a streak

Last night the baseball team I'm assistant-coaching won its second game... in a row. Last Monday we finally got the monkey off our backs. We began the season 0-6. Last Monday we played against the undefeated Grizzlies. They certainly seem to be the most talented team in our 4-team league.

But we beat 'em! We got some great pitching from a couple of our kids (one of whom had never pitched before in a game), we hit the ball well, and we even made a few decent defensive plays.

It got kind of crazy at the end. We had a 1-run lead as the Grizzlies came up to bat in the bottom of the last inning. Due up were their three best hitters. The first kid poked one hard to left field, but he had hit a long one there earlier in the game, so our left fielder was playing deep and he made the catch. The second batter hit a shot right back at the pitcher, but our pitcher knocked it down, picked it up, and threw him out. The third kid hammered one to right. Not good. Probably 7 out of the 12 kids on our team are NOT what I could call "good athletes," and if I were ranking those 7, our right fielder would have been at the bottom. He was playing right field because that's where the ball usually does NOT go. But he ran over... and caught the ball. I couldn't believe it. We won the game.

Then, last night we played the league's second-best team. Our starting pitcher threw a fantastic game (he only walked two batters in 4 innings... and our average walks-per-inning this season is probably around 3 or 4!!!). We hit the ball really well again (one kid hit an inside-the-park home run). We made some really great defensive plays, and we won 16-7.

I seriously can't figure out many of our players. We had a kid in right field yesterday who watched a ball get past our first baseman and then roll to almost a complete stop before he started jogging after it, and then lazily throwing it in to the infield. C'mon, you have to put some effort in. Next inning that same kid was running the bases, and on his way to third he slowed to almost a walk. He got almost all the way to third before he realized that the coach was telling him to run home, so he did. There was a close play at the plate, so he slid and he was safe. I yelled at him that the run would have been a lot easier if he hadn't been WALKING to third base. He didn't have a response. THEN, we had him playing second base on defense, and he made a play I never imagined he could have made. The ball was hit up the middle and our guy ran a long way to his right, reached out to nab the grounder, then stopped and threw a zinger to first to get the batter out. Couldn't believe it. Sometimes I think they're just messin' with me.

Anyway, if 2 wins in a row counts as a "streak," we're on one.