After losing a hard fought first round playoff game, we were headed to the consolation bracket; the game was supposed to take place the next day, but Mother Nature had other plans. The skies opened and the games were cancelled. Next up, was the 4th of July break; no games throughout this past weekend. This brings us to Thursday, July 6th, when we would take the field again.
We had lost 7 in a row, 6 games to end the regular season, and then 1 to start the playoffs; we weren’t THIS bad. We had another, maybe final chance, to prove this. We played a team that we hadn’t met in the regular season. With 16 teams in the league, and 12 games on our schedule, we wouldn’t meet 3 different teams; this was one of them. How were they? What was their record? My son asked me; I told him, don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter what their record was in the regular season; let’s just beat them. I’m happy to report that we did exactly that, ending our 7 game losing streak, moving 1 game closer to the consolation bracket finals.
Consolation bracket… I guess Loser’s Bracket isn’t used any more? The playoffs are not double elimination either. Only the teams who lost in the first round will get a chance to play more baseball; kind of sucks for those teams who lost in the 2nd round… they’re gone. I think the whole plan was to ensure teams get at least 2 playoff games; more baseball is never a bad thing. When the awards come around, the teams that will win something will be the team that advances through the playoffs unscathed, and the 1 loss team who wins the consolation bracket. We still have a chance to be one of those teams.
It was a 7-3 victory. We hit the ball, including my son who got his first hit in a minute; I was very happy for him. We caught the ball; it’s nice when balls aren’t rolling all around the diamond. We did get thrown out on the basepaths a handful of times… but overall, a very good game. Our pitching was really good too. I did have a decision to make. Our 2nd pitcher of the game was rolling through 3 innings; should I pull him to save him for the next game IF we get there? I made that mistake already; I’m going to stick with him. He was rolling so much though, that in his 4th inning of work, he threw less than 10 pitches; he was still eligible for pitching in the next game. We were up by 4 runs, and needed only 1 more inning from someone else; I made the change. The bases were loaded with 2 outs as the lineup turned over to the top; the tying run was at the plate… it’s never easy. Guy hits a little squibber… our pitcher jumps off the mound, grabs it, and throws him out at first; this win felt really, really good.
Next up is a team we played a great game against during the regular season; we lost, but it was a really good game. In my opinion, we have a really good chance to beat this team and advance to the final game. Winning this consolation bracket after the tough luck regular season we had, would be pretty cool. Until Sunday…
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