The short-handed Braves lost to the Cubs Thursday, 20-4. But the coaches couldn’t have been prouder of the team. Our pitchers – and really, everyone on the team – showed lots of courage in the face of adversity.
We had only eight of our guys available, and were given a third grader as our ninth player (more about him later). Nonetheless, we competed hard. The breaks just didn’t go our way.
Four close calls, including three plays at the plate, went against us. It seemed that every ground ball the Cubs hit found a space between our infielders and dribbled into the outfield for a hit. Meanwhile, the Cubs made a couple of amazing plays on defense to rob us of hits that would have driven in runs.
What sticks in my mind is the courage of our guys. Consider the three players who pitched for us Thursday.
Connor was sick as a dog this week. He missed school Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. But he went to school Thursday and wanted to play against the Cubs. His parents said OK, and I put him in his habitual role as starting pitcher. He struggled, but just when it seemed that he was destined to give up his first runs of the season he reached back and found the strength to strike out a batter with two outs – and the bases loaded. A nice moment for him, and the team.
Matt took over in the middle of the second inning. With a runner on third, a pitch got past Anthony, who was catching. The runner sped for home. Matt raced to cover home. Anthony scrambled to the screen to retrieve the ball. AP made a great throw to Matt, who caught it and slapped the tag on the runner for an …. What – not an out? The ump called the runner safe.
Meanwhile, the runner had slid directly into Matt’s ankle. Matt was in a lot of pain. I have seen kids get broken ankles in such situations, and we made Matt sit down to take the weight off of his ankle. He was able to move his ankle, and he refused the ice that was rushed over. Through his tears – yes, it’s OK for guys to cry – he told me not only that he wanted to stay in the game but that he wanted to keep on pitching.
Guts.
An inning later Evan took over and pitched the rest of the game. What control! He just kept throwing strikes. He induced the Cubs to hit lots of grounders, most of which unfortunately slipped through our infield for hits. But Evan didn’t get rattled. He kept throwing the heat, and helped out his own cause by making several nice defensive plays, including catching a tricky pop fly behind the mound.
You’re wondering about that third grader? A third grader playing in a game with fifth and sixth graders – what’s going on?
The protocol for a short-handed Majors team is to ask the Minors commissioner to provide the name of a Minors player who wants to play up. We were given the name of third grader Cade Garcia. And it turned out that Cade did a great job for us!
With Connor on the mound in the first inning, a Cub hit a fly ball to right center. Cade ran over, and with the bright sun shining directly into his eyes, made the catch. It was a huge play at that point in the game. Cade also batted in one of the Braves’ four runs with a based-loaded walk. He is a player to watch for the future.
Our other runs were batted in by Alec, who knocked in one with a single, and by Ryan, who sent two guys home with a double to the fence in right-center field.
We would have scored more, except that the Cubs center-fielder made an amazing desperation-dive catch of Matt’s long drive to left-center field. It would have gone for at least a double. And with two outs Scott gave 110% to beat out an infield hit to drive in a run ….. except the base umpire, who was between second and third base, called him out at first. Everyone in both dugouts and the stands questioned that call.
But the ump is always right, at least in the scorebook. And overall, I thought the game was a good lesson for the Braves. We have won big, and now we have lost big. This is how sports, and life, works.
Thanks to Joe Kimple for filling in as first-base coach, and to the parents who came to cheer us on.
Next game: The undefeated Dodgers Sunday at 5 p.m. You will not want to miss that game! Please have your Brave at Water Tower by 4 p.m. so that we can get ready.
Thanks,
Dave
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