Excitement of The Great Game, 2X

After a morning of lawn care, the afternoon was spent at Kelsey's softball game. The game was pretty close, with Kelsey's team, Blast, leading 5-4. She comes up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the last inning. I can tell you that there's an odd mix of fear/excitement/hope that comes over a parent when such a situation occurs.

Anyway, after fouling off the first pitch, she gets a solid base hit up the middle to make it 7-4. The next girl gets a base hit and the Blast were up 9-4 going to the last inning. The other team made it close at the end to make it a 9-7 final, with some harrowing moments as they had the bases loaded with two outs, but the Blast held on to go 3-0 on the season.

Then, we came home to catch the last half of the major league Rangers. Our bullpen has been having a series of losses in one-run games, and it looked like they had blown it again today, giving up four runs in the bottom of the 8th to Seattle to fall behind 6-3.

A couple of outs and a couple of 2 run home runs by Hank Blalock and Richard Hildalgo saved the day offensively, and even though the bottom of the 9th was scary (Seattle managed to get runners on 1st and 3rd with two outs), we got the last out to win it.

There's something very natural and enjoyable about a sunny spring Saturday afternoon, complete with baseball and exciting finishes.