Kickball Playoffs, Round 1: Vengeance

My team, the 12th-seeded Freqs, took on the 5th-seeded Bad News Barristers in one of the early-game first-round playoff clashes on Wednesday night.  The core of our team showed up in full force; it's amazing how much more focused we are now than we were to start the season.  As mentioned before, the Barristers beat us 3-1 in the first week of the regular season.  But that was a different 'The Freqs' team. 

Right?

This time around, we made some batting lineup changes.  Dave (one of the two JAGs/Marines on our squad) led off, because he no longer tries to kick deep.  I kicked second, because I always get on base.  Cat (probably our best female player) kicked third, and Justin (possibly our best player overall, who just had a baby and didn't start coming to games until the middle of the season) kicked fourth.  The idea was to get the people who always get on base to kick early, and then get some good cleanup kickers to come after them. 

Dave got on first.  Despite the Barristers' wicked pitcher, I moved Dave to second on a single (of course).  Cat then got on...but kicked towards third base, which got Dave out.  Then Justin came up...and kicked a 3-run homer.  I crossed home plate for the first time in weeks.  Two batters later, Greg kicked a 2-run shot to center.  By the time we were done, it was 5-0 Freqs going into the bottom of the first inning. 

Obviously, the plan worked like a charm.  I don't think they were prepared for (1) how good we had become, and (2) the blitzkrieg of our offense stacked so early and strategically at the front of our lineup.  Sometimes it takes a little time to settle down and prepare yourself defensively for a game, and I don't think we gave them that chance.  Their outfielders weren't ready to catch, and their infielders weren't composed yet. 

In my next at-bat (it came quicker because of our offensive success), we had runners on 1st and 2nd (or maybe the bases were loaded). Uh-oh...I could no longer kick to third without getting our runner on second out.  So I knew I had to kick towards first or into right field. 

Their pitcher was so nasty that he fouled me off twice.  I ended up kicking an awkward blooper into the infield near first.  I tried to slide into first, straining my ACL in the process; I would limp for the rest of the game and the entire next day (it's still sore now).  It was my first appearance in 5 or 6 weeks at the plate that I didn't kick safely.  But my targeted kicking and self-sacrifice paid off: Cat scored from second or third, giving me an RBI.  On that score, we took a 7-0 lead going into the bottom of the second.

In a memorable moment, some of my teammates started talking about who we would face in the second round.  Greg (the other JAG, and probably our MVP) and I immediately tried to put a stop to it.  Me: "Let's not start sucking each other's popsicles just yet."

For the rest of the game, the Barristers shut us out and scored 3 runs, but this game was basically over as soon as it started.  Final score: The Freqs 7, Bad News Barristers 3.

In the second round, we will face the 4th-seeded team.  These guys were the least fun team we've played -- and also handed us our worst loss of the season: they destroyed us 10-0 on a week where most of our best players didn't show up.  But, once again, it's a different game now.  As our last opponents just learned, we aren't the same team we were then.  It will be their abrasive hyper-competitiveness vs. our focus.  May the best team make the semis.             

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