0-3

Baseball today, after being off last week. The beginning of the year is hard with so many holidays, which can make it hard to get into a rhythm. With my eye infection, I was glad for the time off and I think I felt better. The legs were tired, and when I arrived early I was tempted to not job, but decided to try a 1mi run before the game. It helped me last year, so I did my 4 laps around the lacrosse field, logging 1.25 miles.

I decided to bat today after some encouragement from the group, only 11 people showing up, and feeling good. I ended up as the third batter, coming up twice to lead off, and once with no one on. The first at bat I got a nice blooper into shallow right center for a single. My second bat wasn't great, getting hit by a pitch. Six years and I'v never been hit, but this one wasn't thrown inside, it was just behind my back. I started back, realized I couldn't make it, turned and moved forward, taking the hit on the upper right cheek. Glad it was that side as the other side might have had me sitting for the game.

It was a friend of mine pitching, a guy I'd played with in Phoenix, and I knew it wasn't intentional. I could see him realize he'd lost control when it came out of his hand. The next time I popped up and in the bottom the 8th, leading off after giving up 6 runs to go down and cold weather moving in, I swung on 3 pitches and was out. By that point I just wanted the game to end, especially after I cocked my arms on a nice pitch, causing me to be late. The guy threw me outside and low, working my weak spot. After I realized I need to get those pitches and lean into them to left, not swing around.

In the field I was at 3rd all day and made a few plays. Picked up two that went to first, picked up a grounder and forced at third. Caught a throw from left and tagged a slider out, and caught a throw from short that got a guy that came off on a line drive. I  also wasn't down on one early that went below my glove and between my legs, embarassing. Also moved right to pick one up and fumbled it. I was proud of my range, but didn't field it cleanly. I almost got the guy on the late throw, so a clean catch would have been another out.

All in all we struggled a bit. We played well at times, coming back to tie and go ahead two times. However we couldn't pitch well late, and they had some good hits.

Still, a fun day.