Softball+08-24-2013

=Tournament Game 1: Christ United 8, Community Church 2=

In our first tournament game, we played Christ United Methodist, a team that only won one game all season. Today, however, they looked very solid, and out-hit the Flaming Chalices to take a 8-2 victory. The game was never close, as Christ jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. The Chalices mustered 2 hits in the 1st inning, and one in the 2nd, but no runs. In the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings, we only had one hit, while CU scored 2 more runs to extend their lead to 7-0. Finally, in the 6th, we broke through with a couple of runs. The rally started when C Brendan Adams beat out a slow roller to the left of the pitcher's mound. OF Megan Carlson grounded out to the pitcher, sending Brendan to 2nd base. SS Nils Brubaker grounded a single into right field, sending Brendan to 3rd base. OF Nick Bailey lined a single to center field, scoring Brendan with our first run, Nils stopping at 2nd. OF Mark Smith followed with a line drive into left center, on which Nils scored. Nick attempted to reach 3rd base on the play and arrived before the ball, but then he slightly overran the bag and could not get back before he was tagged out. (Note to infielders: this is a common situation, so when a baserunner comes hard into your base before the ball arrives, be alert to an opportunity tag him out if momentum carries him past the base.) The inning ended with a popout by OF Matt Nelson. In our final at-bat in the 7th inning, we went down 1-2-3 -- all ground outs -- ending any chance for a dramatic comeback. As a team we totaled only 8 hits, which ties for our season low (6/2, 8/11). Four of the hits came in the only inning we scored runs. Only Mark Smith had more than one hit today, going 2-for-3 with 1 RBI. Two players recorded season firsts at the plate: Brendan Adams had his first base hit, and 2B Vera Smith had her first hit into the outfield, a solid line drive into center field. Well struck, Vera! On defense, we committed 4 errors, and missed some outs we could have made. Our infield had only 6 assists, also a season low. Conversely, the outfield was very active. 7 balls were caught by our outfielders: Nick 3, Mark 2, Matt 1 and Doug Adams 1. This is the first game I can remember when every outfield position made at least one catch. A couple of those catches were not routine: Mark Smith had to run hard on a sinking line drive and caught it at the knees to make an important out. Matt had to run a long way to the left field foul line to pull down a high fly ball. Doug made his first catch of the year on a difficult sinking line drive. Nice play, Doug! And Megan almost made her first catch on a high fly ball to RF which just went a little bit further than she anticipated. P Mark Bruhn snagged a line drive hit right back at him, showing good reaction. Finally, recognition goes to Brendan, again, for making a nice catch on a foul popup behind the plate.