Summer Competitions Come to an End

It is always unbelievable how fast the summer goes.  It feels like we just started, and then all of a sudden it's done.  We made it through another summer of softball and basketball competition.  I'm pretty sure we put another 15,000 miles on our car and had to get new tires, as well.  We sure have fun, though.  Four weekends in a row during July of traveling and competition...  SE Missouri (4th of July), St. Louis, Kansas City, and then just Columbia for basketball.  I guess at least everything was within a couple of hours from home.

Gracie catching during the Wentzville tournament

More catching

Queen of the 'Ville tournament was just a couple days after returning from our short vacation to SE Missouri.  Our game that was scheduled for Friday evening was actually forfeited because the other team didn't have enough players, so we didn't have to make that drive.  Deb decided to come down to visit that day instead of meeting us over in St. Louis for softball games.  We had two games on Saturday and then bracket play on Sunday.  We were seeded #1 in our pool, but didn't play all that well on Sunday during bracket play...won the first game but lost pretty badly in the 2nd game, which ended the day.  Gracie had a great day on Saturday at the plate 5-6, but then didn't have a hit on Sunday, and we had a few errors that made a huge difference.  Always frustrating, but sometimes that's just how it goes.  

Moving on...  Gracie has been meeting with a former Mizzou softball coach in Jeff City for hitting since the beginning of June and since then has been hitting so well.  Something has clicked and her BA has gone up over .100 since June for the season.  The place where they meet is right next to a Mexican restaurant, so Owen and I took advantage one of the Tuesday evenings...  Nick and Gracie joined us later for dinner.

Margaritas and Queso!!

Fast forward a few days...last softball tournament of the season in KC.

Heartland World Series started on Thursday, July 13 and we had the 6pm game, then two morning games the day after.  Nick, Gracie, and I stayed in KC while Owen was at another overnight wrestling camp in Ashland.  We drove home Friday to stay at home before bracket play started on Saturday.  Again, we were seeded #1 in our pool going into brackets.  We ended up playing 3 games on Saturday, losing one of them to put us on the bottom side of the bracket, but still looking good going into Sunday's games.  We were on our way to come back to the championship, but the day was cut short due to rain.  It stormed for quite awhile, and the only games that were finished were the championship game in the winner's bracket.  So, the double elimination turned into single elimination and we were done.  It was kind of a disappointing way to end to the season, and I know the girls wanted to play and finish out the day.  The team that eventually won the tournament was a team that we had beat in pool play on Thursday evening.

Gracie playing third

She tends to get dirty

Low 5 from the 3rd base coach after her first homerun of the weekend.

We drove home on Friday after games and had a little rain and a beautiful rainbow.

Owen came back with us on Saturday to watch and kept himself busy.

Owen and Robert climbing trees.

Brook and Gracie passing time waiting for their game to start.

Drawing in the mud

More pre-game preparation

Either SS or 3B, can't remember which game this was.

Another HR by Gracie, I think this was the last at-bat she had before the rest of the games were canceled due to rain.  She is smiling :)

Teammates waiting for her at HOME.

Gracie with her teammates

Team picture on the 2nd day of pool play

Team pic taken the previous weekend

This team has been so fun to watch this summer.  They finished with a record of 27-16-4, playing some really good teams.  I think Gracie has really enjoyed these girls and there is so much talent here!  It will be tough playing against some of them this fall during the school season.  Most of them will move up to 18U next year, but Gracie will stay at 16U for at least one more year; she could do two more years, but we'll see what happens.

A pretty good showing during the last tournament

6 HRs in 8 games

Like I mentioned, something has clicked and Gracie has been on a roll during June and July, minus the Sunday that she went hitless.  The last tournament was unbelievable.  I think she hit .579 and had 6 homeruns in the 8 games they played.  The previous weekend she still hit over .400 even with one crappy day at the plate.  She has been working pretty hard and I'm proud of what she has done this summer.  She has definitely improved in the past year and she has big goals for her high school season this fall, which starts in less than two weeks... crazy.  She has played a lot of infield this summer and has shared time behind the plate with the other two catchers on the team.  It has turned into a really great rotation with all the talented players that are on the team.  We will miss this!

Following that tournament we had one more SCB league game before completely closing out the summer season.  The league games don't really count for anything, but are really great for introducing the new freshman to high school sports and getting the team together in the off-season.  Gracie caught both "games" that Wednesday evening because we had no other catchers available.  She also hit another homerun.  Should've been two homeruns, but one of the balls that was pitched was mush and sounded dead, so it was just a flyout to center field.  We knew it right off the bat that the ball was not good.  This season should be fun to watch, though.  There is a lot of talent on this Southern Boone team and we should have a few pretty good pitchers.  

Basketball preparation?

She found something online that was supposed to give her loose curls in her hair if she wrapped it up in leggings overnight.  So weird, and I never saw the result because she said it looked awful and instead, put her hair in a braid for the game on day 2.  Always trying new things.

Right before game #1

Show-me State Games High School division

Pause for a moment.

Playing defense

Last game preparation...well it ended up being the last game.

legs together and point your toes, Gracie.  😝

We lost in the semis to a pretty good team who we had played before in a different tournament back in May, I think; the one in California.  It was a really close game and we were within one point with less than 2 minutes left; just couldn't execute and score again.  We went 3-2 on the weekend and I read somewhere that we placed 3rd, but there was not a 3rd place game, so I don't know how that could be.  The team that beat us was defeated in the championship game by about 20 points, so... pretty good competition from the few teams that were there.

Last team huddle of the season

Girls with their medals...another fun group!

Gracie only made it to three of their six tournaments this summer, but she had a lot of fun and went to all of their practices except a couple when she was traveling to compete for softball.  She has played basketball every opportunity that she has been available for and has had the goal to reach the 10,000 shot club for SBC basketball by the end of this month.  She has a lot to do in the next few days, but is so close.  Kind of impressive, considering how much we have not been home.

This is me socializing - proof

We went down to Hartsburg to watch Nick's boss and his daughter play at one of the local establishments.  It was outdoor, so luckily the heat and humidity had not yet set in again.  It ended up being a pretty fun evening and I'm glad Nick drug me out of the house to do something.

Gracie found friends there, too.

Owen was kind of on his own, though.  No little brothers in this crowd.

 Speaking of Owen... this post makes him seem like a neglected child again.  He has been with us for most of the events here; he only stayed back for the wrestling camp and we did not make him get up for Gracie's early Saturday morning basketball game.  Most of the time he is willing to do the "Gracie" things because there is usually some benefit for him.  I love having him with us whenever he wants to ride along!  This fall, I will be at every football game to watch him play!

Next up is the McNary family reunion in Muscatine, IA and then church camps for the kids.  Gracie will spend a week with DuRochers helping at Spring Valley Bible Camp, followed by Owen going to Windy Gap, NC to Camp Awesome!  Nick and attended the parent informational meeting for that a couple weeks ago.  He will be gone from August 5-10 and he is pretty excited about it.  There are a couple other kids from Ashland going that he knows, but I am sure he will meet many more kids.

Immediately after Gracie gets back from Iowa we will have the fall activities meetings and the start of practices for softball.  High school has three weeks of practices prior to school starting, beginning on August 7, and middle school starts the week after that.  Mizzou will start to get busy again in the next few weeks, too.  I'm looking forward to seeing students here again!