2. softball season starts back this upcoming Tuesday night and i’m pretty jacked up about it. we had “practice” last night which reall just constitutes all of us taking turns hitting while everyone else fields. i have a bruise on my hand this morning from catching a ball at first last night. i don’t know who threw it but i didn’t catch it in the pocket like you’re supposed to (obviously). first game is Tuesday night at 8:30.

3. heading out of town tomorrow for a quick day trip. i can’t say anything else about the trip because  you never know who reads your blog. so i’m not going to say any more about my quick one-day trip out of town. check out my twitter tomorrow for updates.

4. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! this Sunday at Freedom we’re continuing our “Let’s Get it On” series and we’re talking about dealing with conflict in marriage. it should be a great day – especially coming off of the Sex Challenge this week. i expect to see many happy, smiling couples on Sunday morning.

2. upgraded to iPhone 2.0 firmware last night. no problems yet. i LOVE the App Store.

3. i also LOVE the guys at LifeChurch.tv. here’s why ::

a. they give away resources for FREE
b. they are crazy good at coming up with new and innovative ways to reach people
c. they created this YouVersion thing that i am absolutely obsessed with
d. they are giving away a YouVersion App for the iPhone (which i’ve already downloaded)

and as a side note, i was listening to Craig Groeschel’s One Prayer message from the Elevation Church podcast this morning (confusing right? i know.) and i have a whole new idea of what “CG” does all day. i think he just goes into work and makes videos. seriously, in the 30 minutes that it took me to drive to work, CG had three videos in his message PLUS a special video personal welcome opening to Elevation Church.

i wonder if his wife (and six kids) get tired of hearing “so we went out and made a video today…”

4. we got FreedomChurch bumper stickers in this week! i put mine on my truck slightly askew – but i like it that way. come to Freedom on Sunday to get yours! FreedomGroups are launching on August 24. sign ups will start next week!

*EXTRA* FreedomChurch softball won the league championship this past Tuesday night. JR told Coach Rick when we were talking of starting the league that if we were gonna have a softball team that we had better win the thing. and so we did.

for the first time ever, was FreedomChurch down after the top of the first inning. Park Street jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and FreedomChurch was able to answer to make the score 2-2 after the first. Park Street used up both of their allowed homeruns in the next few innings to open up a 7-3 lead. but the boys in orange and black stormed back into the game in the 5th inning of a 7-5 game with six desperately needed runs.

it was not without controversy.

when Ian Schneider came up to bat in the 5th inning there were runners on first and second. Schneider hit a single which advanced the runners to 2nd and 3rd. however, Matt Roberson overran third base and had to quickly jump back to the bag. Park Street’s third baseman applied the tag but the home plate umpire and the 2nd base umpire disagreed on the calls. FreedomChurch asked that the umpires come to a decision and the call was that Roberson was safe. after that call, Ryan Roberson came to the plate and delivered a 3 RBI double.

the inning finished with the score 11-7 in favor of FreedomChurch. Park Street made a comeback but fell just short and the game ended with the final score 11-10.

for those of you that are just joining us, FreedomChurch fielded its first softball team this season. we play on Tuesday nights at Kennworth Park and we play against other area churches. basically, the season breaks down like this. there are two 8-game halves. the winner of the first 8 games plays the winner of the second 8 games in the championship game unless the winner of both halves is the same team. FreedomChurch has already won the first half and now we’re the team to beat. as it stands right now, we’re 5 games into the second half and we’re 5-0. that’s right. undefeated yet again. we’ve got two games left this season (the first game got rained out). the team we play tonight is 0-4 in this half. pretty safe to say this one is a lock. next week we’ll have a bye week and then we play our rivals – Park Street.

i call Park Street our rivals because they always play us the best. even though we’re 3-0 against them, we have the hardest time beating them. they never give up and won’t stop until the ump says “ballgame.” our game in two weeks will be a fun one.

what are you doing tonight?

in the league that FreedomChurch Softball plays in, we have two 8-week halves of the season. as it stands right now, going into the final game of the first half, FreedomChurch is 6-1. not bad for a group of guys that had never played softball together before joining up at Freedom.

basically, every team plays both halves of the season. the teams with the best record from each half will meet in the championship game at the end of the 2nd half. if the team that wins the first half wins the 2nd half, there is no championship game.

tonight we play Park Street. that team is also 6-1 in the first half. their one loss – FreedomChurch. our one loss – not Park Street. basically, a win for Freedom tonight and we’re in the championship game. a loss tonight and we have the play as well or better than we played the first half of the season for 8 more weeks and defeat Park Street in the championship game.

the easy part – win both halves and you don’t have to play the championship game. however, in order to win both halves, you’ve got to win the first half first.

tonight is the big game. i’m pretty jacked up about it.

UPDATE 5.7.08 :: FreedomChurch softball defeated Park Street last night in a thrilling game by the final score of 17-14. FreedomChurch is in the Championship Game in 9 weeks!

i’m telling you, we had the biggest crowd i’ve ever seen at a softball game last night. the bleachers were full. there was one point where i was on deck in front of our fans and i could hardly hear what was going on in the game because they were so loud. they knew we were struggling and they were trying to keep us in the game. sadly for them, and for us, we couldn’t hang with those guys last night.

we played tight all night long. we had some early signs of life in the beginning but as the game wore on, we started making errors that turned into runs by the other team. i wish we could have pulled out the victory for our team and our fans but we’ll have to try again next week.

as a side note: as we were leaving, one of my friends hit a foul ball during another game that came screeching toward us standing by the other field and hit Callie in the stomach. somehow, she absorbed the blow. i wanted to cry. it looked like it hurt. but she was a trooper and held it together. she’s a lot tougher than me. yes, my girlfriend is tougher than i am and she will beat you up if you’re mean to me. you meanies.

i have tons of “RESPECT” for our entire team and the amazing stuff they pull off each week.

the Braves need to get it together. this is getting ridiculous. after dropping the opening game in Washington, the Braves have lost two of the last three. 1-3 is not a good way to begin the season. ESPECIALLY, when you start it against the Nationals and the Pirates. no offense to any Nats or Bucs fans out there, but c’mon… this ain’t exactly the best the National League has to offer. personally, i think it was those ugly jerseys they wore opening night. i think that’s got them all jacked up.

did you see this coming? i did.

Miami had their Spring Game last Saturday. the defense won 32-29 (modified scoring system). Robert Marve led the offense down the field on the first series and scored a touchdown – yeah, believe that. a Miami quarterback actually driving the team down the field and scoring a touchdown! pretty amazing when i read it too. Jacory Harris and Cannon Smith did pretty well too. here’s the stats:

passing::
Robert Marve : 10 of 22, 93 yards, 2 INT
Jacory Harris : 9 of 17, 64 yards
Cannon Smith : 1 of 5, 66 yards, 1 INT

rushing::
Graig Cooper : 8 carries, 91 yards, 2 TD

defense::
Arthur Brown was the defensive player of the game (in my opinion): 8 tackles, 1 INT, 1 pass breakup

speaking of Miami, the baseball team is on a tear. they are 23-2 and currently #2 in the nation. i’m praying for Arizona State to lose a few games.

and finally, in case you haven’t heard, the Freedom Church softball team is 3-0. i’m pretty proud of that.

here’s the recap from the Freedom Church Softball Blog.

we will try to make it 4-0 next week against Eagle Point @ 8:00pm.