Great Day for Baseball, Let's Play FOUR!

THA Stix, front row L-R: Colin Waddington, Jackson Gore, Ty "Bone" Meissner, Landry Sheridan, Colton Oberthier. Middle row, L-R: Ty Wall, Coby Weaver, Curt Wells, Bryton Thomas and Justin Slaten. Back row, coaches: Monty Meissner, Chris Oberthier, David Weaver and Phillip Thomas.

Spent the entire day Sunday in Grand Prairie, Texas, watching baseball. A lot of it.

Coby's select baseball team, the THA Stix, returned to the diamond this weekend after not having really played much at all since spring break over a month ago. The rust showed on Saturday, as we lost both games in pool play on all of six hits -- for the day.

Coby did show out, though. He pulled out a new Demarini bat over the weekend and broke the stick in pretty good, with three of the team's six hits Saturday including one that left the yard. I, of course, was still 150 miles away working, but Aunt Nona and Uncle "Coach" Monty did a great job of keeping us informed as usual as well as letting Coby bunk with them Saturday night.

But losing both games in pool play of a national-qualifying tournament is not exactly how you want to start out in Sunday's single-elimination bracket. Out of nine teams this weekend we were seeded eighth because of Saturday's losses. That meant we had to play the No. 9 team, the Dallas Mustangs, bright and early on a cold, windy morning.

Coby ripped a double in his first at-bat, off the fence in right-center. He reached base every at-bat and the Stix won 9-1. That put us in the second round against the No. 1 seed, a team from Texarkana, the "Outlaws," who'd beaten us 8-6 Saturday.

Our team's name is "Stix" for a reason. When our kids are on we can absolutely punish a baseball. Getting them on is sometimes the hardest part, however, and that's when we struggle.

Starting at noon Sunday against the Outlaws, we were on.

We scored eight runs in the top of the first before making an out. By that time an Outlaws coach had been tossed and every ounce of available momentum was in our dugout. Whatever might have been left was gone when our big lefty took the mound in the bottom of the first.

That's Coby, by the way. I of course will forever be the most biased person in the world when it comes to him, but by all accounts he is as special as a 10-year-old can be on the mound. We have put the radar gun on him and he's pumped it up into the mid-60s, and whe we do call a changeup occasionally, he can drop that down to the low-40 range. In baseball terms, that's what you call "filthy."

I started taking Coby to a private pitching coach, Mark Bayliss, when Coby was seven years old. At that time he was starting to grow a little bit, and you could see signs that he was going to be a fairly good athlete overall. He was also left-handed athletically, although he does everything else with his right hand. Don't know what that means other than that's just the way he's always been.

Mark does a great job working with kids, especially pitchers. From day one he and Coby have worked tirelessly at getting better every session they have. No pressure, just get better every day and don't make the same mistake twice.

If there is a key moment in a game, or we are playing a top team in a tournament, Coby most likely will get the baseball. The Stix qualified for the Super Series World Series in Memphis last year and Coby was named All-Tournament, along with a handful of his teammates. Facing elimination against a team that had already beaten us earlier in the week, we scratched out a slim lead in the last inning and sent him to the mound. Tired, worn out and not wanting to go home yet, he buzzed nine fastballs by three overmatched hitters and we won the game to send us in to the Final Four. I will never forget that night. I am proud of him every day for the little things, but stuff like that night in Memphis a dad never, ever forgets.

The next day we tried to get another inning out of him. He gave us two outs and then I noticed a weird look on his face. His Uncle Monty is also very keenly aware of what to watch for when Coby is on the mound, and he didn't like the look either. Monty went out and talked with him and that was it -- Coby came off the field because his left arm just couldn't take any more that week. No injury, just plain worn out. His dad had tears in his eyes that day, too, because I could see the pain he was feeling. But I was also proud of him in another respect, because I saw in him that day what makes all great players of any age great -- the drive to compete.

Because of what I've seen over the last couple of years I do not question Coby's heart, competitiveness or toughness. He may have a bad outing, and that's okay, but I as his dad and coach will never question his will to compete and win. If he never throws another pitch again, I know that he's growing up and that's the most important thing.

Now, back to Sunday -- leading 8-0 in a game we really wanted to win for a lot of reasons, we gave the ball to our ace and let him take the mound. Minutes later we were back in the dugout, ready to hit again because Coby struck out the side on nothing but fastballs. I reminded him in the dugout before the inning started that his job was to go out there and shut the door, not give the other team life. He glared at me with those competitive eyes he gets on game day and nodded his head silently. No more words were necessary.

The Outlaws scratched a couple of runs in the middle innings but by then we were up 17-2. We pulled Coby after four innings and of the 12 outs he'd recorded, 10 were via strikeout. His pitch count was down, and we had a couple of more innings we could use him in the tournament, so we went ahead and got him out of there with the big lead.

That win put us in the semifinals, against the Texas Reds. Our bats were smoking again and we scored 10 in the first inning on the way to a 19-3 win. That put us in the championship game againt the Dallas Colts.

We scored four first-inning runs against a very solid, scrappy Colts team. But as bad as Saturday had been, Sunday was just our day. Curt Wells gave us four shutdown innings to start the game, and we had Coby to close out the final two. He had a blister come up on his finger in warmups and his location wasn't exactly what it needed to be, and the Colts put enough balls in play to get within 9-6. But when push came to shove, Coby shut the door and struck out the final hitter to give the Stix our first championship of the spring.

That qualifies us for the national tournament in Southhaven, Miss., in July. We had a blast last year at the one in Memphis and it'll be a nice family vacation.

Coby and I got back Sunday night around 11 or so, and he slept the final hour in the car. Completely worn out. Can't say I blame him, but the trophy always makes things a little easier.