Candice & Todd's blog: State-bound one FINAL time...

This past week was Mercer's last run for the Little League State Championship & ultimately the National Little League World Series.

After the Little League team he was on this spring (the Sod Poodles) wrapped up at the end of May, an All-Star team was pulled together from the teams at East Marietta. Mercer was on this team. They played in a lot of tournaments over the summer as the East Marietta 14u Spikes in the maroon uniform. (But - really - they're Blue and Orange.... they just didn't get their uniforms 'til right before the tournament this month.)

Here are some photos after the FINAL tournament that the All-Stars played last week where they were wearing.... for the last time.... the maroon colored jersey.

They played in a "Training Legends" (TL) tournament. The EM All-Stars were in the Silver bracket (deciding who would take 3rd/4th place).

Mercer ended up pitching the entire game and he threw his FIRST NO HITTER !!

(Technically, there was 1 hit, but our head coach "heard" a weird ting in the bat when the batter hit... he questioned it... the umpires inspected it... and they found out that the bat was "illegal" per this tournament's rules, so that hit was removed / the play was disqualified!)

The crazy thing - that other team played with the wrong bats the entire tournament and only had 1 bat that met the requirement in the dugout. That other team boys had to share that met the requirements of the tournament. Crazy!!

The tournament was called "Giant Ring" tournament. No one knew until the presentation at the end that there was ONE trophy-sort of trinket for the team... literally a GIANT ring!

All of the boys had to pose with that one! The ring that each of the boys got were about the normal size of the rings they've won at other tournaments.

When they went to state for 11u, the tournament was hosted by the Savannah Little League.

12u Little League State Tournament hosts were supposed to be Toccoa Little League, but it was cancelled due to Covid.

When they went to state for 13u, the tournament was hosted by Peachtree City Little League.

This 14u Little League State Tournament was hosted by Hart County (near Lake Hartwell) at the Georgia / SC border.

People were a bit spread out. We were about 30 minutes west of the baseball field close to Lake Hartwell and a state park.

Some people were in the nearest city with "civilization" in Anderson, South Carolina in a hotel. Some were actually in the town of Hartwell in Georgia and one family was east of Anderson on a separate lake.

Our place that we rented was so quirky. It was a 50-year old family cabin turned air b-n-b. It's sort of a truncated A-frame. Our requirements was that it have a washer / dryer (for uniform cleanings between games), allowed dogs and gave each Mercer & Isabella their own space. So, we ended up here in this odd little place.

The stairs were steep and narrowed as you walked down (the handrails were a bit rickety) and the landing -- oh the landing. About 1 1/2 feet deep. (Minimum should be at least double that!)

There was a creepy painting at the bottom of the stair...

and a creepy guy sitting at the top wearing a duck head. :)

We took 2 cars because Todd and Mercer had to be there earlier each day for warm-ups. But - also, Todd had one "scouting" game that only the coaches went to - so it was good that we drove separate!

Here are some photos from the family who was staying an hour + away from us -- up in South Carolina in their lake house rental. (They invited everyone to their rental - complete with dock, kayak and floating toys.) It was far away, but beautiful!

Isabella tried her hand at kayaking... on her own... there!

Mercer hung out on a big floating sheet.

The kids loved hanging out together inside too! This outing was on the evening where the boys only had a practice, but not a game. (I took a couple of panoramic pics - some areas look funny / flattened people!) It was a nice way to get everyone together since we were so spread out. (Also, it was nice to get to know folks a bit better since there were a lot of new people on this team that I did not know..... only 3 people from the team last year remained at the part. Most of the others went to a "professional" travel team.)

The 1st game was on Saturday the 16th. It was hot and we were playing a team from Athens, GA. The umpire fell out. Literally. He was flat on the ground (heat stroke? Low blood sugar? Heart problems?) Apparently the guy falls out at at least 1 game per season. He has diabetes and a pace maker. We never heard how he was, but he was at least sitting up and the paramedics helped him climb onto the stretcher.... so hope he was OK in the end!! (we inquired, but never heard back about him.)

