If you were not at this Friday's co-ed game, you may have missed the game of the season!  After falling behind by one run late in the game, Aaron's timely hit got us back in the ball game and put us back ahead by one run.  However, as visitors on the second game, the opponent, Trinity, still had one at-bat.  The ump had already announced that this was the last inning, so we knew this was it.  During Trinity's last at-bat, with ELC was down by one run and at risk of running out of time.  When the unpire called "5 minutes remaining", we knew we had to put then down and start the next inning before the five minutes were up.  Everyone hustled out on the field and the ELCs pitcher, Steve F, began quick-pitching to speed up the game.  A tense moment when the second batter hit a long fly ball out of bounds down the left field line.  Bill L, the ELC left fielder had to chase it down in a hurry and get it back in play.  Time was running out and his hustling allowed ELC to pitch to three batters and put them out in order.

As the third batter was put down, ELC still had to take a pitch before the final inning could begin.  Luckily for ELC, the Trinity team did not delay getting on the field and pitching the first pitch. Once he did, the inning had to be completed and time was no longer an issue.  This allowed Aaron to get his go-ahead RBIs.

When our at-bats were done and we were once again in the lead, it was a matter of just playing tight defense and putting them down in order.  Everyone could feel the tension as we took the field knowing our undefeated season was on the line.  The lineup for the opponent was in our favor as it was a Female-Male-Female order for the first three.  Having good success in striking out many of the female batters so far in the game, Steve took the mound confident in at least two quick outs.

His optimism paid off as he struck out the first batter in the lineup, bringing up the first male batter of this final inning.   A left-handed batter, who was having  good success throughout the evening came to the plate and took a few balls before swining at the pitch he wanted.  He made contact and hit a hard grounder to the right side of the infield, right at second base, being played by Rachel C.  Having already taken a hard shot to the forearm earlier in the game, Rachel quickly moved in front of the grounder and blocked it from getting past her.   The ball bounced off her glove, and up off her chest, but never got past her.  It seemed like slow motion watching the ball bounce in front of her and settle to the ground as the runner streaked towards first base.  In an amazing show of concentration, Rachel, who has probably played about 5 innings of softball in her life, calmly picked up the ball and threw it to Lynn W, beating the runner by a good step or two, for the secone out of the inning.  Both the ELC fans in the stands and the on-field players cheered her on for her heads-up play.  With two down and one to go, the third batter came up to the plate.  Knowing the game was now in hand, Steve pushed the pitching arc to the limit as he went for a final strike out.  The batter, however, had no intention of going down swinging and made contact.  Luckily, however, it was an easy grounder back to the pitcher, who ran it over to first base for the final out, preserving the undefeated season to-date at 5-0-1

The first game was won much easier, as the Trinity pitcher struggled and the patience by the ELC batters early in the game allowed may walked batters to come in home.  After a pitching change and an attempted comeback, the game ended much closer than it started, but was still a relatively easy win for the ELCs.

Men's Team Struggles
as it Drops Two Games
(and lots of balls)