Author: Joe

Last night was the big game, the SJSL kickball championship game. I was truly honored to be participating in the inaugural event with my Express Pizza teammates.

There was a little bit of rain right before kickoff, but it quickly moved out for our game. I huddled up the team and gave a little thanks speech for all their hard work this season. We really did have a great bunch on this team.

We just made some minor adjustments to our kicking order. I really wanted to move Geoff up a spot, to help him get an extra at bat and increase his chances of kicking in more base runners. The change did work very well for us, we got 5 runs in the first inning to start off the game.

It was a tremendous start to the game. We had some great kicks, knocking in a few runs with 2 outs as well. Bait and Tackle however did answer back with 5 runs of their own in the bottom of the first to even things back up.

As good as our kicking was that night, theirs was just more precise and effective than ours. I really must tip my hat to them for finding holes in our defense and consistently kicking to those holes. They did an almost surgical job of adjusting to our fielding changes as they were made too.

I hardly got a chance to field any plays at short. They were dropping in many to the short infield and blasting some very deep kicks as well.

It also got very dark very fast as the game went on. Surprisingly there were a number of bats swooping down while be played in the dark. None close enough to interfere with play, but still very strange to hear something flying overhead.

Bait and Tackle with their tremendous play won the game and took the SJSL championship. We kicked very well, but they just out fielded us and out kicked us in the end.

After the game, I handed out certificates to our teammates. It was funny and again, I’m very glad that I got a chance to play a season with each and everyone of them. This season was some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time.

This was a very big week for us. We had our last regular season game scheduled for 6:15 pm with a possible playoff game at 7:15 pm depending on the outcome of the regular season. If we won, we’d be the #1 seed and play the championship game the following week, a loss and we’d have to play in the playoff game later that night.

As it turned out, the biggest obstacle of the night wasn’t a kickball team but a lock. The field at 15th and Haven was locked. We don’t know why, all we know was that we were unable to legally access it for  our games.

We would later relocate to the field at 6th and Haven, but even when we got there all the fields were being used. Luckily a girls soccer practice was concluding and we were able to make use of that field. However, with all the time that had passed it meant whomever was playing in the later playoff game would be doing so in darkness.

The early game against Bait and Tackle started off pretty well for us, with a lot of early runs on both sides. However the much shorter left field really worked to their strengths. They had more guys who could clear it and get a homerun that would have either been caught in our regular field or been a double had it fallen in.

This really hurt us, as they got many of their runs in this manner. Also, I do feel that many on our team put a little too much pressure on themselves for the big game. But, you can’t fault someone for wanting to do their best.

The change in field led to some confusion in the field at times for us. We had what could’ve been a much uglier than it turned out to be collision between Kevin and Katie in right field. With numerous other occurrences as well.

In the end we wound up losing the game, meaning that we would have to play an elimination playoff game immediately after. I wasn’t concerned that we might be tired at this point, just possibly deflated from our loss. Luckily this wasn’t the case with this bunch and we approached the playoff game fresh and with a clean slate.

Jake’s is a great bunch of players, and we do enjoy playing with them a great deal. Even though I’d of preferred to of skipping this game, it was really nice to play against them one last time. We got to a nice early lead thanks to some big time kicking and solid fielding.

The first 6 innings were great. I’m really proud of how we bounced back from our previous game and put out a very solid effort. However the darkness soon settled in and Jake’s did give us a scare in their last inning.

They sure didn’t go down without a fight, and at times it seemed we might never get a second out. Eventually we did and we advanced to the SJSL kickball championship game. Very excited for the big game next week, an amazing season.

The weather last night was perfect for kickball, and our play was very close to perfect as well. We beat Jake’s Water Ice, 17-2 with the mercy rule ending the game in the 6th inning. Jake’s had a double header and preferred to end the game and rest for their later game.

Kevin was unable to play this week and his presence was sorely missed to the team, but fill in John did an amazing job. He had an unbelievable natural break on the ball in the field. He seemed to be most everywhere in the field at times. He really fit in to the team too, a great fill in.

We had some really slick fielding as well. Some big catches, and some great throws to 1st base this week to get the runner out. Normally it’s pretty tough to get a runner out going to 1st since it’s a kickball, but the new balls this week were a bit easier to grip and throw.

I was very proud of a scoop and throw on the run to 1st base for an out that I made. I even game credit to Coach Emanski baseball videos (which I’ve never watched, but loved the commercials growing up). I also had a kicked drilled at me that I held onto with little effort. I’m still wondering why I can’t make a a simple catch, but can make difficult plays seem easy at times. Really have to work on those routine ones.

The highlight of the night was Katie’s slide at home plate. It was a really tight play, but she was able to slide between 2 girls at the plate to just beat out the tag. It was a really close play, and I’m just happy nobody got hurt on it. An amazing effort.

Kathy also made a very alert catch on a ball that I tipped up into the air. I knew that I couldn’t catch a kick coming my way, but figured that if I got my fingertips on it, that maybe it might just stay up in the air long enough for John to catch it behind me. Well my tip went to Kathy’s side and she made the big catch to get us the out.

On offense Geoff continued his big kicks and had the furthest kick I’ve seen all season. It literally went to the fences for what could have been a walking home run. I knew we’d have the potential for some deep kicks tonight with the new ball, but that one exceeded my expectations.

All in all a very impressive night for Express Pizza. All of Jake’s are so great to play with. I even got in a pregame rock, paper, scissor match and learned how to play cowboy, indian, bear as well. It’s a crazy game, but one that I’m dying to play more.