Victories, Great and Small

It has been a while since I wrote a softball post, so with the conclusion of league play tonight, I feel I finally have something to say.

Last week we were in a three-way tie for first place (I am unsure what the tiebreaker rules are). We had three games left to make up games that had rained out earlier, and two of those games were against teams that we were tied with. It made for a very simple formula - win all three games and we would be league champions.

Well last week we managed to hang on for a big 9-8 win over a very tough opponent who had handed us a bad loss earlier in the season. This was despite my 0-3 effort at the plate, just my second hitless game of the year.

Tonight things started with a touch of drama. We were scheduled to play a double-header. At the start of the first game there was a large fire in the back yard of a house across the street from our park! Fortunately emergency services were quick to respond, and there were no injuries.

We found out there were no injuries because one of our opponents got hurt. One of our batters hit a fly to right field which, unfortunately, hit their right fielder in the face (she missed with her glove). One of our guys ran over to the fire trucks to see if there was an ambulance with any ice, as the ball caused a large bruise (at least).

Our team has a number of talented players, among whose ranks I do not really belong. We were cruising along to a big win while I was going 0-4. Surprisingly, there was more than enough time for us to keep playing (the other team were good sports and kept going even after falling way behind and having the choice to quit since they were the home team. I got to bat twice more, and got a single each time to finish the first game 2-6.

This meant that our final game was against The Elevator Company. It was the de-facto league title game, as both teams had only 2 losses entering play. This was the team that we played our first game of the year against (see my earlier post about that dramatic game). This one wasn't nearly as exciting. We batted around (all ten batters plus one) in the first inning, building a large lead, and never looked back. The final score was extremely lopsided - I'm sure we scored at least 25 runs to about 12 for them. So we won the league championship! I was pretty excited to be part of a winning team, though my own efforts paled in comparison to those of our top players.

I had a decent title game at the plate, going 2-5 with a single and double. I reached base two other times, which may have been hits or errors depending on how our league scorekeeper counts them. There are official statistics kept on every game and player. I haven't seen mine since week 7 or so - if I get them I'll be sure to post my actual batting line for the year.

I played in 11 of the team's 13 games (14 scheduled). By my unofficial count I had 40 plate appearances. I was 14-for-38 with two walks, for a batting average of 0.368 - great for a Major Leaguer, but thoroughly mediocre for co-ed slow-pitch softball. There may be a few discrepancies - I may have batted as high as 0.395 or as low as 0.316, but I have a great deal of confidence that I had between 12 and 15 hits and I know I counted 38 at-bats. We'll see.

I am unsure if I'll play next year because I know that some of my teammates were expecting higher quality players, but I had a good time and I'm glad that I finally got to play in an adult softball league.