CARDRUNNERS

This weekend temporarily marked the end of my short lived coaching career. We had our conference playoffs with 8 teams, and we went in as the 5^th seed. We were matched up with the winners from the previous year in our first game, and we were supposed to lose pretty badly. They actually play in a different conference, but for the playoffs somehow they ended up with us starting last year, and they crushed.

We threw one of our freshman to start it off. He hits his spots v well, has a decent curve, and has a lot of savvy on the mound. He doesn’t throw that hard, but he wont make too many mistakes otherwise. John Cooper school threw their number 2 guy, and he seemed pretty solid.. until we put up 4 runs in the top of the first inning. Bink! From there we just held the lead for the rest of the game, and Colton, our freshman pitcher, got the cg.

Immediately after finishing we piled onto the bus and went to All Saints for the second game. We were matched up with Cassady, who we beat earlier in the year when we took a trip to Oklahoma. This game we threw another freshman, Zach, and he managed to get us a good 6 innings in. This game was a lot closer, we were down 5-3 in the bottom of 5, but had a big 4 run inning and closed it out finishing 7-5.

From there, we had to wait around for like 3 hours for the other game to finish. We got matched up with St. John’s, who in the semifinals played Holland Hall, the other team we played in Oklahoma.. who run ruled us. I wasn’t looking forward to this game. We got down 4-0 early on, but fought back and made it 9-6 going into the bottom of the 7^th, with the bottom of the order coming up.

We managed to load the bases, walk in a run then have the top of the order up with NO outs, and a score of 9-7. Our leadoff hit a long fly to right, but the guy on third didn’t tag, so we didn’t get a sac fly run. Our number 2 guy put one in the hole between second and first, scoring a run. The right fielder made a great throw getting the ball in preventing the tying run from scoring. Our 3 hitter came up to the plate with runners on 1^st and 3^rd, 1 out, and only down by 1. He drilled it past the pitcher, but the short stop was basically playing on top of second base, and they rolled it up to end the game. Such a soul crush.

This was the furthest Oakridge baseball has gotten in like 12 years. To get to the finals and only lose by 1 run to a team that beat a team that run ruled us was pretty damn awesome. We also put ourselves in a situation to really make something happen in the 7^th. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out, but it was a hell of a game. I legitimately teared up a little bit at the end when we were talking to the players. I got very emotionally involved in this team, and can’t say enough about the experience I gained working with the coaches and the players. I am sad that it is all over, at least for now.

This next week should be pretty awesome though, so don’t feel too bad for me. Tonight I took my Mom, Dad, and Aunt (Dad’s sister) to Del Frisco’s. They are huge nits and don’t like spending money, but this is like my favorite place to eat, and I wanted to treat my mom for mothers day. We all had a great time, had some awesome wine, shared a few laughs, and I got to hear some fun stories.

After dinner we went back to my parent’s house and they did a little birthday celebration for me. Totally unexpected, but I am leaving Tuesday for the summer and didn’t really have a plan to be with the family other than tonight. It was a lot of fun, they gave me a book on John Wooden, a guide book to Santa Fe (where I am going to school this fall) and a really cool wine stopper from Cedar Key (my grandfather’s favorite place). Also had to eat a piece of chocolate fudge bday cake, tragic.

Tuesday I am headed to Vegas for the summer. I am meeting up at DFW airport with Lisa, who is flying in from Austin and coming with me for a week or so. Jeremy is landing in town like 20 minutes before us, so Joe and Alan are picking us up from the airport in a limo so we can immediately go party. My plan is to get to the airport a couple hours early and have a few drinks with Lisa while we wait for the flight, since she has a 2 hour layover, and then have a few on the plane. I think this will be a relatively awesome way to start off the ‘summer’.

Wednesday night we are going to see Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. I haven’t seen this show, but have wanted to for years. I heard the production in Vegas is absolutely awesome. My parent’s saw it and loved it, so I am really looking forward to it. After that we are going to Valentino’s for dinner. I heard some pretty good things about this place as well, and I am looking forward to doing the chef sampler and wine pairings. When I was in NY I did this with Jay, Emil, Dani, and Phil, and it was one of the best meals I had ever eaten. I often try to go for the chef selection and wine pairings now. Generally I am pretty ABC with food choices and don’t branch out too much. This forces me to and is a much better overall experience.

On the 16^th we are probably going out clubbing somewhere, and staying out pretty late. On my actual bday, the 17^th, I intend to lay in bed recovering all morning, then I am having a few people over for a pool party and barbeque, and a last hoorah of meat eating for the summer. I am starting a vegan diet on the 18^th, for a lot of reasons, and am very much looking forward to that. I did this for a couple weeks last summer and felt really great/had my best month in poker, so we are going to go for round 2.

Last time I ended up making most of the food myself and stuck with what was easiest, so I didn’t really experiment with too many options. This year executive chef Magentaradio(of 2p2 fame) is going to be helping out with food preparation, and should be able to help me experience some other flavors. Joe committed to a 2 week trial (which is huge for him) and Jeremy said he would do it as well. I think Tony can be convinced if we are all doing it, so for 2 weeks at least I will live in a vegan household. Should be an interesting experiment, and I am looking forward to it immensely.

On a nerdier side of things, I picked up Street Fighter 4 on PS3, as well as 2 of the tournament arcade sticks. I had it all sent to my place in Vegas, so haven’t actually gotten to play it. I loved sf2 turbo back in SNES days, and am really looking forward to playing this game. I have been watching some videos and learning some of the techniques to implement, and really can’t wait to try it out. Generally I suck at all things fighting games, but having 3 roommates for the summer should give me plenty of competition and practice.

That is all I have to report for now, but life is awesome, haven’t been happier ever as far as I can tell, and I am SUPER excited for the summer. Pretty much everyone I know is going to be out there for at least some portion of the time, and it will be great getting to see a lot of my poker friends from all over that I haven’t been able to see in a few months. Good stuff.

-David Benefield

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