We faced Torrance HS in a non-league match up. My son came in to relieve, already down. He was looking pretty good having K'd a few and kept most from hitting anything hard; he fanned Gumbs with a high fastball that I knew he was going to throw. One batter knew he was k'd and started for the dugout before the Blue made the call.

He kept most from hitting anything cleanly until he faced Gumbs again (Gumbs had jacked one off the starting pitcher). He started Gumbs with a cutter that he meant to throw more inside which tailed down and away and then struck the barrel of Gumbs' bat cleanly and firmly and in my son's words "was the longest homerun he's seen." My son said in retrospect he would have thrown the same pitch but more inside.

If your going to pitch, at some time, some one is going to hit a jack off you. Sometimes it will be on a bad pitch and sometimes on a good one. I belive it is most important to keep your composure, let it go, and make the next pitch. (easy for me to say sitting in the stands!)

We played Torrance and from what I remember of them they were on the smaller side, not a lot of power but LOTS of speed.

"hit happens"

He was happy with his performance, unhappy with his mistake and can laugh at himself. He has a tough skin. He generally gets a lot of ground balls and pop-ups from those he doesn't K. There are times he doesn't get defensive support and he knows to keep it to himself. I think he is averaging about 2 K's per inning.

I don't think he walked anyone in this last game. There were 2 outs when he served up Gumbs. Gumbs' hit was definitely not a "pop-up". The next batter was retired to end the game.

MTS: I'm sure you know Gumbs is a great player, so hitting an HR off your guy, your guy should not be upset (and from what you write, looks like your guy is handling it the right way). Torrance, while not in our league, is in our area, and we play them regularly in non-league games. My son has played scout and travel with many of their players, and we are close with several of their families, so we know the team and the players pretty well. They produce high level teams annually, and this year is no exception for them. Bottom line, sounds like your son did a great job against a strong team and you should be proud.

We knew someone was going to hit one sometime. At least my son K'd him 1st, LOL.