Today (well, technically yesterday at this point) is the first day of summer, not that you could tell by looking outside. Or, in my case, by sitting outside on the bleachers by the softball game.
As has happened in the past, the weather previous to the softball game was not a good indication of what the weather during the softball game was going to be. As we arrived at the game, a few lonely drops of rain splattered down on us. The raindrops would not be lonely for long.
Before that, though, the softball game started. Abby was up to bat for the first time in the second inning, she got four balls from the pitcher, then got a base hit off of her coach. Stealing is allowed in tournament play, (don't ask me about the whys of the rules, I am doing well to remember most of them most of the time!) and she stole to 3rd while the next batter was up, then came home off of that hit. Yay Abby!
She was up to bat again in the third inning, (it was raining by this time. Thankfully Cathy found an extra umbrella in her car and I stayed mostly dry!) and struck out, ending the top half of the inning. Then the bottom half of the third inning began, but it never ended.
One runner got on base, and then the rain really started. They let the girls stand out there for a while, then called them in. After a few more minutes, they took tarps and covered up the pitcher's mound and home plate. A while later, the rain subsided a bit and they sent our team back out to warm up. Just as the warmup was finishing up, there was a flash of lightning and a bit of thunder.
Evidentally there's a rule that if a thunderstorm starts, the game is called. Even if the thunderstorm is extremely short-lived. And the really good part, is that the game is made up at the next available field time. The next available field time was 8am Sunday morning. Whee!
The girls were most distressed by this news, and thought it was really ridiculous, as the team was ahead 9-0 at the point the game was called. They did NOT think that a softball game was worth having to get up early on a weekend morning. We were all very relieved later when we received an email from the coach letting us know that the other team didn't think they could get enough people to field a team in the morning, and they conceded the game to us.
We came home, and Abby spent a good 1.5 hours soaking in the tub. Part of that was to avoid helping Katrina and me clean up the kitchen.
The last softball game is Monday at 6:45, when the girls play for the championship. It's pretty neat that they've done so well this year! This is part of the email that their coach sent out this afternoon:
This is a special group of girls, and I want you all to know how much these
girls mean to me. I love every one of them. It's not very often that you
get a group of kids together and you watch them progress, and it ends up
being one of the best experiences of your life.
Tomorrow we have big plans to sort out and get rid of some stuff. The girls seem to really be getting into the idea of getting rid of extra stuff! We're attacking their closets first.
Posted by Rachel at June 22, 2003 01:15 AM