Game 1: Off and Rolling

Well, our first game of the season has come and gone. It it almost time for another game, but I will try to get back to the trend of getting things on the blog more quickly. This has just been a crazy week (see http://krajcafamily.blogspot.com/ for details of Friday).

As for the game, I thought is was a pretty good start to the season, especially considering we hadn't played in almost two months.

For those who could not make it out, I would like to give a brief recap (it will be extra short because it was almost a week ago):

The pre-game routine did not go as planned this week for a couple of reasons. As I was about to leave the house to get to the field on time, I found out that I needed to go pick up Michael from house because Christi had the car (she was at Mom's Meals where she was putting together meals for her family as well as ours). Once we got there and got started warming up, we found out that we weren't going to be playing on the field we were sheduled to play on because they were having problems with the lights on that field. We had to gather up our belongings and relocate. Once the game prior to our ended we were able to get on the field to prepare for our game, but we didn't have a lot of time. So, I quickly scribbled down the lineup and turned it in.

Once the game started, it didn't take long for things to get going. The other team managed to score 4 runs in their first at bat, which, although not preferred, was a managable deficit. We were able to put together a rally for 2 runs of our own in the bottom if the first. In their next at bat, the opponent was able to grab a couple more runs to extend the lead to 6-2, but we capitalized on several keys hits to tie the game up at 6 in the bottom of the inning. If my memory serves me correctly, no runs were scored in the 3rd innng and we went into the 4th tied 6-6. In the top of the inning, the other team managed to put together thier biggest inning of the game and pulled ahead 11-6. After coming from behind once already, we felt good about our chances, but things didn't quite fall into place. We managed to score 2, which brought us within 3 of tying it up again, but we literally ran out of time in this one as time expired in the bottom of the 4th and we got out third out still down by those same three runs.

On the offensive side of things, it went pretty well. Although there have been several game in which we have scored much more than 8 runs, we had several good hits and the bats were lively, especially for having not played in so long. If we improve just a little in key situations, I think good things will happen on the offensive side. Thinks to note were Josh's first inside the park homerun of the season, as well as Nathan's had grounder down the line that was too hot for the thirdbaseman to handle.

As for defense, I think we knocked a lot of rust off during the course of this game. There were several good things to focus on in this game and only a couple of areas where we weren't quite as sharp. Overall, I can handle our performance for the first game of the season. High points on defense were, in particular, fantastic play from the new thirdbasement for WPC, Kyle. He made several stellar plays at the hot corner throughout the game. I would also like to mention the tremendous effort by Brandon at first base as he backed up just about everything, holding several runners to their rightful bases.

R-O-L-A-I-D-S, that's all I have to say about the pitching (just giving you a hard time, Matt). I think the struggles with the strike zone can be attributed to a couple of things. Two months of not playing and an official who had a particularly skewed view of the zone. Don't worry Matt, I'll keep putting you back on that horse, and I appreciate you sticking it out the whole game despite your frustrations.

Despite a good overall effort in this game, we were behind on the scoreboard when time expired, so the final result of this game was WPC 8 vs. Britt Rice #1 11.

It was great to get the season started again, and there was even more build-up after the games for this first week were rained out. We should have another exciting game this week, as well, as we look to improve on things from last week. I hope you will come out to join us this week for more fun and fellowship.