I got the call the play for my first Pasco Little League all-star practice and was heading to my first all-star practice. There were two all-star teams, one team with the best players and the other all-star team with the players that weren’t as good for the first all-star team, but still good. I was a 7 year old playing on an 8 year old all-star team. I was excited until I noticed that I was not on the good team. Good players were practicing on Field 1, and my practice was on Field 2. I felt that I should’ve been on the better all-star team because I got the MVP award for AAA, and won player of the game in the championship game. I felt robbed of not being chosen for the first team. Especially when there was this kid who played on my regular season team and made that all-star team. He was good, but the only reason why he made the good team was because his dad was the coach of that all-star team.

We got to practice four times with our new all-star teams before the Rattle Snake Tournament in Richland. My normal positions with my regular season team were pitcher, short stop, and catcher. The coach for my all-star team was the same coach that we played against in the championship game for minors. I liked this coach because he asked what position I would like to play and when I wanted to bat. He played me at short stop and I batted first in the lineup. Our first game was on a Saturday and we played the Richland Rebels. It was a close game until the sixth inning when they scored 6 runs that won the game for them. The other all-star team won their first game by ten running a team that is an automatic win in the 4th inning.

Our next game was against Kennewick National, and they were the second best all-star team made in Kennewick. I pitched in my first all-star game and we won 3-2. The other Pasco all-star team lost, which meant we were going to be playing them to advance to the semi-finals. This was a fun game to play and was the best game I’ve been a part of, even though we lost. It was the bottom of the 9th inning, and the score was 10-9. The first batter stuck out, but I gotten a double that bounced once and hit the right field fence. The next pitch was a passed ball and I stole third base safely. I was the game tying run and I was standing on third base. My coach then gave the sign for the batter to bunt and for the runner to steal. As soon as the bat hit the ball I sprinted home to try to tie the game. When the batter bunted, the ball popped up in the air and the pitcher made a fantastic diving catch. Before I could tell that he caught the ball, the pitcher threw the ball to third base and I was out. I was mad and threw my helmet in the dugout.

I learned that even though I didn’t get selected for the first all-star team, I still had fun playing baseball and got to play my favorite positions and bat where I wanted in the lineup. I wanted to beat that team to prove that some of our players should’ve made that team. I was overwhelmed about losing the game but not too much because the game was so close, it could’ve gone either way. This was one of my favorite summers ever because I was giving the chance to play on an 8 year old all-star team as a 7 year old. Also, this was my first time experiencing playing on an all-star team and in my first all-star tournament.