Thanks, Routt.

I predicted a state championship for this team, and they made me seem like I actually knew what I was talking about. I’m wondering if anyone really had any doubts.

I just didn’t see anybody at state that had a chance of stopping what was the best hitting high school baseball team I’ve ever seen. Not that I thought they had it in the bag all the way Saturday, not after the first three innings, with a left-hander on the hill for Marissa who had a 0.22 ERA. But just like every other game this year (all but four anyway), they figured out how to get to that pitcher, too, and eventually chased him into the dugout.

I never saw Routt lose this year. I did see them win a whole lot of games.

This was a great team, coached by a great coach. Bob Lonergan understood when they needed a little push, and he knew when to back off, too. It was fascinating to see the team evolve over the course of the season.

I was never worried about Scott Lindsey on the mound, even after the team fell behind in the early innings. He fell behind in a game earlier in the season, and I asked him about it (I think it was against Pittsfield). Lindsey told me he knew he wasn’t a great pitcher, so it didn’t really bother him when he did give up runs early in a game (that’s really an interesting way to approach it). He knew his teammates would always pick him up.

It turned out he was a pretty great pitcher after all.

There were lots of great moments in the game, and afterward, too. Ben Heinemann making that catch in left field in the first inning, as fine a catch as we saw all year, to stop Marissa from gaining any more momentum at a really critical point in the game. Devin Vaughn, so overcome with joy during our interview with him after he hit the walk-off double to end the game, then moments later in the stands with tears in his eyes. Joe Zeller, who made only one out over the weekend, choking up as he talked about former Routt coach Joe Kindred, who came all the way to Joliet to watch. Nick Cosgriff, looking into the stands after the eight-run fourth, smiling, knowing that the game was as good as won.

State championship trophies are not easy to come by, no matter the sport, no matter how many classes there are. This one will be remembered a long time, not just by the players and coaches, but by those who were there to watch. This was one special team.

Thanks, Routt.

So, I was at this softball game not too long ago (I’m not going to tell you which one), and I’m standing beyond the fence in center field, in a spot where I had stood at least four times before at this very field. All of a sudden, somebody from the host school walks up and says the umpire wants me to move. I had (and still have) no idea where the umpire wanted me to go, or why. But I moved. You can’t argue with the ump. As Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain once observed, there’s nothing quite so much like God on earth as an umpire on a ballfield. Or something like that. After all, they can throw people out of the game. Shoot, they could probably have you arrested if you don’t do what they say. So, I moved. No big deal. This same umpire held up the game to make a TV camera person leave the first-base line and take a spot down the third-base line. I thought that was funny until he made me move, too.

Balls and strikes? Bad calls on the bases? You can’t judge an umpire on any of that because they all make mistakes. But I can’t stand people who won’t let me do my job.

Umpires are people, aren’t they?

There’s a genuine randomness to which team wins a softball game. Virginia/A-C Central’s loss to No. 1-ranked Lebanon in Wednesday’s Carrollton Super-sectional was a perfect example.

With the bases loaded, Lebanon’s Courtney Belcher fouled off two pitches that rolled just inches foul near home plate. On the first, VAC’s Taylor Jacobs made a spectacular play, grabbing the ball and diving back to tag the plate for an apparent forceout. Foul ball. On the second, a bunt attempt, the ball dribbled down the third-base line, then just barely veered to the left before Jacobs could pick it up. Foul ball.

With two strikes on her, Belcher then swung away, slapping a ball that scooted just inches past shortstop Brittany Parks, who was just inches from being interfered with by the runner going from second to third. With the help of an error, Belcher wound up circling the bases on the play.

Inches and inches and inches.

VAC had a great season — a GREAT season — and deserved a better fate. And that’s about all it came down to — fate. It just makes you wonder.

Virginia/A-C Central won 29 games this year and lost only 5. With almost everyone from a young team coming back next year, they’re bound to improve on that mark. And next time, maybe the ball will roll their way.

Virginia/A-C Central’s win over Liberty in the Virginia Sectional championship game last Saturday was a masterpiece in a lot of ways. But it was certainly a masterpiece of coaching.

VAC was having problems breaking through all game long. The Redbirds were getting people on base, but they couldn’t quite reach Liberty’s fastball/riseball pitcher for the hit that would finally produce a run.

But even before the game, Virginia knew things would change.

