Game one was Saturday afternoon, against a team called Mets Elite. This team was fairly evenly matched with TP and the game was intense from the start. TP had a shaky first half of the first inning, allowing Mets Elite to score three runs. After that, they found their groove and played for a 5-4 win. Game two was Saturday evening against Team Avalanche and that one got a little nasty. TP started off strong, taking an early lead. However, some errors led to Team Avalanche pulling ahead for a brief time. And that's when things got nasty. This team was one of those obnoxious teams that I hate coming up against. Bad attitudes, cockiness, and just absolutely no class. When they pulled ahead they thought they were real hot stuff, but our boys charged and left them in the dust with a 10-7 win. After that it was back to the hotel to have dinner and wait to hear where we were seeded. Got word that we were the 3 seed around 11:30 that night with a game time of noon for Sunday. Game three was against a team called Ocala Blaze. This game took a while due to rain that at one point caused a fifteen minute delay. The game went very well, ending in a 10-3 win. This put TP in the semi final round against the 2 seed team, the Renegades. This game was a bit more intense than game three since the two teams were more evenly matched, though TP took it in the end 4-2. After a short break of maybe twenty minutes it was on to the championship round. The team we were playing, LBA Storm, was a team we'd played before, back in our second tournament of the summer. They had beaten us in the semi final round of that tournament so the boys were pumped for a rematch. The game started off being a bit frustrating, remaining scoreless then getting deadlocked in a 1-1 tie I believe until the fourth inning. To be honest some of the details are fuzzy because what happened next proved to be a very emotional moment for me. J came up to bat with two outs, which always makes me nervous. His first at bat of the game had ended in a strikeout when he swung at a pitch he had no business swinging at. Well, he redeemed himself with a bomb hit deep into the outfield that brought in two runs, breaking the tie. The look on his face as he stood on first base is a moment I'll never forget. Following that, the runner on third base managed to score when J, I believe at Coach C's instruction, had gotten himself into a pickle trying to steal second. While the other team was busy trying to run J down and tag him out, which they eventually did, our runner scored, giving us a 4-1 lead. Since the run came in before they tagged J out it counted. From there, TP ignited and never let up, eventually ending up with a 12-1 win for the championship.
Let me go back to J's awesome, game changing hit for a moment. At the time, I didn't fully realize what he had managed to accomplish. I simply thought he'd gotten a great hit, so great in fact that it made me cry I was so proud of him. It wasn't until later, as we were leaving the ice cream shop we'd gone to to celebrate, that Coach C said something that made me realize the moment was bigger than I'd thought. Apparently J's hit turned the tide of the game. The team was so pumped up that it gave them the push they needed to break out and take ownership of the game. Had J not delivered, the game might have gone in a different direction. That made me cry all over again, especially since J has had some rough moments this summer as he continues to work on improving the mechanics of his fielding. But for last night, he came through when his team needed him the most, which will be a memory he'll carry with him forever. As Coach C said to him, "Way to be clutch."
The TP season is over which has left me feeling a little sad. I'm going to miss the boys, the other parents, and the camaraderie we all share. I made Coach C promise me last night that we'd talk about next summer soon and him moving up with the current team to the next age division. I'll be sure to update on that once plans are in place! But for now, I've washed the swing juice jug for the last time, updated the team web page with our record of 16-6-2, and have almost finished putting together a slide show of TP's greatest moments.
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