Day 7, Game 2

 The players stayed up somewhat late watching movies in their rooms and sang "las mananitas" to Chepe for his 18th birthday...so not all of the players woke up for breakfast. Ruvalcaba and Tovalin's flights arrived in Wichita around 3am because of the heavy thunder storm and were still able to get enough rest to play in the game. Miriam and Belen took the shuttle to go to a local grocery store to pick up some waters to put in the cooler for the boys game. The weather from the previous night did not help in cooling down the weather for today. Due to the weather from last night the game was postponed to 1pm. The players left the hotel room and headed to the field. Miriam, Belen and myself took the shuttle to the game to not have to walk in the heat with a heavy load. Joining us at the game today was Tish's daughter Ariann, her grandmother, and some of Ariann's friends to support our team in their game.

 We were just a few minutes late into the top of the first inning and the Monarchs had scored one run. In the top of the fourth inning the Monarchs scored 1 more run. The system came back with 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. The score now 2-2. Both the System and the Monarch's pitchers were battling up there and throwing well...it would have to come down to the bats (normally not an issue for our team).  We had some unfair calls from the home plate umpire. Erick and Estevan threw some really nice strikes, that unfortunately were called balls. They literally had to place the ball right down the middle in order for the ump to call it a strike. Following Erick's outing the umpire ejected him from the game because he murmured something along the lines of being a rookie umpire, a testament to the ump's thin skin. It was the top of the seventh inning when the Monarchs scored another run. Then again in the top of the eight the Monarchs score one more to make the score 4-2.

Unfortunately, we were not able to make the most of the game and ended up taking the second loss to eliminate our team from the tournament. We did our best and met some very nice people who were very generous to our team. Once we got to the hotel we immediately looked into flights to head back to San Diego. We were able to all book flights leaving at 6:30a, 10:35a, Noon, and 4p at the rate of about $225. We were supposed to give the hotel 24hour notice for check out, but they were able to work with us after all. We had to figure out the room situation and cost per person, then decided to take a lunch break since most of us had not eaten anything yet. Marco found a Chipotle about three miles away. Chunk took some of the boys in the first group and then the parents and Rudy went.

Well, at least we know what to expect for the years to come. Next time we can be better prepared.

Coach's comment for the day: "We grinded. Unfortunately things didn't go our way. Thought it was a great learning experience for the guys, we'll get back and do it again".