Lucky Me, Unlucky Team

Once again I made a lucky decision. I ran after I got home from the airport, but before baseball. Since I did something to my knee on the first play, I’m glad I did. I couldn’t have run after, and I’m not sure I can run today. Iced the knee last night and today, and I’ll try later, but if it hurts, I’ll bail. It’s been a good run and I can’t complain, but the run isn’t more important than health.

Our baseball game was something. We were playing a good team, a team that should have killed us, but we played well. It was an excellent game overall.

Once again we were worried about having enough people, but we had 9 show up, and one guy called a friend to give us 10 for the game. I started at 3rd, getting a slow grounder halfway to me on the first play. I ran up, planted to pick up the ball quickly, and threw to get an out at first. With my so-so arm, that was a good play for me. However I stepped on some uneven ground and the knee wiggled, giving me some pain when I bent it and pushed off. Fine while standing, hurting while jogging/running.

Running is a huge overstatement as I got a hit later in the game and hobbled/limped to first. I couldn’t really move right, and hugged the line a bit. I got two more hard grounders to me, which fortunately got to me, and didn’t require me to move and so I ended up with three good plays at third. I managed to pick up a steal throw from home and an outfield throw as well without moving much, and with no chance to catch the guy.

For the team, we hit well, quite a few fly balls caught, but also some good hits that had us leading the game 4-1 or 4-2 or most of the game. We were aggressive, with two people getting caught at home. One was a tag on a throw from center, which was just a good throw. The other was a guy going 2nd to home on a deep hit, again, a great throw. We had a guy caught stealing as well, but even if we had those three runs, we would have lost. The final score was 10-4, so we definitely were beat.

However we didn’t make any errors in the field and had 3 or 4 1-2-3 innings. We played well and until the 8th inning, we were looking good. Then they other team woke up. With 2 outs, we walked a couple guys, then they got some good hits. Two line drives over short to drive in runs and then our pitching struggled. We changed pitchers, walked a couple more, a few more hits before ending the inning. We got people to 1st and 2nd, but then a grounder to third ended the game.

For me, I hit the ball well. 6 swings, 6 contacts. I fouled one the first at-bat before lifting a long fly to right that the fielder caught while running back. Then a walk with no swings, a foul and a hard grounder up the middle for a single, and then another great hard swing that drove a ball to deep right, but the fielder was playing deep. The Rebels know me well and play me deep, but they were good hits. If I’d been able to step with my knee, I’d have hit them better. Not sure about out, but they definitely felt like I was lacking power with the swings.

Another disappointing loss, but we played much better and looked good. Having 2-3 more of our good players there might have made the difference.