The Story of Last Weekend

[Parr8hed]

Emmy’s team went undefeated to the championship game. They beat an older team in extra innings to get there. This is important because it meant that whoever we played had to beat us twice. This made me feel proud and optimistic. 

Well the coaching staff decided to start a back up against the the same team that we had just beaten. They’re win in the loser bracket put them right back against Emmy in the championship game. This made me nervous. 

 

Our ur back up pitcher spotted them 5 runs in the first. She got pulled, but the damage was done. This made me frustrated. We were home and the last inning their pitch was getting frustrated. You see, it was cold and windy and the rain was starting. And we were hitting her and getting on base. This made me happy. 

Well, it was too little, too late. We lost but had momentum. On to the rubber match. Emmy started. The rain came down. It was dark, cold and windy. Our coach decided to be visitors when he won the toss. This is important because it kept our hot bats up and the frustrated pitcher on the mound. This made me nervous. 

We put 7 on them in the first inning (only a 2 inning rubber match). This made me super nervous for the last inning because the older girls would get a chance to bat.   This is how it played out. 

Emmy took the mound in the bottom of the last inning. She was up 10-0. It was dark and windy. It was cold and the rain was not letting up. The other pitcher had no control. I was super worried that she was going to walk in a few runs due to the conditions. Then she would get frustrated and lose the game.  They were on their #4 hitter in the meat of their line up. Emmy sat her down with 3 pitches!!! The next batter came up and was also dispatched after striking out.  I was gaining confidence but this still made me nervous  

 

The final batter was up. Her count was 3-2. She’d fouled off 3 pitches. The wind was kicking up. The fans were going nuts. The girls in the dugout were up on the fence trying to get into Em’s head. The last pitch?  Strike 3 looking, a fastball on the outside corner. And possibly the hardest pitch that she threw all weekend. 

 

Guys. I cannot tell you how proud I am of this kid. She never lets up, works her ass off, and is the most intense kid you’ll ever meet. Her bat had been lagging but she was hot at the plate this weekend with 5 base hits. 2 sac flies and a sac bunt. 2 walks and only 3 k’s. 

 

She recorded 29 strike outs and only 9 walks allowing 4 hits and 5 runs in 4 games pitched. (We didn’t get to record one of her games). 

 

She was AMAZING!!

[bikeman564™]

Awesome, way to go Emmy

[JerrySTL ★]

I see a college scholarship in Emmy's future.

[Parr8hed]

5 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

I see a college scholarship in Emmy's future.

That's a long way off.  There are lots of really good pitchers that maybe have not even developed yet.  She may not even like softball anymore then.  

[ChrisL]

Awesome!

I always enjoyed just seeing how they would handle certain situations. There will be many big moments to come but it sounds like she has the mental make up to thrive in them. Many kids don't have that:

[BuffJim]

7 hours ago, Parr8hed said:

She may not even like softball anymore then.  

Your job is to subtly force her into an environment where every waking hour outside of school is softball. That way it'll get in her blood and she won't be able to walk away.

Or something like that.  I was never able to get my daughter excited about anything. She either liked it or not.   She was decent at volleyball, but gave it up along the way.

[Kzoo]

And I hope the coach learned a lesson.  Put your best foot forward at all times.  Sounds like he failed to do that and almost ruined 'your' day.

Congratulations Parr8Girl.

[ChrisL]

2 hours ago, BuffJim said:

Your job is to subtly force her into an environment where every waking hour outside of school is softball. That way it'll get in her blood and she won't be able to walk away.

Or something like that.  I was never able to get my daughter excited about anything. She either liked it or not.   She was decent at volleyball, but gave it up along the way.

It's just so hard to predict what a kid will be interested in.  We saw many talented athletes drop sports due to burn out, injury, pregnancy, legal/criminal matters and drugs & alcohol.  We also saw numerous go on to play in college and saw one get drafted into the major leagues.  It's a crapshoot really...

We never forced my kids to do anything. We offered the opportunities & resources. It was up to them to opt in or not.

[donkpow]

Have you got a bookie?

[tybeegb]

It wouldn't be fun if there wasn't some drama.  Hope you iced the arm down.  

[MickinMD ★]

Keep her going in softball and encourage other sports and general athletics.

Colleges have to award a certain  ratio of women to men scholarships so if they have a football team with a lot of scholarships, they have to create girls teams like rowing, cross-country skiing (in the north), etc. so they can award enough women sports scholarships.

When I coached high school softball in the '90's in an area that was the state's hot-bed for softball, about 3 of my girls got college scholarships each year - some for softball, but some also for the rowing team, etc.