"Shocker Baseball is on the air"

The best time of the year is here, Shockers baseball. The boys of summer are back and better than ever. We started this year off on the same pace as last year, but a bit better. The 3rd annual Jim and Nicks Classic Tournament is the preseason tournament for the BMBL (Birmingham Metro Baseball League) . Just like last year we made it to the championship game. Day one (Saturday) , we had a bye for game 1 so we played the winner of the Mudcats/ Juggernauts game. Both pitchers we strong and we went into extra innings ( we only play 4 innings in the opening tournament) it was 0-0 going into the bottom of the 5th, lead off hitter , Nate Collins was able to get on first. Next pitch was a passed ball and he made it to 2nd base , two pitches later Nate went to steal 3rd base and the catcher over threw the 3rd baseman allowing Nate to score and give the Shockers a 1-0 win over the Juggernaughts and the first win of the ’08 season. Later that after noon we faced the Dodgers in a tough extra inning loss 3-2, the winner of this game went on to the championship game, while the looser played one more game to make it to the championship. So on to Sunday day two. At 1:00 we faced the Bama Bash for the spot in the championship game. We came out on fire scoring early and playing solid defense behind great pitching. Shockers win 4-0 and a chance to be tourney champs. But unfortunately, we did not have the pitching to go 7 innings for the championship game .We ended up losing 12-5, but it was much better than last year when we made it to the championship game and faced a Montgomery team that had all former pro baseball players, and took a 23-2 stomping. So over all I was pleased, we have a great bunch of guys and I am excited about this year. To top my Sunday off, after the game I was asked to speak at Trevar’s graduation dinner. It was a blast, any time I get to get up in front of a crowd and get to act crazy with Trevar is always great. It is hard to believe that Thursday he will have graduated and on his way to collage…….Man I am getting old!