Against the Odds

For the past few weeks I had the opportunity to coach Ashton's All-Star team. It was an amazing experience. We had two teams representing Martinez-Evans Little League because our league is so big. My team, (The National League team) was like the b team. We had half 9 year olds and half 10 year olds. We had me as a coach, a pastor who has never coached on the major league level before and another pastor as my assistant coach. For some reason people just don't think pastor's can coach. The other team from our league (The American League team) was a team with all 10 year olds and 1 nine year old. They had a very experienced coach that has a travel ball team that half of the kids played on. So what I'm saying is no one was giving us a chance. I think my players at the beginning even wished they were on the other team.

What I learned through this is you can listen to the negative talk around you and take it as reality or you can believe for the best. We decided to believe for the best. We won our first game against Athens 13-3. Guess who lost their first game? Yep, the American League team with the good coach. I felt pretty good after that. We lost our second game to the team that ended up winning the whole thing. They were really intense! No, REALLY INTENSE! We didn't let it keep us down.

We won our third game against Oglethorpe and moved on to play.......you guessed it, the American League Team. This game was awesome!!! We jumped on them early. After the second inning we were winning 10-2. At this point I was feeling pretty confident about things. I even had the thought that we could 10 run rule them. Well, momentum began to shift and little by little they made their way back.

In the bottom of the sixth, which is the last inning in Little League, we were still ahead but only by two 11-9. They started off the inning with a walk and a hit. We got the next guy out before the following player hit a single to score a run. So now it's 11-10 with a man on first and third. The next pitch the runner on first steals second. I decided to intentionally walk the next better and load the bases so we will have a force play at any base. This would have been perfect except we walked the next batter as well to tie the game.

So it's tied up with the bases juiced in the bottom of the sixth with two outs. Our pitcher, G-Baby had pitched an awesome game. He came in and pitched three brilliant innings but was getting a little tired and had given up some runs. So, I had a choice to make. Stay with him or go to Ashton (my son) to try to shut them down. I knew Ashton could do it but I was terrified they might get a hit and win the game and Ash would feel it was his fault. I was a mess of nerves at this point. Right before G-Baby pitched my assistant coach Brent spoke up. You have to make the change, he said. He was right so I called time and made the change to Ashton.

He was as cool as a cucumber. I told Ashton, buddy, I've been saving you for this moment. This is why you haven't pitched tonight. Now is your time. He got up there with ice in his veins and got the guy to ground out to extend the game. I was about to throw up. I'm about to throw up now reliving it. Ashton pitched three more innings of shut out baseball and we went on to win the game in the ninth inning. What an a-ma-zing game! I was so proud of Ashton and the whole team.

Unfortunately the next night we lost to Baldwin County in the semi-finals. Our boys just didn't have enough left in the tank. Here is the life lesson from all of this. When people don't give you a chance, allow it to fuel you to be best you can be. We sure did and we learned a lot about ourselves in the process.