Unforgettable

First the good news: Rude Mom's son decided not to play in the Sundberg Invitational so I was able to enjoy the one game I was able to attend in relative comfort (aside from the fact that it was a billion degrees outside).

As it turns out, of the four games Tyler played in the S.I., I missed three due to Vacation Bible School. And I may or may not have mentioned in my last post on the subject that Tyler was going to have to miss the same games, but there were enough volunteers that he was able to relinquish his spot at VBS on Monday and Tuesday without causing any trouble. (He made it to church just in the nick of time on Sunday because his game was at 4:00.) But now that all is said and done, with the exception of one lone hit that I'll tell you more about in a moment, Saturday's game--the game I was able to attend--was THE GAME worth watching.

This was the kind of performance that memories are made of. The kind of performance that causes you to lose sleep because you're so keyed up. The kind of performance that may not come along again in a while. It was THAT kind of performance!

Tyler was far and away the best pitcher on his team--ask Randy, who does not brag as shamelessly as I do, and he'll tell you the same thing--so he was slated to pitch in Game One of the tournament. I fretted most of the afternoon because the boys' uniforms looked so dadgum hot (navy blue t-shirts with a jersey on top of that, plus white pants that were so sheer, Tyler insisted on wearing gym shorts underneath), but once game time rolled around and the kids and I arrived at the ballfield, I noticed that all of the boys seemed to take the heat in stride, and the coaches did a top-notch job of encouraging the boys to stay hydrated (and they didn't just remind them, they followed through and made sure the boys were actually drinking!).

I will cop to the fact that I was dreading the heat, so the kids and I were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at this unfamiliar ballfield and discovered that the side our team was on was almost entirely in the shade! What luck! And there were all sorts of seats available--bleachers, park benches, picnic tables, you name it. We chose some seats and got settled, but not too settled because I told the kids we would most likely not stay for the whole game. Darcy had been sick the night before, it was still 900 degrees in the shade and I didn't want to chance her getting really sick before basketball camp (that's going on this week).

And then Tyler took the mound.

I've never seen anything like it, or at least not from Tyler. And folks, he's a great pitcher. But this was one of those times that you could just tell . . . something special was happening. If I tried to give you every detail this blog entry would be 10,000 words long so I will spare you, but when it was all said and done Tyler had pitched four innings, had struck out ELEVEN batters and allowed ONE hit. Oh. My. Word. He still had a no-hitter going as he went into the fourth inning and Darcy looked at me slyly and said, "I thought we weren't staying for the whole game, Mom." I'll be honest: If she'd been running a 103-degree fever, I probably would have handed her the car keys and told her to go lie down until the game was over. Just keepin' it real, people. It was THAT good. Needless to say, he earned the game ball and the cool thing is that the coach wrote all the individual stats of this particular accomplishment right on the ball, so Tyler will always be able to look back at it and remember that game and how he felt on that day.

Games Two and Three didn't go as well; according to tournament rules, Tyler wasn't allowed to pitch in either game and our other pitchers apparently had pretty poor outings (that was according to Randy, since I wasn't there). In fact, they were routed so badly in Game Three that Randy said the boys were completely demoralized and very, very down on themselves. Tyler to the rescue! He pitched again in Game Four and both he and Randy came home walking on air. Though Tyler didn't strike out eleven batters this time, he did strike out nine, I believe Randy said, and that was with an injured arm! But that's not the best part; the best part is that Tyler hit an outside-the-park home run to win the game!!! Randy wasn't proud so much of the fact that Tyler hit the home run as he was happy that the team was able to go out with a win, because he said they were beside themselves when Tyler cranked on the ball, jumping up and charging out of the dugout in excitement!

So that's the cake and the icing, and now for the cherry on top: Tyler was named Most Valuable Player! Whoo-hoo!