Mirage Softball Report...Walked off in Waretown

Fourteen players made the trip to Waretown Monday, June 6 and faced what was to be their toughest game of the season.

Your lineup: Skip, Pat, Marty, CSM Charlie, Jerry, Joe G., Robin, Ben, Andy, Mike, Artie, Bill, Kenny and PPP.

With some clutch hitting from the back of our lineup your boys carried a 3-0 lead into the fourth before Greenbrier answered. A dink, a dunk, a bloop, an error and a smash produced three runs and the game was tied.

Things stayed that way until the sixth. Bill leads off with a two-base bomb to left, a single by Skip moves him to third, a single by Marty plates Bill and a clutch hit by Jerry scores Skip.

Greenbrier answers with a run in their half and as we enter the last ining your heroes hold a 5-4 lead.

Things are looking good. Right.

Never claim a win before it is earned.

For the most part this season, the softball Gods have been smiling on the Mirage. Today someone from Greenbrier must have stopped by Saint Mary's and lit a candle on their way to today's game.

The last inning opens up with what looks like an easy fly to center, our fielder camps under it and at the last second the ball takes a mysterious right turn and drops in for a double. From the press box you could see the ball just take off. There definitely was something weird going on.

I turned to my fellow scribe Mr. Young. "Did you see that????"

"Yep I sure did" said Mr. Young. "I've been around this game alot longer than you have kid. I don't have to see another pitch because this game is over."

Sure enough, Rick was right. Three straight hits later and the pre-game candle did its job. Greenbrier had a walk-off 6-5 win in Waretown.

In sports, there are some good losses and some bad losses, from the view point of this reporter, today game was a good loss. Reasoning: This team has a lot of talent but every once in a while some of our players carry a little too much air in their heads and we tend to make mistakes that defy all logic. True or false? TRUE.

Before the game today Skip and his staff over-emphasized the need to keep our heads in this game. Skip told the troops "We can't afford any bone head plays today so make sure you THINK out there." Three minutes later it was repeated and again three minutes after that.

On June 6 we proved to ourselves that we can play a game free of mental errors. We all make physical errors but it's the mental errors that will rip out your heart. To simply let go of a loss and throw it aside is a foolish and costly act. Losing is a painful, empty feeling. No consoling words fill the vacant space.

I stopped on the way home and picked up some comfort food (Rocky Road) for tonight, I hope you did the same. Lets build on today's loss.

Bomber Bits:

John A. was excused today as he took Larry to Atlantic Care, where Dr. Sydney Gaynor will be performing shoulder replacement. We will pass along a progress report when available.

In a freak accident, Pat stepped on a rolling softball today and is listed as day-to-day.

PPP played in a rehab game down in AAA, it looks like he tried to come back too soon and has been put back on the seven-day DL.

With today's loss the Bombers record stands at 12-2 and with 8 games left in our schedule before summer break our majic number for clinching our third championship in a row is 4.

Success has feet – it can come and it can go.