Panama City Beach- Day 7
It's Not How You Start but How You Finish
Friday, June 10, 2022
Morning
Game 6 vs Scorpions Black 10U
For our bracket game on this day, we had a bright and early game time of 8AM. This game turned out to be against the #2 seed in the tournament, the Scorpions Black 10U team from about 5 miles from our practice facility. This is a rival organization we had played frequently, but we had never played this exact team. We expected to not win this game, as this organization is known for being very good and their pool record was great. However, Luke's team came to play and we ended up winning this game and were headed to the CHAMPIONSHIP game immediately following this first one.
In the end... this is ALL that matters. It doesn't really matter if he got mound time, played infield or sat the bench the entire time. In the end, we will all meet Jesus face to face and all bow down before Him. I am so glad we are raising our children in HIS ways!
Field 9B where we played our 1st game had a huge POND with alligators in it! They would go swimming after foul balls thinking they were food.
Luke spending some time at 3rd base.
Luke played 3rd base for most of this game, although he did play 1 inning behind home plate as the catcher. He was still batting 10th out of 11 and was able to get on base with a walk, a catcher's interference and then a very hard hit ball pop-up his 3rd at bat. Unfortunately, he still did not get any mound time.
Game 7 vs Diamond A's
As soon as this game was over, we went to the main 10U field for the Championship game against the Diamond A's, the very first team we played in the tournament. This was a really neat experience as the tournament treated this game like a REAL MLB game and played the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the game and called out all of the players at the beginning. Despite all of the emotions, tears and frustrations... this was a very special moment to this mama! A moment I may never get to experience again...
This was really cool!
Luke was feeling very overheated at this point and did not eat the hotdog offered to the team and wasn't even able to keep Gatorade or water down. He started the game in right field but had to sit out the next 2 innings since he was not feeling well and dizzy and feeling heat exhaustion. By the 4th inning, he came in and played at 3rd base, where he would end his season. He was still batting 10th out of 11 and had a ground out in this game. Overall Luke had a .375 average for this tournament and only TWO strikeouts. That was one of the better statistics on the team and more importantly his attitude and effort were far and away impressive.
Luke playing his last inning at 3rd base.
This team was VERY GOOD and we lost 15-0.
After the game, there was a trophy and ring presentation and Ripken Baseball did a phenomenal job with this and the entire tournament overall! I would HIGHLY recommend any Ripken tournament event.
Congratulations Luke!
Ripken Experience World Series, PCB
Marucci 9U Codrington
I am so very proud of Luke
Luke the Duke
Proud family!
This boy was so happy... and that is all that matters!
Way to go Luke the Duke
This girl right here... WHAT AN AWESOME BIG SISTER!
She was his biggest cheerleader the whole week and NEVER complained!
I am so proud of you Luke!
Afternoon
Once the tournament was complete, we grabbed lunch at Jimmy Johns and then went back to the condo to spend literally as much time at the beach as possible. We stayed at the beach from 1:30 to 6:30PM before our beach chairs and umbrella were taken from us. The kids LOVED being able to bounce back from the beach to the condo pool. This was a perfect afternoon of rest, relaxation and family time!
A view looking WEST from our condo balcony!
Finally, true rest and relaxation!
Picture Perfect!
Even the kids LOVED these chairs and umbrella on the beach!
We just got done with baseball... and here he is working hard again!
Evening
Since our previous seafood restaurant outing was so bad (see that post ), I wanted to go to a local seafood place for dinner. I found a few closer to our West end of PCB but each of them had an hour to 90 minute wait just to get a table. Even though I was REALLY frustrated with not being able to have seafood on our last night in PCB, we found an AMAZING pizza place called Bubba's Pizza. This was some of the best pizza I have had outside of NYC and Chicago! The prices were extremely HIGH but so worth it!
Dinner time!
After dinner we stopped at Publix to get water, gas and snacks for our 9-10 hour trip home and then went back to the condo to finish packing and do a quick load of laundry. We ended the night watching The Office in the condo and went to bed early. We planned to get up and get on the road BEFORE 5AM.
This was a day filled with excitement as Luke brought home a ring and a medal for his team's effort in this tournament.
God is good... ALL THE TIME!
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