Remember to bring your camera to each game to take action photos
Forward these pics. to cubspics@westsidecubs.net
New Images Available under Image area
2008 Game Schedule Now Available
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Remember to bring your camera to each game to take action photos Forward these pics. to cubspics@westsidecubs.net New Images Available under Image area 2008 Game Schedule Now Available
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Cubs Vs Tunnel Hill Red Sox
Cubs 4 Tunnel Hill 3
We accept no excuses from the boys for bad umpire calls when there are two strikes on a batter and we make this very clear to the boys. If a pitch is hittable with two strikes and can be called a strike, we want them swinging. We also do not want our Cubs to challenge the umpires or comment openly on bad calls. This is poor sportsmanship and is improper for youth to criticize an adult.
As one of the best teams in the County, the Cubs will see the best pitcher that each team has to offer in ever game we play. Plus every team will be gunning for us. This is why we are spending so much time in the batting cage this year. Our Cubs must realize this and keep a positive attitude about hitting. However, by the end of the year we should be in good shape. Tunnel Hill threw the two best pitchers they had and once again, we stranded runners in every inning except the 5th when Cody Edwards struck out the side. Logan Hilton led off the game with a walk and Drew Guffey doubled to score Logan and get an RBI. After a strike out for the first out of the inning, Trey Hasty walked and stole second. Drew Scored on a passed ball. Garrett Kelly grounded out to score Trey Hasty for our 3rd run of the inning. The inning ended on a strikeout. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 In the Red Sox first inning, Drew Guffey had found his old magic and probably pitched the best game I have ever seen him pitch. We finally realized that Drew had an issue with his release (last year I accused him of trying to throw a curve ball). Drew was releasing the ball with the thumb and forefinger parallel to one another which produces a sideways spin-like a curve ball. A fastball is released with the thumb underneath and rolls off the two fingers producing topspin. We discovered the issue in taking fast action photos during the Early Bird tournament. Once we identified his release issue, he added about 10 m.p.h. to his fastball and regained the pitch accuracy that he had in years prior. He probably used the same release last year, but the game simply caught up with him. This is why we stress correct fundamentals in everything we teach. In using improper technique, the game will eventually catch up with every skilled player and pass them by. Drew gave up a double to the second batter of the inning. Otherwise, he would have struck out the side. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 In the Cubs second inning, we led off the inning with a strike out, then Hunter Hewitt walked. The next batter struck out for the second out and then Dakota Ware walked for the second base runner. Tucker Burns ended the inning with a groundout. Tucker will probably move up in the batting order in our next game. While he did not hit safely in either at-bat; he hit the ball in both at-bats. As long as he is swinging and making contact he is a couple of steps ahead of those who are not swinging and not making contact. If he keeps swinging, base hits will come. As we see each week in the cage, all our players miss the first 8-10 pitches from the pitching machine. Once they get their timing down they begin to hit the ball. You cannot adjust your timing by watching pitches go by. You must swing the bat. Cubs 3 red Sox 0 The second inning for the Red Sox was three-up, three down. Drew got the first batter to pop out and then struck out the next 2. Drew struck out 10 in 4 innings. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 In the Cubs 3rd inning, we led off the inning with another strikeout and then a fly out. Drew Guffey and Jackson Bell then singled back-to-back. Drew advanced to third on a straight steal in which he caught their pitcher and catcher asleep and Jackson advanced to second on the next pitch. The inning ended with a fly out stranding both runners. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 In the Red Sox 3rd, Drew struck out the first two batters and then the third batter grounded to Jackson Bell at second base. Jackson made a great play and threw to Trey Hasty at first who squeezed the ball for the third out of the inning. Jackson is very comfortable at second base and this is where the bulk of the balls are hit against the Cubs. We are more relaxed when Jackson is at 2nd base because we've seen him make that play a hundred times in game situations. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 Paxton Bennett led off the 4th inning with another great bunt. Paxton went 2 for 3 in the game. However, he was stranded by three consecutive strike outs. