7th Inning Stretch: Journey of a Prodigy – Part II

With another baseball season underway, it was great to get out to the fields to experience America's favorite pastime. What better way to start the season than to take in, quite possibly, Bulverde's favorite team. We are of course talking about the Minors AA division Bulverde Braves. Local attention surrounding the Braves, Minors AA division, has created quite the buzz around the ballpark. The tags from local tweets have been flooding the twitterverse. Tweets like this one from @GrillCheez4Life after the Braves recent win over the Pirates "I see you @Braves(MinorsAA). Struttin’ out there like you own the joint boyz!  100" . And another one saying "dem boyz be grindin out winz 1 walk at a time (fire emoji) @Braves(MinorsAA)" from @BigBaseballHomie.

When we decided to make the Braves the subject of this season’s edition of Base Knocks, we had no idea it would start out with this much excitement and passion. Oh, and was it ever exciting. The Braves opened up the season with a thrilling 13-12 win over the Pirates. JJ “Duran” Duran, who was the star of the game, pitched a gem holding the Pirates to 4 earned runs on 78 pitches across 2 1/3 innings. On top of his performance on the bump, he also got things started offensively with a triple and a stolen base to start the scoring for the Braves and tacked on a homerun in his other appearance at the plate. We were able to catch up with Duran after the game. “I thought we were gonna Come Undone, but this team is Hungry Like the Wolf, man” Duran said. “This ain’t no Ordinary World. We The Wild Boys! Notorious!” he continued. “Coach always says we need to give 100% effort and not quit, or something like that, and that’s what we did” he said.

The excitement continued in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Benjamin “The Denim Ninja” Martinez stepped to the plate and connected on a perfectly placed hit down the third base line in no-man's land. Martinez raced down the line to beat the errant throw which allowed him to get all the way around to score. It was magic. The dugout went crazy with the players welcoming Martinez with cheers, high-fives, and chest bumps. “They were clearly playing me too far back, so I knew if I could poke one in the dead zone, I could run for days.” Martinez said about his inside-the-park homerun. “I just channeled my Sifu (Kung Fu teacher) ‘if you go where they are not, no one gets knocked out’” he said.

We also tried to catch up with the starting catcher Ryan Villa, but he was in the bathroom. We will try to talk with him next week.

After the win, the team gathers to get the post-game pep talk from Head Coach Garrett Owens. "I like what I'm seeing in the batter's box." says coach Owens. "Baseball is all about routine. Effort is a choi...." he continues before being interrupted. "Coach, can I pitch next game?" asks Luke Ellison. Coach Owens just nods his head and says “We’ll see”. "We need to bring energy at practice this week" he said. Landen Cobb chimes in "I can try to take a nap before practice this week" he said. "My dad always seems to have a little more energy after his naps" Cobb continued. "Why don’t we have practice on Tuesdays anymore, Coach?" asks Rhett Clinton who is known to his teammates as Biggie. Overwhelmed by the players participation in his prepared words, Coach Owens just puts his hand in and starts the team cheer leaving the motivational speech for another day. "Full Effort! No quit! 100%!", they shout in a somewhat unified voice.

This was a huge first game for the Braves. An exciting game with a lot of walking. One that these prodigies can build on for the next game.