We Finally Played Our First Softball Game!

Last night, Shaling's softball team finally got to play a game. The game was in Chatham and against an impressive Chatham team that already had a few games under their belts. The Chatham girls were a lot bigger than our Rochester girls, and this mom has to confess that when she saw them, she had visions of a lopsided drubbing final score.

This league plays 4 innings. No extra innings. If it's a tie, it's a tie. There are 4 outfielders, plus the battery (pitcher & catcher) and regular infielders (first base, second base, third base, & shortstop), so 10 girls are on the field at a time. Each girl was assigned a position for 2 innings in order to mix things up.

Shaling was in the outfield the first two innings, though I use the word "outfield" very loosely, as our outfielders played so shallow they were almost on the infield dirt. She played catcher the last two innings and I was quite nervous excited for her. I wasn't sure if she fully understood all of the catcher's responsibilities, but I did know that she would be quite aggressive about going after the ball. She did great about grabbing the high pitches and stopping the low ones, but the ones that were off to the side tended to get by her. Her throws back to the pitcher were good as well (once we convinced her she could stand up to throw it back).

I was in the dugout, keeping the scorebook. The umpire assumed I was on the coaching staff. She (the umpire) called me out to help her convince Shaling not to scoot back. Shaling kept scooting back, little by little, to the point the umpire was almost in the grass and couldn't see to make ball & strike calls. Who can blame her for not wanting to be close to anyone swinging a dangerous weapon bat?

In the first inning, our team went down one-two-three. The Chatham girls got two hits, but made the third out with runners on first and third, so they didn't score either. When Shaling came up to bat in the second inning, her team had one out and still hadn't reached base. She kept her eye on the ball well and didn't swing at any bad pitches. However, when she swung at two good pitches, she missed them. When she swung at a third one, she made contact, but the ball only went about 5 or 6 feet. However, it stayed fair and she ran it out, reaching first base safely. I think we need to talk to her about turning to her right instead of her left after she passes the base though.

Rochester didn't score that inning, and neither did Chatham. However, in the third inning, Rochester scored a run, going up 1-0. Chatham responded by scoring two runs in the bottom of the inning, going up 2-1. In the top of the 4th, Rochester scored a run to tie it up. Shaling went to the plate with two outs and two runners on base. However, she was not as selective with the pitches this at-bat. In fact, her second strike, she went "golfing", swinging at a pitch almost in the dirt. She struck out, leaving the runners stranded. Thankfully, Chatham did NOT score in the bottom of the 4th, so we tied, 2-2. Considering it was our team's first game, I was thrilled for the girls. They played well, learned, had fun, and got the nervousness that goes with a first game out of their system (or, maybe that was me that got the nervousness out of her system).

Shaling had some special spectators present. Grandma Coonrod (my mom) was able to stop by and watch the game on her way home to Carlinville, after having worked in Springfield for the day. Shaling's teacher, Mrs. Collins, has more than one student on the team and she stopped by for some of the game. A friend of mine, Dave Milner, came specifically to take pictures of Shaling's first game. Dave takes pictures at a lot of the Rochester high school and junior high athletic events as a hobby. He is generous enough to share those photos with the local newspaper.

Dave posted ten pictures of Shaling playing softball on Facebook and tagged me in them so that my family and friends can see them. However, I don't have a way to upload those pictures here. Hopefully I can either get him to email some to me or I will take some of my own next game.