On softball and self-esteem

Well last night was our final game. It had been rained out and re-scheduled and we were lucky
to get it in at all. We played the other team in our town that we beat in the beginning of the season. They had a rough season. They actually had some better players than us but(I have to brag here) they didn't have our daughter, who takes pitching lessons and is very responsible for why we won any games this year. They do have one of their daughters making big strides on the mound though. So last night I had to tread a thin line between letting all my girls
play in an infield position at least one inning even though sometimes the positions were a little over their heads and staying competitive enough to win but you gotta keep the kids and
parents happy. The kids don't think the outfield positions are important. I also let all my sixth grade pitchers get up to pitch as they will be low men on the
totem poles next year(they move up to junior high) and probably not get the opportunities to pitch as much as this year, if at all.
Well Olivia pitched the first inning. She allowed no runs and made 2 if not three of the outs. She struck out
one, fielded a grounder and threw her out at first and I can't remember if she struck out another
or it was a fielding play. We were winning(4-0). Then I pitched 3 of my sixth graders. One of them is usually pretty good but not last night. In 2 innings,
they gave up 10 runs. I had to pitch them. 2 are taking lessons now and you have to reward that. We were scoring too and
I knew we could stay with them and we did. Then we went into the fourth and it was dark. The other team wanted it sooooo bad. Their coach was yelling at his daughter and other girls when they made mistakes. Their parents were cheering like crazy from the bleachers. We were ahead by only 1. The lead had flopped back and forth with each half inning, but now I
was putting Olivia back in who was not in her top form as we had not played in 2 1/2 weeks due
to rain but she's still a great pitcher despite being half the size of the other pitchers. Olivia pitched well enough to protect the win but then 2 of our girls made major fielding errors, missing 2 easy outs, and they scored a tying run. We had one out and they had the bases loaded. They only needed one run to beat us and their team was going nuts. The coaches and parents were yelling and totally trying to psyche their girls into getting it done and then our UNBELIEVABLE daughter proceded to strike out 2 batters in a row(the first with just 3 pitches) and retire the inning!!! It was magic. I think a tie was the right way to end the season. It was too dark to play another inning. These teams are from the same school and they are all friends. The
other team would have been crushed to lose again and I would have felt bad if we had lost (the girls wanted the win) knowing I had made
a choice to be a little more fair to our weaker players but a little less competitive. This way, no one went home bummed out and that's a beautiful thing. What a game. Even the umpire got into it, it was so exciting. Parents were too excited to even sit down by the end. I wanted to throw my kid in the air, I was just busting with pride.
The girls all ran off the field and said "great job Olivia." She was on cloud nine. I wanted this season to end with our daughter on the mound ending the game with a strike-out and it happened. She earned that right and after getting on base on all 3 of her at-bats(one walk, actually she got hit with a pitch and she played on a hurt ankle all night) and two base hits,
she really was our MVP last night. The parents and girls all thanked Tim and I for our coaching.
I am really proud of the job we did but I got so much out of this, I can't tell you. Coaching kids
and seeing them do well and feel great about themselves is some kinda high. Watching your own
kid strike out good batters and win games for her team is incredible. Seeing 3 head coaches from opposing teams, as well as parents,
come over and congratulate Olivia at the end of the game is so cool(I make sure to do the same for other teams too.) What a great season. It was soggy but so much fun. Got this old girl's blood pumping for sure.