Softball 2009: Game 1

Opening day in Lincoln Park. A beautiful day in the shadow of the Chicago skyline. And as the home team's starting pitcher, I threw out the first pitch of the 2009 season. Since it's the first game, we had a huge roster and everyone got to play half a game. My active innings are in bold.

------- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 -- F
THEM 1 0 2 0 2 2 0 --7
US --- 2 1 4 0 4 2 x -- 13

Batting Stats for Game One
1st AB: fielder's choice
2nd AB: ground out

Average: .000
Slugging: .000
0 walks
0 strike outs
0 rbi

Pitching Stats for Game One:
4 IP
3 runs
3 K
0 BB

ERA: 5.25 and the win

Our relief pitcher had an ERA of 9.34. So somewhere in there is my VORP.

I know for a fact that the first run scored because of an errant throw to first, so technically that shouldn't count againt my ERA, but that's too complicated. I was really good at placing my pitches, I fielded a bunch of sharp grounders back to the mound, and I covered all over the infield on incoming throws. Two of my strikeouts were against guys, which is almost unheard of.

As for my batting, the first one was a weak grounder to short and I think that I could have beaten the throw to first, but there was a runner on first that was dead to rights at second for a fielder's choice.

The next at-bat I hit a nice deep hit to right, but it veered foul. On the next pitch I hit a solid grounder in the hole between the 2B and the 1B. I sprinted to first and stretched my foot out to the base and somehow got called out. I wasn't watching the ball, but I assume the 2B made a nice play to her left and threw me out, but I didn't think anyone was going to get to it. That was frustrating as there were runners on base and it would have been a rbi single and keep the 3rd inning alive.

I was glad that at least I was able to contribute as a pitcher since my hitting was weak. Although the relief pitcher only allowed 4 runs it was a little dicey. The first 6 pitches she threw were balls and I was afraid she was going to walk a lot of batters. But the other team bailed her out by hitting on 2-0 counts on outside pitches. I was excited to get the win, as this was one that we should have won. We'll face a lot of tougher teams so it's good to get wins when you can.

2009 Team Record: 1-0