Brase Sports Update 4/25 - 4/27

Hello Everyone,

Very busy weekend ! Let's go !
Saturday: Nick had baseball Saturday afternoon. Raptors vs. The Red Wings. The Red Wings have to be the top team out there. But, they came out super flat. The Raptors came out swinging ! The Raptors put 5 runs up in the first. Red Wings had 3 strikeouts in the first. But, then all of a sudden it's like the teams flipped flopped and the Raptors became super sloppy ! It became a rather slow moving and boring game unfortunately. Nick continued to do his thing at the plate. Hitting the ball hard ! All three shots to the outfield. It was a little difficult to watch the game because Nick had 6 "fans" in the crowd, 4 who proceeded to talk about everything except the game, and you know who you are !! For that reason, I have added Monday's game to the blog.
Sunday: Kylie had a local friendly. Finally ! First game was against SD Strokes. Pretty good team. They have 2 very tough "ladies" running their team. Kylie pitched. She was a little off in the first inning. Giving up 1 run after walking the batter. "Walks always score". But, she really settled in. Rise ball was really working and her curve looked good as well. Mystic played pretty good. A couple of BIG errors in the OF allowed 2 more runs in. Kylie did have 2 at bats and went o for. But, she's working on it. Anyway, Kylie held them down and Mystic won 6-3. Good job girl !!
Next up was PowerSurge '97. This is a young team with some talent. Their pitcher was very good. Very nice form but threw kind of slow. Good junk. Mystic started their 5th string pitcher. She did ok for the first innings. But, they did start to hit off of her. Kylie started at 2B. She did very well in the field. Mystic needs a leader on the field and she fits that role well. Nothing got by her. At one point with a runner on first, the ball was hit to SS who threw to 2B for the force, and then Kylie shot that ball to 1st. She had the runner by a foot, but the blue said safe. Place went crazy ! Kylie has quite a cannon ! Kylie had 2 AB's , but grounded out twice. Anyway, Mystic goes down 3-1 to PowerSurge '97.
Next was Lights Out. I remember this team from Legacy. Very good team. When I watched their pitcher warm up, I realized she was new. This kid was awesome ! He was about 5' 9" and she threw 55+ mph. With junk ! Very impressive. Mystic pitched their #2. Kylie played 2b again. This was actually a very good game. It was scoreless going into 4th inning. Then Lights Out started really hitting. A few hits with a couple of Mystic mis-plays equals another loss. 3-0 Lights Out over Mystic. Man, that pitcher good ! Top 3 that I have seen. It was a little disappointing to see Mystic so flat this weekend, but they have a couple of real good coaches who pull them back up. Kylie had a good weekend in the field , but had a rough one at the plate. But, she'll be fine. Keep working kid !
Monday: Ok, as promised, back to Baseball. Raptors vs. The Threshers. Ok, this is the team with the most annoying coach of ALL TIME !! This is the same coach I wrote about last time. The same coach that hold the kids' bats when they hit and says "swing" ! Anyway, Nick had a big game ! It was pretty even for a while. Nick's first at bat was a battle. Each kid gets 5 pitches from the machine. Nick whiffed the first 4 and then fouled off the next 2. Still alive. Then as Dad was getting super nervous thinking his boy was going down ........Nick crushed a deep fly ball to center. OH YEAH !! I think I might have done a fist pump, not sure, I was pretty excited ! Next inning, Nick is playing in Right Center. The ball is hit hard out to him. He fields and throws all the way to first and gets the kid out !! A great laser throw and a great catch by James at first !! I think at that point Kelly jumped up and pointed at the coach and yelled "In your Face" !! Just kidding !! Just kidding. Nick's next at bat was a first pitch, long fly ball crush to RF. Nice ! I believe Nick went to 1B on defense. He did real well again. He came up one more time with the bases loaded. Whiffed on the first 4 pitches again. I am again, preparing myself for the possibility of a strikeout. It's a good thing that he has Kelly for his Mom, because I am a worrier and can expect the worst a lot. Kelly always believes he will do it. Never a doubt in her mind. She rocks ! Anyway, Nick fouls off 2 more pitches. Then he connects for a hard shot to left field !! He is a beast !! Good job Son !! Nick also got another game ball ! That game was actually a lot of fun !! Well, that's it for the weekend and Monday. Enjoy and see you next time !

Sports Update 4/18 - 4/19

Hello Everyone,

Saturday Baseball: Well, it was nice to see Nick get back on the ball field ! 2 weeks off is a long time ! We showed up at the super dusty dirt fields to find out we only had 6 players. To me, that is a coaches worst nightmare. But, at this age, it's not too bad. So anyway, the Raptors were playing the Threshers. Now, the Threshers have a coach that drives me crazy !! He adds at least 15 minutes to every game. He obviously does not have practices, because he thinks he needs to explain every detail to his players during the game. Any coach that holds the batters bat while he's hitting and then tells him "Go" to swing the bat has no business being around the ball field. Was it bad that I was hoping to see him get nailed in the nuts ? Ok, I'll stop.

Nick was able to get up to bat 4 times because of the player shortage. My concern of the bigger bat he just got ended up being a non-concern. That boy was crushing the ball !! All 4 at bats ended up being big shots to the outfield. He is really fun to watch ! He was very hesitant in the field for the first couple of innings, but the last innings he made all 3 outs by himself ! Again running off the field with his fist in the air in victory ! So funny !

