“That one’s for you mom!” I said, standing sweaty and winded. The sun was setting as I took a deep breath and bathed in adrenaline. I love this feeling. My mom smiled at me from the crowd. I knew her day was made. 

My summer of 2024 was filled with so many different events. I worked, hung out with friends, and went to the gym. But most of all, I played baseball, lots of baseball, and it was so much fun. There were days of summer in which I had no plans. But on other days, my schedule would be extremely packed with demanding, yet fun activities.

On a Friday in June, I had my schedule lined up for the day: coffee with friends, work at summer day camp and go play a baseball game. I already knew this day was going to be great, but what I did not know was that I was going to make a core baseball memory.

The day started by getting coffee with my buddies at a coffee school before going off to work. 

“I’m trying to be Mr. Ursaki,” my buddy said as we talked nonsense about the people at our work. 

This summer, I was fortunate enough to work at a community center and take care of kids with some of my best friends. I am not sure whose idea it was to pay a bunch of high schoolers to take care of kids ages 5-11 for 10 hours a day, but I’m very glad because it was a lot of fun and great work experience. 

After I got off work, I drove straight to the field to take a nap in my car before I played. Once game time rolled around, I changed into my uniform and walked to the field. Warm-ups for baseball are repetitive, just getting easy reps to warm up and then it was game time. We were playing a really good team with a college-committed pitcher throwing upwards of 86 MPH which is very fast for the high school level.

The day was warm, with only a few clouds in the sky. It’s always nice to be on the dirt and grass that made up our home field. Our game had started, but we were quickly losing and had the sense that we were not going to win this game. In the game of baseball, once your team is down by 8, the team starts to disassemble as if the wheels of a car start to come off. 

By the fourth inning, we were down 9, and the wheels of the car that was our team were coming off for the day. I was going up to bat for the first time that evening. The sun was setting, golden hour had begun, and the temperature outside was perfect. 

I step into the batters’ box. After 4 pitches, I’m in a 2 ball, and 2 strike count. An at-bat in baseball is a stressful time, yet we batters should have relaxed muscles ready to pounce on a hittable pitch. The juxtaposition of being physically relaxed and mentally tense had my adrenaline starting to flow, yet I had confidence that I was able to hit off of this guy.

As I made eye contact with the pitcher before the next pitch, I got ready. The pitcher delivers his fastball and the following events occurred in slow motion for me: fastball outside, swing, hit, run. I made contact with that baseball and it flew to right field as I ran and touched first base, a secure single. 

That hit was an accomplishment that I knew I would remember as a core baseball memory and the adrenaline dumped into my veins. I loved that feeling of euphoria so much that I decided to call out to my mom in the crowd.

“That one’s for you mom!” I called to her and she smiled with excitement. I wanted her to know how excited I was.

We ended up losing that game 0-10, but it was a win for me. The only hit of that game for our team was mine. Being able to talk to my mom and share my excitement with her made my day. I love my mom and her being there to see my favorite sports moments means the world to me. As busy as my life gets, the moments that sometimes last 3 minutes make my days. I look for those moments every day.