Second Draft

My early childhood years were full of tee ball, peewee, and junior basketball games. It was hard to be the star player when my teammates were all older than me. I was always the youngest player on the field. Sure there is going to be some mild intimidation at first but from a very you age I had always loved baseball more than any other sport. Eventually by the time I hit double digits I stuck strictly to baseball. By devoting all my time and effort into baseball I was able to refine my "fundamental baseball skills". That’s what my pitching camp coach always reiterates to me every 60 min session I had with him. I started throwing with Chuck Neil in the spring of 2005 by time I was fourteen. He ran a pitching camp in Naperville, Illinois that was known for producing some of the top pitchers in the area. My parents would drive me there 3 days a week for sixty minute session with Chuck. From the first day I could tell he was very knowledgeable on the art of pitching. He help me developed my pitching skills significantly faster than the rest of the kids my age.
This opened new doors for me to play with the North Aurora River Rats fourteen year old travel team. They only take a select amount of players and travel all over state and sometimes out to surrounding states for tournaments. This allowed me to play the best of the best that were the same age as me. Right around this time I noticed that I could compete with the older kids. My intimidation and fear that I had before of being the youngest player never crossed my mind when I was pitching now because we were all on an even age. In the travel leagues I was able to be tested. All the years of travel baseball ending up building to my most defining moment in my baseball years to date.
It was early August 2007 and I was 16. I found myself on the team bus to Northern Illinois Travel World Series. All my hard work over the past 10 years finally paid off that year. When I got to Rockford I was in the zone I knew I would probably have to throw twice within a 3 day span. I knew what to expect I had played most of the teams there at least once during the regular season. They ended up saving me the first game 3 games and I was on the spotlight for the last game on the season. The pressure only caused me to be more focused. After watching my team blow through 3 games with no problem I was able to use my immense confidence to push a side all the pressure. I had been dreaming of this game since tee ball and I was in the exact position I wanted to be.
One muggy summer night when the air was thick with humidity and the mosquitoes bit over and over again. I stood on the mound with a freshly opened game ball. Its bleach white skin was only a temporary to the sweat and dirt that it would accumulate over the 7 innings of baseball ahead. "Hey niner here play ball,” screamed the umpire. The adrenaline rush I got before I threw that first pitch was incredible. After throwing 2 innings my arm felt great my team was making plays and I mean really good plays not just fundamental plays that are expected in the begging of the season. This was the end of the road and everyone was on the ball. Likewise was the opposing team from near by Saint Charles. I threw a couple K’s over 2 innings and by the fifth inning our bats started light the sky up with line drives. The other team through started to catch me on a couple bad pitches and they produced a steady offense throughout the game. It was the final inning and we were up by two runs. Before I went out my dad came over to me and said, " hey buddy remember this is your game go out there relax and throw hard." I did just that I threw as hard as I could and stuck the first batter out and the second. All my teammates started to yell encouragement out from the field behind me. The next batter gave me the scare of my life. After three or four pitches he cracked out dead center on me. My heart dropped and I was thanking God that no other runners where on base. They were now within one run of forcing extra innings. This put me on the spot, my arm was dead, and all are other available pitchers were still nursing their recently used arms. I had to force next batter out no matter what. After 5 pitches, which seemed like an eternity I was about to struck him out on a high fast ball that I got him to chase at.