A day late and a run short

You guessed it - we battled it out tooth & nail with "Haircuts by Lorie" in the championship game, but in the end - came up 1 run short. Excitement and tension were the rule for the day. We shut them out in the first inning and scored 3 ourselves. Then they went ahead by 2, then we went ahead by 2. Kayli pitched 3 strong innings & Nikki 2. Nikki caught 2 rocket line drives right back at her but just couldn't get the double play on the base runner. Christy, playing 3rd base for the 1st time this year caught a tough pop-up/fly ball behind her. Adrianna made a nice running shoetop catch in right field. We went into the home half of the last inning needing 2 runs to tie & 3 to win and our bottom 2 batters up - then the top of the order. Having pre-arranged it with the other teams coach who graciously agreed, Kayla - our girl who broke her finger two days before (catching a fly ball) would be allowed to pinch run for whichever girl got on base first. That was Sam - who had hit the best ball of the year (for her) and got a single. Kayla stole her way to 3rd base and scored on Kayli's line drive to center. Taryn crushed a drive to the out field - but Kayli had to hestitate making sure it fell in, and stopped at 3rd as the potential tieing run. Our two biggest hitters were coming up to face the fastest pitcher in the league. All we needed was one ground ball or one wild pitch to tie the game, and she had been throwing plenty of them. Instead, she bore down and struck out both Alex & Adrianna (we didn't even luck out with a dropped strike 3) and the best game of the season was over - a day late and a run short.