April 10, 2021

It was a bang-bang play to end a ball game. With men on first and second base with one out, Matt hit a hard ground ball to the Sanford shortstop. With the score tied in the bottom of the seventh inning, the fate of the game rested on a footrace. The shortstop’s arm vs. Matt’s legs. Would Matt beat out the ground ball and allow his teammate coming hard around third base to cross the plate for the winning run? Or would the ball whizz from the shortstop to first base in time for a game-ending double play? 

The GameChanger app, on which I was following the play-by-play of the game from home in Silver Spring, MD, went black, saying game over. Then the script at the top read: St. Andrew’s 7, Sanford 6. Matt told us later there was a celebratory rush to first base, with his teammates jumping up and down in joy around him. On the phone that evening, Nick, who in pitching six innings saw a 5-1 St. Andrew’s lead evaporate when Sanford scored 5 runs in the top of the seventh inning, said, “This is why we came back to school.”

Nick didn’t mean they returned school this spring during the COVID pandemic to win baseball games in dramatic fashion. He meant, I believe, that they returned to school, after seven months of no competitive sports, for the opportunity to play on a team and compete for their school, masks and all. That’s what playing sports at St. Andrew’s has afforded our two sons this spring. A gift that is more treasured because it follows a year of loss. And, if things break their way, there’s the bonus of engaging in a whooping celebration to mark a razor’s edge victory.

With trees blooming and the greening of our surroundings, there’s a sense that things are getting back to normal. Opportunities can be taken advantage of once again and cherished more than ever. “We’ll remember this for a long time,” said Matt. Here’s a video of that pile up. 

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