The Big Digital Plays Ward Softball

I went to our ward men's softball game last night hoping to just be supportive and watch, but dreading that we'd be short a few guys, given that today is a holiday and there were any number of other things also going on last night. Unfortunately, we were short guys, and I got roped into playing. Any guess where I played? That's right, as Brian Regan puts it, "I played out in right field, cuz I stunk". :) And my main goal was to make it through the hour without embarrassing myself. I think I somewhat achieved that.

I got up to bat 5 times, and managed to reach first base only once. I struck out the first two times I was up. The first because I hit two fouls. The second because I couldn't help but swing at a ball coming at my face. The next two times I was up, I grounded out to the pitcher. And in my final at bat, I once again grounded it to the pitcher, but the first baseman was unable to handle the throw. I'm not real good with baseball statistics (feel free to correct me here CJ), but I think that gives me a batting average of .000. Luckily my on base percentage is a healthy .200.

Now, thankfully, fielding went much better for me. As the right fielder, I didn't see a lot of action. In fact, in the (I think) seven innings we played, only two balls came to right. One was a grounder that I fielded and threw to 2nd base. The other was a fly ball that came pretty much right to me that I was able to catch for an out! I don't know if they do a fielding percentage stat, but if they did I think I was at 1.000.

Anyway, aside from my own struggles at the plate, we did manage to win the game in fairly dramatic fashion. In what we thought was the top of the last inning, we fell one run short (10-11) of tying the game. Then, because it was the last game of the night, and because guys on both teams were interested in continuing to play, they decided to give us an extra inning. We held them to 2 runs (10-13) in the bottom of the penultimate inning, and then put together an impressive last ups, scoring 10 runs to go up 20-13. I even managed to get on base, and over to 2nd before someone hit a grounder right to the 3rd baseman, ending my exciting time on the basepaths.

We held them scoreless in their last at bat and went home winners with an impressive looking 20-13 victory. Hopefully next week we can round up some real players and I can't go back to be an active supporter.