I’m not sure that all of you would want to read all this, but I’m sending it just in case you would like to hear. Josh had probably the best game of his life so far yesterday and I am so proud of him and his team that I wanted to share it with you.
His team is down 5 to 0 going into the top of the 4th inning. Their team just seemed to be perfect, always hitting right into the gap and standing exactly where they needed to be in order to catch or stop all our boys’ hits. Our starting pitcher started to feel “something pop” in his hip every time he twisted, so Josh (who had been in left field, and made a very ungraceful but determined dive to attempt to catch a foul ball but came up about 6 inches short) came in to pitch.
He struck out the first batter in three pitches. The next batter came up, swung on the first pitch and grounded out to 2nd. Another first pitch swing by the third batter grounded out to short. Folks – that was a 5 pitch inning!
Our turn. The player put in to bat for our starting pitcher doesn’t look like much, so other teams tend to not expect much from him. Their mistake. He gets our first hit of the game by sending a blooper over the 3rd baseman’s head into shallow left field. That starts a mini-rally that gives us a score of 2-5 at the end of the 4th.
Top of the 5th. Another short half, as Josh and the Huskies get three outs in 8 pitches. They did get a single on Josh, but he was caught stealing 2nd by Tyler, our incredible catcher (you’ll see why I call him that later) for our third out.
Josh is first at bat for the bottom of the inning. (He is great at bat, but mostly because he is patient and gets walked a lot. He is a much better hitter than last year, but still not as consistent as he would like.) He is 0-1 in this game and didn’t get a hit in either of the previous 2 games (though he was walked twice and hit by a pitch). He has two strikes against him and then hits a blooper over the 2nd baseman for a single, which started our second rally of the game. A few batters later, we have two outs, two runners on base and no runs scored for the inning. Tyler comes to the plate and sends one deep into left center field. It was really high and coming practically straight down and the centerfielder missed it! That gave Tyler a 2 RBI double. We are now down by one. During the next at bat, Tyler steals 3rd. The catcher threw too hard and the 3rd baseman missed the ball and Tyler (not a quick runner plus had slid into 3rd) scrambles up and barely takes home on the passed ball, giving us a tied game! The next batter flies out, unfortunately.
During the sixth inning, the home plate ump made some rather dubious calls and our coach was almost thrown out of the game for questioning them. The ump at that point became obviously against us and the calls became ridiculous. He asked the visiting team for confirmation on his count, our scorekeeper (imagine me when I feel slighted, only 10 times worse –i.e. don’t mess with Linda) reminded him pointedly that we, being home, are the official book and he needs to ask us, then the ump yelled at her and our parents because he was mad about being questioned on his calls. All this, while Josh was on the mound. He ended up “walking” a batter at that point, which filled the bases. Everyone in the whole place could tell that it had been a strike, but there wasn’t much that could be done. Josh kept his cool, though. It was obvious that he would have to throw every pitch after that straight down the center, so the next batter swung on the first pitch -oh, had I mentioned that there were two outs – so Josh got back at the ump the only way he could – the batter grounded out to 2nd.
In the seventh inning – here is where you see just how great our catcher is – Josh faced four batters. The first one hit a single. The second flew out to center. The first batter tried to steal second, and was thrown out by Tyler during the third at bat. So there are two outs. The third batter also got a single, and stole 2nd during the next batter. Then he tried to steal third. Tyler strikes once again and the ball was in our third baseman’s mitt before the runner was even 2/3s down the baseline. It was so sweet! Josh gives credit to our 1st base coach, who picked up on the other team’s sign for steal, but it was still Tyler who did the deed!
We obviously did not score any runs in these innings, either. So now we are in the eighth, which is extra innings for the Sandy Koufax league. They put up a good fight, getting a double and a single. But Josh had three more strike outs (apparently they couldn’t figure out his timing, because almost every pitch was a swung strike, not called) and it was our turn at bat again.
Our team was so stoked. The kids and the parents were really into it and loud! Our first batter, Robert, got a single. Our second batter, the one who started our first rally, had a sacrifice bunt to get Robert to second, and everyone was paying so much attention to the out at first that Robert continued on to third. Our next batter flew out. So we have one on with two outs. I think their pitcher was getting tired and feeling the pressure because he walked our next batter, Justin. Up comes Frank, another good hitter who hasn’t been really consistent of late. During the at bat, Justin steals second, giving us runners on 2nd and 3rd. Frank has a count now of 3-1, with 2 outs and 2 runners. He nails a ground ball right past their shortstop for a walk-off single, as Robert comes in to score.
I wish you all could have been there, because, for 13-year-olds, this was a fabulous game! Full of excitement and it was thrilling to watch my son be such a big part of it! Thanks for sharing my joy with me,
Leigh
