That One Lucky Day by Harry Hernberg

It was the summer of 2012. I was on an average baseball team, but there were definitely some very good players. We certainly were not a dream team though. There was no way we should have beat some of the teams we faced. Essentially, we were lucky. However, it is indisputable that we were the closest team when it comes to friendship and helping each other out. Yes, I was probably the leader of that team so I needed to set a good example for the other players. How we went where we did was truly based off of our ability to pick each other up after a tough play. It was the championship game. We, on a regular basis, had absolutely no chance of beating the team we played that game. Our head coach was recovering from a surgery, our warm-ups were despicable, and we didn't have enough people to play the game until about 15 minutes before the game started; we were such a hot mess. So, it was the third inning, and I knew that our head coach was in a seriously tough condition. That was until I saw him right under a tree watching our game. I exclaimed, "Coach is watchin our game! I thought he was still recovering!" Our assistant coach said, "Harry, we know he can't coach, but how do ya think he's gonna miss this game and not completely regret it." I felt like that statement fired up the team. Now, the real story is in the last two innings. We were winning by two, we had the winning out at the plate,we were on defense, but there were two guys on base. Brendan Bettencourt lined a pitch so hard, it was like it would burn a hole in someone's glove. The two runs on base scored, and he was the winning run on second base. It was not looking too good for my team. To add on to that, there was a decent sized crowd that was not on our side. You didn't even have to listen to hear them screaming, "Let's go C Spirito!" I thought it was a nightmare. The next pitch was a fake bunt to get the runner going to third. It was successful. Well, the fake was successful. The advance of the runner was not. I felt the seam of the baseball on my fingertips, hurled it to Leland Frantz who I had no idea could catch a ball and deliver a clean tag, and we got the out. This was probably the riskiest move I have ever completed in my baseball career. That is one good thing from that game. Will Keohane had exhibited a poor game. He had gone 0 for 3 in his first 3 at bats. He got a walk which was incredible for me. I was next up in the order facing a pitcher who threw his fastball like his life depended on it. I needed a hit though. I went to the batter's box, dug my cleats into the ground, tightened my grip on the bat, and I was ready. I let the first two pitches go. Neither of them were good enough so I didn't swing. I knew the next one was going to be good though. It was a perfect pitch. It was right in the zone so I took a hack at it. I sprinted to first base not knowing where the ball was until I looked up to see both outfielders staring at the ball that went over the fence. I was elated. My team cleared the bench and darted out to home plate to hop on me and celebrate what happened. The other team got one final at bat because they were the home team. It didn't prove to be helpful though; it was the bottom of the order which had gotten a combined 3 hits in the entire playoffs. They didn't get one that day. We won. The ending score was 7-5 in favor of our team. None of us knew what had happened. It was definitely an upset. What we did was so unbelievable, I had to pinch myself just to be sure I wasn't dreaming. I was not dreaming that day. It actually happened. Our head coach met up with us at the end of the game to take pictures and take part in the trophy presentation. He just had to ask me, "Did you know you hit a home run as soon as it came off your bat?" I replied, "No." "So you're telling me that you had no clue that you had hit that homer when I was watching it sail over the fence by a good fifty feet! Rubbish." "Hey coach, I'm just happy we won."