Game #10

... I was crazy for wanting to come back and play baseball this morning after a long weekend of camping.

But I did it.

Kates and I were up at 7:30 this morning. We packed up our camp and were on the road about two hours later ...

Got home at about 11:40 a.m. Changed into my uniform and ate a leftover brat for lunch. By 12:15, I was at the ball field and lacing up my spikes ...

Let's cut to the chase. For today's game, we were up against the only remaining undefeated team. We lost a 5-4 heartbreaker to them earlier this season, and we've known all along that we could beat them ...

We three three pitchers at them today, including our ace Jimmy, who's still rehabbing that torn ACL of his and yet he and the other two guys three brilliantly, keeping the other team's batters swinging at lots of junk and off speed stuff ...

We got one in the bottom of the first and they tied it in the third. Then they added two more in the fourth, and we tied it at three in the bottom of the sixth. The score stayed that way until the ninth when they got two runs in to go up 5-3. We went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth, and that was the game ...

My dissappointment and exhaustion was only made worse by the fact that I couldn't get anything going ... Playing left field today, I made the first out of the game, catching a deep fly ball, and then I caught up with another one in the sixth that tailed to my right.

But at the plate I was awful. Batting in the sixth spot, I got lucky during my first at-bat in the second, watching two strikes and then getting a walk. Then, I had two great jumps in consecutive attempts to steal second but had to return to first when the batter fouled off the first pitch and then struck out on the second attempt ...

In the fifth I struck out on a nasty curve (dang curve!). And in the eighth, I watched ball one and then fouled off the next two pitches to go down 1-2. The next pitch was another curve that had me ducking away from the plate. Ball two. Then as I'm stepping back to the plate, the catcher mutters, "Watch out for in your ear." I'm thinking he's remarking on the previous pitch -- but it turned out it was genuine warning. The next pitch was a fastball high and inside ... And I couldn't hold the bat back. Strike three I was out ... I made the walk of shame back to the dugout and sat down without a word. I was emotionally drained.

My line for the season …
.360 average, 9 hits, 5 walks, 5 strikeouts, .500 on-base %, 4 stolen bases, 8 runs, 2 RBI

As for our other games …
Game one: We lost, 16-4
Game two: We lost, 13-2
Game three: We lost, I was off for the weekend
Game four: We lost, 5-4
Game five: We lost, 20-9
Game six: We lost, 5-4 (with pictures!)
Game seven: We won, 7-5
Game eight: We lost, 12-4
Game nine: We lost, 14-9