Alpharetta Raiders Baseball - Friday
Home plate was composed of a pressed board, cut in the familiar shape although a couple of the corners were chipped off. It was brown in color – a bit different from the red clay that has changed our once white socks to a permanently new color. First base, cut and worn served once as an old seat cushion, none of the bases were fastened down, unless they got caught on the nail heads driven in the ground to mark the likely locations – you get the idea. From a facility standpoint, this was “sandlot” baseball, with six foot back stop and no pitchers mound. The bases were only 66 feet apart as the field was often used for softball and the unmarked pitching spot floated from 52 to 54 feet. There were dugouts for both teams and one concrete grandstand.
While the field was much different from the previous day at the Score Facility, the hearts of their players were no less. Being in the middle of a community there were also lots of fans, looking on and cheering their team towards their normal success. They blasted us out in the first inning taking on a 6 run lead right off the bat. They were big, they could run, and they were used to the short distances to the bases and the pitchers mound. This makes a big difference and you need to charge every ball and field it cleanly if you hope to get the runner out. It shakes up your normal play and you have to be able to adjust and always hustle.
Coach Matt re-emphasized all of the needed changes at the end of that disastrous inning and the boys settled down and into their groove – but with a lot of ground to make up.
Our cheering section made up of mothers and siblings were forced to sit on the firsts based side in the midst of the “enemy camp.” However, they won the Domincan’s over with a few choruses of “Take me out to the Ball Game” – followed by “Who let the Dogs Out.” Soon, our boys were firing back with strong base hits and great fielding plays. The opposing pitcher was a lean left hander with a lot of speed that made our boys a bit dizzy until they got used to the short distance from the “non-mound.” Inning after inning they kept coming back until tying the game in the top of the last inning with a two run – home run – over the fence into someone’s yard – a real blast. The opposing team began to panic with multiple trips to the mound. Our ladies cheered “Huddle, Huddle, must be trouble” and the game went into extra innings and new pitchers all around.
The final was score 11 – 9 – Alpharetta Raiders won in overtime. A great game against a team with great heart – boys – just like the rest of us – loving to play baseball.
The Dominican Team
