February 28

Today, Brady and the Freshman Dons played their first official high school games in the form of a doubleheader against Castro Valley.

It was a warm, sunny day that gave me my first winter sunburn in years, but by the time the post-game field maintenance was completed, the Dons had notched their first two wins; the first by a final score of 16-4, and the second, by a much less comfortable 5-4.

Brady definitely made contributions. As the DH in game one, he went 2 for 3 with a walk. (One of his hits was a bomb that rolled to the fence in left center, and the walk came on the 10th pitch of his first at-bat, so he made good use of his opportunities.) He also drove in two runs and scored twice. In game two, he spent a few innings in right field and then threw two scoreless innings, issuing one walk and no hits on 30 pitches. He also struck out two. It still seems like his velocity is down, but he was crafty enough with his pitch selection to make it work.

It was fun to be out there again watching one of my boys play ball. And it's an extra special blessing because this particular team has a really good feel to it: as Isaac noted, the boys all seem to get along well and there's no overt negativity gumming up the works. They all cheer for each other and there are congratulatory fist-bumps all around. My hope and prayer is that all of the positivity will continue, and that this fresh new season will be a great experience for these boys and families.