I'm still sore
from the weekend.I guess playing five games of softball before being in full game shape will do that to a person.
We partook in a tournament and our first game was Saturday at 9 a.m. After the first game I was worried that it was going to turn into one of our typical tourney flops as we got flat drilled 23-6. There were some grumblings that this team had yet to win a tournament game of any kind but as I watched our next opponents warm up, I knew that we were going to win.
They were awful in warmups.
They were worse in the game.
For some reason, they hit a fastpitch bat weighing only about 22 oz. That sucker had to be hollow because it rang with a loud ping whenever contact was made. But there was absolutely no pop to it whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch. One of their first batters tried to rip a line drive, but coming off of that bat was nothing more than a floater that confused our shortstop as it was coming at him so slow. Needless to say we won, and won big 26-0.
After an hour break, we faced off with the team that had smoked us. However, they had been parked in the parking lot partaking in the beer drinking. We came out with a renewed vigor and traded runs back and forth until we came to the bottom of the last inning with the score tied at 9-9. Our first batter ripped a line drive and with his speed turned it into a triple. So now the winning run is standing on third with none out.
The team promptly walks our next two hitters to get to me. I'm not sure what they thought I was going to do as I had been stroking the ball rather well.
I came up to the plate and the first pitch he threw me was a bit inside but a strike none the less. I smashed a laser down the third base line between the third baseman and the bag. Bases clearing double. Game over. Revenge is always sweet.
Our next game was another route. This time I decided I was going to pitch and we won 24-4.
The championship game was a different story. In the third innning, I led off with a single and then advanced on a single. Two on, none out. Our next batter flies out and Adam and I can't advance. Casey comes up and hits a grounder deep in the hole behind second. Somehow the second baseman knocks it down and flips it to the shortstop who is clearly standing about a foot away from the bag. The ump calls the out and the shortstop even admits he wasn't anywhere close to the bag. Now we've got runners at the corners with two outs. JP comes up and hits a hard grounder to short who fires a throw to first. JP was a step past the bag when the ump calls him out.
Bad calls on both parts and our team nearly lost their heads. We were down by one 15-14 heading into the bottom of the 6th. At that point, we suffered another collapse and they scored 5 to take a 20-14 lead into the top of the 7th. We didn't give up and we scored five but it wasn't enough as those bad calls ended up biting us in the butt as we lost 20-19.Oh well, it happens.
Personally, I hit the snot out of the ball. By my count I was 11-18 during the action, but Ko swears we got more at bats. We may have, but I'll stay satisfied with a .611 average. I think I'm ready for Riverfest this weekend.
I headed to Jar's after the tourney only to find them ready to practice for our co-ed team. I called Mindy and we all went to the ball diamond and spent an hour or so taking turns hitting.
Sunday rolled around and I could barely roll out of bed. I had muscles I had forgotten about that were sore. I hobbled like an arthitec old man for about an hour until my phone rang. Mindy was calling wondering if we were going to get together and hit again. I called Jar and Jen and then made a call to Marcos and Jackie.
All six of us got together at 4 and next thing I knew, it was 6:45. We had a ball practicing and I can already tell that we'll have a ton of fun playing co-ed softball. I have a feeling that a quick emergency trip to Wichita will be in action to get balls to play with for the co-ed team.
As I look on it, I really am a softball whore.
posted by Rusty @ 11:25 PM
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