Hopper 1

Austin Hopper
Ms. Albrecht
Advanced Composition
9/2/14

Our loss in Regional's (Draft 2)

I could not sleep. No matter how hard I had tried I could not force myself to fall asleep. I
watched as the time flew by. One o'clock, Two o'clock, Three o'clock, Four. Until, I finally felt
my body slowly shutting down due to lack of sleep. The next morning it hit me, baseball
regional's are today. Whats that smell? I crawled out of my bed, slowly, as if I was in immense
pain. It was the ham and eggs my mother had cooked me. When I attempted to eat the food my
mom made me, my stomach would not allow me to do so. So, I set out to meet my team before
the big game.
It was a moderately gloomy day, the roads and fields were still wet from earlier rain.
Clouds painted the gray sky into a work of monochromatic art. I then heard my mother say
"Don't get so worked up, son. If this is your last game of the season, your whole team should be
proud of their accomplishments this year." I told her why this season was so important to all of
us. Our coach would not be our coach anymore. Someone else would be coaching us, someone
new. Hearing this, she silenced herself. When I arrived I heard my mom yell "Good Luck!" I
muttered "Thanks, Mom..." Everyone lined up and put everything on the bus before we headed
out for the game. We had a long bus ride ahead of us.
We could hear the bus's diesel engine roaring as we started to set out for the game.
Everyone was silent. Too nervous to speak. After about twenty minutes of silence we all started
being the loud & obnoxious kids that we are. When we had arrived at the ballpark we were in
awe. We had never played on a field as nice as this. It was as if we were in baseball heaven.
When we had gotten everything settled in the dugout, we headed to the field to warm up. The
cheering from the fans as we approached the field was astonishing. In warm ups, we looked

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good. We had this game in the bag, I was sure of it. We took some in & out, and waited for the
start of the game.
As the team took to the field the cheering was roaring louder than it was before. We ran
to our positions and waited as our pitcher warmed up. This is it, its time. We heard the umpire
yell, Play Ball! As of the top of the first inning, our pitcher threw three straight strikeouts.
When it was our turn to bat, we almost immediately scored two runs from a hit out in deep rightcenter field. The score was 2-0. Then a high fly ball caught by the center fielder made three outs,
the side was retired. Neither teams scored any runs until the fifth inning.
There was a feeling of revenge in the air. I could smell it coming from the other team.
When the opposing team was up to bat, they hit four right past our outfielders to give them a 3-2
lead. We then turned a double play to end the top of that inning. In the bottom of the fifth, we hit
three doubles. Thus, sending two runs to score. Then a little duck snort to the second basemen
ended the inning. It was 4 to 3 in the top of the sixth.
We were all shaking in our boots at this moment; both teams were determined to win.
The other team hit three singles and a double, which sent two runs home. We were down 5-4 in
the last inning. We had one more at bat, the most crucial moment in this whole game. We had to
score two more runs to win. The first batter hit a single, the second was thrown out at first. This
gave us a runner on second with one out. The third batter hit a dinky pop up back to the pitcher:
giving us a runner on second with two outs. Our fourth batter hit one to the center fielder, our
runner about to round third to home. The center fielder came up, he winged it home. It was going
to be close; the ball and the runner were coming in so fast. As the runner slides and the catcher
tags, the umpire yells, Out! Our season was over. We had lost.
Everyone was devastated, especially our coaches. After our two teams lined up and shook
hands, we walked slowly towards left field. Coach said I believe you all know why this year
was very important to me, and I am very happy that you all had made this an outstanding last
year for me. Thank all of you; this was a great end of the season. He started to tear up, then all
of us almost simultaneously started crying, as did he. It was a very emotional end to our season
thats for sure. Coach got up, still with tears in his eyes, and said Even though we lost, it is still
an unreal feeling. We had one more team chant with our coach, so we had to make it good. We
would say Unreal, three times. Then coach would say Timberwolf, then we would say
Pride.

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This could be the last game I ever coach. If we lose tomorrow, our season MY season,
would be over. I cant sleep knowing that I could be done for good tomorrow. However, since it
was now four oclock in the morning, I couldnt physically keep my eyes open. I had woken up to
the smell of bacon and eggs that my wife had cooked for the big day. It was delicious, and I had
a feeling that today was going to be a good day. As I was getting ready to leave, my wife decided
to give me a pep talk. She had told me I hope you know that no matter what happens today, the
team still did a fantastic job throughout the season. I then headed to meet with the other
coaches and the team.
Everyone gathered up the equipment onto the bus and we loaded everyone up. We were
finally on our way to the game. It was dead silent on the bus. No one said a word for probably a
half an hour. Then all of sudden it just erupted into an uncontrollable chaos of noise. When we
arrived, everyone was really happy and everyone ran off the bus to get to the dugout. After
everyone was settled into the dugout they started warming up.
Everyone looked good. They were doing everything perfectly, without any error. I figured
we already had this game won by the looks of it. However, you never know until the end of the
game. As they were finishing warming up you could hear everyone cheering. The fans were
ready to see some baseball. As they took their positions the cheering roared even louder. The
first three at bats were all strikeouts, which had finished the top of the first. We then scored two
runs to get ahead 2 - 0 at the end of the first.
I was sincerely disappointed since we didnt score any more points since the first inning.
It was now the top of the fifth; we were still up by 2. Then the other team hit four shots past our
outfielders. Thus, giving them a 3 - 2 lead. In our at bat, we scored another two runs by hitting
three straight doubles. We were up 4 - 3 at the end of the fifth, and I thought we had this game in
the bag.
In the last inning we were doing fine until the other team hit three singles and a double to
put them up 5 - 4. Our last at bat was crucial but sadly we didnt score in our last at bat and our
season came to a grinding halt. My season was done. As the players lined up I was thinking
about what I was going to say to them. As they all huddled up and took a knee in left field, all I
said was that it had been a great time coaching all of them and it was a pleasure to be a part of

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the team. I started to tear up, I couldnt help it. And when all the players on the team started
crying I did too. When this happened we just couldnt stop, it was very emotional for sure
However we had to get going so I stood up. I let them know that even though we lost, the feeling
was still unreal. Our last chant together as a team is a memory I will never forget.