The Beginning of the End
I was pretty excited to head down to Ohio this past weekend to watch my niece play softball with her high school team. Although they haven't had the greatest season, it has been better than last year and they have shown hints of the potential that I know they all have. As their regular season closes out, the Shamrocks were hosting an annual mini tournament on their campus.
The three high schools that make up their district all met together to play three games and raise money for cancer victims and survivors. It was a really great event and I think they did pretty well. I know at one point the 50/50 drawing was close to $800.
They also had some silent auctions and other stuff going on. If I had to guess they maybe made a couple thousand dollars. It honestly should have been more than that, but softball doesn't draw the crowds that some of the other sports do unfortunately.
This tournament should have resulted in the Shamrocks walking away with the trophy, but that isn't how it went down.
The team with the worst record among the three teams playing ended up walking away with the overall victory. They beat both teams pretty significantly. My hats off to them for showing up and proving to the other two teams that they shouldn't be underestimated.
The sad thing is, it was a winnable game for the Rocks, it might have not been easy, but it was definitely possible. The team was just looking tired and not ready though. They seemed like they were asleep. I even noticed my niece was dragging a little during warm ups. She snapped out of it fairly quickly, but the rest of the team did not.
Clearly, I am going to be biased!
Thankfully, they saved a little bit of their pride as the hosts and they won the second game with a walk off bunt if you can believe that. They hadn't really been able to hit the ball all day, so they resorted to the bunt to get things done.
Either way, it was nice to see my niece out on the field. She is always fun to talk to and I got to spend some quality time with her.
The weather was a bit odd, it was rarely sunny, and quite overcast all day. There was a brief period where the rain poured down for a good half hour, then things went back to cloudy again. I arrived home that night only to find out that I had some pretty significant sun burns on the tops of my legs, my arms, and my head. Given the lack of sun I didn't even think to put on sunscreen.
Even two days later it is hurting pretty bad.
The Rocks are back in action on Tuesday with a section tournament game. If they lose that they are finished for the year. If they win, they move on to play the #1 team in the state. That same team is also ranked #7 in the country, so it will definitely be a battle if they make it that far!
You know I'm proud of my niece either way.
It's crazy to think that she only has one more season of school ball ahead of her. Time is moving much too quickly and before you know it she will be playing at the University level like her sister. It makes me sick to my stomach!
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