July 27-29

On Friday the 27th we had a home game against Slippery Rock. The game the night before got canceled because the power went out and they couldn't fix it for a couple hours. We had a nasty storm come through and a power station down the street caught on fire. So we played both games on Friday. Instead of playing two nine innings games we just played two seven inning games. In the first game we had a chance to win it in the bottom of the seventh but we didn't get the job done. The pitching was a lot better in the second game and we won 1-0 in the bottom of the 8th inning. Brad Goldberg from Ohio State pitched for us and went 7 scoreless innings with 8 strikeouts. After the game we had our first Party with the Paints. They do it after Friday home games but all the other ones this year were rained out. Everyone went on the party deck and they served us food and they had a band playing live music. There was a pretty good crowd that stuck around for the party.
On Saturday and Sunday we traveled to Richmond for our last series at their place. Since our bus' AC wast working we had a chartered bus. It felt like switching from flying coach to first class. Everyone was in a better mood when we got off the bus and we felt ready to play. It was true because we came our firing on all cylinders. The final score was 12-3. The next day our pitching wasn't as good and we lost 16-15. With seven games left in the season we are .5 games back from Richmond who is currently in first place.

July 23

Today we had a day off after 10 straight games. It was nice to take a break and relax. I didn't wake up until 12 and I made some breakfast and then went to workout. After working out I went to Vinnie Booker's house to hang out with some of the other guys on the team. We actually went to a pond that Vinnie's host parents own to swim and hang out. It was only like 5 minutes down the street from his house. The pond was pretty nice and they had a slide and a rope swing. It was a blue-ish green which was nice compared to the normal brown ponds that are in Indiana. We stayed at the pond for about 3 hours and then we went back home for dinner. I arrived home just in time for dinner; we had meat loaf and mashed potatoes and green beans. It was a good meal ad it the spot after a long day in the sun. After dinner I just hung out at the house and watched a couple movies on Netflix.

Slippery Rock July 21 & 22

The bus for Slippery Rock left at 10:30 on Saturday. Beforehand we had a team breakfast at the ballpark that was put together by the booster club. They had a good assortment of fruit, homemade donuts, bacon, eggs, and breakfast casseroles. The food was really good and it was nice to get on the bus with a full stomach. The bus ride to Slippery Rock wasn't too bad. This time the A/C was actually working so it was rather comfortable on the bus.
The first game of the series went well. We went back and forth with the lead throughout the game. In the 8th inning they tied it up and we ended up going into extra innings. The game lasted til the 11th inning until we scored two runs in the top of the inning and then loaded the bases and Giancarlo hit a grand slam. We held them in the bottom of the inning and ended up winning the game. That night I went to Cody's house which was about an hour away. We went and hung out with one of his best friends and spent the night there. In the morning Cody's mom made us a hearty breakfast with homemade French toast, waffles, fruit, and bacon. After breakfast Cody took me on a tour of Pittsburgh. We went to the top of the mountain that looks over the whole city and then we drove around by PNC Park where the Pirates play. The downtown area was really nice and there was some cool architecture. After we drove back to Cody's house we watched tv for an hour then left for the ballpark.
Tonight's game didn't go as well as last nights. We had the lead most of the game but we lost it in the bottom of the 8th and couldn't score in the top of the 9th. This ended our 7 game winning streak. We are currently 10-7 and two games back from Richmond. If we keep it up we will have a good shot at winning the second half.

Butler July 17 & 18

Tuesday we made our last trip to Butler, Pennsylvania. The bus ride was the longest one this season. There was a little construction along the way and we took a different route than last time. The total time including lunch was close to 6 hours and to top it all off the bus was about 80 degrees so it wasn't very comfortable.
The game went pretty slow as well. The first pitch of the game our lead off batter fouled off a pitch and it hit him directly in the eye. He had to go to the hospital and get stitches and went to see an eye specialist but everything is fine; nothing too serious. Our team hit the ball well this game and we got our first win at Butler. Every other game we played there we couldn't hit the ball. After the game I changed and went down to the restaurant in the hotel and got carry-out for dinner. The guys who were 21 went to the bar in the hotel and sang karaoke. That would've been a funny sight to see.
The following day I woke up at 9 and went downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. After I ate I went back to sleep for a couple hours until we had to leave our room. Once we got kicked out of the room by housekeeping we just went to the lobby and hung our for 4 hours until we left for the ballpark. In that time I read 30 pages of my book and beat a good portion of a new iPad game I got. When we got to the ballpark I sat around for an hour an a half until I started to stretch and throw. Tonight I had my third start pitching. The first inning was a little rough and I gave up one run with two hits but the rest of the game went smoothly. I only gave up five hits total and only let up two runs. The relief pitchers did their job and held them scoreless the rest of the game and I got my first win in the prospect league. It was a good night. Right now we are on our way back to Chilli where we play Richmond in a two game series. If we win those games then we should still have a good chance of winning the second half.

Lorain County July 13 & 14

We made our first trip to Lorain County after the all-star break. From the stories that I heard from the guys that were on the team last year I wasn't expecting too much from  Lorain. They said that the hotel was pretty crummy and the field wasn't too great. They weren't lying. The hotel wasn't too bad but it definitely wasn't the JW Marriott. The field's playing surface was pretty rough. The infield had a comparable hardness to concrete. The ball would take some nasty hops. The stands at the field weren't too bad. They had one section in the middle with stadium seats.
Before the game I went for a run around the stadium and explored what Lorain County had to offer. From what I saw on the two and a half mile run I wasn't very impressed. It seemed like more of a industrial area with a lot of factories.
When the game started there weren't very many fans in the stands. Lorain has a reputation of getting pretty small crowds and that was definitely the case. Both games there were probably only 700 fans total which is pretty measly compared to our attendance record. Despite the weak crowds Lorain came out of the series with two victories. The first game our pitching couldn't handle their hitting and in the second game our hitting couldn't handle their pitching. It was a bad series for a team but we should be able to turn it around.

