Baseball, America’s favorite pastime, is a sport normally played in the spring and summer. Through the sunshine, the little white ball is hit, thrown, and caught. But for me this fall, I had to beat the heat of Scottsdale, Arizona, and also try to pitch my way to not get beat by the #1 ranked team in Arizona.

It was Saturday, 8 am, the game was just about to start, and it was already a brisk 88 degrees in Scottsdale, and my coach had given me the nod to pitch against the #1 team in Arizona, Swarm Red Elite. With me already shaking in my boots and beaming with sweat, it was already an uphill climb. The game started out hot with me picking up a quick out on 3 pitches, but then giving up a 2-strike single to the next batter, but I came out with no runs.

The bottom of the first was a huge inning for my team as we put up 3 runs with only 1 out. The game progressed, and I only got better until I gave up a huge 2-run single to their 3rd hitter, who was a big lefty. In the 4th inning, it was 3-2 us, and we haven’t gotten a hit since the first inning. When I went out to pitch, missed calls from the umpires and a couple of mental mistakes put a runner on 2nd base with no outs. I got a huge flyout, which advanced the runner to third. Runner on third, 1 out, and a 3-0 count, the batter pops the ball up to right field. The right fielder catches, throws to the cutoff, who throws the ball away, letting the runner score with ease, tie game, 2 out. I strike the next batter out.

I went on to finish the entire game, throwing a great game against a very good team that scrapped together another run on a sacrifice fly to left field. They kept us hitless from innings 2-6, which ended the game when we got no hits in the last inning, which happened to be the 6th due to time.

What was a great game for me turned into a devastating loss for the team, which took us out of bracket play for the weekend.

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