The FC Pilots were mollywhopped last night at Spring Park, falling to the Express in a big way en route to their second loss in as many games in a tough week of baseball.  There should be 12 ball players waking up in Fort Collins this morning motivated to get on a glove and pick up a bat and get to work to close out this season playing competitive Pilots baseball.  

Some games you just take it on the chin - pitches are just a bit outside, grounders find holes, plays are just not made.  The Pilots had one of those some days yesterday and need to quickly get back up to speed and close out the season at cruising altitude.  A quick game recap ... 

Pilot Bats:  What happens when you upset two top teams in the league?  You draw aces.  Your Pilots struggled to catch fire at the dish, facing the best of the best pitchers in the league for a second tough game in a row.  Luke, Cason and Ollie did manage back to back to back hits in the 1st to open up the game and get the Pilots on the scoreboard - but a great play on a Jayden bomb to CF prevented the good guys from doing real damage.  The Pilots managed just 3 more hits as the bases remained empty for most of our half innings.

Pilot Arms:  The Pilots had their second game in a row struggling off the bump - throwing way more balls than usual for this strike tossing team en route to walking a season high 9 batters.  Cam closed out his 2020 Pilots campaign with a solid effort and rallied to induce 3 ground balls to close out a crooked number in the first.  Ben struck out 2 and put his team in position for a 1, 2, 3 second inning.  Pilot of the Game Jack R came in to pitch the final 2 frames and battled.  It has been said before and it'll be said again that pitching is hard.  We've been spoiled thus far by some unbelievable pitching performances by our Pilots and this coach is confident we have more in store.

Pilot Gloves:  The FC Pilots have some work to do in the field - plain and simple.  Looking for silver linings, Henry had a nice catch on a laser hit to CF and was part of the 3B-C pickle tandem with Ollie late in the game. Take those two outs and add in 4 strikeouts over the course of the game and the Pilots made more than  double the number of errors as outs.  At practice(s) this weekend we'll work relentlessly on 3 things:  fielding ground balls and making the throw to first base, sprinting under popups and hitting your cutoff with speed and precision, and backing up at every single position on the diamond.  We have talked about the importance of knowing what you're doing to do with the ball if it is hit to you, and equally as importantly what your'e doing to do if the ball is NOT hit to you.  It is time for this Pilot team to put that talk into practice and play baseball like we're capable of playing baseball.

Next Up:  Well practice is next up - Saturday and Sunday, 10am to Noon @ Ridgefield Park over by McGraw.  After that the Pilots are set for a rematch vs the Rams, who hand delivered the first Pilot loss of the season in the 2020 Mud Bowl 11-5.  No doubt the Rams will be throwing their big arms on the bump as they look to get back in the win column.  The Pilots will need to play a complete game of aggressive and smart baseball to stay on the right side of the scoreboard.  First pitch is early - 5:15pm @ Twin Silo.  We will be setting up for pre-game warm ups no later than 4:30.

Coach's Note:  That game stung and getting beaten like a drum and having a score run up on you is never fun.  Thank you to those Pilots who did not give up on yourself and your team last night.  The beautiful thing about baseball is what's next.  You have an opportunity to do something amazing with every pitch you see and ball you field and base you steal.  Let's do that.  Let's do something amazing.  Why - not - you?

Thanks parents and families and fans - and Go Pilots,

Coach Chris