The Martinez Family: Little League and All-Star Baseball 2009

Little League Baseball 2009

Brayden played on the Blue Jays in the Majors of Southeast Diamondbacks Little League. Once again, Brayden was a pitcher and played shortstop when he wasn't pitching. Brayden's team didn't win many games, but he really liked his coaches and the boys he played with. Here are some pictures of Bray pitching on opening day:

Here's Brayden at bat:

We didn't video much this season, ( I think this was the only game), but we did get Brayden hitting a double.

Brayden with his head coach, Chris, at the end of the year pizza party.

The Blue Jays!

Tanner was ready for opening day! He brought his sweet green bat and his batting gloves!

SEDLL All-Stars 2009

After the season, Brayden, was selected to play All-Stars again. He played with many kids that were on All-Stars with him last year. He also played for the same head coach, Dan Whillock. After losing many games during his regular season , it was nice for Brayden to switch to a winning team. In fact, they won all of their games except the final game before going to the State championships. Their semi-final game against Gilbert National Little League proved to be the best game. We had been pretty much destroying all of our competiton until this semi-final game. We found ourselves down 9 to 4 in the last inning. We came back in that inning with 6 runs. Brayden hit a double in that inning and ending up scoring the winning run. Unfortunately, our next game wasn't as successful, but there's always next year!

Like a dorky mom, I made Brayden pose before the first All-Star game of the year.

Here are some pics from some of the games:
One of Brayden's best friends, Cameron Harris, made All-Stars this year too.

The Martinez fam after a victory.

Candy and I with our SEDLL shirts!Some of the Deacons Quorum came to support Bray in one of his games.

Before the final game, everyone got very spirited with the face paints. Here are Tanner, Riley and Presley.

Chase and Jake got into it too!

Even Brett Harris got his head painted. The SEDLL All-Stars 2009!
Brayden with his coach, Dan Whillock.
We look forward to All-Stars next year!

Chase's Baseball Season 2009

Chase played in his first year of Minors Baseball. He played on the Dodgers. It's a big change when they switch from coach pitch to kid pitch. He was definitely a little timid of the ball at the beginning of the season, but improved tons over the season. His head coach was Lisa, who was actually a grandmother of a boy on his team. She turned out to be a fantastic coach and she had a nice motherly, nurturing side that was nice for the boys. They had a great season, finishing 2nd overall in the regular season and then went on to win the Playoffs! Here are some pictures from some of his games:

Mia and Tanner goofing off at Chase's game.

The Championship Game against the Yankees

Chase had been pracicing pitching all season in hopes of becoming a pitcher. Matt and Brayden had been working with him for a few months, but his coach hadn't ever given him a shot. Finally, at one of his last practices, one of the assistant coaches noticed that Chase was really starting to pitch well and thought he should have a chance. Chase ended up pitching the final 2 innings of his last 3 games. After he finished out the final game, he made a comment about how hard work really does pay off if you don't give up. We were so proud of Chase!! Here he is pitching in the final game: