Back from Baltimore, Softball playoffs

I'd throw a nickname instead of the city name, but I have no idea if Baltimore even has a nickname. If it does, I'm sure it has something to do with crabs. It was an excellent two days and I'll have a more thorough recap in a week or two once my pictures get developed.

Plenty of things to discuss, so I'll probably split this up. First, softball is finished. After flying in from Baltimore, I drove straight to the field and I got there at 8:50, 10 minutes before the first pitch. They opened with a run in the top of the first and we countered with 2. Then they erupted with 4 to make it 5-2. Then it was 6-2. In the fifth, we cut it to 6-4 thanks to Cliff (Our Ozzie Guillen look-alike), who hit a 2-run triple. Unfortunately, I flew out with runners on second and third and two outs to kill the rally. In the sixth, we scored three runs to take the lead. Derek (who has the worst swing I've ever seen, as he drops the bat straight down and swings up) drilled the ball to right field for a double and 2 runs scored. We got one more and then came the top of the seventh. With 2 outs and runners on first and second their guy hits a grouder to short. Tim (who had played great defense all day), flips the ball over the second baseman's head. Run scores. We do nothing in the seventh. To extra innings we go.

Nothing happens in the eighth. Actually one thing happened. We had a runner on first and Derek came up. Pop up to the third baseman and he drops the ball. The runner at first was thrown out, which makes sense since he thought the ball would be caught. But Derek never ran to first. He just stood at home plate. They throw to first for an easy double play. They scored twice in the ninth. In the ninth, our leadoff hitter gets on with a walk. Cliff grounds out to third. But Tim over runs second base and gets thrown out trying to get back to the base. Two down just like that. Jody (our best hitter) Lucas and get on forst and second and Dan our lefty pitcher comes up. I'm on deck. All year long, we've been talking about patience and waiting for our pitch. First pitch. He swings. Groundout to second, game over. Year over.

That was the third straight week we lost to that team. We finally played them tough but we beat ourselves. I didn't really know if we would win, but the bottom line is this. We made mental mistakes, they didn't. They were aggressive, took the extra base when they had a chance, we didn't. So for the year, we finished 8-6. Not too bad considering that team had 1 win in 20 games over the 2 years before I joined. So I guess I did my job. Now I need to iron out my hitting.

As for my hitting, I grounded out twice, singled, walked, and flew out to deep left.