And so it begins….

Obnoxious John

3/16/10

There I was, staring at a high school baseball diamond and all of a sudden a game broke out! I had a chance to attend the Kamiak season opener, played Monday March 15 versus the Lakeside Lions of Seattle.

The weather cooperated, delivering a rainless afternoon that featured a lot of sun for a good part of the time.  A good turnout by both sides saw the stands full of partisan spectators along with a few curious onlookers like yours truly.

After dedicating the field the Jim Geiger, a long time supporter of baseball in the Mukilteo community as well as a coach with Kamiak, the game began with Andrew Groves on the hill. He’s the ace of Knight club and began his season as perfectly as any pitcher would want. He lured the first batter, in the first game, to swing, at the first pitch. The result was a pop fly to the infield and we were off.

The Lions did push a run across in first inning despite that easy out.  Thanks to 2 hard shot singles and a dribbler that forced the second baseman throw out the batter from the seat of his pants, Lakeside had runners on second and third with 2 outs. I couldn’t tell if it was really a passed ball or if the catcher Houghtaling was expecting a different pitch, but the ball got by him and the runner from third scored standing up.

Being the first game of the year means the hitters are usually behind the pitchers and this contest proved that. There really wasn’t much offense on either side, to speak of for the next few innings. We did see a couple long fly outs but no extra base hits were recorded on this day.

In the fourth the Knights got on the scoreboard thanks to an error on the Lakeside shortstop who couldn’t handle a toss from the second baseman. It was the first game of the year after all. That brought Groves to the plate, with bases loaded, and in storybook fashion he ripped a hard shot in the hole. The shortstop made a nice play but Groves beat the throw and 2 runs scored.

And that as they say, is all she wrote. Final score Knights 2, Lions 1. I’m so glad baseball is back.

Now get out there and take one for the team!