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In it ‘till the end

What's on your mind?

by NumeroUno » Sun Nov 27, 2022 9:19 am

Crossing Home Plate with Kate: In it ‘til the end…

As athletes we have a tendency to put a lot of pressure on ourselves to do well in our sport. In my experience this kind of pressure is typically self-inflicted.

“I don’t want to let my teammates down” or “I don’t want to let my family down” or “I don’t want to lose my spot in the lineup” are the classic thoughts running through any athletes’ mind.

Well I can recall just being 13 years of age and feeling this stress. We were playing in Bloomington, Indiana at the 12U Class A ASA National Championships. I was on Corona Angels and our team had found ourselves in the loser’s bracket trying to make our way back to the Championship series.

As we avoided elimination from the tournament, we managed to make it back. American Pastime was now the only team that stood between us and the Championship. We were down going into the 7th inning and I was third in the lineup. All I could think about was not wanting to be the last out and losing it all for my team.

My dad saw the look of fear on my face as I told him I didn’t want to make the last out. He simply told me, “Then don’t!” At that moment I realized I had to conquer my nerves. So, I did.

Instead of letting that angst consume me, I remember trying to slow my breathing down so I could focus on the at bat and nothing else. One of my teammates in front of me had walked. Immediately, I’ll admit, I felt a sigh of relief. However, the pressure was still on to find a way to pull out a win.

This pitcher I had faced before back home. You could tell she was tired. Heck we were all tired. All I focused on was trying to get a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it. Then, the first pitch came. It was a nice one and I hit it just hard enough past the first basemen for a double down the right field line.

Eventually, our team went on to win it all. We learned a lot about each other that week. More than anything we knew we had each other’s backs and no matter what happened, we were going to do it together.

Until next time,

Katie C.

Enjoy the Journey
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