VAC coach Ty Gebhardt had known Liberty would probably change pitchers at some point in Saturday’s contest, whether it needed to or not. He’d seen them do it in earlier playoff games. The team’s second pitcher specialized in changeups; the thinking being that it would be hard to hit a change after seeing the fastball for four innings. The strategy had worked for Triopia’s Heather Wilson in the sectional semifinals against VAC; she started throwing changeups in the late innings, and that had kept the Redbirds from blowing the game open. By that time, however, they already had enough runs to win.

So, knowing Liberty would change pitchers, Gebhardt had his team work on hitting changeups leading up to Saturday’s game. The practice was one thing; but can you just imagine the psychological lift? You’ve worked specifically on hitting changeups, you’re expecting a changeup pitcher to enter the game, and in she comes, right on cue. And with the team’s best hitters coming to the plate.

The result was a four-run inning that led to a 4-2 win.

Coaches often downplay their role; after all, they can’t go out and pitch or hit or field. The players have to do that. But this little piece of coaching was a stroke of genius that helped make the team’s best season ever just a little better.

After seeing the Rockets pound lumps on the Abernathy kid Monday, in a game that meant going to state or not going to state, I’m not sure anyone they’ll see in Joliet will be able to stop them from hitting the baseball. I haven’t seen any of the other teams that will be at state this Friday; there’s always a chance you’ll run into that one pitcher from a small town you’ve never heard of that strikes out 15 people in a game, but this doesn’t look like one of those years — unless it’s Joe Zeller from li’l old Jacksonville.

I’ll say it: the four-class system has made it easier for a good team like Routt to get to Joliet. In a two-class system, teams like Astoria would probably have been weeded out long before super-sectionals. But the way Routt has so completely dominated the teams it’s faced so far, I don’t think anyone could argue that the Rockets wouldn’t be right where they are now, regardless of how many classes there were (well, maybe unless there was just one).

And the fact remains, they had to do it. It’s one thing to say, OK, we’ve got to focus, we’ve got to hit, we’ve got to field and we’ve got to pitch like we have all year now that we’re in the playoffs, and it’s another thing entirely to go out and do it. There are plenty of good baseball teams waiting for football practice to start and wondering what might have been. This Routt bunch has been locked in and focused on the task at hand, yet still has been playing as loose and with as much confidence as if nothing at all was at stake these past two weeks.

Well, there’s still plenty at stake.

Is Routt too good to lose in Joliet?

You can bet on it.

I love the playoffs, but I hate them, too.

Sometimes, it just doesn’t seem fair. One loss — sometimes caused by just one mistake — ends your season. One minute, you’re playing ball out in the sunshine with your friends; the next, you’re headed home to face three months of mowing the lawn.

Softball is the cruelest sport, I think. The games are so close, even during the regular season. One little thing can mean the difference between winning and losing. We saw two games like that in the past two days. Beardstown, a great team, was felled by not one but an uncharacteristic five little things in one inning — including the most routine of routine things: a throw from the catcher back to the pitcher after a pitch. This time, the ball got past the pitcher, allowing a New Berlin runner to advance from second to third. I haven’t seen that all year. And I would bet Beardstown hadn’t seen it all year, either.

Yeah, you gotta give New Berlin credit for putting the ball in play and making Beardstown make plays; That’s part of the game. But Beardstown usually makes those plays. All those plays.

Then on Wednesday, a pitch that was just a little up in the strike zone sailed over the fence to give Nokomis a 1-0 win over Greenfield. Two more inches higher or lower, two more inches inside or outside, and the two teams might still be playing. Again, a good team, and a great pitcher, done in when just one pitch — just one — strayed ever so slightly into that margin of error.

I don’t know what losing like that is supposed to teach anyone. Life isn’t fair?

I think we all knew that already.

I don’t know whose idea it was to split up baseball and softball (and for that matter, volleyball) into four classes, but it just isn’t working for me.

It’s nice that more teams will get a championship; I’m all for that. But these regional assignments look like they were made out by the president of Exxon.

Virginia/A-C Central softball is going to Edinburg; I don’t even know where that is (OK, I could find it on a map — I’m good at that — but I’ve never been there). And this is Virginia, which got the No. 1 seed in its sectional. If I get the No. 1 seed in my sectional, I think I’d deserve to play a little closer to home. Virginia does host a sectional, so maybe it’ll all even out.

