Outlined against a near cloudless baby blue February sky, the Texas Dawgs 11U were unleashed to play their inaugural game on Saturday, February 8th.

Playing in the Ebbets Field replica stadium at the Big League Dreams baseball complex in League City, TX, the Dawgs would have made “Dem Brooklyn Bums” proud assaulting Fort Bend Black Ops pitching to post a 9 run top of the first inning. The fast start lead to an 18-3 dismantling of their first opponent and provided the Dawgs a quick 1-0 start.

Logan got things started for the offense in the top of the 1st inning by notching  the first ever hit (video 1) for the Dawgs lacing a hard line drive single to right centerfield. 

Offensively, the Dawgs 18 run assault was aided by 15 hits, 5 walks and 18 RBI with every player scoring at least 1 run and the team batting a whopping .750 with runners in scoring position and zero strikeouts.

Individually, the Dawgs were led by Colton and Logan’s 3 hits each and Luke and Brady who had 2 hits each with Brady twice chasing the centerfielder to the wall on a 300 plus foot field, accounting for two booming doubles and 3 runs batted in.

Not to be outdone in the RBI department, Luke drove in 4 runs, Colton 3 and Logan and Tyler had 2 apiece. 

On the defensive side, the Dawgs sent out 3 pitchers for this one as Alex got the first Dawgs pitching start ever. The Dawgs surrendered 3 runs in the first inning but were able to settle in and finish strong with Weston closing out the inning.

Weston then threw a dominant second inning ending his day by not allowing a run and recording 2 punch outs in his 2 innings of work. Colton came in to throw a very efficient third inning notching 2 punch outs of his own.

Hunter dives and makes the play in centerfield

The Dawgs also flashed some leather turning a fancy 3-3-2-5-2 double play to end the first inning and then got a highlight reel all-out diving catch by Hunter (video 3) in CF to stop a second inning rally.

Overall, the first game was a huge offensive success for the Dawgs, who took their training to the field, controlling at bats by being disciplined, staying in hitter’s counts and hitting their pitch.  Additionally, the Dawgs showed the high end pitching and defense that will be core to their 2020 spring season success

Overall, the Texas Dawgs had an up and down first tournament notching a 2-2 record and a 3rd place finish. While the Dawgs did not earn hardware in this first tournament they learned that they have great talent and the hard-core will to compete until the last out. 

Understanding that the talent is there to get where they want to go, the Dawgs are looking forward to getting back on the field and “playing like a Dawg”.  

The Dawgs had several first weekend standouts on the mound, in the field and at the plate  

The hitting standouts were:
Brady, who showed a power bat all weekend finishing 4 for 8 with a home run, 2 doubles, 2 walks, 5 RBIs and 5 runs scored. Colton, who finished the weekend going 4 for 10 while knocking in 5 runs. Alex, who scorched 3 hits, including a triple and a home run.  

On the mound:
The Dawgs received more than enough quality pitching to win the tournament. Weston and Tyler notched the wins with Weston throwing 2 innings with 2 strikeouts and no runs allowed and Tyler going a total 5 innings allowing only 2 earned runs and striking out 4, including a 4 inning complete game victory on Sunday. 

Logan, Colton and Hunter all showed dominant stretches throughout the weekend with Logan recording 5ks in 3 innings, Colton recording 5ks in 4 innings of work and Hunter recording 3ks in his inning of work in game 2.

Tyler’s complete game to go with his 4 RBIs and solid defense earned him Top Dawg Player of the Week honors.

* A special thank you to Renie, Ryan and Jeremy for capturing all media used in this version of Texas Dawgs Weekend Roundups *

Texas Dawgs parents, it's time to get rolling and get  your little slugger's custom player profile on the website.

Each Texas Dawgs roster will showcase the player profiles, allowing to be linked for Dawg Blawg weekend roundups and Top Dawg player of the week posts.

Bitsy Springer wanted to give you all an example of what it will look like once the player questionnaire is submitted. Rubble's team of design experts will then customize a page for your player (first name last initial) and create a unique player profile.

Create a player profile with your Texas Dawg now!

Need some ideas to get you going? Check out Bitsy's profile below as she's full of ideas.

The first full scrimmage for the Texas Dawgs 11U and 12U squads paired them up against each other on the afternoon of January 25, 2020. The rain held off unlike the previous weekend where the 11U tried to scrimmage with a familiar friendly foe in the Magnolia Strikers.

With the time limit set at 1:40 and official umpires to call the game, the stage was set to play as many innings as possible with a 5 run per inning limit to keep the game moving along.

The game started with the 11U grabbing the lead after 1 full inning. The 11U’s lead was short lived,  as the 12U capitalized at the plate by being patient and putting together good at-bats over the course of the game. Cam, Caden and James all had big hits to help the 12U build a sizable lead. The 12U put pressure on the 11U defense by consistently placing the ball in play and forcing the 11U to execute on defense. Unfortunately for the 11U, they had uncharacteristic struggles in the field and these struggles coupled with the 12Us solid approach made for some big innings for the 12U.

The 12U sprinkled in some solid pitching by pounding the strike zone and putting the 11U behind in counts. The 12U boys also made the routine plays needed to win the game and also made some stand out plays: with Cam making a nice charge and throw on a ground ball, Mason throwing a runner out at 2nd and Zac hustling to get a runner trying to score from 3rd on a passed ball with the bases loaded.

While, as we noted, the 11U did not have its best day, there were some silver linings. The 11U pitchers were consistently in the zone, Luke D. picked a runner off third and Brady gunned down a runner stealing second.  

The best inning for the 11U team came in their last at-bat, where after a few patient at-bats that led to walks Hunter B. slapped a swinging bunt allowing Colton to come up to the plate with bases loaded. After a patient Colton got his count to 3-1, he hammered a high strike and put the ball well over the left field fence for a grand slam.

Colton's home run gave the 11U their maximum of 5 runs for the inning, thus ending the game. The game ended on a grand slam loss, something you don't hear every day.

Colton earned "Player of the Game" and got to showcase the poppin' Texas Dawgs belt. There were highs and lows but it was great to be out on a baseball field again playing live baseball. This is why we scrimmage to get those live reps and round into season form.  Keep working hard, be tough and always get dirty. Play Like a Dawg Today!