Baseball Trip Turned Basketball

Our high school team had a baseball tournament scheduled for Salado the weekend of 3/13-3/14.  We’d already made hotel arrangements and taken days off from work, only to have the weather system that moved through Texas that weekend rain out the entire affair the day we were leaving for that trip.

To try to make the best of a bad situation, we kept our Salado rooms and travel plans intact and just turned this into a trip to the state basketball tournament to watch our Mustangs play.  That early morning ride into Austin down I-35 is no fun.  Shane didn’t beleive me when I told him before we got to the Drum we’d come to a complete stop on the interstate with 4-5 lanes of traffic completely stopped with us.  Sure enough, I was right.  But we’d left way early and made it with no trouble.  We kind of wanted to see Ponder play, which we did for almost all their semi-final game.  Wow, one of the best AA basketball teams I’ve seen in a while.  They could have humiliated Santa Rosa had they wanted to.

Our semi-final was not so great.  Lots of turnovers against a team I didn’t think was all that good.  New Waverly gave Ponder a good game until the closing minutes though so maybe they were a lot better than I thought.  Our team just seemed a step off all game long.  Passes a foot or two out of the lane, just enough off to throw the receiver off and sometimes having to chase the ball to the boundary and try to make  a save.  NW got all of those, plus every lazy pass that hung in the air too long.  They were athletic, I’ll give them that.  And they knew they could not shoot outside to save their lives, so they didn’t even try.  They’d break us down one on one and take it to the front of the rim.  We tried zone later, but it didn’t help enough.  I’m sure proud of those boys reaching state again.

That left us to drive home Friday to be here for a Saturday baseball doubleheader that coach had arranged with another team that also lost tournament games to rain that weekend.  Six hours of driving Friday during which I only turned my windshield wipers off about twice, and had to turm them back on within a minute each time.  I’ve never driven that long through constant rain and drizzle.  Good thing we had good wiper blades, though they may be worn out now!  Two six hour drives in two days with one very bad night’s sleep in between, rising early to get into Austin, left me mostly worthless Saturday and Sunday.

Good thing my calendar is freeing up now except for Justin’s baseball….and Shane’s baseball….and Shane’s basketball….

Ah I wouldn’t have it any other way!