Mercer pitched 50 pitches and was pulled to save for a later game. He played outfield and 3rd base as well. Unfortunately, Athens Little League beat East Marietta Little League 9 - 2.

There was a day off (so the boys had practice at a nearby field) then, the 2nd game was on Monday the 18th. This game was against Elbert County. Mercer did not pitch this game. He played outfield and 3rd. This game had a delay too - a major rain delay. But, eventually, it got going again and Elberton beat EM 9 - 4.

I don't have any photos from the 1st game. I was holding the dog while at the field b/c we had not checked into the cabin yet. These photos of Mercer are from the 2nd game. (but he looked the same 2 days earlier. ha!)

Bartow Little League will go on to Broadway, Virginia next month for the Regional Little League tournament. They beat Athens in the last game Thursday night.

One of the parents took team photos on the 1st day and shared:

And, these photos are after game 2 was over... and we're all saying out good-byes for the last time. These next few photos are especially sweet because these 3 boys have played pretty much their whole career together (off-and-on).... with these 3 dads in tow coaching -- pouring SO MUCH into their sons!!

Beckett, Luckie and Mercer

We packed several of our Little League All-Star shirts from the past to wear this week. You'll see their 3 names on them.

(White shirt is from 11u in 2019)

(Navy shirt is from 13u in 2021)

Well, that's it. That's the end of his Little League career.

(But not the end of baseball, of course!)

While we were in the Hartwell area this week, we did a couple of things on the lake since this was our end-of-summer "vacation" too:

1 - we went to Tugaloo State park (which was just around the corner from our Cabin). There, we took in a short hike and a picnic by the water.

(hmmm....this sign is facing AWAY from the picnic table facing the water. We did not see that while eating.) eew.

2 - We took Mercer home so he could nap before "Game 2" later that evening and we went back to Tugaloo with Isabella to go kayaking.

As mentioned -- the day before she went out on the water by herself. She wanted to give it a try again this time as well! yay!

We rented one Single and one Double (as I was nervous about getting back on the water after my shoulder injury last summer). Todd and I went out in one and she did it... she went out on her own.... for a little while. She got some bad blisters on her hand and we had to tow her back to shore. It's OK. we were proud of her for going out and giving it a try! Next time... she needs gloves, as she gets blisters a lot.

We still had time on the rental, so I went back out in the single kayak while they swung and watched birds eat.

I really enjoyed being back out on the water. It is SO PEACEFUL. And - it was such a beautiful day with picture-perfect clouds!

The next day, we started packing up our cabin (we decided to NOT sleep there the final night b/c of the mildew smell in the back bedroom).... and....

3. we met up with a friend who was just a few miles from our cabin - on the other side of Tugaloo State park.

We went out to see Russell a couple years before (during the pandemic) to go on a boat ride and cook-out. Then, he was just toying with the idea of offering boat rides around Lake Hartwell. Now... he's got a thriving summer gig (he's a math teacher) as "Captain Russell" giving boat tours.

He offered to go for a swim off the dock / take us out on the boat. So, we took him up on both!

His dogs are so funny - playing fetch in the water. Our dog - not so inclined do so. (he sat on Todd on a float, though!)

Russell offered to let Isabella try tubing. She loved it!

(She couldn't flip out on her own though. She wanted to bounce and catch air, but didn't weigh enough, so Todd joined her.)

Once he got on, they did catch a lot of air... and both flipped off twice at various points!

Hip-Hop was concerned for them (well, mainly once Todd left the boat / got on the tube!) Otherwise, he laid on the floor of the boat at our feet.

(Mercer enjoyed catching video of them rolling off.)

We watched a little MLB All-Star baseball after dinner (Russell is a Mets fan too) and then we finished packing / heading home for a late-night arrival back to May-retta. It was nice catching up with an old friend (from my architecture days) before we both go back to work next week... and a nice way to end our trip to "Gumlog" GA / the Lake Hartwell area.