More Baseball

It's the week of the baseball tournament, so our lives still revolve around that... But maybe they'll settle down a little after this.

Monday was the first game of the tournament. We had a bye for the first round, so we had to wait to find out who we played. It turned out to be the White Sox again. Once again, it was a close, tough game, although not quite as nerve-wracking as the last game of the season. I think it was tied going into the bottom of the sixth this time. Any way, the Tigers won in the end.

Tuesday was scheduled to be a short practice. Brennan woke up that morning with a very stuffy nose. Then, after the practice he had a 99 degree temperature. In the morning he still was about the same, so we kept him home from school. Most of the day he seemed to feel OK and be doing fine, so we thought everything was good. But then around dinner time he started feeling not good, and his temperature started going up. He ended up getting up to 101+. He was also obviously exhausted. One of our home teachers and the missionaries came over and helped me give him a blessing. Just after they left, he ended up throwing up. After that his temperature started coming back down (with medicine), and he slept pretty good through the night.

By yesterday morning his temperature was near normal, but with the medicine. He stayed home from school again (missing field day, unfortunately), and went to the doctor. The doctor said it was just a respiratory bug and there really wasn't anything she could do. Although somewhat hesitant, she didn't say he couldn't play in the game. Brennan was still feeling pretty good. After a lot of discussion, we decided to go ahead and at least go to the warm ups for the game and see how he was doing at that point (of course, being Houston, it was 87 degrees and humid). This game was the East division championship, against the Diamondbacks (the team that was leading the whole season until we won that last game).

Brennan was still feeling OK after warm ups, and one of the other players was delayed and wasn't there yet. That meant if Brennan hadn't been there, the Tigers would have forfeited the game. So it was a good thing he was there.

The first inning started out well. The Diamondbacks didn't score, and the Tigers scored three. Brennan came up with runners on and two outs. He hit the ball hard, but unfortunately it went straight to the second baseman, who threw him out.

The second inning the Tigers again held them scoreless. In the bottom of the inning the Tigers scored four. Once again Brennan came up with runners on and two outs. They had him bunt, but the Diamondback's best player was at pitcher, and he was able to throw out Brennan on a close play.

In the third, the Diamondbacks scored a run. Now the Tiger's bats went silent, and they weren't able to score, leaving it at 7 - 1.

In the fourth, it started to get tense. The Diamondbacks started hitting, and in the midst of a lot of close plays and near-great defensive efforts, they were able to score the maximum five runs, making it 7 - 6. Once again, the Tigers weren't able to score.

The held the Diamondbacks in the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, Brennan came up with a runner on third and one out. He had another hard hit, this time right down the first base line. The first baseman fielded it while standing on first base. Meanwhile, however, the runner on third scored to make it 8 - 6. That was the only run scored that inning.

The last inning had some more near-plays, and some very good plays. But in the end, the Diamondbacks scored 3 to take the lead, 9 - 8. In the bottom of the inning, our 10th batter (the late player, who made it in the third) got a solid single. He stole second. The next batter was out. Then another hit and a stolen base got us to runners on second and third with one out, and our best hitter up. He hit a looping hit over the shortstop--but that was where their best player was playing that inning, and he made a very good play to catch the ball for the out.

Now it was all on the line. Runners on second and third, one run down, two outs, bottom of the last inning. The coach's son was up. On the first pitch he drove the ball up the middle and to the fence. Both runs scored, and the Tigers won the East championship.

After the game, Brennan was given one of two game balls for, as the coach put it, "Coming out to play when the night before he had a 101 degree fever and was yakking it up at home." The other game ball went to the championship-winning hit.

Tonight is the City Championship against the winner of the West. Brennan's very tired this morning, but went to school for at least the first part of the day. We're planning on trying to get him to rest as much as possible before the game.