1.4 The Difference
On Friday night, the Ballers fell to the Range Riders by the narrow margin of 3 to 1 … well, 3 touchdowns to 1 touchdown … meaning they lost 21 to 7. Being on the wrong side of a blowout is never fun, but here’s a thought: mentally, it can be easier to lose by a bunch than to lose by a bit. When you lose by double digits, there’s no “shoulda coulda woulda” to wrestle with, whereas in a narrow defeat, there’s a tendency to dwell on the little things that (seemingly) made the difference: a ball that hooked foul, a bad bounce, a pitch that got away.
That said, getting walloped doesn’t do much for the confidence, so it’ll be interesting to see how tomorrow night’s game goes. The first two games of the series were one run affairs, with the Ballers coming out on top both times. Then the Range Riders blew them out the next two games. I wonder if tonight’s game (Saturday’s game) might be an inflection point for the Ballers. It’s certainly a chance to regain some of the confidence they presumably had after their first two wins.
Of course, the elephant in the room here is the pitching — it’s the obvious explanation for how you can give up 36 runs in games three and four in a series, versus 10 in games one and two. I wonder if that might be a trend across the Pioneer League? I’ll look at the numbers this weekend if I get a chance. But Saturday, the chance will be Carson Lambert’s — he’s slated to be the starting pitcher for the Ballers, after working the final two innings of the first game and getting the save. We’ll see if that tamps down the Range Riders’ scoring.
But back to Friday night’s game, as I wanted to make one more point there. The final batter for the Ballers was the catcher Coleton Horner. He had caught the whole game (which went 3 hours and 25 minutes) in crappy weather. With two outs and no runners on, and the Ballers down 14 runs, he popped up to shallow right field. It was obviously going to be an out. But after a very brief pause, Horner sprinted to first base as if he were the go-ahead run. It brought to mind the John Updike line, about those who still give it their all “when the only thing at stake is the tissue-thin difference between a thing done well and a thing done ill." Tip of the hat to Horner.
