Last night Sam's baseball team, the Williamsburg Cardinals, lost a heart breaker 11-10 on an otherwise perfect opening night for baseball. The skies were clear and sunny and there was a briskness in the air as we arrived for pre-game warm-ups and batting practice. The boys were excited to play in the first game of the season on a fine field of smooth dirt and freshly cut grass.
The Cardinals jumped out to an early 4-0 lead with a combination of walks and timely hits. Their starting pitcher gave up only 1 run the opposing team, the Orioles, in the bottom half of the first. In his first at-bat, Sam drove in a run with a sharply hit ball to the shortstop. After 2 innings, the Cardinals led 5-2.
In the 4th inning, Sam entered the game as the pitcher. The first batter he faced was the Orioles best hitter. On a 3-2 pitch, the batter hit a short little dribbler down the 3rd base line. Sam bolted to the ball, bare handed the grounder, and threw a laser beam to first; the runner was safe by half a step. Sam struck out the next hitter, gave up a walk, allowed a run as the next batter grounded out. He then gave up another walk on 4 pitches but then struck out the next hitter on 4 pitches. Sam's first inning of pitching was pretty good: 1 hit, 1 earned run, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts. More importantly he kept the team in front 9-7 going into the last inning.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals only scored one run in the top of the inning. More unfortunately, the Orioles rallied for 4 runs in the bottom of the inning to win 11-10. Overall it was a great game and the boys really had a lot of fun. We'll get'em next time!
Sam was naturally disappointed after the game. But he was proud of his RBI as a hitter and his 2 strikeouts as a pitcher. He is already looking forward to the next game.
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