Freshman baseball was a lot of fun; there were no worries in the world. The only thing I had to do was play. The season went along very well, as our team was one of the best in the county. In fact, we earned the 2nd seed in the Bergen County tournament heading into the final weekend of the season, and we were excited to hear that our team would be playing a Saturday night game under the lights on turf for the semifinals of the tournament.
My team and I were pumped because there is just something so special about playing the best game in the world under the shining lights. In the semifinals, we were playing a very good team from Don Bosco - we didn’t like them and they didn’t like us. But our team had a job to do and that was to make it to Sunday, championship Sunday. I had actually known a lot of the kids on that team from club baseball or just kids from nearby towns. The game was very close throughout but I remember just having a feeling that we were going to win. I knew we had the better players and that we had more experience, so I remember being confident that we were going to be able to pull out the win. The score was 2-1 going into the 4th inning, but we pulled away and won 7-1.

On the bus ride home we were blasting our team song ‘Candyman,’ by Aloe Blacc because we made it to the county championship. We proved that we were the true 2 seed in the county. Also, another reason we were pumped on the bus is because we had found out that Bergen Catholic had lost and we were playing Pascack Hills. Bergen was the first seed in the county and they were one of our more difficult opponents throughout the season. Also, no one knew any players on Pascack Hills and no one knew anything about their team. We all assumed this would be an easy win.

Gameday comes again and we have another night under the lights. This once again gets us all excited. No one knew the player who was pitching against us. He was a lefty and all of us hated facing lefty pitchers. The first pitch he threw was not very fast so we all thought it would be a cakewalk. But then all of a sudden, he comes into the game and starts throwing a shutout. My team was used to scoring a lot of runs, for that is what we did all season. Everyone was playing for themselves and not the team. My team and I just couldn’t manufacture runs even if it was to save our lives. I was using the bat that my grandfather gave me for my birthday that had given me luck all season, and even that wasn’t working when I needed it most. Luckily, our pitcher was having one of his best performances of the season and it was keeping us within range.

Around the fifth inning was when Pascack Hills started to pull away. They started playing small ball, which consists of bunting and stealing bases in order to score much needed runs. The moment  they started scoring is when everyone started to lose hope. The end of the game was coming closer and not one of us could figure out a way to get on base. I was supposed to be one of the leaders on the team, but I lost hope as well. There was nothing I could do to help my team regain confidence. I remember thinking how this great season was now going to come to an end. I will never forget my coach telling me, “Whools, get that look off your face. We still have a game to play,” but with the score being 7-0 going into the last inning, there just wasn’t much left that any of us could do.

We ended up losing 7-0. Our biggest and most embarrasing loss of the season. On the biggest stage. At the most important time of the year. No one on my team, including myself, played with that killer instinct. We all thought that we were going to win easy, but instead, got beaten very badly. I learned to never to take advantage of situations like this. That was my only chance playing freshman baseball, and I came up empty towards the end. The great season my team and I had all meant nothing considering the fact that we came up short. Although it was a good life lesson and taught a lot of things to my team and I, it still hurts knowing that we were that close to coming out on top. We were very overconfident that we were going to win because we thought we were the best. Now I understand that we should have continued to work hard and not given up when we saw that we were losing. I use moments like these in my life as motivation to strive to be greater because I will never know what will be thrown my way. Things I don’t expect can happen at any point in my life, and I just need to be ready for them. Maybe next time I step under the shining lights, I will hold my grandfather’s bat and allow it to inspire me to do what I was always meant to do: play baseball.