Thursday Game

Will’s Shaw Park Cougars lost their game in Roswell Thursday night 8 – 5, though Will had another good game. Will batted second, and his first time up popped the ball high in the air, and Roswell was able to make the catch.

In the third he grounded a 2 – 2 pitch to the shortstop, who fielded the ball cleanly at the edge of the infield grass, and make a quick throw to first. But Will hustled all the way, and beat the throw, for an infield hit. All night the pitchers were enthralled with throwing over to first to hold the runners. Eventually the throw over to keep Will close got away from the first baseman, and Will took second. He reached third on a passed ball, and scored when the catcher tried to get Will straying too far off third. The throw went past the third baseman, and Will scored easily.

In the fifth Will walked on four pitches, and again stole second. He reached third on an infield groundout, and scored on a base hit. He was the only player on his team to score two runs

He also had another good game in the field. The leadoff batter in the bottom of the first lined the ball up the middle, and Will caught it on the run in centerfield. The next hitter hit another liner to center, but this time it was lower. Will considered making a diving Andruw Jones attempt, but he wisely played it on the bounce.

In the second the batter hit the ball to the fence in right-center. Will ran over and threw to second quick and hard, holding the batter to a single.

Will played shortstop the last four innings, throwing out one runner on a grounder by charging and making a quick throw. He made another spectacular catch of a grounder going to his right deep in the hole, and almost threw out the runner.

He played well the entire game, but I noticed that between pitches he was dragging. Anna told me that he had stayed up just about all night the night before, spending the night at a friend’s house. Hopefully he was recovered for Friday night’s 8:30 game up in Jasper.

Will’s long time small group leader at North Point Community Church got to see him play for the first time. We had chatted after the service this past Sunday, and he again expressed interest in seeing Will play. Thursday afternoon at work I remembered this, and sent him a quick email. The park happened to be right down the road from his office, and he was able to see Will play. It turned out that Dan Callahan was in the same grade as me down the road at Warner Robbins High, and we were probably at the same events several times almost thirty years ago.