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Hard work on three! Oneā€¦ two..
It’s baseball season, folks. I don't know about you, but I couldn’t be more excited. As a three-year member of the Keystone Oaks baseball team, I’ve learned spring time means more than just a change in temperature. It means the start of a journey towards a state championship. Let me tell you, there is no better way to kick off a season quite like going down to North Carolina. where the sun’s always shining and the grounds team is always working. That is exactly where the team and I went down for a little spring training before the start of the season up north.
Every year around late March, all of us on the Keystone Oaks baseball team take a three- to four-day trip down to North Carolina for a little preseason baseball fun. In years past we would leave around 12 a.m. to get there in mid-day in order to play a game as soon as we got off the bus. This year, we left right after the conclusion of the school day in order to arrive at 1 am. We got the opportunity to sleep for a small collective group of hours. Boy, we really needed the sleep after the long bus ride.
Shenanigans and bonding make the nine-hour bus ride seem to go a little quicker. It’s a pretty entertaining ride. Most of us take part in a little card game called “acey duecy”. You think I would’ve have gotten better in my third year playing cards, but I haven’t. It’s an experience that pretty soon I’ll never get to take part in again. So, I’m not mad I lost. If we don’t feel like playing cards or can’t sleep, we can watch a movie on the TVs on the bus. The only thing I don’t particularly love is the continuous tom foolery. After six straight hours of smelling and hearing 39 other teenage boys, some things tend to get annoying, but it sure is well worth it by the time we get down there!
Teams like Granvel High, East Chapel and Whitefield play us at their home fields. Granvel High were the AA state champs last year. When the varsity team played them, Keystone Oaks lost 12-0. The loss didn’t sting as much as it usually would because of how talented they were. Junior Varsity also was ten-runned by their JV team. After it was all said and done, both of our school squads went 1-2. Since they were preseason, we weren’t too worried. We also won our last game there so we were able to bring the momentum back up north with us.
Sadly, varsity was not able to ride that wave back to victory. So far they’ve dropped their first two games of the season. Junior Varsity is 2-1. Once both teams get the wheels turning, we’ll be top notch. Win after win will be the headline for Keystone Oaks boys baseball. 2016 is our year, and we intend to capitalize on it. Watch out WPIAL, you are going to have crown a new champion.