Tonight was Darby's first machine pitch softball game of the fall season. I left work early, picked the kids up, zipped through the McDonald's drive thru, and made it to the ballpark with just enough time for the kids to eat before warm-ups.
The game was a slaughter. It was clear that the other team had much more batting practice than ours. Of course, it doesn't help when the pitching machine is presently misplaced by the school. We haven't had BP since 10 August. Crazy huh? Well, fortunately for us, this is not Darby's first season of machine pitch ball. But of the 11 kids on the team, only 4 have that previous experience. Everyone else just moved up from t-ball.
We were the home team, so we were in the field first. And the very first hit went directly to Darby, who was playing right field (she usually plays first or third because she can throw... think this is the first time they put her in the outfield). Darby did (almost) exactly was she was supposed to do. She ran up to the ball (instead of waiting for it), and threw it to first in time to beat the runner. Only, the first baseman wasn't there. Doh! Sure, not entirely her fault, but I saw it coming and yelled "don't throw it to first, there's no one on the bag!" only she didn't hear me. But that's not the worst part of the story, because fundamentally she has it down. The ugly part of the story is that the runner that would have been out at first were there a baseman on the bag made it all the way home. By the time the team caught up with the ball and threw it to a couple more bases (though not in time to beat the runner), it was all over. Not the best start for the game.
After an excrutiating first half-inning, it was batting time. I told everyone Darby could bat as she had previous experience (AND she did well the last time we had BP), but then she whiffed. Three pitches, three swings, third out. One hit, no runs. Not getting much better for the team.
The whole rest of the game was pretty much a repeat of that first inning. We got no hits or runs, they got several hits, and they scored runs. Five in all I believe.
But then there was Darby's last at bat. There were already two outs, two pitches, two swings, two strikes, and frustrated dad. Until... clink. I lifted my hanging head, was that a hit? No, it was a foul ball. But contact is good I told her. Next pitch... clink. Another foul ball, but directly into the visitor's seats, nearly hitting the parent of an opposing player, providing my only chuckle of the game (not that I wanted it to hit anyone, it just struck me funny... plus if that had been straighter it would have been the best hit of the game for either team -- it had to go up and over the fence and it landed near the top of the bleachers, which are taller than the fence).
Fifth pitch... clink, thump. The ball landed maybe a foot in front of the plate. She didn't move because she thought they would call it foul (as they did in t-ball). But then EVERYBODY yelled run, which she did, but not before throwing the bat (!) almost to the pitchers mound. I thought for sure they were going to call her out on that one as the pitcher had to avoid the bat to get to the ball, giving Darby just enough time to make it to first. It didn't at all look like she did that on purpose, and I'm glad she wasn't called out. But we have to talk about that one.
So there you have it, Darby's first hit of the season, the second of the game for our team. Hopefully she's got the hang of it now for the rest of this pre-season tournament, because we have games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Needless to say, we're going to have a hectic week. Tonight was bad enough, schedule wise. Both girls had to do their homework and take baths, and Darby had to practice piano before we could get to bed, so once again we didn't make it to bed in time, not that it was unexpected.
Oh, you want to know what happened the rest of the game? The next batter struck out, game over. But I walked away pleased that Darby ended her play on a good note, and as half the team's hitting power.
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