Baylor at Bat

I am so sorry for how little I have been posting lately.  Things have gotten unbelievably busy since before last Christmas and they haven't let up since.  One of the things keeping us busy as of late has been baseball.  We signed Mollie up for tee ball and Baylor up for coach pitch baseball this spring, and with both of their game schedules we have been up to our ears in bats, balls, and bases.

Mollie has had success playing tee ball, in no small part because they cannot strike out or be thrown out ... ever.  Each kiddo gets to swing until they hit and then run to first base, then second after the kid after them hits, then third, and so on until they go home - or until the last one in the lineup hits a "home run" and they all come home.  So it'd be tough to do poorly playing tee ball.

But coach pitch baseball is a lot different.  They do the usual three-strikes-and-you're-out rule and can get thrown out at any base.  Needless to say, Baylor, who had never played a game of baseball in his life before this spring, has struggled a bit.



Getting hit in the head during one's first batting practice doesn't make for a particularly good start, mind you.



More than that, he has struggled with this more than he has with anything else in his entire life.  The thing is, struggle is good for a person; it builds character and teaches perseverance.  But too much struggle, like an entire season of it, and the fun can drain right away.  We were starting to see improvement in him at each game, but I was also starting to notice here and there that he wasn't enjoying it; he was dragging his feet when getting ready to go, he was a lot more emotionally volatile on game days, and he seemed a little more dejected when walking away after striking out each inning.  We were all hoping he'd finally get a hit and start enjoying the game a little more.  Even his coach, who had seemed to give up on our boy a few weeks back, started pitching a little closer and giving him an extra pitch here and there to see if he could just get one hit.

And then it happened.



He got a hit!!!  You can hear and see just how excited the coach is that he finally did it, and at the end of the video you can hear his teammates say, "Baylor got his first hit!!"

And even more than that, he made it around the bases!  He ran for home with one out left, running better than we've ever seen before, and only got out at home because the other team made a very heads-up play at home plate.




It was a big day for the little man, and his team even voted to give him the game ball because of his efforts!

Hopefully this will be the beginning of more hits for Baylor, but even if it isn't, I am so incredibly proud of my little guy for sticking with it and working hard to achieve something that is so tough for him.

Way to go, Baylor!!