Practice #7: Gavin goes yard

The Mudcats were happy to be back on the well-manicured grounds of West Raleigh on Tuesday evening. In fact, they were so happy that they proceeded to fire the ball all over the infield during a throwing competition around the horn. Unfortunately, Coach Sean had decreed every missed throw meant three push-ups for everyone, which included the coaches. I think I blacked out somewhere around 27 push-ups, so I'm not exactly sure how many we did, but I believe the final total was 33. Coach Mike (pictured in background) was kind enough to provide supervision during the push-up portion of practice.

After taking a moment to admire their guns, the Mudcats broke into two groups. The infield worked on grounders, while the outfield was broken into two groups--one with Coach Mike firing baseballs, and one with Coach Adam and Coach Matt smacking lobs (luckily, one of the Mudcat staff photographers snapped this action shot) with the tennis racket. Charley made several nice grabs in the outfield, as did Gavin and Christopher.

The Mudcats then spent a significant portion of practice working on game situations. The coaches continue to emphasize the importance of thinking about where you will go with the ball when it comes to you. The key--those thoughts must happen before the ball is pitched, not once the ball is in your glove. Channing, Ben, Donovan and Will were much improved in backing up plays all over the field, and Will and Channing also took a moment to practice their body checks into the boards just in case any teams want to mix it up.

The highlight of the situation portion of practice came when mighty Gavin strode to the plate with the bases loaded. With the wind howling in from right field, he/Coach Sean hit a titanic blast the opposite way and nearly on to the other field.

Practice finished with some baserunning and hitting stations. The Mudcats have a two-day break before hitting the field again on Friday at 5. That gives everyone 48 hours to round up their raffle money before DeeDee sends out the leg breakers.