Prairie's Baseball Tournament.

We were in Calgary this past weekend for Ty's final baseball tournament. Prairie's is what they've been working towards all summer. Teams from all over Southern Alberta, and even some Saskatchewan teams play for the title. Ty was determined to win this year. His team played hard and won 3 games and tied 1, which put them in the finals with the Lethbridge Southwest team. They played this team a few times over the summer and beat them every time, except the time that mattered the most. SW ended up taking first, and we placed second. It was a hard loss for the boys. SW was beating us 2-0 for the first half of the game and then we had a really good inning where we scored 4 runs (Ty hit an infield home run) and then got a couple more runs the next inning. The score going in to the final inning was 6-2 for us, and we had last bat. Easy peasy, right. Well, we had a horrible inning where a lot of errors were made and they ended up getting a bunch of runs. The score was 8-6 for them. All we had to do was get 3 runs. The boys were definitely feeling the pressure. First two batters hit pop fly's that were caught, then Ty was up. Oh my gosh. The pressure he was feeling. The anxiety I was feeling because I knew he was feeling it. At this point I kind of figured we wouldn't catch up and win, but I wanted Ty to get on base. Well, the ump pretty much screwed him over. It was full count and the last pitch was way outside and clearly a ball to all of us who were sitting right behind the plate, but he called it a strike. I don't think I have ever been so mad and frustrated. A bad call like that on my son when the stakes were already so high. It was heart breaking. I have never seen Ty cry in baseball, but as he turned to go back to the dug out I could see the tears coming. He told me later that when he was up to bat he turned to look at his team and they all had their faces pressed up against the fence just watching so intently and hopefully. Poor guy. I know its a good experience for him but hard to see him so disappointed about the outcome. As they were doing the medal ceremony (I mean, they did get second place) pretty much our whole team was crying. So hard when you're so close. I think part of Ty's emotion was that it was over too. He loves baseball so much and is sad that it is over for the year.

I am so proud of Ty. He has worked hard this season and has improved so much. He is becoming a really good ball player. Can't wait to see what next season brings. Now, two weeks until football starts.

Oh, and this little cutie has fallen in love with our friends puppy. She carried and followed her around the whole time we were there.

Tara, her birthday is coming up next week. I think she would like Portland!