Your FC Pilots wrapped up their 2021 14U Intermediate season with style and class and heart last night at Edora Park, falling to a fundamentally sound and deserving PawSox team 8-5 in 5 great innings of ball.  The FCP came roaring out of the gate hanging a 5 spot on the scoreboard in the first frame highlighted by a mammoth home run and bookended with a rare steal of home.  With a dugout as rowdy as an early 90s mosh pit, the Pilots showed they were ready to play and compete from the first pitch to the last out as a true band of brothers.

With the exception of winter and sometimes soccer, seasons always end too soon.  The last game of every baseball season is tough win or lose.  And the last recap write up is tough no matter what …

Pilot Bats:  Oh where to begin … how about with the shot heard round Edora.  Our own #99 tattooed the first pitch of his first at bat for a breathtaking 260+ foot home run to left.  It was an absolute no doubt about it bomb that put the Pilots up 2-0 and out of the dugout to welcome Jay-Jay home.  Wyatt did like Wyatt does and continued his torrid hitting from the leadoff spot.  Wy finished the night with 2 base knocks and the season with a .607 average.  Ben, Kevin C, Damian, and Ty all chipped in with base hits – and Jack crushed an RBI single (should have gone for 2 lollygagger!) to deep right center to keep the Pilots moving in the 1st.  The entire lineup – all 12 dudes – put together some great at-bats with deep drives to the outfield and solid line drives.  I’m talking to you Eli.  Some found grass and others found leather and that is just baseball.

Pilot Arms:  We sure got what we needed out of our pitching staff last night.  Gentry kept the PawSox guessing with his potent mix of fastball – changeup – fastball.  He faced 10 batters over 2.1 innings and twirled a one hit one run gem.  Ben followed the G Man for 2 innings and came out firing.  Out of BC’s 54 pitches 35 were for strikes.  And Jayden made himself available to finish up the game – set – match with 10 pitches for good measure.  We’ve seen gritty pitching performances all season from these three gents and the entire pitching staff.  Ty – Nate – KC – KR – Jack – Wyatt.  Pitching for days … you guys should all be proud of your time on the mound this season.

Pilot Gloves:  The FCP played a solid game in the field.  Damian made a great catch out in CF early in the game and has shown the kind of range you get when your last name is Griffey.  KR had 2 across the diamond put outs to 1B.  Nate hoovered up a rocket grounder to 2nd for an easy out.  It wouldn’t be a Pilots game w/out Ty taking a ball off the chest – which he did in the 3rd to keep an infield single from becoming an outfield double.  And Wyatt made the case that he should start forwarding his mail and permanently move in to 1st base with some awesome plus plays over at numero uno.  Poor Bradyn didn’t get a single ball hit out to LF the entire game.  While he did save a run from scoring in the first by backing up the pickoff behind 3rd, nary a fair ball dared to come within 50 feet of Bray.

Pilots Around the Bases:  Save an ill timed pick off at first the FCP was all sterling and roses around the base paths.  First off the steal of home is one of the coolest plays in all of baseball.  It takes smarts – it takes cones – it takes the right combo of speed and daring.  Bradyn was way ahead of his base coach in picking his spot and executed the kind of steal of home that Pete Rose would have been proud of.  And bet on.  Damian motored around the bags for a first to third to take advantage of some fielding and throwing miscues.  And we had SBs from a whole cast of Pilot characters.  We talked about baserunning being a superpower and worked on our fundamentals a ton.  It was great to see the lads push it around the pillows.

Pilot Game Management:  Hats off to Jack behind the plate for working a full 4+ inning game and just being an old school brick wall back there.  Well – a brick wall with a killer arm who can throw out runners at third.  JT and the funkybunch threw out 2 runners at third and was granted a third via an interference call at home.  That means 3 of the Pilots 12 outs generated in the field were by the dude wearing shoulder pads.

Next Up:  We’re doing Baseball Helmet Sundaes and food and swimming this Thursday the 15th @ Village Green Pool.  Thanks to Melissa and Erin and Summer and Kim and all the other Pilot Moms for organizing what will be a great celebration of this 2021 season.  We get one more chance to honor these 12 Pilots so I hope to see you all there.

Thanks for showing up with such passion and cow-bellery last night during our pregame warm up.  That was awesome and unforgettable.  I did not get to see their smiles running to the dugout but sure did feel the energy and appreciate the support of this young team.  Thank you Pilot Family!

Go Pilots!

Coach Chris