Heat 8, Riptide 7

What a game we had last night. Abbie's softball team trailed 7-3 going into the bottom of the last game. We had played sluggish - especially offensively - and were realistically getting outplayed by San Marcos' team.
Jack - or head coach - gathered the girls prior to the last inning and said, "Girls, let's get our five runs. We need five runs to win." And I added, "Girls, in 20 minutes, we're going to be jumping up and down after getting our five runs."
Lily starts with a hit, followed immediately by a Chelsea home run into the outfield, so quickly we cut the lead to 7-5. With no outs, we had life after all.
We have a strikeout, then a hit, then a ground out, then another hit by Angela, who was down to her last strike and had struck out in her previous at bat. So now we have two on with one of our best hitters, Kaylee, at the plate. She's a strong hitter and fast - at at this point, she's the winning run, so before she comes to the plate, I walk up and say to her, 'Kaylee, they only have three outfielders, so if you hit it into the outfield and think you can score, just keep running. Be aggressive.'
She hits the ball, but it's stopped in the infield. She makes it to first, but nobody scored. So we've now got bases loaded, winning run at first base, with two outs. We're down two - tying run at second.
Mellie - Jack's daughter - hits the ball into the outfield, so now we've got a real chance. Emmas scores from third and I'm waving everybody around as the other team gives chase to the ball. Suddenly Angela - inexplicably - stops about a foot after stepping on third and looks into the field; I assume she thought somebody might've had the ball. At this point, Kaylee is about 10-12 feet from her, so I scream: "Angela, keep going!" She scores, followed shortly thereafter by Kaylee, the winning run. Ballgame! Abbie was on deck, so if Kaylee hadn't have scored, it would've been Abbie at the plate to be the hero. I would've enjoyed seeing that - and I know she would've gotten a hit - but I'm glad it wasn't necessary.
Coach Mike got his hug on after this one. Now on Friday, if we win, we'll clinch at least a share of the championship. Fun stuff.