Game On

Today’s weather:  glorious Oregon sunshine.  Filtered through high clouds, of course, but we take it when and how we can get it!!

Any dry day in Oregon is a good day, but today was even better because it was the first game of our softball season!!  We found our team on the busy fields, and were immediately informed that not only was our team fielding first, but our 10 yr old would be the opening pitcher.  Her response was a blank stare at the coach.  I myself felt like hiding under a rock.  We haven’t spent much time on pitching during practices, and this particular daughter reacts unpredictably to stressful situations.  I said about a thousand prayers under my breath.

The opening inning was ROUGH.  I have to give my daughter huge kudos, though – she got sooooo close to striking a few of those girls out, and she kept her cool the whole time.  You could see her taking deep breaths, even talking herself calm.  The girls in the field were halfway comotose, it seemed, which (added all up) equaled one really really really long inning.  I could see my daughter losing heart, but she never gave up.  It didn’t help much that the team we were playing against have been all together for three years now, and almost all of our girls are first-time players.  The only reason the first inning ended was because the other team scored the maximum 6-runs-per-inning.  Ouch.

Once we got those opening jitters out, the pace seemed to pick up.  We didn’t get hardly close to winning, but the girls had some spirit at bat, and they perked up a little when they were fielding.  We had some good outs at first base, and they even started chanting a little near the end of the game.  Which is a good thing, ’cause I thought for a while there I was going to need to get out and Tazer each one of them to wake ‘em up.

Our 10 yr old managed to keep herself together for the entire game, and I couldn’t be prouder.  She’s so hard on herself, such a perfectionist.  She takes it rough when she strikes out (which she did 1 of the 3 times she was up), but I saw her pull herself back from the brink of crying and refocus on the team.

Our 9 yr old was (as I suspected) a HOOT to watch in the game.  She struck out every time at bat, and still did so with a hop and a smile.  She had a few good plays in the field – nothing spectacular, but she stopped the ball when it came near her.  And when things were slow, she definitely entertained us all with some funny antics.  My husband says if we could just combine her attitude with our 10 yr old’s skill, we’d have a great player.  Ah, well, it will all come with time!!

You might also enjoy these related posts from Tree, Root, and Twig:

1. Staying in the Game
2. Everybody Loves This Game
3. 2nd Annual National Family Game Night

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