Kickball, Week 10: A Close Shave

This final week of the regular season, my team played the worst of the Wednesday night teams: Los Campesinos.  The dirty little secret about them is that they had no wins, but many close losses...so they were actually better than their record appeared.  And this was their final opportunity to win a regular-season game (in kickball, everyone makes the playoffs). 

The game started with Dave (one of our Marines) got on base with a single, and someone else (I don't remember who) kicked him home.  So we were up 1-0 after the 1st inning.  In the second, tragedy struck: one of their guys kicked a blast into right-center field.  I play center -- or, as I like to call it, free safety -- and I tracked the ball back along with Greg (the other Marine), who plays right field but goes after any ball kicked remotely in his direction.  But this ball went over our heads, and practically into the next field.  Both of us ended up letting the ball drop with one bounce before I fielded it.  Despite the fact that I grabbed and threw pretty quick, this is a kickball, not a baseball.  It took two relay throws just to get the ball back into the infield...and by the time we did, they had a 3-run homer.  Los Campesinos 3, Freqs 1. 

During those innings, I got a single on my first at-bat and moved to second off a single by my teammate.  Unfortunately, my next teammate also kicked the ball towards 3rd base.  This is normally an excellent strategy that I use all the time...unless there are runners on first and second, in which case you basically doom the runner going to third by kicking that way.  I tried to slide under the throw, but to no avail.   I actually got  my elbows bruised and a tiny bit bloodied by my slide attempt, because the field was dry and rough - but I shook it off like a champ after I was called out.

Fortunately, Two teammates got on base in the third inning, and Greg blasted a ball into left center.  Cat is a hardcore runner and Greg has armed forces speed, so his kick became the second 3-run homer of the game.  The Freqs 4, Los Campesinos 3.  Both teams were held scoreless in the final two innings, so we took home the win after recording the last out with opposing runners on first and second. 

I stayed to line ref the last game, making up for the forfeit I caused when we got smacked around several weeks back.  Then came the postgame happy hour and a re-hash of what went right and wrong.

The Freqs' record to start the season: 1-4.  Our record to finish: 3-5-1.  Our record over the past 4 games: 2-1-1 (and the one loss was against the 6-time defending champs).  We got a lot better as the season progressed, so we're going into the playoffs 3 weeks from now on a high note.  In the meantime, we get a break from Kickball - and you get a break from these posts (after the next one, anyway). 

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