TWIS

Somewhere the birds are singing (all 100 of them)

Somewhere the skies are blue

Somewhere people are singing

But, Somerset's season is through….

What more could you want? The temp was above 30 degrees. There were hotdogs for the purchasing. There was the National Anthem. There were starting lineups. There were hits and walks… mostly by the home team. The game was on the radio. The game was announced and there was baseball on the other field…T-ball was everywhere. The track team was bringing home some gold and the home team was putting on a clinic. It was a good night in Muddville.

In tournament play, you have to toss a coin to see who is home team. After some discussion, we decided that we had one of two choices. We won the toss, too and decided that we should be home team. Although, it is always fun to bat first and let the crowd figure out what inning we are in. But, this time we were the home team. We wanted to win everything.

Somerset did make some noise in the first inning. After the #3 batter walked, Amanda Johnson sent one to the center field fence to score a run and take the lead. But, that would be all of Somerset's offense for the night. They did advance one more runner to third base in the third, but they spent most of their time listening to golf scores and being intimidated by the crowd.

The game was decided in the first inning. Using a combination of good pitch selection and Somerset wildness, the Pirates got it going. Kelcy started the game with a walk. When the left fielder dropped Liz's line drive, it put Callie in a bunting situation. She responded perfectly and placed a bunt down the third baseline for a single to load the bases. Jamie, Susan, Nell and Becky then all walked in succession. With two outs, Kelcy came back to the plate and hit a line drive up the middle that the second baseman tried to one hop but couldn't handle it. Two more runs scored and Grantsburg closed the first inning with a 6-1 lead and lots of breathing room.

They continued the pressure in the second inning. Callie picked up her second hit of the night to lead off the inning. Jamie reached on an error and both players would eventually score to make the lead 8-1 after two innings. Grantsburg picked up additional runs in the third and fourth, but never scored that last run to make it a "Walk off game." Somerset picked up 4 hits and walked 3 times. Callie struck out 6 in her 6 innings of pitching. Kelcy picked up the "Sweet play of the game" as she ran down a hit up the middle, back handed the ball and fired a strike to Jamie at first.

For the game, the Pirates had 7 hits with 3 of them coming from Callie as her average is now toying with .500. Grantsburg would walk 10 times with Jamie and Becky each picking up 3. Liz had the only sacrifice of the game. Nell picked up 1 hit, but hit the ball hard each time she batted. One was a line drive at the left fielder and another time, the third baseman stabbed a line drive. Again, the entire line up produced with 6 different players scoring runs. It was another great team effort. Elise came in and pitched the 7^th inning. She through (threw) 12 pitches with 11 of them being strikes as she struck out 2 batters.

Grantsburg's next game will be Thursday night at home against Cameron... at least according to Clayton (the man, not the town) Game time is 5:00. So come on back and bring a friend.. Cameron has been our worthy rival in the last few years and it should be a good game. Here are some meaningless statistics that only apply because we are still in the tournament. We are ranked 8th in the state in division 3. The #1, #2, and #3 teams are all from section 4. Three of the other top 10 teams are from section 2. Section 2 winner plays section 4 winner. We are the highest ranked team from section 1 that is still in the tournament. Hurley beat Cameron 6-0. Royall is from section #3 and is ranked above us. These rankings are based on voting... So let's play ball and see what happens.

TWIS: Last year, the speaker announced that graduation marked the half way point in his formal education. Graduation from high school is a very nice step on a very nice path. It will be the last time you ever see some of your class mates. I hope you have parted on good terms. Congratulations, graduates. I hope you took full advantage of every opportunity and can look back and say...I did good...(or would that be I did well)... So get out your thank you notes while you still remember your relative's names... and I am sure you were all touched by that person who seemed to care so much.. that you didn't even know about. The Class of 2002 was special... So John, get any faxes, lately? I sat at the concert...pretty much the same place...no bare feet this time. A couple of rows back...other side...bummer. Great shot of Becky in the paper.. the quote about 20 years ago kept coming up.... Whose idea was that? Somerset was late. Tom did the field and made it look really, really good. Did you like having the game announced? Laura and Grace did another great job of singing before the game. The infield is hard and will be watered by Thursday. Where are you Andy? Dan is in the Med. Sea...wow. Hey Mitch. The game was on the radio. We need seeds. My pontoon will soon be fixed... DL2, DL1....it was all fun. Your tree is growing well. Jocelyn was at practice. She was a great player. Practice tonight at 6:30..I am not sure where people are going. It was a good day in Grantsburg. I hope you enjoyed being part of it. Barron beat Osceola. Hurley is still winning... Remember the name..... They are pretty good for a bunch of midgets.

RAR

NHCFM. IPFYED.

Getting directions for the way home