Baseball 2024

Matty recently completed his first baseball season with his new team: Elevate NW Jackson 13U. The team had a fantastic season and finished 47-7... with two of those seven loses in their last tournament.

It was certainly different this year with Coach Dad sitting in the bleachers with me... until he wasn't! One of the head coaches of Matty's team missed several games (his son had a season-ending injury in the spring), so Tommy found himself in the dugout during most games at the end of the season. 

We have really enjoyed getting to know the other families on the team - everyone is very friendly and welcoming. The only downside to the team is that every family lives on the other side of Lake Washington from us, which makes it an added challenge when Matty wants to hang out with his baseball buddies. 

 Matty is returning to the team next year. I hope that Coach Dad will write a blog post sometime soon to better describe Matty's accomplishments over the season, but until then, I've tried to capture the outcome of the season's tournaments below.

TC AZ Spring Championship Week #4, Scottsdale, AZ - March 15-17: Runner-Up, forfeited the last inning of the championship game so families could catch their flights home.

March Madness (Perfect Game), Everett, WA - March 23-24: Champions!

GSL April Bash, Tacoma, WA - April 27-28: 4th Place in the 14U bracket out of 15 teams

BCS Spring Championships (Perfect Game), Everett, WA - May 18: The Sunday games were rained out, so this tournament never finished, but Elevate was the #1 seed going into Sunday.

Art Wright Memorial Day Tournament, Seattle, WA - May 25-27: Champions! Matty missed this tournament due to Osgood Schlatter's disease in his right knee - he had to rest for two weeks as a result.

WCP PDX Father's Day Tournament, Portland, O R - June 15-16: Champions!

Seattle Elite League - The league played games from March to July, and then the tourney went from July 9-15: Champions! There were a couple of nail-biting wins during this tourney, which made the win that much sweeter. The boys lost their first game in the double-elimination tourney and then had to win six games in a row to take the title.

NW Club Championships, Portland, OR - July 19-21: Made the top six but lost early.

At the end of the season, Coach Dad pulled the Liberty Select team back together for an alumni tourney. It was fun to see how almost all of the boys from the 8U-12U Liberty team still play baseball. They did not win the tournament (mostly because they won the first two games on Saturday handily and then partied too hard at our house on Saturday night), but it was really special to see the team back together again.

And now... Matty is returning to Cooperstown again on a victory tour. He was invited to play with the Walla Walla Sweets team. The cutoff to play in Cooperstown is May 1st - you have to be 12-years old as of 5/1/2024 - and Matty made the cut by four days! Tommy is excited to experience Cooperstown as a parent instead of a coach. Taylor, Brayden and I decided that one tour is enough for us. 

Arizona tourney - look at the size difference in my boys!

Dad squad

Brayden's new buddy Parker - his dad is Coach Stosh

Mimi and Baba made it to one of Matty's games in Arizona - I fear this is the last game my dad will see. He was so cute - at one point Matty hit a double and he got so excited. His aphasia is bad, but he said, "There's our boy!"

Baba wandered around the field to watch Matty from the 1st base line.

I snagged this picture of Tommy watching the team warm up from the bleachers. I know he misses being on the field.

Matty with his cheerleaders

Matty got up at 6:00 most mornings to hit in the garage before school. What dedication!

Blaine, Matty, Lucas and Kyler - Back together!

Had to take a screen shot of GameChanger when Matty and "Sonic" Beppu were playing together - likely the last time!