The Cycle

Had a game against one of the lesser experienced teams recently.  As usual, I tried to overweight my infield to be my players needing more development, to try to keep the game competitive.  There's not much I can do about our hitting.  I'm not going to tell the girls to miss on purpose or not take extra bases when the ball's in the outfield.  They need to practice the right base-running skills when appropriate.

The game was more lopsided than expected.  We won 25-1.  S had a big day at the plate.  She started with a double.  2nd at bat was a home run.  Given that there is no fence, you have to just keep running to get the home run and it was hit so far back, that it took them two relays to make it into the infield.  At that point, she was already crossing home.  Actually, it was a Grand Slam.  This allowed us to get 9 runs in the inning, as we had 5, bases loaded and two outs, so her at bat would end the inning no matter what happened (6 run rule).
Later in the game, she was held to a single, as the outfielder stopped the ball just into the grass and no one could safely advance beyond one base.  She was put out on a sharp hit to 2nd, that the player made a nice stop on during her next at bat.  In the final at bat, she completed the cycle with another long hit to the outfield resulting in a triple.  It still took two relays to get the ball back and if it had been a close game, we'd have been telling her to go home.  She rounded 3rd and saw the ball coming in to the cutoff and stopped.  She claims that she knew she had hit for the cycle, but when I mentioned that she had a grand slam, she didn't know that.

Was an exciting day, but it only lasts until the next game, sometimes.