| One way or another, tonight's contest marks the final game of
the Holly Purple Heart team's season. Unfortunately the game got off
to a slow start, as the Linden girls scored the first four runs to
take the early lead. The Purple Heart girls weren't deterred,
however, as they would answer back with 5 runs of their own, three
of which would come with two outs on the scoreboard. Giving up the
5-run maximum didn't deter Linden, either, as they too would have
their own 5 run inning, including 4 2-out runs. Unfortunately this
time Holly wasn't able to answer, as their bats just couldn't get
the job done. There was two Holly strikeouts (including one by Jay)
as well as a caught stealing as the coaches may have been a little
too aggressive on the base paths. For the first time in a long time
the Purple Heart squad found themselves trailing...
Linden stayed hot in the third, once again scoring the maximum 5
runs to widen their lead even further. Once again Holly struggled,
though they did score 3 runs to narrow the gap.
Both teams would go scoreless in the fourth inning, thanks to
some stellar Holly defense and some superior Linden pitching (three
Holly strikeouts in the inning). Holly would hold Linden scoreless
in the fifth as well, but they would not take their final at-bats as
the time limit was nearing and they would be unable to score enough
to make a comeback. Holly would suffer defeat for the first time in
their final game of the season (for the second year in a row),
losing to the league champions by a 14-8 score.
Tough luck girls, but it was a great season, and I'm proud of
you!
With all the positives out of the way, I can now have a small
bitch session. Frankly, while I would have preferred that the girls
win, I was glad to see the coaches (well, two of them) lose this
game. I understand that the point of sports it winning, but I do not
believe that striving to win should come at the cost of driving kids
away from a game that they may be growing to love. These two coaches
kept the players in essentially the exact same spot in the field all
season long, despite players asking to have the opportunity to play
elsewhere on occasion. They made girls cry after bad outings. They
put pressure to win on these girls that was beyond what a 9, 10, or
11 year should have to be burdened with. To top it off, they acted
like complete @$$e$ tonight. They continued to make poor decisions
during the game (steal attempts at the wrong time chief among them).
After suffering defeat, they refused to let the girls run through
the tunnel that the opposing team made for them. I understand being
disappointed in losing, but be a gracious loser. Apparently to them,
there is no such thing. And I wasn't the only parent to feel this
way, as one parent told them off after the game, and at least two
players quit the district team because they would be coaching. All I
can say is that I am thankful that we are moving and will never have
to play for them again... |
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