Game #4

... We lost a heart breaker today.

We played near flawlessly today, flawlessly! Our starting pitcher was on; we were fielding everything ... But in the end we just didn't have enough runs on the board.

... Coach put me in the leadoff spot today and started me at second. Yeah, that wasn't nerve-racking (can you sense the sarcasm?) ... I didn't have much time to deal with the butterflies. We were the visiting team, I had to lead off the game ...

In my first at-bat I worked the count to 2-2 count before grounding out to second. I fared better the next time, poking an 0-1 pitch for an RBI single between the third baseman and the shortstop.

In my third at-bat, I led off the inning with a walk. Then, a couple pitches later, I stole second and took third when the ball got past the shortstop and went into the outfield. I later scored on a base hit.

During my last at-bat, I led off the inning again and the opponent had inserted a new pitcher who was throwing harder than the previous two pitchers. I watched the first pitch for a strike, swung late at the second pitch and then connected on the third pitch, but grounded out to the shortstop …

In the field, I started the game at second base and made a three putouts there, including a tough fly ball that was hit a mile into the air.

One of the few blemishes of the day came in the bottom of the first, when an opposing batter hit a fly ball to shallow center field. Seeing it off the bat immediately, I broke for the outfield and kept my eye on it all the way. Hearing no one calling for the ball, I stayed on it, and then heard the shortstop calling my name, making me think I was going to have the best chance at it ... I was just about to make an over-the-shoulder catch when the center fielder slammed into my left side and the next thing I knew I was flat on my stomach. The center fielder had made the catch.

In the fifth inning, I moved over to shortstop and played there the rest of the game, making a couple more putouts.

In the meantime, the opponent was starting to show some fight. They got within one run in the sixth inning and then tied it in the bottom of the eighth on a sac fly. We failed to score in the top of the ninth, and they came right back again ...

Our pitcher had thrown the entire game and he'd shown no signs of slowing down. But he walked the first batter, and then gave up two straight singles to load the bases with no one out in the bottom of the ninth. We had a quick meeting on the mound, pulled the infield in, but it wouldn't matter -- the next batter hit a solid liner up the middle. That was it. Game over. We lost 5-4 ...

Looking back on the game, it's easy to second guess. What if we had changed pitchers in the ninth? What if we had been a little more aggressive on the base paths ... Then again, we could not have played any better than we played today -- OK, we could have hit a little better ...

The other team simply beat us with a few good solid hits. There was nothing we could have done to stop them ...

We'll get that first win soon. We're a good team, really. And hey, we're still having fun.

As for the other games ...
Game one: We lost
Game two: We lost
Game three: We lost, I was off for the weekend