Sunday Softball: Kylie had a friendly in Hemet this weekend. It was HOT ! Started at 80 degrees and ended at 100 degrees !

First game was against So Cal Magic. This was an ugly, ugly game !! Magic was very outmatched. Kylie played RF and showed why she plays out there. She is like another infielder. She displayed a "cannon" of an arm and also hit very well. Another Brase kid with a new bat ! The final Mystic 17 -Magic 0.

Next game was the "tough" game of the day. We played Ozone Gold. Pretty good team. Kylie started at pitcher. They had some big hitters. Kylie was a little shaky in the first. Gave up a run in the 1st and second inning. Mystic pounded the ball again ! Man, this team can hit ! The score was 2-2 after 2 innings. Then, Kylie totally settled down and shut down Ozone. Mystic also continued to crush the ball. Kylie also hit well again too ! The final Mystic 11 - Ozone Gold 2.

Last game of the day was against So Cal Extreme. Again, Mystic came out pounding the ball. Defense was very tight. Kylie played 2B. I don't think 1 ball was hit to her. Kylie continued to hit well ! Not much to say about this game, Mystic crushed Extreme 11-1.

This was a very good weekend for Mystic. The coaching change has been wonderful ! At least we'll have these coaches for State. See you next week !

Sports Update 3/31, 4/2, 4/4 - 4/5

Hello Everyone,

A busy week of sports for the Brase family. Nick had 2 games this past week. Tuesday, it was the Raptors vs. Thresher Sharks. It was a good game. Nick continued to rip the ball !! But, his shining moments were in the field. He has a good head for the game. At one point there was a runner on first and the ball was hit to Nick, he started to throw to first and then realized he should tag the runner. This kid lays out to tag the runner, but barely misses him ! Next hitter comes up and grounds to Nick who runs and tags second and leaps in the air to try and throw to first for the double play ! Almost ! Next hitter grounds out to Nick again. Then the final out went to Nick again ! He was pretty pumped up !!

Thursday was Nicks next game. Raptors vs. Diamondbacks. Another great game ! Nick had a couple of "wimpy" hits to start before crushing the ball to the fence in right-center ! He played well in the field again ! This was the game that I noticed that the other team had a scorekeeper ! A little hardcore for me ! I did go out and ask the coach why. He said just to keep track of the run limit per inning. Uh, yeah right. Anyway, that's it for Nick's week. On a side note, I noticed Nick's bat was super dented. I thought he was hitting the fence or something. But I then realized that the bat was a tee ball bat and the metal was probably softer that a Little League bat. So, I ended up getting him a new Little League Easton ! The dented bat could very possibly become a thing of legend in later years !!

Ok, now on to Kylie's softball. We traveled out to Palm Springs for another Triple Crown Tournament. This facility was beautiful !! They 3 fields modeled after Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, and Yankee Stadium. Very cool.

Mystic started off against OC Crush. Kylie pitched in this one. She did struggle. It was a very close game with several lead changes. Very exciting. Unfortunately, Mystic's errors cost them and coaching was a problem. Mystic goes down in the opener.

Next game was Mystic vs. OC Frenzy. Frenzy was a small young team. But they could hit ! Again, a couple of lead changes. Came down to the last inning. A ball was hit out to RF and Mystics Right Fielder had the ball come out of her mitt. With a runner on 3rd, that was enough to seal the victory for Frenzy. Now, of course, the fact that we had a Mom literally screaming and crying that her kid was moved from CF to RF didn't help. She was moved 40 ft from where she had played the game before and she was still batting 1st. Get a clue lady.

The last game on Saturday was at 8pm and against Cerritos Franchise. A very good ranked team. It was pretty ugly. Mystic played like they didn't want to be there. Kylie did pitch late in the game and did ok. But, the errors again, killed Mystic. Mystic goes down again. We were 0 - 3 for the day and still got 2nd seed. Ugly.

Well, we headed to the fields Sunday for bracket play, single elimination.

First game was against IV Stealth. Good team. It was a battle. Stealth took the lead early. But, Mystic held on and had the heart to fight back ! Man, it was a nail biter. Kylie played outfield and played great. Mystic played hard and pulled out the win ! Finally ! On to the next round !

Next up was CTS. A very very good team stacked with monster players. I consider myself a "pitching" guy and love to see good pitchers. Well, CTS had the best pitcher I have yet to see ! This "kid" was 6 foot tall !! She threw very hard and had great junk !! She had come down from 14U with half her team to play in this 12U tournament. She was playing up with these other awesome players. Well, the Mystic coach decided to not pitch Kylie. He went with the other pitcher who got shelled. He put Kylie in to pitch with 2 outs down by 7 in the 1st. She immediately got the final out. Very nice. Mystic tried hard to fight back. CTS put another pitcher in to save their Ace. We immediately put 2 runners on and then CTS pulled her and put the beast back in. We ended up hitting and scoring 2 ! The crazy thing is Kylie shut down CTS for the next 3 innings ! We ran out of time and lost 7 - 2. There was a lot of second guessing after that one. It actually wasn't from me either ! Kylie pitched fantastic ! Her performance salvaged the weekend for me ! That very CTS team went to the championship game too. I guess another really cool thing was that Ky's old team was eliminated before us. They actually watched Kylie pitch against CTS. That was cool ! We had quite a few parents from Legacy come and say how happy they were for Kylie. She had a few hugs and hi fives !! Very cool !! Well, that's it for now.