A Good Loss

Well, basically only in comparison. While Bobby wanted me to start this entry with, "It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times," tonight we actually played one of our better games. It helped that we had a classy opponent that probably also belonged in Division 4.

First, the story about Thursday night's game. It was against First Baptist, a team we'd played earlier in the season. At the time, we noted that, when this team had a little experience, they'd be really dangerous. Apparently, that was completely accurate. At least in softball skills. Apparently their sportsmanship left a lot to be desired as well.

As you can tell from a glance at the side, it was a rout. The three-inning mercy rule got invoked. Yet, apparently, there were still players on the other side taking extra bases, etc. with the game well in hand. That's just not something you should be doing in church softball, especially D4. It's about having fun, not padding stats and scores. From what I hear, there was some discussion with them on these points. Hopefully it wasn't enough to keep us from winning the sportsmanship trophy for the second straight year.

Tonight was much better. It was another team we'd played before and their team was a mix of older guys (40s-50s), young guys and some girls. In other words, kinda similar to our team. The other two teams that have been good opponents were also a mix like this instead of all young hotshots wanting to run up the score.

For an example of the class of this team, in the bottom of the fifth, they come to bat with the score 11-0 and about 10 or so minutes left. If they score a run, the game's over. The first guy pokes a single to the outfield that our fielder overruns. The runner continues on to third. No one out, runner on third, I'm guessing the game's over soon.

The next batter hit one on the ground toward third. Many teams would have broken to the plate on contact, but he stayed there as we got the out. After another infield hit and a strikeout, the runner was still on third when we got the third out. He could have scored at least twice, but didn't and that gave us another chance to bat. Just classy, I tell you.

They also weren't able to hit it to the gaps in the outfield very often, another reason we stayed close to them. We got two double plays, once when we got the runner going to third, then tagged the runner going to second when she got off the bag after initially being ruled safe, and once an unassisted one by our third baseman, who caught a wicked line drive and was able to double off the runner that had broken for home.

I got two of the team's six hits. The first time up, I hit a foul ball that thankfully no one was able to catch. I drilled the next pitch up the middle for a single, but was erased on a double play of their own. The second time, I got a similar pitch. Running for second on the grounder hit behind me, I thought I heard them say "throw it to second", so I thought about sliding.

I've had ugly slides before, but this takes the cake. I was only about a step away from the bag anyway when I decided to do this. I wound up planting my left foot and basically falling on the base. And after all that, there was no throw!

Bobby also decided that I needed to try out first base tonight. I was thinking I'd never played that position before, but once I got out there, I realized that not only had I, but I'd played it on that very field. Last season, I'd had to play first for a couple of innings when we had an injury situation. Tonight could have been better, but it could have been much worse.

The first play I get in the first was probably the best one all night. Kevin winged one from the shortstop position that tailed away from me into the basepath. I was able to get down in front of it and look up to see the runner right there in front of me. A quick tag and he was out.

I had two other plays where I caught the ball, but the runner was safe. The second one, especially, seemed a little questionable to me but the ump said it was a tie, and as you know, the runner gets those. I also had two balls thrown to me that deflected off the top of my glove. I probably should have had both of those, as they were good throws. And there was one wild throw past me, but there was nothing I could do about that. All in all, a serviceable outing.

We're off until next Thursday. Maybe we can put up some runs then.