Today was challenging and fun. I am starting to get some reasonable decent sleep since I am not working, though it is still not on my circadian rhythm and sometimes more restless than ideal. I did some tidying around the place and visited Facebook for an hour or so and played Ruzzle for an hour or so (I don't mention it but I play Ruzzle to pass the time just about every day, especually since I started playing in the Ruzzle tournaments while require daily playt to do well as they add up each days scores for a weekly competition. Winners get coins though I have not explored what the coins buy). Jackson texted that she had a 6:30pm game and I did too, so I headed to the softball fields, said hi to Jackson and Brandi and her team, and headed to my game.
After winning our last two games of the season we finished with a 2-7 record but the team we beat in those last two weeks also had a 2-7 record so we finished third. We got to play the second place team who had a 5-4 record and the team we beat twice got to play the first place team who had a 9-0 record, winning all nine games easily scoring 115 runs and only giving up 38 runs in the nine games. Our game started off ok. We took a 2 run lead in the first and they came back to tie it 2-2. A couple of innings went by without scoring and then we opened up a 6-2 lead in the fourth. They came back in the fifth with five runs on five errors to make it 7-6. We tied it up in the sixth, held them in the bottom of the sixth, and went into the last inning tied 7-7.
It's the first game of the playoffs and we are tied 7-7 in the top of the last inning. Our lead off batter hits a triple. The next batter watches strike three go past. The next batter pops up to the catcher. I get up and watch a ball go by that is called a strike, but was very questionable. I swing and foul off the next pitch and swing and miss the third pitch. I might go down with a swinging strike out once a year in a few hundred at bats. I lost focus. Bad timing to suck.
The other team gets up and after two strikes I walk the first batter. The next batter hits a ground ball to short and we get one out but miss the double play. The next batter hits a single through the shortstop and third baseman. The next batter hits a ball back to me and I turn and throw to the shortstop who is running toward second. Unfortunately, he was a little late getting there so I had to wait a couple of seconds and the second baseman also ran to second and the runner slid and all three got there at the same time. My throw was accurate and the shortstop caught it, but he tripped over the runner and second baseman and we missed the double play again. Worse, the umpire called the runner safe claiming the shortstop never touched the bag. Bad call, the shortstop tripped because he stepped on the bag and the sliding runner took his foot out from under him and the second baseman was in the way so he lost his balance. Unfortunately, the second baseman also blocked the umpire's view, so he called the runner safe. The next batter hit a fly ball to right field which would have been three outs and extra innings, but because of the call at second the runner on third tagged up. They win 8-7.
Frustrating. Maybe I should have thrown to third to get the lead runner, but the runner going to first was slow and I fielded and threw the ball cleanly. It was an easy double play to end the inning. Frustrating. Even more frustrating because five of the other teams runs came in one inning on five errors. Balls hit outfielder's gloves and bounced out twice. Three wild throws. I had really good control of the batters at the plater getting them to ground ball and pop up a lot, but they win. Tough loss. That's the game. Most frustrating is striking out with the go ahead run on third.
We drop into the losers bracket and play that game next week. After the game I hung out with some players who's wives play on the woman's teams that played after us. I play or have played with many of the women on co-ed teams in other leagues so I hang out to watch them often if I have an early game on Monday nights. That was fun.
And that wraps up the dirt, drama, and details of today. Hope we had fun :)
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