Home Opener

Tonight's home opener did not go as planned...to say the least.

The game started off on a sour note.  Our pitcher gave up a cheap infield hit to lead off the game followed by an error by the shortstop.  He battled out of a bases loaded jam surrendering only one run.  The second inning, however, we were not so lucky.  Our pitcher was hit around a little bit and they plated 5 runs, stretching the lead to 6-1.  We answered back in the bottom of the second with a couple runs of our own.  Our starting pitcher only lasted 2 and 2/3 innings before he was relieved of his duties.  The next guy went 6 1/3 strong innings keeping us in the game.

We kept chipping away at the lead and before you knew it we were within 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning.  Our second baseman came up HUGE for us and blasted a 3 run home run down the right field line to bring us within one run!  In the bottom of the ninth inning, we lead the inning off with a double.  We pinch ran for the hitter to put more speed on the bases.  The next guy up hit a towering fly ball, that I thought was a home run off the bat, to deep right field.  Our runner tagged and advanced to third...

The throw was nowhere close to getting him out and it was a given that he advanced to third.  The other team (the Danville Braves) thought the runner left early from second base.  The appealed the call and sure enough, the umpire called the runner out!  Our manager went absolutely nuts and expressed exactly how he felt about the umpire, about the call, and about how they had been umpiring all night (quite a bit of expletives were thrown around in there as well)!  That one call took all the momentum we had away.  We went from having the tying run on third base with one out to having nobody on with 2 outs.  The next batter grounded out to short and the game was over.  We lost 9-8, but in all honesty we should still have been playing.  It should have been tied.

I was in shock when the umpire called the runner out.  Even if he had left a fraction of a second early, there is NO WAY he can make that call with the game on the line.  Everybody that has been involved with baseball in some way or another knows that there are some umpires that want to control the game and always want the attention on them.  Well, these two umpires were exactly that.  They were just plain bad.  There is no other words to describe it, they were just bad.  I know I shouldn't be blaming the umpires, but they took the game out of our hands.

For the umpires out there that are reading this, the crowd and the fans do not come to the stadium to watch you guys.  The best umpires are the ones that are not noticed!

The loss brings our record to 2-2.  We are back at it tomorrow night at 7 pm against the Danville Braves again.  I can guarantee you that we will come out hot. The team was pissed off after the game.  I can tell this team hates to lose and everybody that knows me knows I hate to lose.  I am 22 years old and I still won't let my little brothers beat me in anything!

We will get them tomorrow and hopefully I will pitch again...it's almost a crapshoot of when I'll pitch.  Your guess is as good as mine.  It's the life of a reliever...