Another Wildcats Loss

Wednesday afternoon and evening Will attended his varsity basketball team’s game at Phillips Arena, which was followed by the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream game against New York. After the game the guys spent the night together, and Will only got two hours of sleep. Thursday his Wildcats played an 8 pm game in the late afternoon heat, at Big Shanty Park in Kennesaw. Still, Will could not have played better.

He hit the ball hard every time he batted:

In the first the shortstop snagged a grounder and barely threw Will out at first.

He lined a fourth-inning letter-high inside pitch over the third-baseman’s head. The left-fielder ran hard toward the line are barely cut the ball off from rolling to the fence. The first-base coach waved Will toward second, but changed his mind as Will was a third of the way toward second. Will hesitated, then continued on to second when the shortstop missed catching the cutoff throw. As the second-baseman scooped up the ball near the infield side of the bag, Will slid in headfirst from the rightfield side of the base, barely sticking his hand in before the tag. Will took off for third on the next batter’s grounder to short, and continued home when the first-baseman was unable to handle the throw. The Wildcats scored another run to tie the game.

At shortstop Will also played flawlessly, with two putouts and an assist. He also handled several good cutoffs from the outfield, made a quick catch and tag to retire one base-stealer, and almost repeated that feat a second time.

Will was brought in to pitch the top of the sixth inning. With Audie, Nick, and Anthony out, the Wildcats defense was already depleted. Then slick-fielding shortstop / outfielder Andrew came up lame and sat out the inning. Will proceeded to face ten batters…only one hit the ball solid and hard. He walked none and only threw three balls to just one batter. Still, Will thought he pitched poorly, though eight of the ten batters should have been put out. Here’s how the inning went:

Grounder through the backup first-baseman’s legs (one missed out).

Line drive the centerfielder went for, then backed off (two).

Hard bunt that rolled under Will’s bare hand (three).

Bases loaded triple to right center…after a bunt rolled foul.

Strikeout (four).

RBI bloop single to center, off the handle of the bat.

Hit by pitch…later forced at home (five).

Bloop single just out of backup second-baseman’s reach (six).

Fly ball the backup rightfielder should’ve caught (seven).

Double play…pitcher Will to catcher to first (eight).

In the bottom of the inning Will hit a sharp grounder up the middle, but at the last second the pitcher flung his glove out and speared the ball.

Today should be a restful day for Will. Tonight’s game is at 6 pm.