by Jerry Feitelberg

The girls have regrouped and are now playing the second game of the season. This may not be the Oakland A’s or the San Francisco Giants but for the girls and their friends and family, it is a great way to spend a Saturday morning. These kids may never make it to the big leagues but they love the game and they have a good time playing. The look on their faces when they get a hit or make a nice play in the field is just unbelievable and the progress that the kids made since the first game last month was something to behold.

The girls’ softball season continued for the Black Cats of the Branham softball league on Saturday. The Cats were the home team and they were taking on the powerful Blue Thunder.

The Thunder got off to a quick start scoring three runs on six hits in the first inning. The Cats rallied to score one in their half as they had their work cut out for them as the Thunders’ pitcher had great velocity on his throws but was a bit wild. The Cats hitters would have made A’s general manager, Billy Beane, proud as they showed great patience at the plate and had four hits in a row to make it a 3-1 game. The Thunders’ ace had the bases loaded but worked out of the jam to end the inning.

The Cats pitcher, Lauren, held the Thunder scoreless in the second. The Cats then rallied to score four times to take the lead 5-3. With a new pitcher for the Cats in the top of the third, the Thunder scored four more times to ice the win for the Thunder. The Cats mounted a rally but good defense by the Thunder killed the Cats’ rally and the Thunder won the game 7-5.

The kids showed tremendous improvement since the last game that was played a couple of weeks ago.

The pitching was better as well as the hitting and the defense and throwing also showed marked improvement.

After the game, the teams raised a cheer for their opponents, shook hands then ran the bases then headed off to lunch with their parents and/or grandparents or both.