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 While Drew struck out three and walked only one in the Red Sox 4th inning, his pitch count in the inning shot him up near 60 for the game and we felt he was begging to tire a bit. We may have been able to pitch him another inning, but this was his first game with the new release. He was to have pitched Friday night against Varnell, but his wrist was sore. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 In the Cubs 5th, the first three batters struck out and Cody threw only 10 pitches. This was his third inning and his limit is probably 4. Cubs 3 Red Sox 0 Trey Hasty went out to pitch the TH 5th. We have to get Trey more innings to get him ready for the tournament. Trey is always so nervous when he first goes out that it takes him a couple of batters to get his feet. Once he settles down, he does great. Trey walked the first two batters, settled down a bit and then struck out the next batter. The third batter doubled to drive in the two walks. Trey came back and struck out the next two batters to end the inning. This was the heart of their order, so Trey did a great job for us. We will continue to get him a few innings throughout the year to get him accustomed to pitching. Cubs 3 Red Sox 2 Our first two batters of the 6th inning grounded out and struck out. Logan singled to right center, but was then erased on fielders choice for the final out of the inning. Cubs 3 Red Sox 2 We sent Logan Hilton out to pitch the 6th inning. After striking out the first batter, our coaches went to sleep and we failed to instruct our outfielders to play deep. Michael Witten hit an opposite field flare to left field which got past our fielder for a home run and tied the game. The hit probably shook Logan up because he walked the next 2 batters, then logged his 2nd strikeout. The next batter was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With two outs and the bases loaded, the winning run was at third base. Logan came back to strike out the last batter on 4 pitches and end the inning. We went to extra innings. Cubs 3 Red Sox 3 Jackson led off the extra baseball inning with a walk then Trey singled. Paxton singled to drive in the RBI and got the game winning hit. Our next three batters popped out and struck out (2) to end the inning Cubs 4 Red Sox 3 Logan came back in the 7th inning and made quick work of the top of their order striking out the side on 14 pitches. The game was a real white knuckler at the end, but we were proud of how the boys came back to win in their last at-bat. We continue to see areas of improvement in every game. Since our pitching has been so good, we are worried that our players may not be able to handle balls hit to them. 95% of our outs this year have come on strikeouts. We will continue to see the best pitchers in the county, so our boys will have to learn to hit. We will continue to stress the importance of going to the plate swinging the bat-We don't learn anything from walks. While we probably could have scored more runs this year by waiting for the pitchers to throw us more strikes and trying to coax walks, we really don't accomplish anything this way. I would prefer seeing the boys swinging at pitches out of the strike zone than not swinging the bat at all. We want them to be selective and learn the strike zone. We just want them swinging at balls that are hittable and changing their strategy from trying to get a walk (or not striking out) to getting a hit. Almost every run the Cubs have surrendered this year has been the result of a walk. Our pitchers are improving, yet the other teams are not learning to hit. I would prefer our boys learn how to hit. Our pitching will take care of the rest. Pub Sheet
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Westside Youth Athletic Association Website Helton Genealogical DNA Project - Hilton Family Tree - http://hiltonfamilytree.com
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Our Cubs finished the game with 15 strikeouts.
Many of these were called third strikes. The strikeouts don't concern the
coaches-the called third strikes do. Our coaches must do a better job
of communicating to the boys that hitting strategy changes when a batter has two
strikes. The boys must learn that with two strikes they must shorten their swing
to try and make contact with the ball. They can't give a full swing with
all their power with two strikes. The best hitters are able to foul off pitches
until they get a pitch that is good enough to hit. By now every player
should be able to make some kind of contact with any pitch near the strike zone. 
As long as the boys perform as we teach, there should be no reason for a called
third strike and no reason to put the umpires in this situation. Our Cubs will
not get consolation from our coaches on a called third strike. Especially
if they openly argue that it was not a strike. We believe the player had
two other chances (two strikes) to hit the ball and a strike-out on a called
third strike is the boys responsibility-not the umpires, parents or coaches.
This may sound harsh, but we are beginning to play real baseball now.
