Another Baseball Story

Panic was racing through everyone’s mind. There was no way we could blow this. All I could do was watch at first base as the trusted pitcher delivered pitch after pitch outside of the strike zone.

 

Let me rewind – It was the championship game. The series was tied 1-1 in a best of three match. We were the underdogs, by far. The only reason we even made it to the playoffs was because there was no elimination in little league, an attempt to promote fairness, I guess. We already shocked everyone by beating the Athletics once. With our backs on the wall, we were able scrounger up a big inning. The score was 7-3.  All of a sudden, our pitcher started acting uncharacteristically, walking several people in a row and giving up big hits. The fielders started to get uneasy as the score was creeping up on us. It was now 7-6 with the bases loaded and the count 3-0, the coach walked out to the mound, and signaled for a pitching change. He was calling for me. I threw my warm up pitches and prepared for the most unnerving baseball experience of my life. I immediately threw two pitches for strikes, knowing that if I missed, we would lose the game. He then proceeded to foul off the next couple of pitches. I prepared for the next pitch. I winded up. SWING AND A MISS.

--From this point, it's all sort of blurry. My teammates came racing in and bombarded me at the pitchers mound. We were awarded our championship trophies and were left with an experience we would never forget, being the underdogs the entire season, coming back to beat the beast team in the league.