Evan at bat in an early little league game in March. Baseball should not be played in March - we bundle up with two coats, blankets, gloves, etc.

Evan pitching in a game - He wasn't one of the regular pitchers. The rules mandate rest days after pitching in a game - the more pitches, the more days of rest, so when they have games one or two days apart, they have to use "bench" pitchers.

Video of Evan's crucial RBI that provided the winning run that put his team in the Championship game.  He was a little confused as the ball was ruled a ground rule double (he would have made 3rd easily).

I was so excited that I forgot I was filming when he got the hit, but you can see the runner scoring.

Then after stealing 3rd base, when the next batter hit a long fly ball to right field (Evan and his coach are watching to see if it is caught), Evan scored an insurance run on the play.

This was a very contentious game, that his team had to win twice in playing an extra inning.  In the normal last inning (6th), Evan's team apparently scored a go ahead run with one out, when the batter was thrown out at first after hitting the ball in the infield. The first base ump said that the runner interfered with the throw to home and he called the runner out - no score and a double play.  The parent's were furious.

Evan's Team after winning the Championship game.  Greg was one of the coaches and is at the left.  Evan in in the middle under the "ke" in Strike.

Going into the tournament, Evan's team was the No. 1 seed after winning their bracket.  After the previous game, in which they had to play 7 innings, I didn't have much hope that they would win the championship game against the 2nd seeded team, a team that had given them one of their 4 defeats, because all of their regular pitchers were ineligible because of pitch count rules.

However, with grit and good play they won the game after the lead see-sawed back and forth.  Their pitchers were backed up by excellent fielding - they got three outs at the plate and had a spectacular double play.  One of their pitchers, in the lower half of the batting order hit back to back home runs and was the hero of the day.

The wind was kicking up and it was really getting cold as we had to wait through 7 other teams till they got their trophies.

Evan - we were really proud of him as he kept his team's spirits up in the last two games when things really looked bad for them, by leading a cheer from the dugout: "I believe that We can Win!" over and over.  I could see that the cheer really got in the heads of the opposing teams.

The Northshore Mariners Little League team getting their championship trophies.  I have no doubt that this team could have beaten the Northshore LL Allstar team.

Coach Greg with the Trophy.  Parker complained that it was much bigger than the one he got four years earlier for winning the same tournament -

I have to hand it to the team's coaches as they really did a good job with the talent they had and keeping everything positive even when things weren't going their way.

Evan went on to play on the Northshore LL Allstars team.  This is one of his at bats where he is safe at first on a dropped third strike. (Please excuse the shaky camera at the end)

Parker also plays for a Select team, the NW Bandits.  Here he is at bat against a team that had a few players that were on his little league teams as well as his high school JV team.

Video of Parker's at bat.  He gets a hit.  He is a very good fielder and base runner.  He would be a good lead off hitter, but he is too aggressive at the plate.