The Devil Rays had their end of season party last night. Trophies were handed out, gifts were given to the coaches and team moms, etc. We also indulged in a delicious cookie cake (all of us that are able to digest food coloring!!) We are still so proud of this team and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone, but hopefully we'll see all these familiar faces next fall.Brandon's coach set up a website for our team to keep in touch with rules changes, pictures, and game summaries. One game summary during the playoffs talks about Brandon's important contributions to the team. Here is a quote:
"At this point it is appropriate to identify some of our “unsung heroes”. During the course of a game it is easy to see the “big plays” that are made. They take the form of outs made in the field or big hits at the plate. What isn’t so easy to see are all of the little plays, sacrifices and attention to detail that can decide games. We had two unsung heroes this game and I would like to call attention to their efforts. The first unsung hero was Brandon. Brandon is normally a dead Pull hitter, meaning his normal swing is such that he usually hits the ball down the Third Base Line. Brandon was at bat with the bases loaded in the top of the fourth inning. The score at that point was DRays 16 – A’s 12. Knowing that the inning was most likely going to end after that at bat and that the number of runners left on Third Base was going to be important, I asked Brandon to hit the ball to the right side of the infield and helped him position himself to do it. Brandon hit a hard ground ball to the second baseman. It was the perfect hit that scored the runner from Third Base and made sure the runner at Second Base was able to move over to Third Base safely. The significance of that at bat may not have been understood by everyone at that point but the fact that Brandon was willing and able to hit the ball to the right side of the field ultimately sealed the win for the DRays. Great Job Brandon!!!"
The Devil Rays won that game after going through the tie-breaker rules. It goes score, runners left on base, runners left on 3rd base, 2nd base, 1st base and then the dreaded coin flip. The final score was 17-17, total LOB was tied at 10, but we had 4 runners left on 3rd to their 3. That's how important Brandon's hit was.
Good job, D-Rays, indeed.
