And so the Season Ends

Pre-game Warm-up GORC 12U Wildcats (Haslup)
June 8, 2019

The GORC 12U Wildcats (Haslup) ended their playoff run and their season yesterday with a bone crushing loss. It is the kind of loss that just leaves a bad taste in your mouth because the winning team was not necessarily the better team, they just received too many breaks in the first inning.

Line Score GORC 12U Wildcats (Haslup)
June 8, 2019

The box score tells the tale of the game. The opposition managed 8 runs on 2 hits with 6 walks. Five of GORC's errors (3 fielding and 2 passed balls on 3rd strikes) occurred during the first inning in which it took the equivalent of 8 outs to get out of the inning. Taking away those errors, which all occurred with two-outs and no runs in, the score should have been 3-2. 

Pre-game Team Meeting
GORC 12U Wildcats (Haslup)
June 8 ,2019

Once the defense stiffened, the team managed some great plays, including turning another double play and solid play by the catcher, third basemen and shortstop, but they just were not ready to play at the start of the game. It felt like we had two outs for an hour during the now pivotal first inning. We had some heroic plays as well by players who were injured fielding the ball but still made great plays before succumbing to the pain or the dirt in their eyes. Jax was one of those, on a ball hit back to him while he was the pitcher dirt got into his eyes, but he still made the throw to first for the out. And in another, the centerfielder, Cal, got hit by the ball which took a bad hop but was able to field it and get it to home plate to cut down a runner. 

Despite the heroics and the solid defense, the game ended before the bats could overcome spotting the other team 6 runs during the first inning. 

Although the season is over and the sting of the loss is still fresh and painful, the one thing that I will take away from the season is that the boys are now baseball players and not just playing baseball.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD