Monday....Monday

Really? Monday...Monday, is about the best I could come up with.  Nothing going on this Monday that sticks out and makes me want to shout "It's Monday!!!".

Sam did 11 baseball games from Thursday through Yesterday at the Minster Tournament, I did 6 between Minster and the State ACME Tournament in Celina....but not without a rain maker moving through causing a delay in the final game Saturday at Celina.  Garry and I finished that one up yesterday morning.

After working with Sam at the Pony Tournament games in Minster on Thursday and Friday, it was my turn to do games 3 and 4 of the ACME(Summer High School Varsity Baseball) State Championships:

http://www.acmebaseballcongress.org/STATETOURNAMENT2010.pdf

With GM behind the plate we had a quick moving game in the heat and wind of the afternoon....1-0 Perrysburg with the lead over Lima Shawnee heading into the bottom of the 7th.  The Jackets could have led by more, but a few scoring opportunities were left in the wind, and Shawnee then tied the game in the bottom of the 7th....an inning they, despite scoring the tying run, had two runners tossed out at the plate, costing the Indians a shot at winning.  Perrysburg pushed across 3 runs in the top of the 10th to secure a 4-1 win.  Thus the game that looked to be 90 minutes long, ending up being a 2 and 1/2 hour contest.

That extra length allowed a heavy rain making cold front to settle just north of Celina...lightning came as I went behind the plate...so I called time, and we delayed 45 minutes.  3 more starts and stops for either lighting or heavy rains, put us at 10:30pm and we killed the game in the bottom of the 1st with Napoleon leading Piqua 1-0.  The postponement caused me to cancel my game at Minster in the morning, working with Sam...but they found a replacement, and Garry and I were back at the artifical turf at Eastview Park for a 10am resuming of the Piqua-Napoleon contest.

Despite another rain delay in the bottom of the 7th, we finally finished up at about Noon, with Napoleon holding on to a 7-5 victory, and moving on to the winner's bracket.  4 more games were played, with both Celina and Shawnee pulling out wins in the loser's brackets, and staying alive.  Bellfontaine and Piqua were eliminated.   With six teams left, two undefeated, the tournament resumes Tuesday, and will finish up Friday.

As for me and Sam, we will help out again this coming weekend with the Dale Harter Memorial Tournament in Celina, and then put away the umpire gear, and get ready for football officiating season to begin.

Celina Lake Festival wraps up_____

Despite all the bad press from the Algae Bloom that has all but put Grand Lake off limits to swimmers, fisherman, and boaters, the Lake Festival went on....The Fireworks got in on Friday Night, and the Grand Parade beat the storms into Celina on Saturday.....it was hot, and I've gotta be honest, with baseball taking up most of my weekend, I didn't make it uptown to partake in any of the activities.

Hal was home for part of the weekend, and went to see what was happening...he said the crowds were down, probably due to the excessive heat index of 104-f....the Antique Car Show was smaller as well.  Guess I'll wait for the Daily Standard to come out this afternoon to get the real scoop and what actually happened.

Sunday wrapped things up, and after some light rain in the morning, the skies cleared and the humidity went down....that won't last however, as the rain(we could still use some), heat, and humidity, are due back by tomorrow and Wednesday.

That's a wrap....for what little there is...

back later>>>>