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Saturday, May 17, 2008

No Visible Means of Support

The Wildcats lost all three games in this weekend’s Alpharetta Tourney. Will played shortstop in Friday night’s loss that Ceil attended. I took Anna & Matthew to our small group cookout.

Saturday morning Will started the 11:30 game at third base, against the Alpharetta Eagles. The Eagles were a small team with a good starting pitcher, and they played the Wildcats tough. Will caught popups in the first and third. In the second with a runner on first Will dove to his left to spear a grounder in the hole. He had no chance to get the runner at second, but he quickly got to his feet and threw out the batter at first.

In the bottom of the first Will singled through the hole into leftfield, but the next two batters flew out. Will led off the fourth inning with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on Ritchie’s single.

Later Ritchie made a great second-inning play in rightfield. With a runner on second, the batter lined a one-hopper to Ritchie, who charged the ball and came up quickly firing. I thought he was throwing home, but instead the throw went to Nick at first, barely beating the batter. The runner was held at third. Unfortunately, later in the game the Eagles were able to perform the exact same rare 9 – 3 play.

A close game the whole way, the Eagles tied the game in the top of the fifth, scoring two runs when rightfielder Vince, in his first game back from a month-long injury layoff, couldn’t make a sliding catch of a sinking line drive. The Wildcats went back ahead in the bottom of the inning.

The game featured a base umpire who let us know he had umpired last night’s state playoff game at Lassiter, who made sure everyone within earshot knew he controlled the game. He barked at the opposing coach for asking his own shortstop if he had made a tag, and loudly warned Will he would be tossed if he applied another fake tag on a runner.

Will came in to pitch the last inning, against the top of the Eagles order. The little leadoff hitter looped a line drive that shortstop Audie made a wonderful running and leaping catch. The next batter hit a popup that the second-baseman didn’t go hard enough after, and the ball dropped in for a hit. The Eagles by now had learned they could steal on the Wildcats catcher, and soon the runner reached third on a passed ball. Only then did the base umpire call a balk on Will, allowing the tying run to score.

Rattled, Will walked the next batter, before striking out the cleanup hitter for what should’ve been the third out. The walked batter also stole second and took third on another passed ball. The next batter looped a cacheable line drive up the middle. The centerfielder was playing way too deep. He meekly charged, then allowed the ball to bounce past him for a double. But Will got the next batter to ground back to him to end the inning.

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