It was a warm, breezy Friday night at our beautiful new softball field. The game was Mount Vernon ( x – x) vs Rains (x-x). It’s a District game. It’s important.
A softball game is 7 innings. Going into the bottom half of the 7 th inning, Rains is ahead 3-0. Mount Vernon has two girls, Addison Norwood and Grayson Hammonds, on base. There are 2 outs. Mount Vernon needs a miracle.
Bri Walker comes to the plate. What Mount Vernon needs is a home run to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Bri is 4’ 11’, but she is strong. She hit a grand slam home run last year in the Mount Pleasant tournament and has hit the ball over the fence several times. And… she is fast , REALLY FAST!
Coach Dana Bohlken is in her place as the 3 rd base coach. As Bri walks to the plate, Dana signals to Bri to come up the third base line for a conference. Then Bri goes to bat.
The count goes to 2 balls, 1 strike. Then Bri connects. She hits the ball hard down the right field line, and it goes to the fence. Addison and Grayson score easily, but
Mount Vernon needs that 3 rd run.
The Rains right fielder has the ball and is ready to make the throw to home plate. Coach Bohlken can hold Bri at third for a stand-up triple or take the big chance and wave Bri to try for the in-the-park home run.
What should Coach Bohlken do? She might be thinking “maybe the throw from
right field will be off line” or “maybe the catcher won’t field the throw cleanly”.
And…… It’s Bri….
Coach Bohlken gives Bri the sign to go for it. The catcher moves into position to make the tag. The umpire sees what is about to happen and gets into position to make the call.
The crowd goes WILD! Bri hit an in-the-park home run to tie the game!
Bri, Grayson, and Addison walk back to the dugout together. Bri is dancing.
By sending Bri home, did Coach Bohlken do something that went against the odds? Probably.
Did Coach Bohlken’s decision pay off? Yes, BIG TIME!
Would Coach Bohlken do the same thing again in similar circumstances? Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students. Let’s find out together.
Is Coach Bohlken one of the heroes of the game? Absolutely.
The game ultimately goes 10 innings. Mount Vernon has some other chances, but Rains finally prevail 5-4.
In addition to Coach Bohlken and Bri, there was another hero on that special night. Besides scoring one of the runs that tied the game, Grayson Hammonds pitched all 10 innings. She is the kind of pitcher that drives batters crazy. She gets lots of movement on the ball. If you’re looking for her drop ball and she throws her rise ball, you’re going to look silly.
I went to OU, so I’ve watched a lot of softball. My wife Donna played a lot of softball in high school. When we watch softball games and the pitch count reaches 70, the coach starts getting twitchy. At 80, there will be a relief pitcher warming up.
By the end of the game, Grayson has done something rare. She has thrown 145 pitches. That is an extraordinary performance.
We lost, but nobody was hanging their head after the game. It was two good teams that both played really hard. And it turned into one of the all-time great games played on our new field. Everybody was proud of our girls and our Coach. It was a grand night for the sport of softball.
