Our team had to do something in our fourth game of the fall season that it hadn’t had to do in the first three games: come from behind to take the win. Our foes from Faith Lutheran played a solid game and took an early six-run lead. It wasn’t until the end of the second inning that we were able to tie things up, but Faith Lutheran kept extending their lead. Our defense eventually was able to hold their scoring while our offense caught up.
Getting the last at-bat as the home team helped us immensely. Going in to the bottom of the fifth, the score was tied 12-12. Heather led off, and when the throw to first was flubbed, she was able to take second. Kevin was next up, and the game ended on a walk-off bunt/error. Kevin wasn’t trying to bunt, mind you, that’s just the way it turned out. The pitcher flubbed the throw to first, and Heather rounded third to score and end the game.
I only played half the game, due to the number of guys who showed up, and only got one at-bat. I made it count, however, getting my first extra-base hit of the season, a double, and scoring a run when Dave moved from second to home. Fielding was a mixed performance. I had some great catches, including a line drive and foul pop-up I had to hustle to snag, but had just as many flubbed grounders. It was just one of those games.
Tag: softball
(Yes, I know “threesey” isn’t a real word, but I was attempting a rhyme.)
Today was game three of our fall season, and I must confess I have never before been embarrassed to wear the jersey of my team as I was today.
Oh, we won, 15-10. The embarrassment was due to the conduct of a few of our teammates.
The ump behind the plate was being very inconsistent with his pitch calling. Wildly inconsistent, with regard to what constituted a ball for one team versus the other. You can intuit the inconsistency was not in our team’s favor.
As I have gotten older, I have mellowed with regard to sports officials. For the most part. These are guys and ladies who have to make a decision in a nanosecond, including times when the call could honestly go either way. Umpires, referrees, they’re not perfect. They’re human, and like all of us are prone to mistakes. I understand that, and respect their authority.
The remaining issue I have with sports officials is a lack of consistency. If pitch A is a ball, and pitch B comes across in exactly the same spot, it should be called a ball, too. Today’s umpire was not being consistent. By the fourth inning, the ire of the team had been raised to a fever pitch. We were on our third pitcher, and not necessarily because the first two were throwing junk. Mind you, there were balls being thrown, but as I murmured to one of my teammates on the bench (I switched off every other inning with Dave at 3d), the law of averages dictates that some of these pitches had to be strikes.
In the top of the fifth, some words were shared from the dugout by one of our teammates, loud enough for the umpire to hear. This was after an exchange while this player was at the plate. The umpire called our coach over, and the team was informed, via this conversation, that if anyone uttered another such comment, they would be ejected. It was a sad moment, I feel, for our team.
After the game, our coach informed us that while she was catching in the fourth, she had asked for some consistency in the pitch calling from the umpire. His reply was a simple nod. The only failing I see here was that our coach should have informed the entire team of this at the end of the inning. The unpleasantness might have then be avoided.
I’m sure some of you are thinking, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that this is a church league. Yes, we are out there to play, have fun, and yes again, to win. However, we should be doing so in a manner worthy of the God we call Lord. We failed to do so today.
It has been said on more than one occasion and by more than one person that Christians are their own worst enemies. More often than not, our words bear no witness for us to the world. Rather, it is our conduct which bears that witness, and we failed in that regard. Our opposition, which was losing, showed what good sportsmanship should look like.
Our league’s games are not the only ones in progress. At the park we play at, there are two other fields in operation. There are spectators, and kids playing on the jungle gym. Sometimes, you may get only one chance to witness to another human being, and you may not even know it. Again, the witness may be through your conduct and never through your words. Who may have been watching our game today, and saw what happened? Who may have thought about checking our church out, but now won’t set foot inside of it? Who may have thought, Gee, if those Christians are just like everyone else, what’s the point? Playing softball is fun, yes, and we play to win, but we should keep in mind we are playing to witness, too, and today, we blew it. Personally, I would rather lose with dignity, with our witness to the world intact.
The cliché goes, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.” It’s true; we’re still human, though we work to emulate the one Who’s name we bear, the one Who called us to follow Him. People will lose their tempers; that happened today. But we should always be mindful of the consequences of losing that temper.
For the record, I went three for three at the plate, with two RBIs. My defense could have been better; I had a guy cold at first, and my throw is four feet off my baseman’s stretch. The team won.
And we lost.
I really didn’t want to post anything this past Sunday other than the 9/11 remembrance, but then I forgot to follow up with a note on our second game of the fall season.
We played against my favorite opponent, and they gave us a run for our money. I had a much better game, and it helped I got to field for most of the game, playing at short for one inning, then at third for the rest. Made some good plays, my throws made it to first accurately and quickly, and I had one of FM UMC’s players telling me to “stop doing that!” (I snagged her pop fly that went foul to end her time at the plate.) My own time at the plate was better spent this game, going two for three, with my first RBI of the season.
