Grand Error
Baileywick Rd, 9/26/2005. The shot heard around
Baileywick park came in the last inning of an intense battle between
the Rocky Top Management team and the Sawmill Softball team. It
was the bottom of the 6th, time limit expired, Sawmill came to bat down
4 after leading most of the game. There was slim to none ( and
slim had already left) chance that Sawmill could pull out a victory
with the under acheiving part of batting order due up. And In
Bill Speri fashion, batter short stop, Shawn "Shorty" Weaver, took a
walk to lead off the inning. He was followed by pitcher, Hud Veal
who knows enough not to take the speedy Weaver off the bag, so he
routinely flied out to the right fielder. Next was the games
hottest hitter, the catcher Mike "Point to Point", Smith. Just
knowing that he was 4 for 4 so far in the game meant this was sure to
be a hit... long story short, Mike comes through with a routing 6-4-3
double play turned error to 6-4-E and keeps the hopes of Sawmill
alive. Now the last of the last of the order, third baseman, Sam
"Ups" Serad. With a total of 6 hits on the season and blazing
speed, this was surely the end of the game, especially with two outs...
quiet frankly if there were no outs I think it would be the end of the
game, but that's for another day. Crack, Serad steps up with a
monster hit that just clears the infield and sends Smith to
second. Sawmill still down 4 with two outs. Now comes the
top of the order. Leftfield, Jason "GD" Liner takes the
plate, who by the way was made a fool of by the umpire earlier in the
game - great laughs, had to be there. Bets are taken in the
Sawmill dougout. "He's going to fly out to the right fielder."
says one player. "He's going to hit it to the second baseman."
another says. Well anonymous player one was right. A lazy
fly ball to the right fielder. And just like most teams, that is
usually not the most graceful player on the team (especially for
Sawmill on this night - Everett). The ball lands softly in his
glove, but the fielder obviously a soccer player, snaps at the ball and
it falls to the ground. Smith is able to go point-to-point twice
and score. Serad rumbles over to third and Liner curses as he
stops at second. You here over the intercom, "Now battering,
Hassan "Kasey at bat" Elfaysal, who had hit his first career homer run
earlier in the night. As Elfaysal stares down the pitcher, he
snorts and the pitcher shivers. He pitches ever so delicitely
around the powerful Elfaysal. Who runs the count full and takes
his manly walk to first. Now batting with the bases loaded, two
outs and Sawmill down 3 runs was the first baseman, Jimmy "Positive"
Hardy. Hardy looked as if he had the world on his
shoulders. You could tell this was the end of the game.
With his teammates laughing and shouting words of discouragement, Hardy
watched as the pitcher released the first pitch. The field went
silent, all you could hear was the swing of Hardy's bat, then a
loud thunderous sound, the sound of ball being struck with mighty
force off the end of the bat. But Hardy is so powerful that the
ball traveled far, eluding the left centerfielder as he jumped to make
a spectacular catch, but to no avail. The ball was traveling much
to fast for a catch and just squirted out of his glove. From
there Sawmill's unbelievable speed and baserunning ability took
over. Without any doubt Serad and Liner scored. With the
ball reaching second base and Elfaysal just rolling around third
without a thought of stopping, the ball is thrown in the direction of
the other teams dugout and Elfaysal scores the tieing run. But to
the amazement of the all the fielders and spectators, Hardy has not
quit, he streaks for third. The catcher sees that to get Hardy
out he must throw with all his might as Hardy is quiet fast. He
ball sails over the third baseman's head and Hardy downshifts and eases
in to home to win the game 25-24. Wow, one for the records!
