Baseball is St. Dominic's main sport for 7th through 8th grades. During the class of '06 we had the best record of 21-1 in school history. It was a great 2 seasons, but we all wished that we won against our rivals, St. Basil.
It all started off with a month long off-season practice. Assistant Coach Knight taught us about the rock n' load batting stances. He stated that it's the best method to count the number of seconds when a pitcher releases. When you see the pitcher warming up, you count the number of seconds he's throwing his fastball. Anything less is usually pitch away. Anything more is a breaking ball. An example of the rock n' load method is Barry Bonds stance. As you noticed his batting stance while he was playing with the Giants, his bat always rocked back and forth. He's counting the number of beats a.k.a number of seconds it takes a pitcher to deliver the ball. It was great method and helped a lot through my career in baseball.
The '06 season was our finest season out of the two. We were on our way to becoming undefeated...so we thought. Our 9th game of the season, we were facing St. Basil of Vallejo. I was batting 5th and was playing 2nd base and later Left field. It was a very close game, having it being tied 1-1 through 3 innings. Bottom of the 4th inning, I was leading off. They put in a left hander, who had a very slow wind up. He was throwing outside and I got on base with a 4-pitch-walk. Michael Scaffani was now up. Coach Knight gave me the sign of stealing on the first pitch. As the pitcher lifted his elbow, I ran to second standing up. I gave myself some leads, making the pitcher nervous about me stealing again. He threw to the short-stop a couple of times. After 3 throw backs, he pitched for a strike. Coach Knight gave me the sign to steal on the 3rd pitch. I ran to 3rd sliding head first, extending my arms and hope that I wasn't gonna be called out. The catcher threw it too high for the third baseman to even attempt a tag. As I call time to brush off and talk to the coaches, Coach Knight told me to steal home when the time is right for me. The pitcher was now pitching from the wind up. I knew this would be a perfect opportunity, especially from his slow release. He threw a couple of balls to the third baseman to keep me close to the bag, but I still gave him that big lead. As he began his wind up I sprinted home, hoping that I will make it. Once the ball passed over the plate, I tagged home plate! As the ump stated that I was safe, the SDS crowd went wild. My coaches and teammates pounded my helmet in the dugout. We felt like we were on our way to winning the game.
Top of the 6th inning, St. Basil started hitting some base hits and end up scoring 2 runs, giving them a 1 run lead. They sent out their ace pitcher, Danny Souza. He was throwing heat, which threw off some of my timing. Bottom of the 7th, the last inning of the ball game. Danny Souza was throwing them perfect, low in the strike zone and some heat. Danny Quigly was up first and grounded out. I was next up to bat. I allow pitchers to throw the first pitch in the count so I can feel the rhythm. He threw a first pitch strike, low and away. Next pitch was a strike 2, I swung a bit late. 3rd pitch I made contact, but fouled to the left. I felt a lot of pressure now. I really want to get a base hit off this guy. The 4th pitch was a high ball. I gambled and thought he was gonna do it again. I was wrong and he threw it the same spot as the 1st pitch, low and away. I struck out swinging late again. I was very upset with myself, gambling on his location and thinking too hard. He struck out Michael and St. Basil won the game 3-2. The game was in our hands, but we just failed to execute for the first time. The road to perfection was over, but the season wasn't.
We finished the season without losing any games since then. Our last away game was against St.Basil on St.Pats field. This time we came out on top, winning 12-5. If only we did that against them the first time, we would be perfect. In an odd way, I'm glad that they beat us. Being the underdog against them in the second game, gave us the hunger for revenge. No, we didn't finish perfect, but we finish our 8th grade year with the best team of St. Dominic's history.
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