We were able to hold off our pals from Flower Mound UMC by two runs, with the final score being 16-14, and putting us at 2-0.
The fall softball season began yesterday for the co-ed church league I participate in. We opened against the sophomore contenders of First United Methodist of Lewisville. (Their rookie season was earlier this year, during the spring.) A lot of youngsters on the FUMC team, but that can cut both ways.
We had a full complement of players show up, and then some. We had three-way and two-way rotations going, as well as outright substitutes. I managed to play three of the six innings, squatting behind the plate and taking the hurls from Heather, our second pitcher of the game. So not much fielding work for me during the first game.
My time in the batter’s box showed the results of not putting bat to ball in four months. I went 0-2, sending out grounders that resulted in fielder’s choices, getting my teammates plugged at second. Definitely time to hit the cages, and friends for company be damned.
Everyone else did well at the plate, and our pitching and defense were superb. The final tally was 17-1, and we begin the season with a win. No play Labor Day weekend, and Katrina has seen fit to deny our trip to the New Orleans area to finish clearing out my wife’s childhood home. So I’ll try to take advantage of the off-week. Anyone for the batting cages and throwing around?
So at this past Sunday’s game, we learned that Faith Lutheran–the team which handed us our only loss–lost their game earlier in the day. A win on our part would put us in a tie with them at the top of the league.
Our game was called after the top of the 5th inning, due to our 11-0 score over the opposition.
I played all five innings, the first two at third, the remaining three behind the plate. I was much more comfortable on defense this game, and got in a good catch and a good throw to first during my two innings at third.
Offensively, I was a wee bit off. Only at the plate twice, and the first time up I struck out looking. The second at-bat was a single, right up the middle, which advanced a runner.
So in the past three games, I am now seven of eight at the plate. I’m really pleased with the way my hitting has picked up, and I’m convinced it’s because I’m choking up on the bat more. I really need to get to the cages for some workout with the new grip. My season average slipped to .667, and lifetime dipped to .583.
All games for this coming Sunday have been rescheduled, due to it being Mother’s Day. This means our second-game showdown with Faith Lutheran will now be the last game of the season. Depending on what happens in two weeks, it could be the game for all the marbles of the spring season.
The team improved to 6-1 today, as we lost to our friends at Flower Mound UMC, 14-10. Yes, that’s right, we won, but we lost. FM UMC didn’t have enough players to start the game, and had to forfeit. A couple of players from Trietsch UMC, who had just finished the game before ours, volunteered to play for FM UMC, so our two teams could play. This was, however, unbeknown to our entire team, with the exception of our coach. I’m glad we got to play, and equally glad that we technically won by forfeit, because as the game wore on, our play got worse, and we relinquished the lead.
As for myself, I’ll chalk up my poor fielding to the two-week layoff: a Texas Rangers game last Sunday, and out of town the week before that.
I switched off with Dave between third and catcher, and I really didn’t have a good day at either position. It seemed I could never get the ball down quick enough to tag a runner out (I never saw a forced play the entire game), and I made critical throwing errors which oftentimes meant an extra bag for the runner. I just plain sucked.
I did have one great grab in the 3d inning, as I leapt to snag a high line drive that was going to drop in to shallow left center before it met my glove.
One could say that I redeemed myself at the plate, but I didn’t feel it. I like playing a solid, complete game. Offensively, this was my best game of the year. I went three for three, two singles and a triple, with two RBIs. The triple felt soooooo good coming off the bat. If I could have kept it about four feet flatter, it might have made it out of the park. As high as it was, it fooled the outfielder and got behind her, rolling to the fence. If it weren’t for her strong-armed counterpart who got to the ball first, I might have had a chance at an in-the-park home run. A long shot, to be sure, but interesting and fun to think about.
So after seven games, five of which I’ve played in, I’m 11 of 16, for an average of .687, with a walk and three RBIs for the season. Not bad, but still much room for improvement. Even more improvement is required on defense. This may come through more field time, should I start playing for the men’s team on Thursday nights…
So the team suffered its first loss of the season today, dropping to 3-1. Against an old competitor, the team collectively couldn’t get much going on offense. Our defense was fairly solid when we got to handle the ball. It was the getting-to-handle-the-ball part which proved to be the problem, as the final score was 13-4. As the old adage goes, “Hit the ball to where they ain’t,” and our opponents proved quite adept at just that.
Personally, it was a pretty good day, though that doesn’t mean much in the end. I was 3-3 at the plate, all singles. No RBIs this game. Batting clean-up, you’d think I would have been able to drive someone in, but that goes back to the team collectively not doing much on offense.
I had little to do on defense during the first two innings. I actually found myself thinking at one point, I wish someone would hit something this way. Be careful what you wish for…
I did have this great play in the 4th inning that I was proud of. One of their power hitters drove the ball right to me on the ground, a hard smack that didn’t require me to move laterally much. I corralled the ball and fired it across the infield to first, getting the out while the hitter was still a couple of feet from the bag. That felt really good, certainly the personal highlight of the day.
