6 - 3

Our little league for 9-10 year olds has six teams, Angels, Braves, Devil Rays, Phillies, Red Sox and Yankees. At the end of the season we have a tournament where these six teams face each other in single elimination. Of those six teams, the Devil Rays and the Yankees, who also have coaches that rub some of the parents the wrong way, had the first round off because they were by far the top two seeded teams.

The first week:

• Phillies vs. Red Sox. (Gabe's best friend and neighbor across the street, Robert, is on the Phillies) Phillies won.
• Angels vs. Braves. As I mentioned in my blog a few days ago Gabe and the Angels came back to beat the Braves.

Afterwards we met up with the Phillies coaches and said how great it would be if our teams would be able to knock off the DRays and Yankees, teams neither of us had beaten all season long. If we were able to do that it would be just as fulfilling as playing for the championship.

So, last night was that night.

• Phillies vs. Yankees on Field 3
• Devil Rays vs. Angels on Field 4.

Before the game, Gabe and I talked about remaining relaxed and focused during critical points during the game. Gabe started pitching and did the best job I've seen him do so far. Plus, our defense, for the first time this season, was great. Gabe ended up pitching two shut out innings and we led 1 - 0. As the game continued our lead grew slowly, to 4-0 behind more solid defense and the pitching of a kid named Blake. It was just one of those games where everything went right.

At this point, the Devil Rays could not risk giving up any more runs so they put in their best pitcher, Zack, the coach's son. Gabe is extremely competitive and takes it as a personal challenge to play better than the other team's best player. All season long Zack had out played Gabe and the Angels had not been able to beat them yet. When Gabe got up to bat with a man on second against his nemesis, he remained calm. With a 2-2 count game drilled a line drive over the left fielder's head and it bounced into the fence. Gabe raced around the bases, beating the throw home for his second home run in two playoff games, putting the Angels up 6-1.

NOTE: At this age, kids aren't strong enough to hit "over the fence" home runs. But an inside the park home run is just as rare.

We looked over to the other field and saw the Phillies were beating the Yankees 7-1 in the fourth inning.

We headed into the last two innings. The Devil Rays started their comeback, scoring three runs. Down only 6-3, they had two men on, runners on second and third, and they had the tying run at the plate. Gabe was now catching, and Ben, our "closer" was pitching. They did a great job of not throwing any wild pitches and Ben struck out the last batter. The Angels had won, 6-3.

After the game all of our Angel players ran over to the other game and sat in the Phillies stands, rooting them on. The Phillies ended up winning 8-2 and we all celebrated.

So, tomorrow night the Phillies and Angels will play for the little league championship... two teams that were last in their division during the regular season, but have done everything right to make it to the finals.