Today was arguably Darby's biggest softball game of the year, for a couple of reasons. First, they were playing their schools' other machine pitch team, which was quite interesting since both sets of bleachers were filled with parents that knew each other from classes and other school activities. While our team is more experienced in the machine pitch league, the other team has a more disciplined coaching staff, in addition to the fact that the team has been together for more than two years as a t-ball team (in contrast to our team just now concluding its first year together as a machine pitch team) and so play together very well. Shelby was actually on that team the first half of its first year.
Most expected the game to be a good one, but I was personally nervous that our girls would suffer a crushing defeat (just losing at all, not in terms of score) because of our fielding woes. I was glad to be wrong.
The second reason tonight was such a big game for Darby was her three hits and two runs scored (not to mention several RBI). Or should I say four hits. Her first hit, the first of the game since she is lead-off batter, was a single, which started an early rally that loaded the bases. Her second hit was another single, and her "third hit" was straight to the forehead.
Between innings, while the infield was tossing a ball around, Darby tipped a ball with her glove, which bounced straight to her head, a good solid thump. I had to run out onto the field, check her finger-counting ability, and rub her head for a minute before she decided she could play through it (she's such a tough-girl).
The top-half of the inning was over pretty quickly, and she was due up to bat the bottom-half. And for the first time I think all season, she hit the ball quite a ways out of the infield, which, thanks to fielding snafus, rolled nearly to the centerfield fence. It was quite the "fourth hit" for her. She ran her little butt off and had rounded second before the ball began to make its way back in. I could see that she was wearing out and not running as fast, so I yelled out to her, "It can be a homerun if you run faster!" which did light a fire in her. She picked up the speed and barely beat the throw home, but she did beat it, and got her first homerun of the season. I believe she drove in two runs on that hit alone.
The team as a whole played very well. Three girls that don't traditionally hit consistently got multiple hits (mulit-base hits at that, in fact every girl got a hit tonight, which is not typical), and fielding errors, while still not shaken, weren't bad enough to lose the game for us, so they won quite handily, 8-1.
I think the lack of intimidation (both teams were playing together, hugging each other, before the game) was a big factor, as several girls played much more confidently than they had all season, both on the field and behind the bat. All of the girls (and parents really) were so proud and happy about the victory. It was a big pressure relief to not lose to the younger team. A loss would have been long-lasting and particularly stinging at summer camp the next day.
After the game, Darby asked to call her mother. She had a debt to collect. During the weekend tournament just past, her mother promised her $20 if she hit a homerun. As many things as Darby forgets (ie piano recitals), she wasn't going to let that be one of them.
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