post for 4/29

Portfolio- 10 minutes (Hits and Misses)

Re reading parts of Nervous Conditions that I didn't understand- 45 minutes

"The Wise Wide-Reciever"- 2 hours (finished)

For my last free post I would like to talk about our teams baseball season. In the beginning of the year, we were off to a good start, and were number 2 in the state at one point after we won a tournament. Our confidence was through the roof. We thought we were un beatable and that we already had a full ride to the state championship. As the season went on, we started to play worse and worse. We all started to hit bad, swing at bad pitches, make errors, etc..

Turner Graham (senior) was one of our captains. He is one of the best players/leaders I have ever played the game of baseball with. One day after practice towards the end of our season, he sat us all down, and locked the door. He gave us one of the most emotional, heartfelt speeches that I have ever heard. This was a good starting point of restarting our minds. Turner started to build up our confidence everyday by doing small things. If I made a bad throw, or swung at a bad pitch, it seemed like he was always there to pick me up.

After this, our season started to go more smoothly. We beat Dunham once and they beat us once. (split) Also, the weekend before the playoffs started, we played the #3 team in 3A (we are @a, which means we are smaller than all schools above 2A) and beat them by one run. This game helped us alot with our confidence and I believe was the turning point in our season for real. We believed we could beat anybody again, and it was perfect timing because we were getting into the playoffs.

Our first game in the playoffs was against the powerhouse Calvary Baptist out of Shreveport. This team is known for there athletics, and usually wins state in every sport they compete in. We traveled to Shreveport as a team, and ended up beating the powerhouse 10-5 out hitting them with 17 hits vs 5. At this point, our adrenaline was through the roof and we actually could taste a state championship.

Our second playoff game was against the even bigger powerhouse, Kinder at home. This team was number 2 in the state, and had a MLB prospect on their team. (this means that they have a kid who might go to Major League Baseball out of highschool.) this was the best team in the state by far to me, and we lost a heart breaker, 9-2.

Our team was speechless after the game. All I felt was sadness and that deep feeling of "What if..". What if I got a hit when I was supposed to when there was a man on second and didn't strike out? Would the game be a whole different ball game?

I felt so sorry for the seniors, and I hugged them all. That night before I went to sleep, I realized something.

You don't have to in state to be a good team. A good team is one that fights through adversity, (which we did), and becomes closer than ever with one another. (which we also did.) Yea, winning state would have been amazing, but I know now, that this 2014 Knights Baseball Team, will always be in my heart as the best team I ever played with.