Season Opener

Will’s Crown Knights won their season opener Tuesday evening 7-3, at the East Cobb baseball complex. He blistered the ball all three times he batted, drove in a run, walked, and handled the two chances he had at third base.

The first Peachtree City batter of the game hit a chopper that Will charged, caught, and fired to first for the out. In the bottom of the inning Will batted third. Down 0-2, he worked the count full, then drove the payoff pitch deep but right at the rightfielder, who made a nice catch.

In the second Crown batted around, scoring six runs. Will didn’t see a good pitch, and walked on a 3-1 count. He went first to third on Breaden’s two out single to right, but Jordan’s hard knock hit Breaden in the foot, ending the inning.

A different player pitched each inning. Breaden allowed a bloop infield single and unearned run in the second. Will faced the meat of the PTC order in the third. As he often does, he came out overthrowing, and walks put runners on first and second with one out. He settled down and struck out the next two batters, both looking.

In the fourth Will hit the ball on the nose again, another line drive, this time right at the centerfielder. I hoped the liner would either rise over his head, or even dip into the grass and bounce…but the centerfielder made the catch.

It was nearing 7 pm when the inning ended, so with traffic thinning out I made my dash downtown to Lang’s book signing.

Will batted once more after I left, doubling off the centerfield wall 375 feet away to drive in the last run of the game. He continued on the third base on the play, and later told me he had tripled. When I got home I checked the new Crown website. Mr. Nunn had ruled it a double…perhaps the ball was bobbled, or Will took third on the throw.

Mr. Nunn scored the game on his iPad, which updates the website’s stats in real time. http://www.hometeamsonline.com/teams/?u=CROWNBASEBALL&s=baseball&t=c He types up a short recap for each game, and the box score and statistics as well. One interesting stat was “quality at bats,” which should prove interesting as the season progresses. The 3-4-5 hitters (Will/Breaden/Jordan) each had three.

On the Crown side at least five dads kept scorebooks, so we had a lively discussion on the subject. Last year I had been surprised by the season-ending statistics the coaches had published. Though I wasn’t at all the games, the “official” stats varied widely from mine. Perhaps the JV games had been included with the varsity.

In the second the PTC shortstop had to go deep in the hole to reach Tanner’s grounder, all the way onto the outfield grass. The shortstop bobbled the ball, but even had he fielded it cleanly there was no way he could’ve thrown out the lead-footed Tanner. To us four dads sitting together it was an obvious hit, but the coach ruled it an error in his book. If Mr. Nunn scores all the games, this year’s stats should be more equitable.

The JV won as well, by a 10 – 0 score.