How about Triopia? The softball team is headed to Astoria (again, no idea where it is), and the baseball team, seeded No. 2 in its sectional, is headed out to Mount Pulaski. That’s a nice little ride in the country.

I won’t even go into the trek we made to southern Illinois to cover the Greenfield volleyball team in sectionals last fall.

There has to be a better solution than this. What it is, I don’t know. But I can complain, can’t I?

Some seasons, you’ll look at the WIVC champion in baseball or softball and think, yeah, they’re OK, but …

This is not one of those years.

The Routt baseball team is loaded with pitching and hitting. I didn’t see much of Routt early in the season, but the Rockets are really hitting well right now; they’re scoring virtually at will. Devin Vaughn leads the area in hitting with a .650 batting average, and Joe Zeller, probably the hardest-throwing pitcher in the area, is swinging a hot bat. He and Vaughn are tied for the area lead in RBIs with 34. Zeller also has 15 stolen bases on the season.

Routt will meet up with a tough Griggsville team that has beaten the Rockets already once this year (oops! Griggsville beat Routt’s JV team), but I think Routt should make it into the next round. Should be interesting.

No area softball team has been as dominant as the Virginia/A-C Central Redbirds this year. Beardstown is a solid team and should go far in the playoffs. But VAC’s numbers are staggering. Seven of the top nine players in the area in runs batted in play for Virginia/A-C. Brittany Parks still leads the area with a .552 batting average. The Lady Redbirds’ pitching ace, Taylor Jokisch, is well down the list in strikeouts, but her record is 15-0. I think the point of these games is still to win them, isn’t it? Jokisch induces a lot of pop-ups and ground balls, and her defense does the rest. Position by position, it’s one of the best defensive units to come along in awhile. If you hit it to Megan Bergerud at second base, you might as well turn around and walk back to the dugout. Jokisch, by the way, leads the area in ERA, giving up a stingy 1.10 runs per 7 innings.

Virginia/A-C will be playing in the Edinburg Regional, wherever that is, and could face Routt in the second round. The Lady Rockets have been playing better lately, and they’ve got one of the best pitcher-catcher combinations in the area in twin sisters Megan and Amy Lawless. Megan is third in the area in strikeouts with 124 in 90 2/3 innings this season.

My favorites to win regionals for baseball: Carrollton, Routt, Virginia, Triopia; and in Class 2A, Beardstown. For softball, Carrollton, Virginia, Triopia; and in Class 2A, Beardstown. That’s almost identical. Should be a fun week.

We’re all sick here at the Journal-Courier. Tonya’s sick; she didn’t come in tonight. Dee is sick; she’s been out several days with pneumonia. Brian’s sick. I’m getting sick. Matt probably will be sick. Clay was sick, but he’s getting better. Hoot’s sick. Copper was sick, but he’s feeling better, too. I forgot to mention Guido. He’s really sick.

So, we’re all sick.

Editor’s update: It’s May 27, and we’re almost all well. Brian’s still sick. I took five Vitamin C tablets when I started feeling sick, and it seemed to lessen the effects of whatever I had. Of course, I’m not a doctor, so I would never presume to tell anyone else to do that. You’re all on your own.

I went to the Routt vs. North Greene baseball game Wednesday afternoon, and it rained. However, for about the first inning, it didn’t, and I was able to get a few shots, including Devin Vaughn’s home run. But then the rain came, and the video camera had to be put away.

I like our video cameras; they work really well, but I don’t believe they’re intended for professional use (which is fine for me, because I’m still striving for professional status). What I mean to say is the cameras weren’t intended for hard, daily use. They were made for mothers with children to bring out about twice a year for birthday parties and trips to the zoo. I am absolutely amazed that the cameras have held up for as long as they have, considering they’ve been taken out virtually every day since last August to football games, basketball games, and now baseball, softball and track. But, the point is, we have to take good care of them. And you can’t get them wet. The instruction manual says the camera will shut itself off even if it senses too much humidity in the room.

I stayed to watch the game, umbrella in hand. It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to just watch a game. It was a good game; too good, in fact. It had back-to-back home runs, an inside the park homer by Nick Cosgriff with a great head-first slide at the end, and several good plays by both sides. And each successive great play made me wince and grumble, because the camera was back in the car, safe and dry.

So, that’s why the highlights are a bit skimpy this time.