a pitch yet).  Rylan made it to first both innings.  He did awesome just running to the bag and not looking around for the ball to see if he was going to get out.

Rylan played first base the first inning and center outfield the second inning.  He did AMAZING at first base.  He got four outs!  However, the runners don't leave the bag when getting out in the 4/5 YO division.  Rylan was very confused by this and starting getting a little upset about it.  Luckily Brian noticed and explained to him what was up since no one else had.  I'm proud of him for accepting it and getting over it (stuff like that is still hard for him).  Rylan got one out when he fielded the ball and ran it to first and three outs when the pitcher fielded the ball and threw it to Rylan.  The second inning was a lot more boring for Rylan as nothing came anywhere near him.

Here are some videos I took of Rylan ...

Once again I think the Lil Sluggers program has paid off.  Rylan is one of the few kids that gets it.  He knows where to run after hitting the ball and when someone else hits, he knows how to field the ball, and he generally knows where to go with it.  We are so proud of our newest baseball player!!!