Monday, June 16, 2008

Four Games in 24 Hours (& 5 in 50!)

An interesting weekend. Friday I decided to work late, missing Will’s tourney game in Kennesaw, getting ready for next week’s vacation. Ceil went and had a good time. They only managed one hit…Will went 0 – 2 with a deep fly that was caught.

Saturday Will & got haircuts and ran errands, before finding out the game would be at 6:30. The tourney was double-elimination from that point on. The thunderstorms had pushed game times back, and games were running long…mainly due to umpires not keeping things moving. I dropped Will off at 5:30 and hit a store I had seen. Got back to find out the game would start at 8:30, so I did more shopping and reading. Then the game before ours went to extra innings…our game didn’t start til 9:55!

Will got one of the team’s two hits…beating out a grounder to short. At short Will had 3 putouts and an assist. With the bases loaded Will caught a line drive. The runner at third was close to the bag and there was no play at second, so Will fired to first to double off the runner…but the throw hit the runner, allowing the runner from third to score. That’s the way the game went. They only lost 7 – 3…the game finished just before midnight.

We were supposed to go to White Water Sunday morning with a family from Small Group, but we called it off because of baseball. Ceil was going to Decatur to see four of the Norman boys get baptized, at the church pastored by Fred O, Steve’s best friend. There was a large crowd there from Living Science, and Ceil, Anna, & Matthew ate at Everybody’s Pizza with them…A & M got to sit with all the bigger boys and girls. Then Ceil went to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market.

Will’s noon game started around one…they only had nine players. In the third inning rightfielder Anthony called time & removed himself from the game, feeling too bad to continue…though he finished with 5 RBI. They were permitted to finish the game with eight players, and the Wildcats beat a Shaw Park team with several coaches and players we knew. Will had a double and single and scored three runs. In the fourth his sac fly made the score 14 – 7, and the game was ended.

The next game started just before three. Audie wrapped his cast with an Ace Bandage and suited up, becoming the Wildcats’ ninth player. The opponents seemed talented, but again everything went our way. Again Will had a double and single, scoring two more runs. Once he was on third and was caught off base on a grounder back to the pitcher. The pitcher ran at Will and finally tossed the ball to the third-baseman. Will dashed home, but the throw was high, and Will scored.

At short again Will played well, with a putout and four assists. Up 6 – 0 with 2 out in the bottom of the sixth, a batter doubled into the corner. Jeremy ran the ball down and relayed to Will, who fired home just in time to nail the runner at the plate…ending the game.

The championship game started at 5:45. Will was the starting pitcher and struck out three in his two innings of work. He had two more RBI doubles…one a shot well over the leftfielder’s head. After Will scored to tie the game at three, I left for a Small Group meeting that I couldn’t miss. Later Will said he made a nice diving catch of a grounder up the middle, and hopped up to throw out the runner at first. The game was played the full seven innings, and the Wildcats didn’t have enough pitching to last, and lost 12 – 6.

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