英語播客 A Cup of English 364 A Championship Game.

It was a perfect Sunday. We had two games, one at eleven and one at three. We didn't have to worry about the wind coming down from the mountains today because the weather was calm. Sunscreen would have benefitted a lot of people who, by the end of the day, must have been a bit red and sore. I had brought my broad brimmed black hat and sunglasses because I wanted to focus on the games, and not have to squint and shield my eyes. The first baseball team that we faced was Wenatchee. Our team is called the River Cats. We usually get beaten by this team, but somehow, the River Cats played well as a team and beat them by four points. That was a confidence booster! And, when you go into the finals against a team from Seattle, you need all the confidence you can get. And so, the game began. Seattle quickly got into the lead. The team members were all good hitters. They had obviously practiced hard. Even so, our fielders did a good job of running and catching some of their balls. We cheered loudly whenever that happened. When enough of their team have either been caught out or struck out, the inning changes, and it's our turn to hit. I don't recall us having any home runs, as we had had the previous day. In fact, on Saturday, we had about seven all together; for this age group, that is quite rare, and very exciting when it happens. I've been watching baseball games for a few years now, and have picked up on some of the strategies used. For example, if the bases are loaded (which means: if you have a team member on each base), the next batsman can sacrifice his ability to get to the first base after hitting the ball, in order to allow the team member who is at third base, to run to fourth base. This gets the team a point. Only when you have run to all four bases without being tagged out, does the team get a point. Sometimes, the next hitter will do a 'bunt'. This is when he holds the bat at each end horizontally, and the ball hits the middle of the bat. The ball doesn't go very far, and the pitcher has to run in and get it. The man at third base, therefore, has more time to run to fourth. It sounds complicated, I know, but when you watch the game, it really makes sense. Well, there was bunting, and regular hitting from our team, but it wasn't quite enough to win. We got second place. However, we didn't lose by very much, and the River Cats received an impressive trophy.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: to squint, a booster, an inning, to strike out.

1. You squint on a sunny day if you have no hat or sunglasses, and the sun is too strong for your eyes.

2. He was exhausted after his marathon. He drank an energy drink as an energy booster.

3. An inning is like a round. It is a team's turn to hit the ball in baseball.

4. A team member strikes out when the pitcher throws well to the catcher, and the batsman cannot hit the ball.