An undefeated season

Two years ago David's American Junior Baseball team dominated their league, losing only one regular season game. They rode their momentum through the tournament to the league 3 title. This season, at the same age, Drew's team followed a similar pattern. They also rode the momentum to a league 3 title, but their regular season was unblemished.

We came into postseason play with a record of 16-0 and held the top seed in the tournament. After a relatively easy opening match, we ran into a difficult opponent in the second round. Our pitching staff had difficulty finding the strike zone and we quickly found ourselves in a 8-0 hole. We gallantly fought back (as we did several times this season) with 17 unanswered runs to advance to the championship.

AJB pulled out all the stops for the big game. They made sure the baselines were fresh, they dragged the field until it was smooth, and they even painted home plate white. The grounds crew took extra care to create a little decorative chalk design behind the plate.

In case you can't tell what that is, it says "L III, 305 v 308". We were the home team, number 308. They also had a temporary sound system and pregame player introductions.

It was a hot, mostly windless afternoon. The weather was no deterrent as the crowd was large and evenly split. After one inning we clung to a slim one run lead. After two innings we were tied. At the end of the third, we trailed by a pair. The magic fourth inning showed us putting a big six runs (the maximum per inning) on the board to lead by four. The fifth was another big one that put us ahead by an unreachable 8 runs with two to play. The almost unnecessary top of the sixth produced no runs, so we possessed a mathematically-insurmountable 8 run lead which clinched the title.

Here's Drew receiving his medal and trophy after the game.

The Champions:

The happy boy with his trophy:

Here's one of his best efforts in the big game. It was a grounder through the left side for an RBI single.

It was a beautiful ending to a perfect season. Coach Tony (to the left in the Cubs cap in above photo) worked his team hard and the hard work paid off. They played well, they had fun, and they were a pleasure to watch. Congratulations boys. Let's do it again next year.