How You Doin' 2008

Had our first "season" game. I started at short which I always like. We were at bat first.

Eric was up first. He has home run power, good speed, and is a very solid hitter. We would need it as we were against an "A" level team, one of the 2 teams that is probably to win the league. Sadly, he topped it and tapped back to the pitcher. Not an auspicious beginning. Emy would get us going, though. She is one of the best female hitters I have ever seen. She has excellent power, good directional control. Well, normally. This time she tapped out to 2nd. Next up was me. Anxious to get something going, I swung at a pitch I probably shouldn't have. Fortunately, it found a hole on the right side and I was aboard. Up came Becky, our left handed hitter. She lives down the right field line. Except this time she grounded out to short. Ouch.

Their first 2 hitters singled, their 3rd guy put it out. We were down 3-0 just like that.

Every now and again, the stars aline and I remember what it was like when I had talent. A couple batters later it happened. With a runner on first, a girl hit a line shot. I was moving before she swung based on her foot position and the pitch location. Sure enough she hit a rising liner over second off to my left. Step, step, leap...I did not even look at the ball, I needed every inch I could get and snow-coned it at the top of my leap. Thing is...it felt natural. I KNEW I was going to get it. But it was spectacular...even the other team oohed and ahed a bit. So I felt good about that. I did NOT feel good about the 4 spot we gave up...

Our next 3 hitters went down in order. 1. 2. 3. That included Steve and Kyle. Before the game I would have thought we would score 4 - 6 runs in our first 7 hitters. Instead we had 1 hit. Ouch.

I was on the bench the next 2 innings during which time we gave up 7 and 3 runs. We finally broke through for 1 when JJ singled, Sarah singled, and Kyle scored on a fielders choice. With runners on first and second, 2 out, I came up. First pitch was inside. It bounced almost at my feet and I was deeeeeep in the batters box, back from the plate. It was called a strike. Next pitch was closer to the plate and called a ball. I fouled off another inside pitch. Then he gave me a meatball...numbers high, outside half of the plate. A classic "mistake" pitch, right in my wheelhouse. And I came out of my shoes swinging at it. I had the happy feet swing.

And grounded to 2nd.

Best pitch I have seen all season. That was the one I could put out of the park if ever there is one and I weakly grounded to second? I suck.

Anyhow, bottom half of the inning I had one chance where with a runner on first they hit a hot grounder. Nick fielded it cleanly. His throw looked strange, I thought it might hit the runner but dragged my foot across the bag as I stretched and made the out.

And that was game. They 10 runned us after 4.