This was one of the teams I thought we’d have problems against, and I was right. This church used to field two teams, and it appears that this year, for myriad reasons I’m sure, they’ve consolidated in to one. The week off didn’t help much, either, at least in terms of keeping us in a playing groove, but last week was Easter, so that’s perfectly understandable for a church league. (All the leagues that play on the weekend had last weekend off.)
Nothing left to do now but shake it off and get ready for next week, though the team will have to do it without yours truly. I’ll be coming back from New Orleans next Sunday. We’re heading down to visit my wife’s family, and attend a 10-year law school reunion.
The team went 3-0 this Sunday with a resounding 19-0 defeat of our opponent, another rookie outing by a new church. The bats were certainly mighty for us this week, as the team was able to put together great strings of singles and doubles to mount scoring opportunities.
I fielded from third the entire game, as we only had five guys this week. There was one error on my part, which was saved on the next play by Gary at short, when he turned a double play. That was one of four doubles we turned this game, and I was in on the last one.
My time at the plate was the worst yet, as I went one for three. The first time at bat, I hit in to a fielder’s choice to end the inning. The second time was worse, as I struck out looking. (In this league, you step up to the plate starting with a 1-1 count.) The called strike looked exactly like the previous pitch, which was called a ball. It was low and outside. I guess this strike just crossed the edge of the plate. The third time was a single right up the middle, which advanced runners and got me my first RBI of the year. My overall average for the still-young season dropped to an even .500.
The team looked really good. After we turned the fourth double, I heard from the opposing bench, “We’ve got to get the ball past the infield. These guys are stopping everything.” Quite the compliment, and much appreciated.
We’re off for Easter Sunday, then it’s in to the meat of the schedule, as we pick up games against teams that have been traditionally tough. It will be fun to see if we can maintain what has become consistent play on both sides of the ball.
So as the boys of summer gear up for another season of America’s game, we dreamers suited up for game two of our spring season. I only fielded 2 of the 5 innings, but felt much better this time around. I didn’t handle the ball as much as I would have liked, but simply felt more comfortable back in the position.
There was this great play in the second inning. The batter put a shot in to center left, and the runner on first came around second, heading to third. A great throw by Keith, the center-left fielder, combined with a second great throw by Gary, playing shortstop and acting as the cutoff man, nailed the runner while she was still two steps from the bag. It felt really good. Except for the knee she put in the side of my right leg, just below my knee. I didn’t know until about an hour later how big of a bruise I had. I know she didn’t do it intentionally, it’s just one of those breaks of the game, and my first injury of the season.
At the plate, I had a better day, going 2 for 3. No RBIs again, but that’s what happens when for one of those at-bats you’re the first man at the plate for the inning. The second injury of the season came during the fifth, and last, inning, when I scraped up my right shin while mis-sliding in to second. Still beat the tag, and it’s just that top layer or two of skin, which will scab over relatively quickly, so it’s a small price to pay.
The team we played is probably our favorite team to play against. I don’t mean that in any sort of insulting way, like they’re an easy win or anything. It’s the team from Flower Mound UMC, and they’re just a fun group of folks to play against. I see similar affections amongst the teammates, and we enjoy a certain good-natured ribbing and conversation with them during and after the game that we just don’t have with any of the other teams. I see them as kindred spirits; it’s great to win, and you play to win, but you really just want to have a good time playing ball. Truth be told, so long as they’re not playing us, I root for these guys and gals.
In the end, we managed to outlast them. After we went up huge in the third, FM UMC began a comeback, and looked to be on the verge of pulling it off in the bottom of the fifth. Our defense held and the final score was 15-11, putting us at 2-0 with 10 games left to play. Still a lot of season to go…
Our softball league’s spring season began today. Most of the old crew was back, with a couple of new faces. We faced a new opponent for this first game, as one of the town’s Methodist churches is fielding a second unit this year. I was on third, as usual, playing four of the five innings. (With one extra man, we had a three-way rotation going.)
From a fielding perspective, I’m out of practice. My throws to first were a wee bit short each time. At the plate, I was much happier with my performance, going 2-4 with a walk. No RBIs this game, but I did advance runners each time I got on base.
Final score was 18-7, and we’re 1-0 to kick off the season. It was a good start, working a lot of the kinks out after being off for four months. My time off was much longer, due to the injury I sustained at the end of last year’s summer season, and it showed. Time to hit the cages, and get to throwing around more with the guys in the neighborhood.
One of our ladies took a shot to the head in the second inning. She was on third, and the batter at the plate, another lady, tattooed the ball right down the third-base line and beaned her before she could get out of the way. She was very woozy, but never passed out. One of the guys on our team is the assistant fire chief for the town, and has some EMS training, and we kept her under observation on the bench the rest of the game. We all encouraged, asked, and begged her to go to the hospital to get checked out, just to be assured there was nothing critically wrong. We’ll be checking up on her in the coming days.