Game 7: Helping Hands

With the loses we sustained during the past week, I was forced to call in the reserves. As it turned out, Jimmy and Jon (who had said all along they could play if needed) were able to fill in quite nicely.

At the plate, we had a pretty good night. Michael got us started off with a nice line drive to left and we kept going from there with lots of good solid base hits and a couple of bombs by Josh and Luke. Thankfully we play our games on the larger fields at Veteran's Park these days, rather than those at Central Park, because Luke hit a towering drive that short-hopped the fence in right-center that would have easily cleared the fence at Central. It just happened to be the hit that drive in the clinching (put us over the 10-run run-rule) run.

Defensively, we played a solid game and never game the opposition a chance to rally for that big inning that seems to plague us at times. Even on the few plays that we were unable to turn into outs, we smothered the ball and kept it close to prevent runners from advancing.

We were also the beneficiaries of nice work in the pitching department. Chris through a complete game, and seemed to have many of their hitters off balance. There were very few hard hit balls and several cue shots off the end of the bat. As is very important in slow pitch softball, he also through a lot of strikes, which forces the hitter to swing at less than perfect pitches (at least from their point of view).

It was a good game with good results. Lots of fun, no injuries, and a W to boot (Final score 17-7). We also had a nice turnout in the stands, thanks to all the families that braved the craziness of the ballpark to support those of us on the field. We were also able to enjoy Norval presence once again, and we are thankful for his encouragement and oversite.