KC Grays Baseball

Player update:
Our dude Hagen signed to pitch next season with North Central College in Trenton, Mo.

Congratulations Hagen on this accomplishment. We know how hard you have worked to reach this goal. Keep working hard and being such a great competitor every time you step on the mound. Keep working hard and getting better every day. I know you'll do great with the Pirates.

We are all very proud of you, H!

We're getting back into coaching with the younger kids. The Grays name starts with those boys that mean so much to us, but we are forming an 8u team for the 2025 spring season with experienced coaches. We will start indoor practices in January. We will play league at NKCA and look for a few tournaments in the metro area.

If you know anyone with players that age, have them contact [email protected] for tryout information.

Good luck to all the boys this week in their high school tryouts. I'm proud of all of our players. They are good ball players, and play the right way. Always hustling and having fun. I know they will all go out and leave everything on the field this week.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our Grays families. I hope your holidays are going well, and success in the new year.

We got some of the boys back together to play in a tournament benefitting a great cause this past weekend. It was like we never left. The boys all slipped right back into Grays baseball, and after putting themselves in a hole in pool play, battled through and ended up going 3-0 winning it on Sunday. After giving up 2 runs in the top of the first of the opening game Sunday, they immediately took the lead back, and never trailed again all day. These boys were playing for each other, and so they could play more games with their buddies. It was so fun to watch.
They all played great, and did some special things out on the field. This is a talented group of ball players, but an even better group of young men.

It was a bittersweet day today. Today was the last day for the KC Grays. It's time for me to be a dad, and turn these boys over to someone else. I have loved being their coach for the past 6 years, a few of them longer than that. I want to thank all of our families. I could not have done this all these years without you guys. Thank you for letting me be a part of their lives, and helping to guide them. I love each and every one of these boys, and am rooting for them all to accomplish every goal they have.

I will not forget a single moment of my time with these kids. It has been some of the best times of my life.

I want to thank the players for being great teammates to each other, never giving up, and always giving me their best.

And finally, I want to thank Bobby Holtzclaw, Noah Carlson, Andrew Wideman, Caleb Crawford, and Joe Donnici. Over the years these 5 men helped me out so much with these boys. I could not have done it without you.

I will miss being in the dugout with you guys, but I know in the end, this is what I had to do.

-Noah

The boys relaxing before the championship game at the Monster Bash.

The fall season came and went quickly this year. We started out slow in our first tournament going 0-3 with low energy, and seemingly forgetting how to play defense.

Then at Monster Bash it started out looking very similar, but on bracket play Sunday the boys turned back into the Grays we're used to seeing, fighting their way all the way to the championship of their bracket before coming up just short.

That success we found at Monster Bash carried over into this week, going 2-0 in pool play of the Easton Fall championships and earning the top seed heading into bracket play. We ultimately fell 5-4 to the Mac-n-Seitz team we beat the day before. But it was a game that showed our level of compete. We fell behind 2-0 and battled back to tie it up, then we fell behind 5-2 in the last inning, and battled to the very last pitch. When they brought in their big closer, our boys never backed down. They know they can hit anybody that they face. We got two runners on, with the middle of the order coming up. Our batter hit one about 345 feet, yesterday that would have been a game tying home run, unfortunately the fences today were about 370 feet, so he had to settle for a 2 run double. The next hitter smoked a line drive, but it was right at the shortstop's head for the 3rd out and the end of the season.

It was a fun fall with the boys, and I wouldn't trade a second of it.

The boys definitely had an experience this week at the World Series. We started out 1-2 in pool play, but could have, and should have easily been 3-0. Losing to a good team from the Denver area, beating a team from Laguna Beach, Ca and then losing our last pool game to a team from Burleson, TX that might have been the worst sports I've ever seen, parents and players. We had 16 errors in our pool play games, leading to 12 unearned runs. The boys ended up the 11 seed after pool play.

We lost a heartbreaker in the first game of the double elimination bracket, where Steven pitched great exiting with a lead after 4 innings with 8Ks and 3ER. Will came in and pitched well, but two errors gave the RoadRunners from Utah the lead. Then a storm came in putting us in a 40 minute delay knocking out Will, so Stone came in and got us out of it. But the delay knocked us off of our rhythm, and we couldn't get it going in time, dropping us to the loser's bracket.

In the first elimination game we played the Utah Boom. Henry pitched an absolute gem throwing a complete game 8Ks 0BB 1ER.
We played our best game of the year in this game, and it showed with a 9-1 victory. Great pitching, no errors, and hitting throughout the lineup. And all 9 batters making things happen with Victor going 3-4 with a big triple, and Gabe going 4-4.

In our next game we played Majestic Baseball out of Colorado Springs. They were my favorite opponent all week. They were great sports, we matched up well, and all the parents were cheering for both teams. Dalton started things out on the mound going strong the first 3 innings. He ran into a little trouble the second time through the lineup when he started feeling sore. Jaromy came in and finished the game for us after smashing his thumb fouling a ball off earlier. We played great defense again, going error-free in both games Saturday. But Majestic found open space and ended up winning the game 10-6 ending our world series run.

The boys hit great all weekend, putting up 47 runs in 6 games. All 13 players that came hit the ball well. We had 2 home runs this week, Jaromy got his 1st home run since he joined our team, I think his 1st ever. Henry hit a home run against the (poor sport) Texas team, then their pitcher tried to fight him.

We faced some adversity as well. We brought 13 players and ended the weekend with 9, after some health issues caused 4 families to head home. There were some scary situations, and tough decisions that our families had to make. I hope and pray everything turns out ok for our Grays families.

I'm proud of these boys how they competed against some very good competition all week. Especially when they were short handed, with their backs against the wall. We were quickly running out of pitching with pitch counts, innings limits, and sore arms, but the boys found a way to dig deep and battle.

I'm proud to be their coach and thankful the parents trust us help mold them. These boys give us 100% and never quit, no matter what the situation. That mentality will help them as the get older, not just in baseball, but in life. And ultimately, that's our goal, to help mold these young men into good men who won't ever give up.

Before we get started with our own games this week, we decided to come check out the professionals. Rockies vs Mariners