Doubleheader Split With Crown

Will’s NCA Lions split a doubleheader with their arch rival Crown yesterday afternoon. Crown won the first game by a run in their final at bat, but the Lions returned the favor in the nightcap, scoring two runs in the top of the 7th to break up a tie game.

Will played every inning of both games. In the opener he played left field, but had no balls hit to him. He reached second base one time. A grounder was hit to the shortstop, who tried to turn a double-play. The batter beat the throw to first. Will had taken off running with the crack of the bat, rounded third, and continued on toward home. The first baseman threw to Will’s former Mt. Paran teammate Tanner, now catching for Crown. Will slid headfirst around Tanner, sticking out his hand to tag the base, to score the run.

In game two Will was the starting pitcher. Crown was a much better team than last-week’s opponent in Winder, but Will pitched very good, despite inconsistent calls from the umpire. A Crown batter had homered in the first game, and he also hit one off Will: the first-ever home run Will ever allowed. After that Will settled down, allowing only one unearned run over the next four innings. He made a nice play on a grounder to the first-base side, hustling over just in time to cover the bag.

The Lions sent eight batters to the plate in the top of the sixth, scoring three runs. The temperature got colder as the sun set, and the game was further delayed by coaches visits to the mound and a pitching change, and another long wait for the lights to be turned on. Will led off the inning with a walk, advanced to second on James’ single and third on David’s walk. Will then scored on a wild pitch (ealier in the game he also walked and scored)..

In the bottom of the inning Will came out to pitch, despite a high pitch count and the long delay. The umpire didn’t help, calling borderline pitches strikes. Behind in the count, Crown batters were jumping on the strikes Will had to throw, and the hits were falling just out of the reach of Lion fielders. Second-baseman Isaac bobbled a double-play grounder, and all runners were safe. Mercifully, Coach Roy pulled Will from the game. Still, Will had struck out 5 and only walked 3 of the 29 batters he’d faced, spreading out 8 hits over 6 innings.

David struggled on the mound, and Crown came back and tied the score. In right field, Will made a long running catch near the foul line for out number three.

With one out in the top of the 7tth Will drew a full count walk, after being down 0 – 2 in the count. James lined out, then David blooped a 3 – 2 pitch down the left field line. Will was running on the pitch, and hustled around to third. David had time to make it to second. Will took a big secondary lead off third, eventually drawing a throw from the catcher. The low throw skipped past third into left field, and Will scored. Later David also scored on a wild pitch.

Up by two, David was able to hold Crown scoreless in the bottom of the inning, earning NCA a split. of the doubleheader. A small Living Science crowd attended, including all us Murphys, all the Normans boys save Willis, thier Flight neighbor Katherine, and DJ. Tanner's dad Jay and Christian's mom sat behind the plate with the Crown crowd.