So close, yet so far

We only lost tonight's softball game by 2 points, which makes it our best game yet. There was a lot of excitement. Jess was working but my friend Erica came out to be my substitute good luck and she did a great job. I've decided that second base is definitely my favorite position. It's far enough away from the batter that you probably won't lose your teeth but still in the thick of the action. I scooped two grounders, almost made a double play and held onto a pass for an out even though I got hit by the runner.

And speaking of hitting...my second time at bat, I hit a fairly weak grounder over by third, but as always, I ran like hell for first base. I got there the same time as the ball, but unfortunately there was a confrontation involving my left thigh and the first baseman's knee. Muscle loses over bone, every time. I went flying and rolled and before I even hit the ground, he was yelling out, "She touched, she touched!"

There are two bases at first, a white one on the inside and a red one on the outside. If you're going to run through, you hit the red bag. If you're going to second, you hit the white one and keep running. So he was saying that I touched the white bag and the ref called me out. In actuality, I touched the red bag with my right foot and hit his knee as my other leg came through. He should've left more room.

But I wasn't really thinking about all that as I lay in the dirt with my leg throbbing. Lots of team mates came out and tried to help me up, but I refused until the pain died down to something I thought I might not scream through when I stood up. I took my bogus out like a good sport and when it was time to go out into the field, I sucked it up and took my position, over concerned protest from my team mates. "What's your pain level?" they wanted to know. When I said "five," they thought that was too high. But with a little favoring, I did OK.

To their credit, just about every runner that came through my base asked after my leg. It got a little old but they were just being sweet. Several of them offered as how they thought I was safe as well, which was gratifying.

Unfortunately the game went downhill from there and we gave up a lot of runs and gave them an 11-8 lead, of which we were only able to make up two runs before time ran out.

Still, I feel like I definitely suck less every game and I got a lot of compliments for my hustle. If I could just get some power in my batting, I'd be in good shape. I think I will play again next summer, where I won't have to deal with the stupid Fall ball rules of starting at bat with one out and one strike already.