Ok so I have blogged in the past about your church softball team and league but here is a little background. Three years ago we had our first team, lost every game except one, lost all those games by double digits and just played terrible. We didn't even know the rules of this league and made general fools of ourselves every week. In response to that, Everett and Aryln- Mr and Mr Baseball in our church- became our coaches. We practiced and learned our positions and had strategy. Last summer we were good. We won games. We ended up second in our league. We got a trophy. So this summer we had high expectations of doing as well or better. We were preseason ranked #1. We added another great guy on our team named Kevin to go with the Kevin we added last summer. Our congregation is doing a good job of inviting folks to church who are not only cool to hang out with, but are ringers for the softball team :-)
We won a bunch of games this year. We only lost two- one to Gloria Dei Lutheran who has a really great pitcher who puts this spin on the ball so we affectionately call him 'the spin doctor' and Church of the Nazarene who we always play really close. Two weeks ago was the end of the regular season when we were out of town. The game would determine the regular season winner. They had to forfeit so we won. WE WON THE REGULAR SEASON; only two years after going 1-11 or whatever. That was glorious!!!
We got a bye for the first round of the tournament and had the end of the tournament last night. In the semifinals we had to play the Nazarenes. I caught a popfly at second base off their best hitter. That was glorious!! We played really close again and in the bottom of the last inning we came from behind, scored two runs and won the game. That was glorious!!!
Now we are in the finals and have to play the spin doctor. We lost to them at our last meeting 15-5. We start the game great. I have this awesome hit (my only really good one of the season) which landed in the hole behind third base. I get on base every time I am up. I walk a run in. We are clicking. We had a tight defense. I got pelted three innings in a row by the left handed batter playing second base and have mighty bruises to show for it. We were up 15-4 at one point and 15-7 going into the last inning. Everett had an infield home run which ran in 2 other batters. He had an amazing slide at home. That was glorious!! That is when the unraveling began. It started when our first baseman took a popfly to the nose. Bleeding during church softball never is a good thing. He recovered, jammed tissues up his nose and we kept playing. They scored one run. We are still up. We get two outs. One more out and the GIGANTIC traveling trophy will come to our church. One more out and we will be tournament champs. One more out we couldn't get until they scored 11 more runs. ELEVEN MORE RUNS! everyone made errors. no one is to blame. it is church softball. it was demoralizing. one more out is all we needed. we unraveled. we did get last ups, but only scored one more run. the final score was 19-16. it was humbling and miserable and terrible. we had a trophy ceremony after the game. we got a trophy for being regular season champs and one for second place in the tourney. i couldn't help but feel yoda green with envy when the Lutherans walked away with the giant traveling trophy. i replayed the last inning over and over in my head as i went to sleep. i woke up wishing i had made that out at second and stopped the unraveling. i am demoralized. it is only church softball. we are supposed to be in it for the fun and fellowship and not for the huge traveling trophy. forgive me, Jesus, for coveting my neighbors huge gigantic traveling trophy.
No comments:
Post a Comment