In our second game of the season we were facing off against Kicking Grass. They seemed to be a combination of several teams from last season, and all their guys could kick pretty deep. So the Honey Badgers knew we were in for a worthy challenge.
We got off to a quick start. Just kept a steady dose of hits from the top of our lineup to get us 4 early runs. Defensively Kicking Grass would seriously threaten with runners on base, but we were able to get out of the jams unscathed. Yet more solid fielding for the Badgers.
In the second inning Caitlin boomed a kick over the drawn in left fielder. It was pretty impressive (as were several of her kicks that day, much more power behind them this week), and while she had an easy double, was thrown out stretching it into a triple She wasn’t alone in with impressive kicking, Lauren really showed his great kicking that we were used to seeing last year. I do believe she’s found her kick now (much to our opponents dismay).
I did peg a girl running to first. Despite the jokes I got from my teammates, and the disapproval from her body language it was a soft peg and much safer than if I had tried to beat her to the bag. I really didn’t want to chance a collision.
Kicking Grass would get on the board the next inning with 3 runs. While we were continuing to kick fairly well, we weren’t driving in runs leaving many base runners stranded in the middle innings. This allowed them to stay in the game and apply pressure to us.
While running to third I attempting a head first slide hoping the third baseman might bobble the ball. Unfortunately my wrist caught the ground and my right elbow got dislocated. I knew right away something bad had happened, it was pretty gross looking. I tried rolling around a bit hoping it would pop back in on it’s own. It hadn’t yet so I rolled on my back and announced, “I’m hurt bad” so that everyone knew to stop play. Upon getting up I immediately looked for something to attempt to drive my elbow back into place. I figured to use the soccer post and moved it a bit in my effort. Success, the elbow was back in place and I was not fielding or pitching for the remainder of the game.
From there the Honey Badgers just played tough. Just when it looked like the tide was going to turn, John B. made another amazing catch robbing the opponent of a scoring opportunity. He’s been playing  left field in an entirely different league all season, with each big catch firing up the team to find a way to play better themselves.
Perhaps the finest piece of kickball teamwork would unfold in the sixth inning. One of the Kicking Grass guys boomed a kick into right way past Geoff. Geoff didn’t hesitate our pout, he just turned around and chased it down. Dustin playing center for an absent Kevin immediately got in place for the relay. He then got it to the infield where John K. threw a perfect strike literally inches from home plate to peg the runner out. It was pretty amazing to watch and to see how the team reacted to the play was great. We’ve got a really great bunch this year.
We were able to tack on an extra run and held on to secure a victory. It wasn’t easy, but we found a way to hold onto our lead against a solid team.
This was another great victory for the Honey Badgers. It’s great that we were able to win such a close and hard fought game.