Memoir

Hit or Miss
By: Bailey
Before the game my dad, the head coach called me over and said that I had to pitch.
This made my stomach drop. I wanted to pitch and I was excited but at the same time I was nervous. Pitching for my dad made me nervous because he always wanted me to do so good and he would always yell and give me advice from the dugout. In the first inning however, this didn't happen, I did fantastic. The crowd cheered and my team-mates gave me high fives when I ran in from the pitching mound. This made me very confident now.
The next inning I sprinted to the mound and did my usual warm-up that every pitcher does. This was five pitches to the catcher before the batter was in the batters box. Once the batter walked up to the plate I soon noticed how tall she was. This was the scariest feeling as a pitcher. Especially when the girl had to be two feet taller than you. My dad yelled to me from sitting on the bucket from the dugout “Concentrate Bailey and pitch as hard as you can.” Sometimes for me it is hard to listen to my dad and do what he says but I wanted to make him happy so I listened. It turned out in a good way and the girl struck out.
While I wasn't pitching I drank so much water. I had an ice cooler wrapped around my neck and my forehead so that I could try to stay cool while I was out in the field pitching. That wasn't really possible knowing that it was over 100 degrees. During the next inning more and more sweat dripped from my forehead. The ball became slippery as it usually did in the hot humid weather. I had to continuously wipe my hand on the dirt and then rub my hand on the ball. While I was doing that people cheered and screamed and the other team yelled and cheered but I was used to this and it didn't mess my pitching up one bit. I was still concentrated and kept pitching great for 3 straight innings. We were winning by a landslide and I was confident that we were going to win the game but I new that I couldn't give up. I had only heard that about 10 times from my dad. I was used to that and I had to just acknowledge him and keep pitching just like I was doing before.
During the middle of the 5th inning I overheard my dad and the umpire talking and that if I got through this inning without letting the other team score we would win the game by mercy ruling the team. I wanted to jump up and down but I stayed calm and concentrated on pitching well. When the batter came up to bat and my heart started to beat like crazy. My hand got sweaty and so many voices were running through my head voices of people cheering and the other team. The first two batters were out and the last batter stepped up to the plate. There were two strikes and just as I through the pitch my hand totally slipped off the ball and drifted to the middle instead of being outside. The girl hit the ball really far to center field and I thought that this ball was going to be a home run. I didn't want to turn around. I new that if I did it wouldn't be a good sight. I waited and I finally turned around and took a very deep breath. Our center fielder had the ball in her glove and was running in jumping up and down knowing that we had won. I jumped up and down just as the rest of my team did. We smiled as we shook the other team’s hand. We were thrilled that we won.
While getting our trophy's everybody was cheering for one another and each person had a huge smile on their face. I was very proud that we won but most of all that I had accomplished pitching the whole game. It was or last tournament of the year and I was extremely proud of myself for all that I had done.
This was one of the best games and all-star season of my life and an unforgettable memory.