June 8th, 2011
The A's vs. The Cubs
Notice the date to this night's game is a week from the last. We had to wait for the fields to dry out after the big rain storms we had the week before.
Elisha got a hit tonight, one that surprised him and he didn't run at first. Then he took off faster than I've ever seen him run to first base. He made it there safely with time to spare thankfully.
The A's played so well against this team. It's funny they hit a funk mid-season and kinda of came out of it towards the end, but when they played the Cubs they came out of no where.
Elisha stole third too...
The score went back and forth this game, us leading, them leading, us leading. But at the bottom of the fifth the score was 6-8 them. In this league if a game is called (usually due to the sun going down, there are no lights on the fields) then the score will automatically go back to the last complete inning. So if this game was called before the sixth inning was completed the Cubs would automatically win.
Bases were loaded and the pitcher walked the kid at bat. Elisha got to jog home for a point...
Which put us in a predicament indeed. You see we also play in a league where there is a five point rule, meaning at this age a team can't score more than five points per inning (to hopefully keep a team from being absolutely slaughtered). Except that rule doesn't apply during the sixth inning. The sixth inning is open so a team is allowed to score as many points as they can.
Playing third base...
(Due to the attitude and unfortunate disrespect our third baseman had this night, Elisha played most of the game at third. He didn't get anyone out, but he played his heart out and it was awesome to see.)
During the sixth inning our boys were on fire! We scored four runs with one out and two boys on base. The problem was the sun was already at the top of the mountain and fading fast. We all knew if we didn't move fast the game would be called and the Cubs would still win. And this particular coach we were playing would waste time if needed to guarantee a win.
He cracks me up when he really is concentrating. His tongue is always out or he is blowing bubbles with his gum...
Ready for steal...
I love this picture of Elisha pointing to the pitcher/catcher/firstbaseman to watch the boy attempting to steal...
And that's how it ended. Our pitcher walked seven boys and they won by one point in the fading sun, yelling like a bunch of wild monkeys, excited to have the beat the only team that really bested them during the season (they only lost two games, both during spring break when four of their best players were out of town - the last time we played the Cubs we tied them, the closest any team really came to beating them with all their players all season long).
But did they really win? Not in my book. I mean, sure, even if we had the sun in our favor, and we didn't have to take two outs, our boys could have struck out or gotten two outs and they could have come back and won. Or maybe our pitcher still would have faltered, and walked all those boys and they would have emerged victorious, but it would have been a fair win. Not one where adults stood on the fence bullying a nine year old.
Some days, playing sports is so hard. The boys took this loss hard. Elisha and I had to talk it through, he cried a lot. But you know what? Win, lose or tie, they played great. He played great and I told him just how proud I was of him and his team. Sometimes in life we lose hard, we fall hard. Sometimes we win big. The important thing that no matter what, you keep trying, prayin', doing your best, exactly how God called you to live. That's all that matters.
We play in a double elimination league so Game 3 coming up soon....
It's BBQ time!
When it's hot, take the games outside, I always say. :)
We went to watch baptism at church. Yohn was helping baptize the kids. Unfortunately it was too dark to get a picture so here's this one of Elisha waiting for it to start.
Ha! Ha! This happens to be the only picture I took today. It's for the background of the intro on Elisha's baseball slideshow.
Stilling working on that slideshow for Saturday morning. I'm such a procrastinator. See the grass backgrounds on #3 and #4? It turned out looking so good!
My niece Harmony!
This is how she is a lot at the ball fields. Some days I'm surprised her coaches have as much patience as they do, LOL! 
In order to explain the last play of the game I needed to show you this picture. It's the bottom of the sixth (final inning) the Rays are down by one with two outs. We're dyin' for a win, for two reasons: 1) It's the Rays, everyone wants to beat them (for various reasons we just won't discuss though) and 2) we haven't had a win in a while and it would be a great way to end the season since we already knew we didn't make play-offs.
...then she threw it like this to first base, BARELY getting it there to get the third out! I couldn't believe it! I also couldn't believe that I caught it on camera. I was just snapping at whatever not even looking. 
And since it was the final game we took a few pictures...
... and they get their league pins.
Bethany really loved her coaches this year, can you tell?
Since I was running back and forth, and since I knew this boy's team made playoffs (although we really wonder how) I only got a few pics of his game since I spent most of the time at Bethany's field. He hit a foul ball and was walked. Played center and right field and had a decent game so I heard.
I knew it's pretty obvious this boy made it to second but I just wanted to show ya how he is so good at shifting to the ball when he backs up in the out field. He played mostly outfield all year, but his coach told him countless times he was the best outfielder because he paid attention and was always rotating to the ball.
Yep, you guessed it this was the re-scheduled game. Except there was some major miscomunication between both team coaches and the office because according to them we were supposed to play on Thursday night and so we had no umpire. I'd like to know how both teams could show up on the wrong night though. It really made no sense.
They played a scrimmage game anyways and the boys had a lot of fun. Elisha was walked twice, played the outfield for two innings....
...played short stop one inning...
...backed up third on a steal during that inning....
and covered third base during one inning too.
Guess who got an awesome hit today?!!!! Yep, he hit it straight into center field resulting in a double and an RBI. Soooo exciting to see him do that. Keep up that confidence E!
