Last night we played two innings before the storm hit. I went 2-2 with a three run homer. We were ahead 6-1.

Season totals: .428, 12 HR

We play tonight in Bremen. Then I play with the Outlaws Thursday at 4:00 p.m. at Belleville complex in South Bend in the ASA Men’s Major.

I had a rough day hitting-wise on Saturday. I went 3-13 with an inside the park homerun as we went 2-2 with my pick-up squad. Virtually every time I hit the ball hard it went right at someone. I have a theory about this: it evens out over the course of the whole season. I have stretches where almost everything I hit finds a hole, too. Maybe I’ll have one of those stretches during the last month of the season. Hope so.

Last weekend we finished second in the Michigan ASA state tournament in Moline. We went 5-2, and lost to the Fat Boyz from Marquette in the winners bracket championship and then again in the final “if” game.

We played well and won several close and two extra inning games in the tourney. We have to move up to a new classification–A/B for next year–because of our performance in the tournament. I played well overall; went 14/28 (.447) with 3 homeruns (10).

I am playing with a pick-up team tomorrow in Battle Creek. Next week I’ve been picked up to play in the Men’s Major world series in South Bend with the “Outlaws.” Should be fun. We play the Quad City Sox on Thursday, August 4 at 4:00 p.m. at Belleville Park.

We swept a double header on Tuesday night, and I had one of the wierdest nights at the plate ever. I was 1/3 on the night with 7 walks. So that’s a really good on base percentage, but it was a bit of a frustrating night, because I would have liked to swing a bit more.

We play in the state tournament tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. in Moline, MI.

A lot of fastball (that’s the Canadian term for fast-pitch softball) has been played since I last wrote. Seven games actually. We won five of them and lost two. I was 9/23 (.433) with one very long home-run (7), which I’m going to tell you about, because it occurred to me after I hit it that I will very likely never hit a softball that far again the rest of my life. I’m 41, remember.

The right-field fence on the diamond we were playing on was 275', which is actually long for fastball (they’re usually 235'-260'). About fifteen paces beyond the right-field fence, there’s a picnic shelter/roofed pavilion. The 2-0 pitch I hit landed at the peak of the roof. My coach said he thought it went 350'.

The next morning, leading off our game, someone from our dugout yelled, “Let’s go, Pavilion.” As I’m batting, the umpire laughed and said, “Pavilion… I like that. I got to tell the story of your home-run over beer last night.”

So no matter what happens, there’s always going to be that one time I hit a colossal bomb onto the picnic pavilion in Frankenmuth. Which is nice.

…

p.s. I’m not even sure it was the longest home-run of the tournament. I saw three others that went, what I thought was, at least as far. But they didn’t land on the roof of anything.

Won 12-7 on Tuesday night. 3-4 with a walk and a double. Scored 3 runs. We play in Elkhart tomorrow night and in Frankenmuth Saturday and Sunday.

Won 10-0 on Thursday night in Benton Harbor. 1-4 with my 6th homer of the season. Next game Tuesday night. Tournament in Frankenmuth–home of the most ridiculously overpriced hotels in the state of Michigan–next weekend. Luckily, I’ll be driving in from Port Huron and not staying in a hotel.

My “pick-up” team and I went 3-0 in pool play on Saturday, in what was most likely the hottest day on which I’ve played three games of softball. The heat index was 101 when we started our game at 11:00 a.m. I didn’t check it after that. Suffice it to say, it was brutally hot.

We lost a heartbreaker in the bottom of the 7th 4-3 in the first game on Sunday, ending our tournament. I played shortstop the whole weekend and went 8-13 (.453) with two triples and a couple walks. Not bad.

My team plays Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Tomorrow I play softball in Wabash, IN. I would like to explain why.

My regular team (Smalltown Fastpitch) is not playing in Wabash. Instead, I have been “picked up” by another team (Goshen Gators), who happen to be short some of their regular players for the weekend. This happens fairly regularly throughout the course of a season. As a matter of fact, this season my own team has picked up at least one player for each of the tournaments we have played in.

Here is another interesting thing about this particular tournament. The winning team takes home a cash prize. That’s not normal. Neither is the format of the tournament.

