Keep on swingin'

Well, now that the Flyers are just about out of the playoffs -- and really, who thought they would last this long? -- I'm going to make a concerted effort to post almost every day -- if not every day. Speaking of concerted efforts, kudos to my softball team last night. I'm a coach for my girlfriend's women's league slow pitch team. I have several friends on the team as well, so I do have fun when we play. The last couple of weeks had proven tough for us. We started that stretch getting hammered 17-2 by a beatable team. We then came back and lost 10-9 to the second best team in our league in the bottom of the 7th -- the very definition of a tough loss when you consider we had never beaten this team, had been losing all game and had managed to eke out a 9-8 lead in the top half of the 7th. Seeking to build on our moral victory, we then faced off against the best team in the league and their undefeated record. We limped away after a lousy four and a half innings with a 19-1 loss and several pissed off coaches. (The league employs a 15-run rule.) We were able to get in a practice on Sunday -- to which only seven players showed up, a fact that did not help to improve the coach's disposition -- only our second of the season. We knew that last night's game would be important. Nursing a 3-5 record into the game, we wanted a win to send us into the break between the two halves of the season at 4-5 and with some momentum towards a possible playoff spot. (The top four teams make the playoffs, and the top two spots are pretty much already locked up.) The game was a squeaker. We spotted the other team the early lead -- a very annoying trend our team has -- but managed to claw back to tie the score at 3 by the third inning. It stayed that way through the 6th inning and on into the bottom of the 7th. Our leadoff hitter, realizing we only needed one run to win the game, did her job and singled. The next batter grounded into one of the luckiest double plays I have ever seen. She smoked the ball right between the pitcher's legs – literally -- that wound up right in the hands of the second baseman (basewoman?). Had the pitcher had any time to react, chances are she would have deflected the ball away from any of the fielders and we would've had first and second with no outs. Unfortunately, it was not to be and we had no one on and two outs. Severely deflated, our next hitter swung at a bad pitch and flew out to left field to end the 7th and sent the game to extra innings. Apparently still suffering from the letdown of that double play, our team gave up 2 runs in the top of the 8th to go down 5-3 heading onto the bottom of the inning. Finding some reserve of hope that they knew they had, our team came out on fire with a three-run inning to win the game. Hit after hit after hit came, with only one out thrown in the mix -- and that a sacrifice fly that tied the game. It was gutsy effort shown by both teams, and I am thoroughly glad we were on the winning side.