2 Steps Forward... 12 Back... 2 More Forward
So it has been an eventful few weeks. But I will focus on the past few days. So on 5-2 we played a conference game against a school who we lost to earlier in this season 2-1 on a throwing error by our 3rd basemen in the bottom of the 7th with 2 outs. It was a payback type of game because we all felt that we should have won the first game. Our starting pitcher had himself a pretty good day going 7 and giving up 7 hits, 2 walks, and 2 earned in a pretty intense 4-3 win. We fought back from 2 down in the 6th to score 4 in the bottom half. We showed tons of heart, fire, and fight. We had a big crowd and everyone was feeling good. I thought we had begun to hit our stride...
Then came Monday 5-5... and things couldn't have been more opposite from Friday night. A team that showed so much heart, fire, and fight on Friday night was totally lifeless on Monday afternoon. We had a kid forget his spikes at school and another one forget his belt. As soon as I found that out I knew we were in for a long day and a long day it was. We got taken to the woodshed 16-4 and I decided that it was time for a "Come to Jesus" talk with the team with districts being a little over a week away. I let them know that what they showed on Friday was the makings of a team that could do somethings in the post season. What they showed me on Monday was a team that would be one and done in districts and that it was up to them to find what they had on Friday night, every night. I told them that every team remaining on the schedule could either be beat or could beat us like we were beaten on Monday. I finished the speech with this,"The outcome of these upcoming games will be determined not by what happens between these white lines but the attitude that you bring to the park everyday. They will be determined by your head and your heart. Friday night you showed the heart that is needed to take this program to the next level and do something special. Today you rolled over and died before you even took the field. Gentlemen, you have two choices. Either roll over and die and continue to be the laughing stock of our conference or you can wake up, get pissed off, and shove it up the collective asses of everyone who thinks you can't do it. The choice is yours and I'll be waiting for your answer tomorrow." Then I walked away with the team in silence.
Then comes today, Tuesday 5-6... and I got my answer in the form of a 12-1 short game victory in another conference game. The victory takes us to 3-3 in the conference, 5-12 overall, with one conference game left on the schedule on Wednesday 5-7. A win in that game puts us in 2nd place in our conference to end the year and might secure us a top half of the bracket seed in our district.
We have 4 games remaining this regular season with a chance to end it at 9-12... which is more wins than the program has had in the past 2 years combined. I honestly believe that the kids are getting it and starting to buy into what we've been selling them all year. The mental game is now what we need to work on.