Saturday at the Abilene tournament, things happened the same. They won the first game 20-0 in the first inning!! We were home, so we took the field first. Travis pitched 14 pitches and it was 3 up, 3 down. We headed to the dugout for our at bat. For an hour, our boys had batting practice! The poor Sweetwater team looked like they hadn't played baseball before!
The 2nd game, we played Jim Ned. They beat us 8-7. We were ahead and our boys just forgot how to play in the last inning!!
So, Sunday morning, the team had batting practice at ABA. They had music playing and the boys were in a really great mood. At the end, John pulled the boys together and he showed them a picture. It was a picture of a baseball team. He told the boys that they were at the state tournament the year before and they lost. John and a teammate made a deal in the parking lot after the game -- they were going to make it back to the tournament the following year and they were going to do it. He said the two of them lead the team back to the state tournament where they won. He pointed out the guys who went on to play baseball in college and some semi-pro. He told them that their first game was a trap game. They had scrimmaged Stamford about 2 weeks before and they killed them. He told the boys that the first game was a trap. They could go into this game and think they've already got it won and more than likely, they'll lose and head home. Or, they could go in and play and do what they know they have to do and don't look at the scoreboard until the game is over and they had an excellent chance of making it to the championship game.
As we were walking out of ABA, Layne walked up to Payton and said, "Hey, me and you. Let's do this." It was one of those moments where the music would start playing in the movie. Even I was getting really excited as we were driving to the ballfields.
The boys won the first game. Payton pitched and amazing game! It was a close one (I think we won by 2), but they pulled it out!!
We had a break before the championship game. Eastland and Jim Ned were playing and we played the winner. Eastland beat Jim Ned and it normally wouldn't look good for our boys because Jim Ned beat us, but they went out on that field with their game face on.
Layne was pitching and Payton was catching. The two of them were completely controlling the game. It was so awesome!! Dropped fly balls were at a minimum. Some awesome fly balls were caught! The umpire comes up and says that time has expired, so at the end of 3 outs, the game is over. They had 2 outs. Layne pitched 3 more pitches and the game was over! Strike 3! 3rd out!! And in the end, the Thunder won the game!!
Layne and Payton took off running towards each other jumping up and down and did a big chest bump! They finally won a tournament! And I thought back to that morning when Layne told Payton, "Hey, me and you. Let's do this." And, they did.
I'll have to fix the pictures later. :)
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