Power Outage

With our backs up against the wall, The Glove stepped up and took another game away from the competition. This one wasn't quite as pretty as games before, but sometimes The Glove gets a little dirty, sometimes The Glove just does what it has to do to win. With hardly a breath or an inch to spare, The Glove unplugged some big bats and dropped a blackout on Power Play, and once again we did it in dramatic fashion with a 5-run last inning rally at the plate and some stellar lockdown defense to secure the victory.

To quote one of our generation's greatest poets/philosophers,

"Don't call it a comeback, we been here for years
Rockin our peers and puttin suckas in fear
Makin the balls rain down like a MON-soon
Listen to the bats go BOOM
Explosion,
overpowerin
Over the competition,
we're towerin..."

I think that sums up our efforts the last two games.

But last night was especially telling about how deep the finger of The Glove can reach. No, it doesn't always feel good and sometimes it hurts a little, but remember this: The Glove has lots of fingers, and if one of them hurts there are four more standing right next to you... and there's five more on the other hand.

Think about that.

We were missing some key members of The Glove, so we had a few new faces on the bench last night. I really want to thank Mike and Brad for filling in last night. I think it goes without saying that we couldn't have won without them.

I also want to give a big shout out to Jonathan for subbing in last minute; he brought a good glove, a steady bat, and unexpectedly fast wheels with him. And with even numbers of men and women, everyone got a chance to play last night, and that (along with beating the shit out of the competition) is the team goal.

Big ups to Brad, Jonathan and Mike.

Quick recap of the game last night.

Right out of the gate, The Glove put up 4 runs in the 1^st inning. Kendra, Marcus, Nick and Mike all scored with the help of some good bats and aggressive base running by the top 9 hitters in the lineup. The Glove picked up right where we left off in the top half of the 2^nd inning scoring 3 more runs with the same steady approach; Marcus, Brad and Sarah scored on the shoulders of good hitting by Ali and Nick. Unfortunately, Power Play’s bats finally woke up in the bottom half of the 2^nd inning; with the help of some towering fly balls and a few miscues on our defense, they tied the game up at 7 runs.

The next 3 innings were pretty unspectacular; good defense on both sides held the game virtually in check, although Power Play stole some runs here and there to post a 10-7 lead going into the top of the 6^th and final inning.

We needed three runs to keep the game going, at least four runs to give ourselves a chance to win. This time, however, there were no motivational speeches, no words of wisdom. Since the 2^nd inning, there was no real offense to speak of other than a few hits sprinkled here and there, no spark from which to start a late-game fire. The proverbial air had been sucked out of the room as The Glovers faced certain defeat.

If something was going to happen, we would have to make it happen. And in typical Glove style, we started clapping our hands, we kept drinking our beer, and we cheered on the first batter; if we were going down, we would go down as a team.

Mike got the party started by hitting a double. With a runner in scoring position, Jonanna stepped up to the plate and delivered an RBI single. We got one run closer.

Newly added Glover Jonathan came up to bat and cranked an RBI extra base hit, rumbling, bumbling and finally stumbling all the way to 3rd base, leaving himself in scoring position. One run closer, and now we were building momentum.

Crazy Legs Holly and her *awesome* thigh high socks rocked a single scoring Jonathan from 3^rd base.

Tied game!

We had new life, momentum on our side, and we weren’t done yet. Brad stepped up to the plate and crushed an RBI double and advanced on a throwing error to put himself into scoring position. The Glove had taken the lead.

Tickle-Me-Tim (Timwit? Just in the nick of Tim?) waltzed up to the plate and slapped a single down the 3^rd base line scoring another run.

The score was now 12-10. STG was back in the lead with ½ an inning to go. It was up to the defense to bring this game home.

The first batter up for Power Play crushed a heart wrenching extra-base hit. Two batters later, he scored to pull PP within one run of The Glove.

STG was still in the lead 12-11. There were runners on 1^st and 2^nd with only one out. Power Play was in the heart of their batting lineup; the same hitters coming to the plate were the same ones that made the game competitive back in their 7-run 2^nd inning, and they were sure to challenge our defense one more time. Coach was able to get ahead of the batter with a quick strike on the first pitch. Not wanting to give this big hitter a good look at any more pitches, Coach pitched him outside and eventually filled the count at 3 balls, 2 strikes. On the next pitch the ball was crushed, a deep fly ball to right field. Coming out of nowhere, sprinting with every ounce of energy he could muster Brad drew a bead on the well-hit ball and somehow (miraculously!) snared the fly ball on the warning track for the 2^nd out. The runners, not giving our defense any benefit of the doubt whatsoever, ran the bases with abandon--not waiting to tag up--assuming they would score the tying and winning runs on this one hit in walk-off fashion, got doubled up with a force out at 1^st base.

The Glove wins!

Two people I really need to shine a spotlight on.

1. Sarah played an amazing game. She put together another solid game at the plate getting a base hit and scoring a big run for us in the 2nd inning, but in a game where 1 run made the difference, every out on defense was a big out and SG played some outstanding defense getting 3 outs on foul ball popups... and she made those plays against some really big hitters for the other team. It's not easy getting hit by pitches behind the plate all night long, then popping up and tracking down foul balls against the background of those bright lights at Delta Park. Much love, SG.

2. I also want to thank Brad again for filling in out there in right field. Some people have this idea that right field is where softball defense goes to die, but as we all know that is not the case. Many home runs and extra base hits often go to right field... and the tighter the defense the better chance any team has to win. Of course, that game saving last inning catch by Brad is more than just an example of good 'defense'; that was more like fodder for softball lore, snagging that towering fly ball on the warning track at the most critical point in the game like some kind of cross between a one-handed touchdown by Randy Moss with the grace of Baryshnikov, and he maintained enough composure to get the ball in to his cutoff who helped complete the force out double play at 1st base.

Respect.