MAC'S FIRST HOME RUN

We're not liked very much by Millbrook. And we probably won't be allowed to come back. You see, Wetumpka doesn't have a Fall Ball league. So you may remember my saying that what usually happens is someone will get a team together from Wetumpka and go to Millbrook to play. It's the norm. Chris teamed up with a guy who knew a guy who knew a couple of guys who were interested in fall baseball for their sons too, so we managed to pull together a Wetumpka team. Our intentions when we put the team together were strictly to play baseball. Obviously winning is fun and being that our team won very few in the Spring, we hoped to walk away with some wins. But we surely didn't have a "Let's go over to Millbrook and kick butt" disposition. In fact, we had very few practices. This is my first experience with fall ball; however, from what I have learned fall ball is supposed to be a lot more laid-back than the Spring - it's for those who love baseball, and it allows the boys time to gain some good experience/practice. 

Go back a sentence or two and re-read "But we surely didn't have a 'Let's go over to Millbrook and kick butt' disposition." The key word in that sentence is DIDN'T. As in, in the beginning - past tense. That was before a team from Millbrook decided they would try to pull a fast one on us (i.e., THEY CHEATED) when they were tired of us BEATING THE SNOT OUT OF THEM. 

There's a reason this league is nicknamed "daddy ball." 

In this age-group Millbrook plays with a rubber ball. Wetumpka does not. Millbrook also sets the pitching machine to a slower pitch for this age. Our boys are accustomed to and we practice with a faster pitch. Those were two major adjustments that had to be made on our boys' part the very first game. And while it took us an inning, we adjusted. 

There are only four teams in this age-group, so the schedule is such that we play each team three times. Fast forward to mid-way into the season.  The coaches didn't feel the need to continue arriving an hour before the game for practice, so we arrived in Millbrook at our field a few minutes before the game. We were up to bat first. As our coach is walking up to the pitching machine, the other team tells us that in their league, halfway through the season the pitching machine is sped up. The guy who is in charge of the league's son is on that team so we thought it was legit. We also thought is was underhanded that they had been practicing on a faster pitch and didn't tell us before the night of so that we could polish up on a faster pitch (which is actually Wetumpka's original speed), but we went with it. They almost won. But we came from behind in the last inning with two outs and won the game. It wasn't until our next game when we realized the whole "we speed up the machine halfway through the season" was a total lie. A L-I-E. 

Daddy ball.

We took the high road and let it go. Cheaters never prosper. We won. Who cares. 

Naturally the second time we played this team, they were out for blood. Blood I tell you. They wanted to put a hurting on us. They almost did. They are a very good team who gave us a run for our money. Of course, I'm sure it helped them a bit when the coach who stands behind the batter said "swing" under his breath to each batter WITH EVERY SINGLE PITCH. 

We let that go as well. We're there to have fun, remember!?!

And it was fun. Especially when we came from behind in the last inning with two outs to win it in that game too. 

Last night was the third and final time to play that team. Chris is the third base coach. Most games when we were ahead, he would be very gracious to the other teams in that he would hold our runners on third when he really could've sent them on to score another run. I say most games because last night was not one of those nights. It was on. Wetumpka came to play.

Games are supposed to be an hour and fifteen minutes. In the past if we had played a couple of innings and it had already been over an hour, the game would be called. So last night when, after two innings and an hour and five minutes, we thought the game was over. We were ahead 7-2. 

But no. That wasn't good enough for the other team. They HAD to play one more inning. I have to admit we were all a bit nervous. They were hitting good. Better than we were in fact, up until that point. It's just we were doing an awesome job fielding the ball. 

In the words of my Uncle Kenneth, not to worry. We turned up the heat. Our guys hit the best they had the entire night. Grant did a great job as usual! Mac struck out his first and second time at bat but redeemed himself his final time with his first home run!!! He weighs 37 lbs. and is knee-high to a grasshopper so it was an inside-the-park HR, but a HOME RUN nonetheless. YAY MACKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

The final score was 17-2.

Victory. Sweet, sweet victory. Oh the excitement of little league baseball! 

We have one game left and fall baseball will officially come to a close. It's been a ton of fun. We've had some great times and made some good friends. I look forward to many, many more baseball games in our future.

Team Wetumpka: