High School Baseball

By the time I got to high school I had already had some experience against other high school players. Over the summer before I came to high school, Mr. Layden, the coach for the team, said I could come play summer ball with the team. I played about ten games with the team. The whole time I played I never got a hit, I put the ball in play almost every at bat but I could never get an actual hit. That just gave me more motivation once the actual season came around.

                My freshman year was a great year, I don’t know all my statistics for that year because I played junior varsity most of the season. The might be one reason why it was good. One game, against Winslow, I pitched the whole game. I gave up seventeen runs and three home runs, but that didn’t matter because my team had my back. We took the lead in the bottom of the sixth when I hit a triple with the bases loaded and all three guys on base scored. We ended up winning the game by one, 18-17.

                My sophomore year I had to earn a spot on varsity or play JV again, and I didn’t want to play JV again. So I worked my butt off during tryouts and got the starting shortstop position. I didn’t have the best start to the season hitting, but finally, against St. Johns, I got my first hit. That wasn’t enough though, because at the very end of the game we were losing 7-1 with only one at bat left. We got two quick outs, but then the three guys in front of me got on base. I got a hit up the middle and two guys scored. We went on to tie the game, and in the bottom of the eight, Austin hit a walk off home run and we won the game. That game turned our season around, and soon we were Region Champions. The last region champs too, because now there’s not regional’s anymore. After that was the state tournament. We won our first two games and earned ourselves a trip back the next weekend to play in the final four. We played in the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers spring training stadium. The field was so big, but that didn’t matter we still played as hard as we could, but it was all for not, as we ended up losing 3-2. A heart breaker.  

                Junior year was really fun, I had gotten stronger in the offseason and I was hitting the ball a lot harder. But I didn’t get to start playing until the third game of the season because I broke my foot in basketball. But that didn’t slow me down one bit, in my first at bat I hit the first pitch off the fence in right center for a double. I was off on the right foot and I wasn’t about to slow down.

                The highlight of the season was beating Chino Valley, the #3 ranked team in the second round of the state tournament. One of the greatest games I have ever been a part of.