Softball Update

I had told myself that I wasn't going to talk about my softball games here because I was getting a little too braggartish for my liking, but I just had to post the results of last night's effort. I was too tired to do it last night though so today it is.

Our team won again, 32-2. Yes, 32-2. That score is obscene. It really is. I don't feel too bad knowing that after the 1st inning we weren't really trying that hard and at the earliest point the game could be called for the mercy rule it was 26-1, so it isn't like we kept piling it on. We just kept playing and that is what happened. We borrowed two players in order for us to even have enough to play. We took one girl from the stands and the other team lent us a player. He swore that he wanted to be on our team going forward.

We were visitors so we batted first. By the time the inning was over we had scored 15 or 16 runs and had batted through the order twice. While it was fun, it was also extremely tiring to be running that much. :-) One time I was tearing around 3rd base for home and when I got back to the bench they asked me if I was bored running around the bases. I was like "Not really" with a strange look on my face. They said "Well, you were running around 3rd blowing a bubble while you were running." My response "No way, I wasn't doing that." Then everyone responded "Yes you were." Me: "Oh, well I guess I can run, chew gum and blow bubbles all at the same time and not even think about it." I didn't even realize I was doing it.

In the last game we scored 15 or 16 runs and the week before that I think it was 9 or 10. So we are really scoring a lot of runs.

I was trying to figure out what has been making us play so well lately and I think it's a few different things.
1.) We play for fun. While we want to win none of us get upset with other people for errors or things that happen. We are just kind of laid back like that. I think that helps everyone feel comfortable playing and doing their part. It helps not to have that one guy on your team who is too serious and when mistakes happen he throw a little fit. I hate that guy...
2.) We have a good core at the top of the lineup, and even though those players are the "good" ones, they aren't selfish about playing all the time or trying to make a big impact. We take what is given. For example, in co-ed softball there is a rule to force people to pitch to the men. If a women follows you in the lineup and you (a guy) walk on 3 straight balls then you walk, advance to 2nd (it's like a double) and the girl behind you walks also. Basically a punishment for not pitching to the guy. Well, our team leads off with a girl, then guy, then girl, then two guys, then girl and so forth. This forces them to pitch to our "good" players to avoid letting two people on, but these "good" players are also disciplined enough to take a walk to fill up the bases when necessary. After the first time through the lineup the pitcher has pretty much resigned himself to pitching to us as carefully as he can because he knows that we won't swing at a pitch unless it is a good pitch. Case in point, I walked last night, the girl behind me got on. Next batter drives the guy in front of me in and me. (If I had hit the ball most likely I would be on first, not second.) The next batter drives in the girl who walked and the guy from behind her who hit me in. I think things like that are really helping us out. (Walking like that also helps minimize the impact a female at bat will have also) Another example of unselfishness is when we are platooning players we (the "good" ones) volunteer to platoon too. I think that makes everyone happier than otherwise because there are more spots for everyone to move around in.
3.) For some reason we have been lucky and have been stringing together hits with walks with errors and our girls have played well and that has led to a lot of points. It seems that if you can score more than 5 runs you are about assured of winning.
4.) It also helps that we have a super solid right side of the infield. SS and 3rd are very good, and since we have a girl who is good enough to play 3rd (as well as a guy or better) that gives us a definite advantage over other teams. (You have to play two girls in the infield. It's almost always catcher and 2nd) Having good players here keeps a lot of balls in the infield and turns them into outs when they complete the throw over to 1st. That forces players to try to hit it over them to get hits and then they start popping out.

Anyway, it's been a lot of fun so far. We have a month and a half left I think so there is a long way to go. Right now I believe we are 1st in our division so we'll see if we can keep it up.

FGLB