City Champs - by Kevin

The last time I played in a championship game for any sport was when I was 12. It was the Longmont Baseball League (like Little League, but local to the city I grew up in.) We were playing for the 11-12 year old championship. It was the bottom of the 6th inning (that's all we would play) we were down by 2, bases loaded, 2 outs and guess who is up... that's right, yours truly. I was nervous, but confident, I had been doing well all season - but this was it...Either I go home with my head down, or I go home with a sweet plastic trophy.

I was not about to take a walk, I wanted it to be me to finish the game one way or another, not the kid who was up after me. The first pitch was about a foot outside - it took all I could to keep from swinging at it. The second pitch was coming in right over the plate, but it was high. Like I said, there was no way that I was going to take a walk, so I swung with all my might at a pitch right at eye level, I connected solid, and I knew it was over. It was a beautiful line drive right down the 3rd base line, it went over the 3rd baseman's head, and the left fielder had no chance of stopping it before it rolled to the 300 foot fence. As I rounded second, I knew the game was tied, and only one more run would win it all... The kid who was on first was running his heart out, and got home about 2 seconds before the ball got in...we did it, we were city champs. And best of all I was the one who finished it off. I'll remember that moment for the rest of my life.

As I said, that was the last time I have ever played in a championship game, that is until last night. I have been playing slow pitch softball with Volvo (for those of you that don't know, that's who I work for) we finished the season a respectable 9-5, enough to earn us a first round bye in the 12 team tournament. During this tournament we were just on, we ended up winning the first game by forfeit, because the other team didn't have enough players, so we were on to round 3 - we beat our arch rivals by a walk off tag up from first who was able to make it home (for those of you who don't know what a "walk off tag up" is - please go ask your husbands.

The next game we were down 0-4 going into the 4th inning - then we started hitting, and ended up winning 20-5 to make it to the championship game. I could hardly sleep Tuesday night, I couldn't believe it, we actually made it to the championship game, I had dreams, and hopes of scoring the winning run, or turning the double play that ended the game, and gave us a 1 run lead. As it turns out, we did not need my last minute heroics, I went a respectable 2-3 with 3 RBI's, by the 4th inning it was practically over (see the scoreboard below - we were the guests)

We won the game by a final score of 20-2 to win the Asheville, Men's E division, Slow Pitch softball championship. Yes, it was only "E" division, but we still won it handily.

Next year, we get to play up to the D league, I can't wait to take that one on as well, I'll be dreaming of the next time I get to play in a championship game