The South Hadley Panthers Sandy Koufax baseball team got off the schneid last night and grabbed their first victory of the season, a 12 - 5 win over Holyoke People's Bank at Michell Field in Holyoke. The game was really solid and intense until the 5th when Holyoke's pitchers blew up and the Panthers plated nine runs on a single, a double, and 6 - 7 walks. The Panthers were lead by my son, Alex, who threw six innings and gave up five runs, three earned, for his first win of the season. He was helped by some stellar defensive play that included two unassisted double plays and a great diving catch by shortstop Colin Paleologoupolos on a shot up the middle to close out the 4th inning with two on.
The win was particularly sweet because Alex, whose been pitching since he was 8, had a typically solid game, moving the ball up and down and using a bit of off-speed stuff, and finally got some help behind him. Our kids are hard-working, invested, and determined, but they aren't particularly skilled. We beat ourselves too often because we make a lot of errors--both mental and physical. Yeah, we're young; and yeah, this is their first season on a 90-foot diamond, but they flub routine grounders, drop cans of corn, throw to the wrong base, and make strange decisions all too often. Tonight we only had one or two errors--one resulted in two runs, but still . . . we played solidly and made at least four excellent plays in the field, and that adds up to victory number one.
In the end the kids were thrilled, the coaches and parents were relieved--as one said, "No sourpusses tonight"--and Alex got a triple dog treat from Nick's Nest. But the cutest thing that came out of the win was that all the kids were going to wear their jerseys to school as an act of celebration.
Well played, Panthers, keep on working, and keep on having fun.
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