It was Thursday and the final game of the season was tomorrow. “Relax guys,” says John the team captain, “It’s just another game where there is one winner and one loser, except the winner receives a big trophy at the end.” All of his teammates looked at him and agreed quietly by talking amongst themselves saying, “We have worked too hard and done too much to not win this game.”

The next day after eating lunch and hanging out in their rooms, they went down to load up to play their final game. As they got on the bus ipods started to play and every one was trying to relax before the big game. As they were heading to play the State Championship game John told the team, “We can do this, we’ve practiced for it and prepared for it, now let’s do it.”

When they arrived at the field they did their warm-ups and the rosters were called. As the game was about to start, you could tell they were all nervous to play in the state championship against the two time defending Louisville Lions. The Lions were the home team so the leadoff hitter for the Cougars was Cliff. He was the type of hitter that did not have very good power, but had great speed. Cliff dug into the box and stared down the 6-3 right-handed Lion’s pitcher.

The first pitch of the game was a fastball that was up and in, but called a strike. The second pitch was his nasty curveball, but Cliff somehow managed to get the bat on the ball and groundball right back to the pitcher for the first out.

Six innings go by and the game was tied 1 to 1. It was the top of the seventh inning and the team captain John was up to bat with two outs left in the game. The Lion’s right-hander was still on the mound and started John off with a curveball for strike one. Then for the second pitch the big right-hander threw him a slider, but just barely missed for a ball. The count was then 1 and 1 and John stepped back into the box waiting for the next pitch. The righ- hander threw a fastball down and in, right where John liked the ball, and he hit it deep to center field. As it was going back, John thought it was a gap shot that he might have been able to leg for a triple, but the ball kept carrying eventually going over the fence for a homerun!

The last out of the top of the seventh was recorded with their closer going in for the Cougars to face the middle of the lineup, the three, four, and five hitters. The first two hitters popped out and the third hitter walked. Then stepped in the pitcher for the Lions ready to win the game with a home run of his own. The first pitch thrown to him was on the outside corner called for a strike. The second pitch of the at-bat was a curveball hit to deep center going back to the fence. Cliff made a jumping catch flying right into the wall. It was the catch to win the state championship!

As his teammates mobbed him, Cliff said, “We did it guys! We got the big trophy."