I fell in love with baseball during my sophomore season at pennfield. I was moved up to varsity on the first day of tryouts and it was a little intimidating at first. I didn’t know how I would do playing against the massive juniors and seniors at other schools. When we got to our first game it turned out that baseball was nothing like football. This meant that not every junior or senior was way bigger than me. I ended up exceeding everyone’s expectations and earning all-state in my sophomore year. This is when I really fell in love with baseball and realized that I wanted to play beyond high school at a prestigious college.

Sophomore season was a whole new experience for me in baseball. I really came out of my shell and started to play like the player I’ve always wanted to be. I remember thinking before the season that I wasn’t good enough to make varsity and I’d have to spend another excruciating  season on JV; I did NOT want to play another year on the JV team. I felt like I had been drafted to the MLB when coach told me I made the varsity team. I celebrated for the entire next week and was determined to make the season worthwhile. Going in, my expectations were low. I didn’t think I would play too much, let alone be a starter because there was some pretty solid seniors who had been on the team longer. However, I didn’t let that affect how hard I pushed myself and I found myself a starting shortstop position before the first game. 

Right away, I started to settle in and excel at my role as the leadoff hitter. Our first game went really well; we swept Maple Valley at their field and even scored 19 runs in one inning. Coach came out of that game very happy with the way we played and especially happy with how us sophomores performed. Coming into the third week of our games, we were scheduled to play Parma Western. I had no idea that these next games would change how I felt about baseball for the rest of my life. Parma had beat us the year before and we wanted to beat them more than anything in the world. We played a very close first game and ended up winning in the bottom of the last inning after a 3-run rally forcing everyone to give their all. 

The second game came around and we wanted to win it just as bad as the first. Everyone was ready to play and we ran out to our positions to start game 2. We gave up 4 runs in the first inning but I wouldn’t let that affect me coming to the plate to lead off. When I came up to bat, I was as calm and collected as I’ve always been while playing baseball. I usually take the first pitch, so I let it go by for a strike which didn’t faze me at all. I watched the next two pitches go by and the umpire called them both balls. My baseball IQ hit me and I knew that the pitcher was going to try and throw me a fastball for a strike so that’s what I waited for. He went through his windup and hurled the ball towards the strike zone. I was right.

Whack!

I sent the ball for what felt like miles into the air and I raced to first thinking it would be a double or a triple. I continued to hustle my way to second still doubting I had hit it over the fence. As I rounded second I heard the fans start cheering for me and I looked back to see where the ball was. My body was flushed with something I had never felt before. Fulfillment. I felt like I was on top of the world and everything I had worked so hard for in the offseason had finally paid off. Tears of joy began to fill my eyes as I rounded third and saw the pure happiness on my parents' faces. I celebrated as I stepped on home plate and felt my teammates crowd around me. This was exactly where I wanted to be. 

Parma conquered us that game but I didn’t care one bit. I hit my first home run of my varsity career and nobody could take that away from me. I wanted to celebrate in my own way and on my own time. My mom, dad, and I went for ice cream to celebrate and that felt like a pretty perfect way to celebrate to me. Coming to school the next day, all I could hear was classmates and teachers congratulating me for hitting a homerun since it was a pretty big deal around Pennfield. Not a lot of people like baseball in Pennfield so it’s exciting when there’s new athletes to talk about. 

Later that season, we played Marshall in the district championship and it wasn’t much of a game to remember. We lost by one run in the last inning but everyone could tell that Marshall was in complete control of the game the entire time. They might not have won by much but it still felt like they destroyed us. That game was a hard way to end the season but I was focused on what I could do to better myself and not let this happen again. 

As the season came to an end, I finished with an additional 3 home runs, 24 stolen bases, and 41 runs. I went 55 for 114 at the plate which gave me a .482 batting average to finish the season. I also ended the season with a whopping .535 on-base percentage which was very good for my leadoff spot in the batting lineup. As the weeks went on after school ball ended, I began getting texts from coach Moran. The first one congratulated me for getting put on the all-region baseball team which was very exciting for me and my family. He also gave me congratulations for earning all-city, all-district, and all-conference. 

A few weeks after I received these awards, I answered a call from my dad clueless as to what it could be about. He sounded very excited to tell me the news but he couldn’t quite get it out at first. I waited anxiously for him to finally tell me I made 1st team all-state for my baseball season! A tear of joy rolled down my cheek as I couldn’t hold my excitement in. I never would’ve thought going into the season that I had the talent to make the all-state team. At that moment I knew, baseball was, is, and always will be, to me, the greatest game known to man.