KC Cards

The 13 year old Kyle Chapman Titans played their first game of Saturday, June 29, 2003 beginning at 8am. They began their second game of the day almost sixteen hours later at 11:54pm. In between, the 1-1 Titans managed to seed 9th out of 22 teams to make it to the championship bracket. Their reward? A game against the San Antonio Giants-- a team that has been ranked #1 in the State of Texas and #4 in the country at various times during the season. K.C. started the game with fire in their eyes, scoring 3 big runs in the top of the first inning. Ross Chan worked a leadoff walk on a 9 pitch at bat that took 37 minutes. Well, the at bat itself took 7 minutes, and 30 minutes was spent in the dark as the field lights cycled off due to their timer setting. When play resumed, Paul Knowlton drove Ross in with a double to center field, Pat Brosch reached first on an error by the first baseman, but was caught trying to steal second base. During the steal atttempt, Paul ran home with the second run of the inning. Jeffrey Rohrbach walked and Grant Haynes walked to put runners on first and second with two outs. Jared Rothenberg hit a solid single to centerfield to drive in Jeffrey, giving the Titans an early 3-0 lead. Jeremy Schaffer held the Giants scoreless in the first and second innings, but gave up two runs in the third. The #9 batter led off with a single and the one hole hitter sacrificed him to second. The next batter grounded to first, with the runner advancing to third. A single and a triple later, the Giants had narrowed the Titan lead to 3-2. After the first inning, the Titan offense could only manage to get Ross Chan on base on an error in the second inning, singles by Trey Hibbert and Jeffrey Rohrbach in the third inning, two walks to Jared Rothenberg, and a walk to Paul Knowlton, scattered throughout the remainder of the game. Meanwhile, the Giants tied the game in the 4th inning on an unearned run off reliever Grant Haynes. An error by the third baseman, an error by the second baseman, a sacrifice bunt, an error by the pitcher, and a walk allowed the tying run to cross the plate. With the bases loaded and two outs, Grant induced the Giants' cleanup hitter to hit a routine grounder to second, which was bobbled. The second baseman threw the ball offline and low to Jared Rothenberg, who did his best hockey goalie impression to snare the ball inches from the ground in a full sitting position for the third out of the inning. Paul Knowlton came in to relieve in the 5th inning. He gave up a leadoff single to center, but appeared to get out of the jam when the next batter hit one right back to the box. Paul fielded the ball, wheeled and threw a perfect strike to second base, where, through a lack of communication, our shortstop and second baseman each thought the other would cover the play. The throw sailed into the outfield, giving the Giants runners at first and second with no outs, instead of no runners on with two outs. The next batter hit a sacrifice bunt, but the final Giants batter lined a single to center to score the winning run. The Titans made a gallant effort to win this game. There is no doubt about it. If the Titans are to make a good showing in the PONY sectionals, there is also no doubt about the fact that the Titan offense will have to generate more than the four hits that they registered in each of the two tournament losses. There is also no doubt that the Titan defense will have to improve from its average of four defensive errors in each of the two losses. There is also no doubt that the Titan running game will have to improve with more stolen bases and less runners caught stealing. There is time to make these adjustments before the PONY section tournament begins in less than two weeks. The only question is whether all parties involved will make the effort necessary to achieve the success that this team is well capable of. This is a very tired Scott Rothenberg signing off from Boerne, Texas, at 3am. See you at the 14 year old's game in Spring Branch at 2pm today.