Team: 1-0

Gus went two for four with two singles in the first two innings. He grounded into a fielder's choice in the fourth and reached on an error in the fifth, knocking in a run. He scored in the first and fifth. Best of all, he didn't strike out. In fact, he fouled a pitch off on a two-strike count to stay alive.

In the field, he played right field, left field, and third base twice. He also sat out two innings. In the third, he made a nice fielding play at third and nearly threw the runner out at first. He also very nearly tagged a runner out later in the inning.

Team: 2-0

Gus went one for four. He singled, struck out swinging twice, and was out on a soft liner to the shortstop. His single drove in a run, and he took second on the throw to third. He later scored. In the fourth, he pinch ran for the catcher (when there are two outs, the catcher is taken off the bases in order to get his gear on) and scored.

In the field, he played shortstop, left field, and center field twice. He also sat out an inning. At shortstop, he made a throwing error on a grounder. He rushed his throw, and the ball came in at the first baseman's feet. Since it wasn't an overthrow, though, the runner was kept at first base.

Team: 3-0

Gus went three for five. He singled twice, doubled, struck out swinging, and grounded out to the shortstop. He drove in a run and scored twice. He was forced out at second after his first hit.

In the field, he played second base, left field, center field, and right field twice. He also sat out an inning. At second base, he gobbled up a grounder and tossed to the shortstop to get the lead runner at second. In right, he backed up the first baseman excellently on several plays.

Team: 4-0

Gus went one for three. He struck out looking, singled over the second baseman's head (taking second on the throw to home), and hit into a fielder's choice. He drove in his team's first run and was stranded on second base twice.

In the field, he played center field, right field, second base, and shortstop. He also sat out an inning. In the outfield, he retrieved a few gappers and hit the cut-off man. In the infield, he covered his base and took the cut-off throw. His head was in the game the whole time he was in the field.

Team: 4-1

Gus missed the game because he was traveling in South Dakota with his mom and sister.

Team: 4-2

Gus went two for five with a triple, a single, and three runs scored. He tripled in the first and scored when the next batter singled. He batted twice in the second inning. First, he singled and was standing on second base when Isaac hit his grand slam over the fence in left center. That's 250 feet! In his second at bat in the inning, he hit into a fielder's choice for what would've been the third out; the second baseman dropped the toss from the shortstop, and everybody was safe. Gus later scored. He struck out looking in the third and swinging in the fifth.

In the field, Gus played second base, center field twice, right field, and shortstop. He had an error in center field when he let a ball get by him.

Team: 5-2

Gus went four for seven with a double, three singles, and three runs scored. He also got onto base twice on fielding errors and popped up to the pitcher. During one of his at bats, he hit a foul that caromed off a light pole and hit a maroon minivan.

Three times, Gus came up with the bases empty because Mark, who bats right before Gus, hit three in-the-park homers. The first two came in the third inning, in which the team batted around twice! The first was a solo shot, and the second was a grand slam. He hit another grand slam a couple innings later!

In the field, Gus played center field, left field, and shortstop twice. He made a couple sharp plays in left field. He also pitched a one-two-three fifth, striking out the first batter, fielding a come-backer and tossing to first to get the second batter out, and striking out the third batter. This pitching performance was mitigated by the fact that the other team wasn't really trying--they were down by 23 runs at the time and were anxious to get the game over with. That said, the second strike out was on a called third strike.

Team: 6-2

Gus went zero for three with a strike out. He also hit into a fielder's choice. In his second at bat, he swung at a sock-high ball on a 3-0 count. In his third at bat, he also reached out for a pitch on a 3-0 count. It's good to be aggressive at the plate, but you've also got to take a pitch on 3-0.

In the field, Gus played shortstop three times and pitched three times. He made a fielding error at shortstop. He pitched the third and fourth innings because his team was down to one of their regular pitchers due to summer vacations. He doesn't like to pitch, but he did it because the team needed him. He came off the bench to pitch with two outs in the sixth because the team just couldn't seem to get the third out. They were close to getting out of the inning a bunch of times but made a ton of errors to keep the inning going. Finally, the pitcher seemed to be worn out, and Gus came in with the bases loaded. All of his inherited runners scored, but he finally got that third out after loading the bases with his own runners.

The game was quite close at about 4-0 until that horrible sixth inning. Both teams were sharp in the field up to that point. Alas, the wheels fell off for Gus's team in the sixth, and the other team batted around twice. Sam Thielke (Zoe's favorite player!) batted three times in the inning. Gus's team finally scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but, by then, nobody really cared.

Team: 6-3

Gus went two for two. He also walked.

In the field, Gus pitched and played second base. Nick isn't sure what he positions he played in the first three innings. In fourth inning, Gus mowed 'em down. In the fifth, which is the one Nick saw, he couldn't find the strike zone consistently. Nick thinks Gus's leg kick had something to do with it; he wasn't kicking very high.

The first batter in the fifth inning hit a liner back to Gus that went right into his glove. The next batter hit one in almost exactly the same place, but it didn't stay in the glove. Gus picked it up and threw to first with plenty of time to spare, but the first baseman extended his legs too far and tipped over just as Gus's throw reached him. The batter ended up on second base. That play pretty much summed up that inning. Gus walked six batters, gave up two hits, and three batters reached on errors. The errors were the most frustrating beacuse, when he got a ball that should've got him out of the inning, an error kept the inning alive.

After 11 runs crossed the plate, Gus's coach brought in another pitcher, and Gus took over at second base. The first batter after the pitching change hit one that caromed off the pitcher's glove and went right through Gus's legs into right field.

Gus's team finally got out of the inning down by one. They got two in the top of the next inning but gave up two in the bottom of the inning to lose a heartbreaker. It would've been a different game if the other team had bothered to take their bats off their shoulders, but most of them wouldn't swing at even the close pitches. Nevertheless, if Gus's team had made a couple more plays in the field, they would've won.

(Stats below are incomplete due to Nick missing the first four innings and not interviewing Gus more closely after the game. This matter will be rectified when Gus gets back from spending the night at Spencer's house.)

Team: 6-4

Gus went two for four. He tripled in a run and later scored. This hit was a liner to right center and rolled nearly to the fence. He later singled and somehow ended up on third after the throw to the plate to try to get the guy who had been on first base. He also walked but was thrown out at second on a fielder's choice. There was also a fairly miserable strike out.

In the field, Gus was happy not to have to pitch; his team had all their pitchers back. He played second, short, right field, and left field. He had a busy inning in left field. The other team had this big guy with a horrible swing who mostly struck out but did manage to hit one over Gus's head nearly to the fence. Later that inning, another grounder got between the third baseman and the line and Gus had to dash over and retrieve it.

Team: 7-4

Gus went oh for four. He reached twice on errors and was stranded on second both times. He also struck out twice; the second strike out came on five pitches, all balls, three of which he swung at.

In the field, Gus played second base three times, left field, and center field. He fielded one ball at second, stepped on the bag to get the lead runner, and then fired to first to complete the double play. Then he did a little leap for joy.

Team: 7-5