“Gulp!” I took a big swallow of my lime cucumber Gatorade right before I got ready to bat. The tournament that my team, the Cougars, played at was called Cooperstown: All-Star Village. Before the tourney, my hitting statistics sucked. Then I decided to use my old bat. This decision changed my game forever.

I walked up to home-plate with my black and white Under Armor batting gloves. Everyone told me that they expected at least one home-run from me. With two men on, I looked up at the scoreboard. The Cougars with zero and The California Dirtbags with four. The ball came in so fast, but my mind processed the ball very slowly. As soon as the ball hit the bat, I knew it was gone. I started off the home-run trot with five slow steps, which each step I slowly take off my gloves. Then pop my golden necklace out from my shirt so that it would flop while I ran around the bases. I reached home-plate and paid my respects to God. The score was Cougars 3; California 4.

The game kept on going back and forth until it was the last inning. We had the last at-bat because we were the home team. My friend Tommy got up to bat with men on second and third. The score was Cougars 6; California Dirtbags 7. I was nervous thinking that I might have to be a clutch performer for the game. A clutch is someone who wins the game in one swing of the bat for your team when you are needed. I usually do well in clutch situations, but something about this one I didn’t like. Luckily, Tom hit a line-drive down the right-field line and two runs scoring, winning the game. That was not the only Cougar Comeback of the Cooperstown tournament.

On July 25, 2012 the Cougars competed against the California Angels. The first five out of six innings were played in stormy weather. We were losing 10-1 in the last inning until the rest of the game got postponed. The next morning we had to finish the game at four O’clock in the morning. We all thought there was no chance in hell that we were going to win this game. Then my friend hit a homer. The rally kept going and going. The other team went through at least six or seven pitchers in the last inning. Somehow the score went from 10-1 to 10-15. We scored fourteen runs in the last inning.

People from random teams were watching the game. The last inning should have only been ten minutes long. It turned out to be over an hour long. Now I know that anything is possible if you believe you can. People said it was the greatest comeback ever. I say that the game was and still stands as the greatest memory that was ever part of the Cougar family.

The true fun in the Cougar team was not the games, but it was the family itself. We may have not been the best team ever, but we sure as hell had the best times together. I would rather be on the losing Cougars team, than the team that I am now which is fourth in the state. The families that were on Cougars say that it was the best experience that they ever had playing baseball. I would rather be on a losing but fun team, than to be on a team that wins and is fourth in the state.