All-Star Break

Our All-Star break for the Prospect League was July 10-12. I drove home the morning of the 10th and made it back to Indy by 12:30. This was my first time being home since I left for Chillicothe. It was nice being home and good to get a break from baseball. That night we got carry out sushi from Sakura then afterwards we watched the MLB all-star game. On wednesday the 11th my sister was coming home from New York where she was spending her summer. Before I picked her up I went to my grandmother's house to spend some time with her. Gigi was doing well and it was good to hang out and talk to her. After I picked my sister up from the airport we took her luggage home then we went to LaPiedad with my other grandparents. It was good to get the whole family together and have a nice meal with them. After dinner we got a movie from Redbox and went home and all hung out and watched it in the living room. On thursday the 12th I was running around town doing errands. I went to Lowe's and got more pavers for the patio that I'm making in the back yard for my mother. Slowly but surely its coming together. Hopefully we can get it done by the fall. That night I went to the O.A.R. concert at  the White River Lawn. Friday morning I woke up at 6:30 and my mom made me delicious breakfast and then I headed back on the road to Chillicothe. Once I got back to Chilli we got directly on the bus and left for Lorain County which is up towards Cleveland.

July 7 & 8

Yesterday after our game against West Virginia Cody and I went to Roosters with Don and Donna to grab a bite to eat. Next we went home and packed our bags for our trip to West Virginia the following day because we weren't going to come back. That night we went to Clearwater Lake which is about 50 minutes north and just south of Columbus to go Catfishing. We went with a Keenan White and Nick Lombardi. Since its a private lake we didn't have to have a fishing liscense but you have to pay $12 to be able to fish there. Keenan brought some blue gill to use as bait and we also bought some other small bait fish. Within 15 minutes of being there Cody caught a monster catfish. It was probably 3.5 long and weighed close to 20 pounds. A couple minutes later he caught another catfish but it wasn't as big as the first one. I didn't catch a fish til about 6 in the morning. We ended up being there for only 5 hours but we didn't start fishing til 2. After staying up all night fishing everyone was tired and we decided to leave at 7 and went to the ball park to try and sleep for an hour before we had to get on the bus and leave for West Virginia.
The bus left at 9:30 and once I got into my seat I fell asleep. I took a good two hour nap but woke up because the bus was like 90 degrees. Apparently the a/c broke and we just had to tough it out. Everyone on the bus was sweating bullets and half the guys took their shirts off because they were sweating so much. Needless to say, it was miserable. Once we got to the hotel everyone was relieved to be in the air conditioning.
We didn't leave the hotel til 3 so everyone just hung out in their rooms The game tonight was pretty sloppy. There were too many errors and too many walks and we ended up losing the game 5-9. After the game everyone changed and we went to eat at the Hooters down the street.

July 4th

Yesterday the bus left at 1:30 for Richmond where we played the River Rats. The bus ride wasn't too bad; it was only two and a half hours. After we took batting practice I went on a two mile run with Jack Quigley. During the game JT Miller and I worked the radar gun and charted all the pitchers speeds. The game went well for us because the bats were very hot. Richmond's starting pitcher gave up 10 earned runs in 3 and 1/3 innings. The final score of the game was 16 to 1. Once the game was over they fed us the standard burgers and dogs but they also had some juicy pulled pork. Since the team was driving back to Chillicothe I stayed with Dylan Sheldon who plays for Richmond. His host family was kind enough to let me stay with them.
When we got to his house we both showered and changed and left to go watch the firework show in downtown Richmond. We got there pretty late but it was still a good show. After the fireworks Dylan and I met up with my friend Jalen Hogg who played baseball with me for three years at north central. He lives in Richmond now with his grandparents. After we hung out with Jalen for awhile we went back to Dylan's house and went swimming.
This morning we slept in and didn't get out of bed until noon. So far today we've just been hanging out at the house and have been playing some billiards and ping pong.

July 2nd

This past weekend was the end of the first half of the season and was one of the last weekends that we'll be at home. We will be on the road a lot in July and will be gone most of the weekends. Since it will be almost a month til we have another home series my parents came over to Chillicothe and stayed on saturday night. When they got here saturday afternoon we went to Hana the Japanese Steakhouse. After the game we went out to eat again at Roosters with Cody, the Snyders, and JT Miller's family. This weekend Cody and I helped run the baseball camp for the Paints. There were five players who ran the camp with close to 80 kids ranging from the age of 6 to 16. It was pretty fun because they gave us total control of the camp and we did whatever we wanted. The camp was three hours a day for three days. On the last day we played wiffle ball, had a water balloon fight, and had a pizza party at the end. It was pretty fun working with the kids despite the fact that the temperature was in the 90s everyday.
The games on Saturday and Sunday were against the Slippery Rock Sliders. Saturday we beat the crap out of them 30 to 3 and on Sunday we thought we were gonna do the same thing but we ended up losing 5 to 3. On Sunday we had a nasty storm roll through midway through the first inning which ended up delaying the game for almost two hours. At one point there was hail the size of quarters.
After the game we all went to Zach Wolfe's house which was only 20 minutes away from the stadium. He has a pool, ping pong table, pool table, air hockey, and ski ball. Needless to say it was very fun. Today we woke up at 11 and drove back home from Zach's house and then lounged around the house and watched some old episodes of the Chappell Show. After that Cody and I went to work out and then came home to eat a nice home cooked meal that Donna prepared. After dinner we played corn hole against Don and Kellcie and after that we went to Mike Dodakian's house where we car pooled to go see Ted the new movie.