We WON one!

HOLY DRAMA!

We had fun, I think.
Everyone got up to bat 3 TIMES!
That's kind of a lot for only 4 innings.

We had 41 stolen bases! Woo who!

But, we also had DRAMA! YES!

There was a shouting match between coaches!
There was arguing -big time- with the ref!
There was insubordination of a coach to the umpire!

AND I AM HAPPY TO SAY THAT NONE OF IT INVOLVED ME!

WOO WHO!!!

But, I was very close to losing my assistant coach...

The other coach told his catcher to throw the passed ball
at my batter who was still standing in the batter's box,
so they could get an interference call,
and the runner stealing home would be called out.

Then my assistant came unglued...

He could not believe that a coach of a girls softball team
would be teaching his players to throw the ball at another player.
Then the shouting match.

And that was the 1st inning......
But that set the mood for my assistant, a couple of "set you straights",
and a few bad calls later, he was uncooperative with the umpire.

After 3 innings, the umpire called the game.
I had no idea who was ahead, but
I was playing by the rule book, and had just gotten my 3 bench sitters
into the game for the 3rd inning.
The rule book says you have to play 4 innings minimum.
But he called the game after time was up after the 3rd.
I quickly got in his face pleading for one more inning,
since there was not a game after ours
and it was only 7:30
and some of my players didn't get to play very much,
cause I was playing by the rule book,
and the rule book clearly states that it is not considered
a complete game unless we complete 4 innings.

I think playing the "rule book" card was the clincher.
He groaned as he relented and let us play another inning.

That last inning, the other team's pitcher, hit 2 of my batters,
walked 7, and one of my girls hit her crazy, fast pitch.

At this point, I had 2 of my best players taking their turn on the bench!
One of my players that all the other coaches deemed undraftable
during the draft, caught 4 stressful balls
at 1st base in those last 2 innings!
( They had their last at-bats.The bases would have been loaded,
with 2 outs, bottom of the 4th, with their best batter up to bat,
who had already hit a bases-loaded
home run over our center fielder's head, and a double
over right fielder's head.
But, my first baseman caught a thrown ball
that had been a dropped 3rd strike for the 3rd out.
This was the batter just ahead of the home run hitter.)

Don't worry, I would have given  the hitter an intentional walk.

I found out later that if the game had ended after 3 innings,
we would have lost by 1 point!
But since Kinzie's coach from last year won't pull
his daughter off the pitcher's mound
even after she has walked 7 in a row, we won by 5!

Kinzie mentioned the game to one of the player's from the other team
that she has been talking to every day about softball.
She said, "That was a good game, don't you think?"
The girl turned around and walked away!

That is even more funny and awesome when you know
that that same girl prank-called Kinzie 8-9 times last
softball season to say mean things like,
"You need to learn how to catch a ball!" while she was on her team.

This coach was the one that at the draft insisted that I accept the fact
that I have the new team. And as the new team, we should
expect to have a losing season. He was, as he pointed out, the new team last year,
and they had to accept a losing season.

Okay, so that win felt GREAT in every which way!!!!