Oliver drove in three runs, scored a fourth and made a number of strong defensive plays in the outfield as his Union All Star baseball team won yesterday’s opener in the sectionals, 7-6.
They need to win two more games to win the sectionals, and to be able to move on to the state championship tourney for ten-year-old little league baseball players.
In the first inning, with the score tied 1-1, Ollie hit one of his patented deep fly balls to deep centerfield for his fourth double in six games. That hit drove in two of his teammates to break the tie, 3-1. He later scored.
But the game tightened over time and by the bottom of the fifth inning it was 6-6 with a runner on second base when Ollie singled him home for what proved to be the winning run.
It has been a major joy for me to attend his games this summer. Next up: game two of the sectionals today.
***
I have been writing about sports and kids sports for almost seven decades now. I’ve published thousands of words on soccer websites and also in the old San Francisco Examiner and a few magazines. For a time, I also was a certified blogger by Major League Baseball.
But actually I started out covering sports as a kid of maybe eight when I had a fantasy baseball league and “published” news reports of the games. Later, as a college journalist for The Michigan Daily and UPI, I published dozens of stories. I think my Dad would have been thrilled if I had stayed with sports. Alas, I went on to other topics.
But here’s the thing. Excelling at sports like baseball requires a combination of hard work, luck and teamwork (social) skills. You could say the same about most things in life.
Watching Oliver take an at bat is a reminder of all of that. He works out in the batting cages every day so the work ethic is there. Still, he has to get a good pitch to hit before he can do anything with it. That’s the luck of the draw. As for teamwork and social skills, you just have to listen to his teammates (and the crowd) when he steps up to the plate.
It’s starting to get loud.
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