Rain was forecasted for today, so the Pirates were hitting early.  Amy was working the game and was there with me on the Riverwalk.  She had bought me two steak sandwiches.

It was still early, so I figured the big lefties weren’t up yet, so Amy and I were just talking with a ball landed literally two feet to my left and rolled into the river.  I was upset that I wasn’t paying attention like I should’ve been.

The ball floated awhile and sank.

I caught my first ball of the day here, as it took one bounce in the stadium and right into my glove.

I misplayed another ball that rolled into the river, I just over ran it, because a big pack of pedestrians were walking toward the spot where it bounced out, and I was overly aggressive.

Amy then found a ball.  Since she is an employee and was working this game, I counted it.  It must’ve bounced out and hit the trees to my right, because it was just sitting in the grass.  She found it when she went to go into the stadium to begin her work.

My third ball was another one that bounced out of the stadium.  I played it just right and I caught it on the fly as it took one hop off the riverwalk and right into my glove.

Finally, I misplayed another ball.  Another one bounced out, but I ran too far in on it.  I was standing on the razor grass, so I didn’t want to jump and break my ankle, so I tried to reach up for it, but it was a few feet over my glove.  Nick Pelescak had the play backed up, but it got past him too.  Some random passerby picked the ball up as it slowly rolled toward the river.  Had he not been there either Nick or I probably could’ve reached the ball, as it seemed to not have much momentum if some random guy was able to get it.

It started raining then, as usual, right at 4:35.  This wiped out batting practice.

I still went in, and managed to find ball #4 in the fourth row,

and ball #5 in the front row.

I found them probably five minutes after the gates had opened.  Zac Weiss was the first one in and had already covered this section, but must’ve just missed them in his haste. 

I looked for more when the rest of the stadium opened at 5:30, but there was nothing else to be found, so I went home.

The game ended up being rained out, which is great, because it means it’ll be made up, which will give us an extra batting practice.

Today’s baseballs:

Sweet spots:

STATISTICS:
Game:  5 balls (2 hit, 1 thrown, 2 found)
Season:  118 balls (45 hit, 31 thrown, 24 device, 17 found)
Games: 19 games
Average:  6.21 balls per game
Career:  1,240 balls
Attendance: 1 (rain out)