"The Final Inning - My View From the Stands" (6/8)

Through the winter of 2016-17, Bryce’s junior year of high school, he continued to work on his game. He worked on pitching and hitting every week with Shawn Nottingham, he hit the batting cages at Grand Slam in Canton every Thursday, worked out with the Ohio Hitmen on Saturdays and never missed an open gym hitting session on Sunday nights.

Being the starting centerfielder on Northwest’s varsity baseball team seemed to be on course but he never took it for granted.

Tryouts began the last week of February 2017. On Friday, Coach Mac met with each player individually to inform them of which team, if any, they’d be playing for and what his expectations were for them. As we had hoped, Bryce was told that he’d be the varsity starting centerfielder and one of the three starting pitchers… of course, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

 Jeana and I were excited for the season. Bryce had worked long and hard to play varsity baseball.

Bryce Munson #8

The first game was at our home field. Northwest’s varsity baseball field was only a few years old and was one of the nicer high school fields in the area.

I was there early, not shocking to anyone who knows me, and I had my Canon EOS 60D camera ready to go with my zoom lens attached. Coach Mac allowed me inside the perimeter fence, to get the best shots. I positioned myself just beyond the visiting team’s dugout, along the third base line.

I got a cool picture of the Northwest players, standing, hats off… during the playing of the National Anthem. It was a great moment.

Play ball!

Top of the first inning. Bryce in centerfield. I kept the camera trained on him, hoping to capture him making some sort of defensive play.

With two outs in the first inning, I got my wish. The opposing batter hit a line shot to the gap in left center field and Bryce was on his horse, full tilt, trying to run it down. I know his adrenaline was pumping.

I had my camera on rapid fire, keeping the button squeezed as the camera captured frame after frame. Bryce left his feet in a full layout, glove outstretched. He looked like Superman flying through the air.

“This is so cool!” I thought. I’m going to have some great shots already and it’s only the first inning.

Suddenly, through the lens of my camera, I saw another body appear and it was on a collision course with Bryce, who was airborne and parallel with the ground. It was left fielder, Dylan Bolyard. Both players selling out to make the catch.

Bryce’s face smashed into Dylan’s thigh as his neck was snapped back and both players went down in a heap. Several players from the infield ran to their teammates to offer aid. The coaches ran to injured players next.

 

Within a minute or so, Dylan slowly got up and shook out the cobwebs. He appeared to be shaken a bit but otherwise, okay. Bryce was still on the ground and he wasn’t moving much. He was in pain.

I stood on the sidelines, trying to decide whether to join the crowd that had gathered around my injured son. I didn’t want to be “that dad” who came running when my kid got banged up a little, but Bryce appeared to be seriously injured.

I started to lay my camera in its case and head out to my son, when the coaches slowly helped him up. They walked him gingerly to the dugout, a coach on either arm. Bryce seemed to be in a daze.

After a few minutes, I walked over to the dugout to get a closer look at my son. His eyes were glazed over and he stared blankly straight ahead.

“What hurts?” I asked him.

“Everything.” He replied, not making eye contact with me.

“Do we need to take you to the ER?” I inquired.

He slowly shook his head “no.”

“You sure?” I asked.

“I’m sure.” He said weakly.

I checked on him several more times during the course of the game, hoping to see him move around or banter with his teammates. But he hadn’t moved and wasn’t conversing with anyone.

The Northwest Indians had three more games scheduled that week and it was pretty clear that Bryce would have to miss all of them. He attended practice but Coach Mac took one look at him trying to run and immediately pulled the plug on him practicing or playing in any games that week.

We took Bryce to a chiropractor in Massillon every day and their treatments seemed to have a positive effect. And Mother Nature decided she didn’t want Bryce to miss any games, so she made sure all three games got rained out that week. For purely selfish reasons, I was happy to see all that rain!

By the next game the following week, Bryce was healed up enough to play. He wasn’t 100% but good enough to go. The injury and soreness did keep him out of the pitching rotation for a couple weeks, though.

Bryce played every inning of every game through the rest of his junior season. He batted second in the line-up, right behind lead-off hitter and his good buddy, Canyon Foster. The two of them made a good duo with good batting averages and speed to burn.