We play three games in “pool play” tomorrow (11, 3, & 5). Based on our performance in pool play we will be entered into a single elimination bracket on Sunday. The top two teams from each pool go into the “gold” bracket. The bottom two teams from each pool go into the “silver” bracket. By the end of the day Sunday there will be a silver champion ($300 cash prize) and a gold champion ($500 cash prize). It’s not much, but it’s a lot more than any other tournament I’ve ever played in. Not sure who they found to sponsor this, but kudos to the people in Wabash.

Hope we don’t lose all of our games.

p.s. Don’t you feel enlightened about the workings of men’s fastpitch softball now?

Moved to 12-9 on the season with our 8-5 win last night. I played centerfield and went 2-3 (.426) with a double.

Now let me mention one of the best ways to determine how well a fastpitch game is played: time. On Saturday night we lost a game 11-8 that lasted easily two and half hours. That is bad. Last night, our game took an hour and twenty minutes. That’s much more like it.

It’s not that I wish to hurry my recreation along. But sloppy play typically slows the game to a snail’s pace. Last night’s game had a couple of errors, but it didn’t have countless wild pitches and walks and pitching changes. It also had one very long homerun hit by our opponent’s left fielder–a hanging changeup got launched about 330 feet.

We won our first game of pool play last night 11-3 in five innings. We played one of our better games of the season. We’re 8-7 now, with pool play games today at 2 and 8, and single elimination tomorrow if we qualify. I went 3-4 (.456) with two homers (4). Made an error at shortstop that cost us a run. I’ll try to do better today.

We played (sort of) a nine inning game last night. The other team only had 9 players, so we provided them with the three extra fielders each inning while we batted. We lost a 14-7. I played shortstop (for both teams) and for one inning rightfield (for the other team). Went 4-6 (.424) with a homerun (2) and three RBI. We play our first game of the Plangger Invitational tourney at 9:00 p.m. on Friday night, and we complete pool play on Saturday with games at 2 and 8.

Trivia: Most fastpitch players wear metal spikes. I’ve never been comfortable in spikes. At 41, I’m much more in danger of catching a spike and blowing out a knee or turning an ankle than I am of slipping in my turf shoes, which are way more comfortable than any cleats or spikes I could buy (thanks Boombah! http://www.boombah.com/s.nl/sc.26/category.304486/.f )

Last night we won 4-3 in extra innings. We scored 3 in the first and didn’t score again until the bottom of the 8th. With no outs in the bottom of the 8th we got a bunt single followed by bunt that was mishandled and then thrown away at first base leaviing us with runners at second and third. Our number nine hitter hit a cue shot in to no man’s land between the pitcher and the first baseman that scored the winning run. So not only did we score without hitting the ball out of the infield, we scored without hitting the ball past the pitcher. I played shortstop and went 2-4 (.395) and scored a run. That makes us 7-6 on the year.

We play tonight in Benton Harbor if the rain stops and we host a tournament this weekend starting Friday night. Here’s the tournament schedule. http://www.michiganfp.com/2011-tournaments/2011-rich-plangger-invitational

Due to the overwhelming interest (expressed by the thousands of readers of this blog) in my fastpitch softball playing exploits, I have decided to add a regular feature here called “diamond notes."

Let’s see.  I play shortstop and lead off most of the time, though on occasion this season I have played some centerfield.  I’m hitting .385 with a pitiful 1 homerun after twelve games.  My team, “Smalltown Fastpitch” is 6-6 on the season.  Our next game is Tuesday night in Benton Harbor.  Ya, I drive 50 miles each way to play softball, since there’s basically no men’s fastpitch to speak of in Indiana anymore. 

On a wierd note, I have hit three foul ball homeruns this season.  That might double the number of foul ball homeruns I’ve hit in my career.  I’ve no idea what to make of that.

Last night we won our game 10-1 and I went 2-4 with a triple. I played centerfield and we had three high school baseball players in the infield.  Perhaps there is hope for the future of men’s fastpitch afterall.   

Interesting weather observation: it was 75 degrees at my house when I left for the game.  It was 58 at Plangger Park in Benton Harbor when I arrived an hour later.  Lake breeze, I guess.  That just a day after the high temperature was 98 in Benton Harbor.