Playoffs??

Softball season is winding down.  We had a make-up game on Sunday in the extreme heat, and managed to come away with a win.  They were a weaker team, and were only playing with nine guys, but we managed to make it much more interesting than it should have been.  The playoffs started last night.  We ended up with the fifth seed in our thirteen team league, and the top three teams got byes.  So we played the twelfth seed, and played down to their level.  We squeaked out an 11–10 win in eight innings.  There’s no way the game should have been that close, but we always seem to have problems in the playoffs. 

I actually drove in the winning run.  The bases were loaded and we had two outs.  I took the first pitch and it hit the mat for a strike.  In my previous at-bat, I also took the first pitch for a strike and then proceeded to foul the next pitch off for an out.  It had been years since I’d fouled out, and I wanted to make up for that.  So this time I hit it solid between the first and second basemen, allowing the winning run to score.  Unfortunately, I looked like Aramis Ramirez on the way to first (Cubs fans should know what I’m talking about), forgetting that I need to actually make it to first for the winning run to count.  The outfielder threw to first and fortunately, I made it there in time.  Boy that would have been a terrible, bone-headed move on my part if I had got thrown out for lack of hustle.  I would have been pretty mad at myself, and actually I am because that’s not the way I play.  I just got caught up in the moment and took my head out of the game for a minute.  Anyway, I ended up going 3–5 last night at the plate and got my season average back to .500 (25–50). 

Next week we play the fourth seed, who we lost to just last week by a score of 11–12.  The sad thing was that we had that game.  We were up 11–7 going into the bottom of the seventh, but gave up too many runs.  I can’t say we’ve been playing our best ball the past few weeks, and that’s not a good thing during the playoffs.  However, even as the fifth seed, we should be able to win the league.  We had a chance to win every game this year.  We finished 8–4 in the regular season, but the four losses were by a total of ten runs.  Our tendency has been to play to the level of our competition, which we’re going to need to do from here on out, because if we play sloppy, we’re not going to last very long.