Why Do They Even Bother Playing the Game?

Baseball is a unique sport. All it takes is for one guy to be hot on a given night and David can indeed beat Goliath. Of course, the one guy I am talking about is the pitcher. Now, to win a series over the course of a weekend, that will almost always determine who the better team is.

Who was team B?

Krak,

That is pretty cool (unless your son plays for Team B).


Julie

You just know those guys on team A will be talking about that game for the rest of their lives!

Julie, nah, mine were on the rail cheering on the effort, maybe getting a pen in, not sure. I know the Oaks are tickled to come off with a win like that, as is the first-year coach I'm sure!

Krakatoa- congrats! That is so awesome for your sons school. Nothing better than a win but even sweeter when they're the underdog. Hopefully the First of many wins,

quote:

Originally posted by Three Bagger:
You just know those guys on team A will be talking about that game for the rest of their lives!

So will Team B

Congrats to your son Krak.

coach, my son wasn't on the hill, but I will congratulate him for his cheerleading!

CaBB, yes, hopefully they can pull some more W's out of the series.

quote:

Originally posted by Krakatoa:
Team A: very small NAIA school, never been to a regional or anything like that. Current 3-9 record. Team BA of .190

Team B: The Monster of the NAIA year in and year out. 10-2 record. #11 Rank pre-season. 16 National Championships. 119 players drafted. 14 MLB. Team BA .323 as of this morning.

So why do they even bother playing the game? Because Team A just won 9-5.

Yep - that's why they play the game. Sometimes David does defeat Goliath.

My son's team experienced something similar. Last season (2010) they defeated the 2009 District Champs not once, but twice. Both were hard fought close games. The district champs were undefeated in the district (14-0) in 2009 and even in 2010 were simply tough throughout the lineup - they would eventually go on to win the district with a 11-3 record. It was a very awesome and gratifying to defeat them both times (home and away).

Sadly my son's team just missed the playoffs in 2010 with a 9-5 district record (made the playoffs with a 8-6 record in 2009, go figure) - finished tied for 4th (top 4 teams go to the district tourney) and was on the short end of the stick when the head to head records for the three teams tied for 4th were used to determine who advanced to the tournament. The 2nd win put them in 2nd briefly, but they dropped the remaining two games to knock them out.

All of us who've played or have sons (and daughters!) who play, hopefully have at least one great sustaining memory of a D-vs-G type of win. I'm almost 51 but one of my most vivid memories to this day is a HS all-star game I was involved in back in like 1979. We were a smaller country-suburban community and were playing an all-star team from a much more populous urban area. They all seemed to be very manly compared to us. They were supposed to win.

We hung in there, skrappy country kids, and were one run down in the bottom of the 9th, two outs, man on 2nd, and yours truly swingin' the stick. Managed to hit a hard liner straight towards the 3rd baseman, but also pretty much straight towards the ground. It first hit about 20 feet from me but I'd hit it so hard it bounced about 20 feet in the air (must've hit a gopher), over the 3rd baseman's head. Guy on second is waved around to try and tie it up. A very close play at the plate (safe!) gets the catcher's underwear in a bundle and while he's standing there arguing with the ump, I take off for second. Catcher sees me too late and launches a rainbow into center field. I book it for third. Center fielder boofs the ball and I go in standing up to win the game. Best baseball memory for me. I can barely remember anything else from that era (a couple girls occupy the rest of that brainchunk), but I remember that.

Anyway...in game 2 of the series mentioned in the OP, went to 10 innings, score 10-9, and ended on a close play at the plate, taking a spot-on throw from LF to get our runner. Another great game.

Holy Cross (Patriot League) beat #4 Texas A&M yesterday 7-3 in 10 innings.

Krak,

After those two games it seems your son's team is starting to jell and is definitely playing better now than their record indicates.