Throwing it up in the air and seeing how many times he can spin around before it comes back down. A disastrous second inning put the Sluggers in a deep hole. The Fire Sharks hit five consecutive dribbler hits that either bounced fair at the last minute or barely made it out of the batter's box. There were some very close, but not quite plays at first. But nothing was breaking our way. The bats were quiet most of the night with some of our most reliable hitters, notably Tommy T-Bone, not making contact. In other cases, players were robbed of hits by a very solid defense. Kudos to the Fire Shark first baseman who looked like a gold glover out there. The team didn't give up, though, and they rallied in the late part of the game, supported by a shutout inning of pitching from Amin and a steady chorus of cheers from the bench. The Sluggers clawed their way back into contention, but it was too little, too late. Final score, TBTL Little Sluggers 7, Fire Sharks 11, Andrew. The Little Sluggers have suffered their first defeat of the season. This is tough news for everybody I know. They say you learn a lot more from a loss than a win. And I learned a lot about our team culture tonight. This is still Ben, by the way. This is not me editorializing. They hung in there. They shrugged off past struggles. They remained optimistic and they cheered each other on. Hustle pins were awarded to Armani for being involved in several bang-bang plays, as well as Andreas, who always takes the time to pick up his teammates and congratulate players on their good hits, even players on the other team. Don't go too far with it, Andreas, please. The snack shack was closed by the time the game ended, so no snow cones last night. Instead, the Sluggers had to commiserate a tough loss over Capri Sun juice bags and snack-sized bags of chips. Sounds like it was a tough night all around for the team, Andrew, but a learning experience and something I think that they're going to actually come back stronger from. What do you think?