The Saturday before last, the 15th, I went to my third softball tournament. The softball tournaments aren't between "real" softball teams. It's when a bunch of different Youth Groups come together to see whose church will win. Last year we left the tournament in third place, first and second tied. However, because our church usually organizes the Summer and Winter camps, and we have a pretty good dodge-ball team, we seem to have a reputation. Everyone assumes that we are going to do well and so they usually plan to try and crush us. This kind of makes me nervous, but since I love softball I didn't mind too much.
We had some pretty good players on our team, so I wasn't worried about getting last place, but I wasn't expecting us to be very good either. Plus I had just started practicing as first baseman only two weeks (two and a half practices) before. My hand had gotten pretty bruised up right under my left index finger. I had crocheted a half glove to try and cushion it a little but it didn't do much to help. During the first game, my coach/youth pastor gave me a batting glove to put on underneath my mitt. So I then had three gloves to put on before I was ready to play. I never had to ask to have more time though. I would have my hand made half glove in my mouth while I put on the batting glove, then I'd put the half glove on, then my mitt. I would still be pushing it on just as the pitcher got ready to throw the ball.
I really like first base, not only because I got to catch those really fast balls in order to get someone out. But I got to make friends with all the runners who stopped by my base. I got to laugh with some of the players, or I'd just say good job. In order to not have bad sportsmanship, I usually try to pay attention to the things people do and genuinely tell them good job. I think this is actually something that isn't good, because at one point I ended up congratulating someone on catching me out. I just kind of said it right after it happened so I felt a little embarrassed afterwards, but I was glad for him.
If your still reading this, your probably wondering how my team did. It was a double elimination tournament, we won the first two games. They were spaced pretty far apart, so we had a little too much time for resting. On our third game we lost the the co-winners of last year, we'll call the Blue team. We were kind of sad after that loss, but we kept trying. Our fourth game is where it got interesting. I think we were tied up when one of our outfielders and our shortstop collided. Turns out the outfield sprained his ankle. This helped boost up our energy and team spirit and we were able to win the game. Then there came our last game, which was with, yet again, the Blue team. They were unbeaten, and we had one loss. Because were weren't going to play another two games in a row, it meant that if we beat them this game we could be co-champions. But if we lost they would be solo champions. It took all we had, but we were able to beat them in the end. So we became the co-champions of the 2014 softball tournament.
It was fun that we got to win when I really expected us to be in third or fourth place. But it was really fun anyways. Whether we won or lost, it was a really fun day.