Bryce and Canyon

Other than the early injury, Bryce had a solid initial season with the varsity squad.

As the season neared its end, Northwest had played about 500 ball. They were something like 12-12 when they faced the Norton Panthers in the sectional championship game for a chance to advance to the district play-offs. That same Panther squad had beaten Northwest the year before in the sectional game.

Northwest returned the favor by knocking off Norton and now, were heading to play at Canal Park, the stadium used by the Cleveland Indian’s double-A farm club, the Akron Rubber Ducks. The only problem? The 13-12 Northwest Indians were matched with #1 seed and undefeated Field High School. They had 22 wins and zero losses.

Well… at least the kids would have the opportunity to play at a cool venue. As long as we could play halfway competitive and not get blown out, I’d be perfectly satisfied.

Northwest brought a great crowd to the district semi-final game. The school had bussed many of the students in and there were plenty of enthusiastic friends and family members in attendance. I remember thinking, “At least we have beat Field in the arena of fans and enthusiasm.”

Through the first six innings, the game has gone pretty much as expected with Field taking an early lead and Northwest only scratching across a single run. But losing 5 to 1 heading into the top of the 7^th, the final inning, I wasn’t mad. We held them to only five runs. We competed. I was satisfied.

But apparently, the Northwest players weren’t satisfied because they mounted a two-out rally and before we knew it, had knotted it up at 5 to 5 with Bryce on 2^nd base, representing the go ahead run! O-M-G!

Cory Burroughs hit a hard ground ball up the middle for a base-hit and I looked at Coach Mac, who was coaching third base, and he was twirling his arm like an out of control windmill, waving Bryce around.

The center-fielder scooped up the ball and in one motion, threw a strike to the plate. Bryce appeared to be hung out to dry when he shocked everyone by leaping head first, diving over the outstretched glove of the shocked catcher, landing, hands first, on the plate and somersaulting to his feet.

We all looked at the umpire… who seemed to motion in slow motion… Out!!

Bryce grabbed his head in disbelief but then ran to the dugout to retrieve his glove. In the stands, we didn’t have a good enough angle to see but the dive was a thing of beauty. The kid is an acrobat.

I asked Bryce after the game if the catcher tagged him. “Nope.” He said matter of factly.

The next day, the Akron Beacon Journal published a picture of the play, showing pretty clearly that Bryce had evaded the tag. Oh well!

Back to the game. We were tied with undefeated Field High School heading to the bottom of the 7^th! Wow! Who would have thunk it?

Cory Burroughs, a tall, lanky left-handed junior had taken the mound in relief. Would he be able to hold Field at bay and push the game into extra innings?

Cory Burroughs

DID. HE. EVER!!!

Cory dominated the Field hitters with an almost unhittable fast ball that they simply could not catch up to. 1-2-3! This contest was headed to extra innings.

Neither team scored in the 8^th as Burroughs continued his mastery on the mound.

 

Top of the ninth and Northwest explodes for four runs and takes a 9-5 lead. Field sends three batters to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and Cory makes quick work of them, striking out the final batter and Northwest had pulled off the unthinkable!

Field players were stunned and the Northwest players spilled onto the field in jubilation!

One of the coolest moments I had ever witnessed. What an upset!

The next day we played Tallmadge for the district title and Bryce was scheduled to pitch. Oh man… I was much more nervous than he was.

 

After his bullpen session prior to the Tallmadge game

 Bryce pitched a 1-2-3 first inning and I relaxed a little bit. But then came the second inning and Tallmadge started swinging their bats with authority and lighting up the scoreboard. Bryce couldn’t make it out of the second frame. We ended up getting beat 11-1 and Tallmadge went on to win the State Championship. Good team!

And thus ended Bryce’s first varsity season. Bad start to the season with the injury and a bad way to end the season by getting shellacked by the eventual state champs… but a good and positive season otherwise.

After a short break, Bryce readied himself for his first summer season with the Ohio Hitmen.

Bryce... dejected after the loss to Tallmadge

Junior season awards, including ROOKIE of the YEAR