March 26, 2012

A Walk-off Win

Although our up-and-down play has continued so far throughout the season, this past weekend marked a new beginning: Atlantic 10 Conference play. The weekend was filled with excitement as we squared off against the UMass Minutemen, and the games did not disappoint. Although we came out of the series 1-2, all three games were as tight as they come. Our win, which came on Saturday, was one of walk-off fashion in extra innings, so in order to set the stage I have decided to run through the feeling of winning (or even losing) on the last pitch of the game.

Saturday’s contest began at 1 p.m. A one o’clock game involves a wake-up around 9 a.m., breakfast at 9:30, getting to the locker room shortly after, and then pregame beginning at 11 a.m. including but not limited to batting practice, infield/outfield, field set-up, ground rules, pregame talks, a couple minutes of horseplay here and there, and the national anthem. Then comes the first pitch.

After the first pitch, if I had to guess, I’d say there are around 300 more pitches thrown between both teams per nine innings. Some of these pitches come in faster succession than the others, and some take a minute or two in between due to some jabbering from one (or both) of the dugouts. Most coaches will tell you that every single pitch matters – even I said this in one of my previous journal entries explaining why baseball is not a boring sport. Technically, every single pitch does matter, because in order to get to the last pitch everything must go a certain way. Baseball is an interesting sport that mirrors life in this way, if you want to get deep about it. ‘If we didn’t throw that fastball in that one spot that got hit for a single we wouldn’t have walked the next guy that ended up scoring on an error on the pitch that we weren’t going to throw because the guy before the guy who hit the single was supposed to get called out on a borderline strike…’ and so on. It does sound a lot like everyday life, right?

Fast forward to the bottom half of the 10th inning between UMass and us Rams on Saturday. Two outs, men on first and second, UMass’s closer on the mound. Luckily for us, senior captain Ryan Maghini was at the dish and connected with a single to right field on a 1-1 pitch. As our runner on second rounded third base and bolted for home, I watched the right fielder pick up the ball and make a throw home that could very well have got us out and moved the game on to the 11th inning. Some fast running and a good slide scored the winning run and the whole team jumped over the dugout rail and mobbed our two heroes in ecstasy. Of course everything has to go a certain way to get to the point of a walk-off base hit, but once that moment actually comes, the rest of the game goes out the window and the last pitch becomes the only one that means anything.

To Olean, N.Y., we go to play the St. Bonaventure Bonnies…

Until next time,

DC

(photos courtesy of Fordham Media Relations Office)