Southern Shootout 2006

So finally, the face is healing up. It is INCREDIBLY much better than it was last week this time. Now I just look like I stayed up too late :)

So this past weekend was Easter, but for the GGB, he was at another softball tournament :) (put on your surprise face) LOL :) Friday, my friends DG and LD and I rode over to Birmingham, AL for the 2006 Southern Shootout softball tournament. We had left early enough to skip the heavy Atlanta holiday traffic, thank goodness! We arrived and headed out to eat (I was imploding...again) and we sat inside admiring (or not, haha!) the other softball boys sitting outside on the patio. Afterwards we signed in and headed to the open bar (woo hoo...you know I love THAT) and hung out with the other Wackers and renewed aquaintances. Couldn't really stay out that late (and I was rooming with married folk) so afterwards, just crashed.

Saturday started early with two round-robin games of which we won one and lost one, placing us almost smack dab in the middle of the seeding. Not a bad spot...but it definitely made for an uphill battle to try and place. Once the tournament started, we played pretty well, winning our first game and heading for the second. Unfortunately, we lost our second game, putting us into the losers bracket. One more loss and we would be put out of the tournament! With an 8:00AM game, I felt for sure we would be home in time for lunch and a good nap.

As with most things in my life...GUESS AGAIN! LOL :)

We weren't playing too well that first game against the K-town Katz...but after an inspirational, "get your shish together, I know you can play better" (paraphrased) speech by our coach, we kicked it into high gear, climbed out of our hole and won by like a point. :) The next game against an Atlanta team, the Demons was one of the most interesting of the weekend... :) During one play in that game, I was getting a forced out at second, the runner ran into me, grabbed me and pulled me on top of him. No harm done, but I was struggling to turn around to see who it was and I laughed and said, "Well...at least you're one of the hot ones!" as he walked off the field...and BOY how-freaking-dee is he ever sexy...

In a surprise (and some would say foolish) we were tied in the score and the International Run Rule went into effect (which is basically you play innings starting with a man on 2nd base). Luckily we had our best runner (whom we nicknamed "Choo Choo") on the base...but with no outs, the coach decided to walk the next two runners. This was kind of an odd move, loading the bases...the likelyhood of getting a TRIPLE-PLAY was near impossible and their pitcher was dog tired...three balls and he walked our batter...BALLGAME to us :)

Our third game for the day, was against another Atlanta team, the Eagle Talons. We were pretty familiar with the team, though there were a few new faces. Again...we stressed out our coaches and pinched it by another single point :) THEN we played the Orlando Equalizer Cowboys, definitely a pretty team *steam out of my ears*. That game was interesting because their pitcher had just about had it...had they had additional skilled pitchers, we might have lost. That put us into third place...HARDWARE :) But...another game to play...luckily (in my eyes) we lost (or we would have had to play a FULL SEVEN INNINGS MORE) and yours truly was about as full of energy as a Tic-Tac.

So we had a little celebratory get together at Woofs on Wednesday night which was a nice way to really kick off our season. :)