Finally, we’re starting to play ball the kind of ball we are capable of.
Today was a feel-good day from start to finish. It’s nearly impossible to have an entire day of baseball where everything goes right, and today was certainly not one of those rare occasions, but there were tons of positives to take away from our doubleheader.
We secured our first conference series win by sweeping the doubleheader at home today, and we have given ourselves the chance to sweep the series on Sunday, which would be a great way to transition into our bye weekend. It wasn’t easy though — we had to to make it exciting, plating 4 runs in the bottom of the 10th to win game 1. Victories like that feel good for several reasons: we prove to ourselves that we can win in extra innings, that we can come from behind to walk away winners, and it gives our pitchers confidence that even if they are taken out when we are behind that we won’t tag them with a loss. And lastly, even when we are forced to shuffle our lineup around significantly due to several injured players, we will manage to get the job done.
Game 2 wasn’t a walk in the park, either. Our starter couldn’t get through the third inning, but Ryo responded after throwing 90 pitches in his start against Corban by shutting Puget Sound down for the remainder of the game, giving up no runs. Haven’t seen his stats yet, but he earned his first two wins this week, and significantly lowered his ERA. He has been a pleasant surprise to start the second half of our season.
So far this week we are 3-1. We beat Corban at their yard, and lost a psuedo-home game against Concordia (their field is under construction). We have started off slower than we hoped, but we playing better ball than we were in the beginning of the year, which has been one of our main goals from the start.
At this point of the baseball season, we have to be weary because small things start to wear on everyone. That’s why we are happy to be playing good baseball despite our slow start and numerous injuries: it means everyone is staying focused, doing their job, and taking care of business. Baseball humbles you because of the number of games played. We are playing well on the heels of an off weekend followed by three series against the three teams currently at the top of the standings. We have a lot to be excited about this year.
