It’s Sunday. And that means it’s game day. Time for some baseball.
We had this one circled on our schedule at the beginning of the season. We were going up against a team that matches up with us from top to bottom as well as anybody. A team that’s as competitive as any in the league. And a team that’s roundly annoying because of how seriously they take their baseball … They don't seem to get the recreation part.
To up the motivation factor, if we came out with a win today, we’d be tied for third place in the standings…
Instead, the story of today’s game was written in one unfortunate third inning, and we lost the game, 8-6.
Through the first two innings, we traded runs and they carried a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the third. It looked early as though it would be a tight game all the way … But in the bottom of the third, we gave up a couple walks, a string of booted ground balls, a misplayed double-play ball, and soon they’d put five runs on us.
From that point on, though, our defense was snappy, and we didn’t give up another run the entire game. Still, we couldn’t get out bats going, and by the time we crawled back into the game, it was too late…
I led off the game with a bloop single to left field, then stole second and scored to get us on the board … Then, in the fourth, I slapped the first pitch I saw toward the second baseman and grounded into an easy double play.
In the seventh inning, I put up an epic at-bat that might go down as one of the most memorable I’ve had during my time in this amateur league. It’s just too bad the outcome wasn’t in my favor … I knew the opposing pitcher had been throwing hard fastballs all day and mixing in some solid change-ups; that’s my kind of pitcher so I was stepping to the plate and hacking at every pitch that came near the zone …
He started me with a fastball just below the letters which I took for a strike. Then I swung and missed the second fastball to go down 0-2. Then a ball that was high, ball two was outside and I pulled back on a swing to get ball three. Then, I fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch after pitch … I fouled one into the catcher’s shoulder, several more to the backstop and a couple that bounced in front of the plate but rolled foul.
One of my teammates said he counted 12 or 13 pitches in the at-bat. I was faring well at keeping up with the fast ones and waiting back on the slow stuff ... But by the last couple pitches, the battle had drawn on for so long that I was starting to lose focus and almost couldn’t keep from breaking into a little bit of laughter at was happening …
Finally, I fouled a pitch into the catcher’s glove for strike three … Ugh. I could take solace in the positive reception I got from the guys when I returned to the dugout. But man, after all that, a hit would have been really nice …
I got some redemption in the top of the ninth. Down 8-3, we were desperate for a rally … After the lead-off batter struck out, I stepped up hoping to get something started and slapped a ground ball down the third base line for a clean single …
On the next batter’s liner up the middle, I advanced to third base but was called back to second base on an interference because the ball had hit the infield umpire on its way through the infield … Nonetheless, the next batter hit a deep ball to center field, I stayed on second base to either tag or make sure the ball dropped -- and when the ball dropped, I took off and scored. The runner behind me scored, too and the rally was on … But we could only muster one more run. With two outs and another runner on, the tying run came to the plate, but flied out to right field to end the game.
And so it goes.
The loss dropped us to 5-4 for the season. But it was hard to find anything to be ashamed of .. It was hard-fought, fun game to play today. Just the way it should be.
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