A win, A lesson, and A little pride

OK I know people will start saying all I talk about is baseball. Because this is only the second time I have blogged and both times were about baseball. As I just told Jamie about 10 minutes ago baseball is pretty much all that is on my mind right now. But anyway on to last nights game. I had been anxious about the game all day yesterday because we got spanked Tuesday night 16 to 1. Our team is much better than that, but we were in a slump hitting. Not taking anything away from the other team, even if we would have been hitting, we most likely would have still lost that game. That team will most likely be the best team we face all year. Moving on…. Last night started with us having to pick up a kid from the other Leeds team. I was very thankful that there was someone willing to play with us. We were home team so we had last bat. We were doing great and holding the other team and scoring when we needed to, but the other team was hanging in there. We had a little bit of a lead and it was getting late in the game and as my team has done a couple of times in the past, got relaxed and just didn’t make some plays starting the fifth inning. We went into the 5th inning with an 11-10 lead. After making many errors we were going in to the bottom of the 5th with a 16-11 deficit. So I was like ok we can come back from this no biggie we just have to hit the ball. Like I said earlier we have had a couple of kids in a slump hitting, so we went up to bat. My first kid got up to bat and got a base hit. My next 2 hitters two of my best hitters (ones in the slump) both struck out. The ump says time is out on the clock, so this means that this is our last chance. We don’t get to play our 6th inning because 1 1/2 hours have passed. So now I have 1 runner on base 2 of my less consistent hitters still in the lineup, 2 outs and a 5 point deficit. My heart sank. I was thinking here we go we have held the team, and been in the lead the whole game and now we are about to walk away with a loss. The next batter comes up third pitch gets a base hit. Now we have runners on 1st and 3rd. Next hitter comes to hit gets a double 2 runs score we are down by only 3. I am still not felling a comeback yet, because I have a kid coming up who has struck out more then he has hit. Oh and I forgot to mention the catcher on the other team was a talker. He had some of the kids really rattled and the one coming up to bat was really easy to get shaken up. Ok 3rd pitch he hits a base hit. 1 runner scores, down by only 2!! OK I’m feeling a little better now. The kid I picked up, the last batter in the lineup comes up to bat. I am thinking if I can just get past him I will be at the top of my lineup. He gets up there gets a base hit, another run scores and we are down by 1. Top of the lineup, Alex my son comes to bat. He has not hit that great the rest of the game. He has hit a fly ball for an out, and a couple of infield base hits tonight. He comes up to bat I look at him and I said this was his turn lets win this game right here. He looked at me and said yes sir. First pitch he smacked it. I turn to see the ball sailing in the air. I think it is gone… Going… going ….. going…. Hits the top of the fence about an inch from his first home run….. The kid on base scores!!! Alex is rounding 2nd and the ball is still in the outfield. He gets to third, they are throwing the ball in, we send him…. He gets home well before the ball got there. An In the park homerun!!! We win the game 17-16. I was so proud…. I was proud of all of the kids, but as a Dad I would be lying if I said that I was not overly proud of my son. Because I was!!!! He came in and got the job done. I learned a lesson from this game though. And that is the point of my blog today (well with the exception of bragging on my boy!!!!!) I gave up when we were down by 5 had 2 outs and only 1 runner on base. Not giving up is something I preached to these kids every practice and every game for 2 months now. And I did exactly what I told them not to do I gave up. Fortunately the Kids did not. They fought, they hit, they battled back and had a big come from behind win. I am so proud of all of those guys, and I will never give up again.