...and that's okay. All season long we ask for the best from our players. I don't expect perfection, though we try to get as close as possible, but I do expect maximum effort every day.
In a game of 8 innings, which is what our team endured tonight, there are soooooooo many chances, so many plays that could turn the game. Even if, in the bottom of the 7th, with the score tied and a runner on second and third, just one more hit through the infield would have won the game, it still wasn't the on play/at bat that lost the game. There were so many close calls that could have gone either way...so many choices that maybe could have made a difference - a game is
never won or lost on just one play.
And even with all those chances, and all those opportunities not cashed in upon, I can still walk away from this game unbelievably proud of our girls. All season we talked about leaving it all out on the field. All season we talked about how it's not the mistake that matters, but what you do after that counts most. Tonight they did it. They left everything they had out on that field. And yes, mistakes were made, but not due to lack of effort, not due to lack of focus, not due to lack of heart. I can accept those. Yet even after those mistakes, those opportunities missed, the girls still came back and came within one ball through the infield or one ball past the catcher of winning the game. They did not go down without fighting to the very last out and there's not a whole lot more that you can ask for than that.
If you'd have told me beforehand that the girls would finally play a game where they give everything they have, with more heart than ever, and together 'till the end, I would have never thought in a million years that the game would end in a loss for us. But as well all know, on any given day, anything can happen.
For those of you who know me and the team I coach, you know I'm talking about the Kapolei/Mililani game in the state tournament.
Kapolei girls, I'm proud of you and they way you played tonight No, we weren't perfect. No this wasn't the best game that we've played skill wise, BUT all those intangibles, the characteristics and qualities you take from the softball field into life, those were all there tonight at the highest level. Play and live like you did tonight and you'll have no regrets.
On the other hand, hats off to the Mililani Trojans for playing an excellent game tonight. Again, not perfect, but you did what you needed to do when you needed to do it to pull through in the end and
earn that win. We sure as heck didn't give that one to ya. Good job all around to all the players involved in the game. That's how softball should be played.
Labels: fastpitch, fastpitch softball, softball
