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I sprint off from
third base to home with no hesitation at all. I’m far enough from the base, so I fall on my knee in order
to slide. I can feel all my weight
leaning to the left side. I put my
left hand back to slow myself down.
My foot goes right between the catcher’s legs and glides over home
plate. I stand up and wipe the dry
dust off my side and sliding pad.
On the hot days of
June 23 and 24, my softball team Fighting Irish went to District Softball in
Crofton, NE. Last year at districts
in Emerson, we played three games and ended up getting 9th place by
disqualification. Kendra, my
teammate, was the only one on our team that thought we could actually win districts. We all thought she was just being
enthusiastic, but she was really serious.
On the hot days of districts this year, we won game after game after
game, which put us in the championship.
When we were
warming up to play our last game, we all felt confident, yet a little bit
nervous. We knew Pender would be
tired because this would be their third game in a row, but they would also be fired
up because they had fought their way back into the championship game. Since it was a hot day, most of our
warm up time was spent sitting on the bench, getting hydrated.
This time for the
coin toss, our whole team stood in our side of the batters box, which made it
crowded. Makayla jumped into the
box excitedly and yelled, “TAILS!” We say, “Tails Never Fails,” and ended up winning our other
coin tosses, so we thought it would work again. As we all stood, anxious to see who would have the advantage
to be home; the coin spun and fell to the ground, and landed heads up. Pender had the advantage.
Makayla started
off pitching, but wasn’t having a good day so she ended up walking the first
three people. Emily came in for
Makayla and pitched a great inning.
The batter swung the bat and hit it high in the air towards left field
and Claire caught it. The ump yelled,
“Dead ball! The runner on second
left early!” That gave us all a
huge boost of confidence.
The next batter
barely hit the ball, so Emily scooped it up and threw it to Amanda at first. “Runner out!” confirmed the ump, but as
Amanda was catching the ball, the runner on third made it home. “That’s okay, girls!” encouraged Mr.
Brown, “It’s just one runner!” We
all nodded, agreeing that giving up one run wasn’t that bad. With the next pitches, Emily managed to
get a few strikes across the plate, striking the batter out. We all sprinted into the dugout,
excited to bat again.
Inning after
inning, we fought hard. Pretty soon
the score was 10-3, the Fighting Irish.
Our whole team was improving their batting skills. People were hitting doubles and
triples; others were getting their bunts down. As I walk back into the dugout after making it home, I took
my helmet off and sat down. I
watched a few more girls make it home.
The other team was getting frustrated. The ump put his hand up, walked to the middle of the field,
and declared, “Time! Game over!”
The team was
shocked at first, giving their share of shrieks of joy, high fives, and
hugs. We received our medals and
plaque and ran around the bases.
We dumped ice water on our coaches and got to draw faces on the back of
their heads as rewards. We took a
ton of pictures and wrote our names in the dirt. Some girls even started crying tears of joy.
I will always
remember this experience; it has changed our whole team’s attitude. We thought we could barely get 5th
place, let alone win districts. This experience has taught our whole team that as
long as we try, anything could happen.
