For the first time in years, Middletown Little League's Opening Day actually felt like summertime. Twelve-year-old Kaden is in his final year in the majors.

Kaden had a good day at the plate, getting a couple of nice hits...

And he did great as first-baseman!

Fierce determination on that face!

The second half of the game, Kaden was behind the plate...

His signature finger-spread shows up in all his sports endeavors.

Always such an encourager to his teammates, truly a leader...

I didn't have my camera ready for Kaden's slide into home plate on his back (I'm not even sure how that happened). Who gets the back of their baseball uniform dirty? One of his teammates was trying to dust him off.

It was a valiant effort against one of the top teams in the league, but Kaden's team fell short 8-4 in the first game of his season.

Love this kid and love watching him...

...play ball.