Temperature stood at 10 above this morning...it's been a long-long winter with just a few breaks....mid 40s by Wednesday, but back to cold for the first weekend of March, so it looks like "in like a lion" it will be.
Yesterday afternoon our Dartball team headed for Schumm, Ohio, a little berg of 50 people and a Lutheran Missouri Synod Church, where the Wabash Valley League Tournament is being held this year. Schumm is the northern most team in our league. Anyhow, we "drew" Mount Carmel our South Division Rivals in the first round...Carmel and our St.John's team have been the top 2 teams in the south for many years....and frankly they have had the better of us in the past 15 years since I started playing..we have won a couple of tournament championships, but by far they have won more league and travel trophies than we have. With our influx of new players, including a 8 and 10 year old, and the retirement and deaths of other star players, we have been a shell of our old team. We finished both half's 11 wins and 10 loses, we still managed 2nd place in the south, but Carmel easily won both half's.
Our odds going into yesterday's 2 of 3 first round were not good....our top run game of the season was 12, on 2 occasions, and our best 3 game night run total had been just 21...far and away below our totals from years gone by...in fact we averaged below 4 runs a game, and about 9 hits....anybody that plays serious underhand dartball knows these stats are pretty below average to say the least. We started the day out with Sam{our Captain} losing the coin toss...but things for some reason got better after that...a notorious slow starting team, we dropped a 3 spot on them in the top of the first inning, and things just kept getting better in game one.....we ended up scoring 14 runs, a season high, on 20 hits{second most} and went on to trounce Carmel 14-7 in game #1. The 8 year old went 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs and his 10 year old brother went 2 for 4....both well above their seasons average....I went 3 for 5 with 2 triples and a couple RBIs in game #1.
In game #2 things cooled off for us, while Carmel matched their game one total with 7 runs on 10 hits and topped us 7-5...I went just 1 for 4 with a RBI.....that brought us down to the rubber game in the best 2 of 3...as the visiting team, much like the first game, we jumped out 3-0 in the first inning....and after 2 innings we were up 4-0 on the favorites....that couldn't last against these guys, and it didn't...Mt Carmel tied it at 4 in the 7th and with the rest of the teams watching our game(it was the final contest to finish for the day)...it looked like the Cinderella Story would come to and end....In the top of the 8th with the 10 year old Jake on first(with his 4th hit of the day) and 2 out, our top of the order came up....Ed our leadoff hitter singled to put 2 on and 2 out....our RBI leader Gene brought them home with a 2 run triple, I singled and John tripled me home, before Sam ended the inning, and lo and behold, we were up 8-4...that proved to be enough, and we ended up pulling off the upset...and will move on next Sunday to the Semi Finals against Mount Tabor, a team with a better record, but a team we matched 3 games each during the regular season. I ended the day with 6 for 13 and a team high of 5 RBIs....
On the regular season, I finished in 4th place in the league with a .362 batting average, a sign how far our league is down....10 years ago, I batted .493 and still finished second in the BA Title. Sam and Gene joined me for the annual All-Star game which will be held on March 9th.
This morning I will be at a meeting with MRS, to discuss personal policies. That is about it for the day's schedule....The first week of my "Weight Watchers" modified diet and lost 5 pounds...5 down 25 to go by May First....will I do it? Probably, the problem is not losing it, but keeping it off come next "Cookie Season"{the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday}.
Tomorrow night Sam and I will drive the 180 mile round trip to Dublin{northwest berg of Columbus} for our State Baseball Rules Meeting...basketball prevented us from making it to the area meetings in Lima and Piqua, so we will have to make the longer trip.
That's about it for my "hectic" weekend and life.....sarcasm alert!
back later>>>>>
photos-Dartball Darts and our score sheet from Yesterday...Click to ENLARGE
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