The "What A Season! League Champs At 28-1!!" Story

Homeplate umpire entertains the Pirates during lightning delay.

It was an ordinary day.  Sitting along the third base line behind the visitor's bench watching the home plate umpire juggle three baseballs for the Mountville Pirates baseball team.  My grandson Caden is a member of the team and they, along with the Mountville Giants, their opponents this evening, are waiting out the second 30 minute lightning delay.  

Dylan pitching for the Pirates.

Guy's pretty good at juggling, but then we hear the call from the director of this league championship game, calling the managers and umpires together at home plate to tell them what will happen if we have a third delay of game.  These two teams have outlasted all the rest of the teams in the 16-team championship series of the Lancaster County Youth Baseball U-10 Div. 2 League.  The two teams know each other well after competing against each other a few times during the season in league and tournament play as well as sharing the same classrooms together in elementary school.  

Caden entered in the 3rd to strike out the final batter.

The Giants were leading 3-1 after the end of the third inning when the sky darkened to the south and the lightning lit up the sky in the distance.  Up until that time the Giants had the momentum scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the second and another run in the bottom of the third after the Pirates had plated one in the top of that inning.  

Pirates coach talks to his team before the game resumes.

Dylan began the game for the Pirates on the mound, but with one out in the third Caden was called on to try and stop the scoring threat.  He responded with a few strikeouts to quell the Giants outbreak.  As the Giants began to take the field at the Mountville VFW field, the umpires signaled a delay since all could see the sky light up in the distance.  

Photo of the Mountville VFW Stadium.

When the game resumed the momentum seemed to have shifted to the Pirates as they scored a run in the fourth and four more in the top of the fifth while Caden stayed strong and continued to dominate the Giants on the mound.  Caden only started to blossom as a pitcher late in the season when he regained the confidence he had lost from a pre-season disaster against these same Giants.  

My son and asst. coach, Derek, applies eye black to help
with the reflection from the stadium lights.

The last two to three weeks he has been just about unhitable, striking out batter after batter with very few walks.  As I stood on the hill behind home plate watching Caden pitch, I could hear comments from fans asking each other where that kid pitching came from.  They said he was one of the best they had seen all season.  In the 6th and final inning, with the score 6-3 in favor of the Pirates, the Pirates added an insurance run on two successive hits by Colin and Zander.  

Caden preparing to throw his "stink-pitch".

In the bottom of the inning Caden returned to the mound knowing he could only pitch to one batter since the league only allows a pitcher to pitch for 9 outs.  He did give up a hit before striking out the next batter and being relieved by Zander.  Zander struggled somewhat and the runner on base eventually scored, but then he managed to strike out the final batter and the Pirates were league champs for 2015.  

Zander recording the last out of the game with a strikeout.

Very ironic that the only loss in the league this year for the Pirates was to the Giants with the Giants losing to the Pirates in a mid-season tournament game.  Two very evenly matched teams played one of the year's most exciting games I had the pleasure to watch.  It was the kind of game where you wish that both teams could have been declared champion.  

Neat view of the game from behind home plate.  Notice
the full moon in the sky above the backstop.

Trophies were awarded and individual team as well as a dual-team photographs were taken as the Pirates remained on the field to present their coach with a framed team photo autographed by parents and players.  A very successful year for Mountville baseball with the two top teams in the league coming from the same area.  

The League Champion Mountville Pirates.

And, the champion Pirates ended their season with 28-1 record winning 28 straight after losing their first game.  I said to my son Derek, who helped coach the team, that I will miss going to all the games.  He replied by telling me that fall baseball is only a few weeks away.  And, I'm sure Caden can hardly wait.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

By the end of the game the Mayflies had defended on the field.

Caden with his mom and dad. 

Cody, the starting pitcher for the Mountville Giants, is one of Caden's best friends.  Someday they may get to both pitch for the same team.