Rylan's Narrative Essay 

This is a narrative essay I wrote for writing class, hope you like it! 

By Rylan Albert

“Rylan, almost ready to go?” My dad yelled from downstairs as I grabbed my water jug. “Yup! I’ll be down in one second!” I answered. It was the second and last day of the Delaware State Championships and my team hadn’t lost a game so far. The tournament was double elimination and there were only four teams left. “Ready to win today?” Dad asked as we pulled up to the field. “Uh, duh!” I replied.

Our first game had arrived quickly after nearly two hours of warming up. We were playing Delaware Express. They have beaten us before. Unfortunately, they had a good pitcher on their side, while we were saving our best pitcher for later in the day. We lost, but we still had a chance. That means that we were in the loser’s bracket. Our second game was starting in two hours, so we had a little break. We all ate lunch and sat in the shade to rest for the next game. I know I’m supposed to eat healthy foods during my break, but I had a ring pop. 

Next, we were playing Delaware Heart. We have beaten them multiple times this season so we were looking forward to this game. This was a good game, we beat them and now we were in it to win it. Now it was just us and Express left. Since we had one loss and Express had zero, we had to beat them twice to win. During the game break, it was around lunchtime, so my Grandpa got me my favorite concession stand snack, mozzarella sticks. I was so hungry that I devoured them within five minutes. 

The game came quickly, and we had to win or we would be done. Now Mazzie, our strongest pitcher, was pitching. Our fielding and hitting were on point. As I stepped up to the plate, hands shaking and sweating, I stood and waited for the pitch to roll in. As my bat smacked the ball, it went flying. It hit the fence but didn’t go over. My bat has never been so hot, all season. We scored twenty-three points in total. While Express only scored thirteen. That means we were finally in the championship game. Express was tired, but we were pumped. We had about twenty minutes to chill while we were waiting for the next game, so I treated myself to some chips and a cold Ice Pop Prime. 

“Usa on three usa on me, one two three, USA!” My team cheered loudly. It was that thing that teams do after the coach gives a pep talk while huddled up. As per usual, we were cheering, but definitely louder than usual. Our 12u team, who had just won second place in the state, decided to join us in the dugout and cheer with us. It was great. We all had smiles on our faces and everyone was jumping up and down and cheering as loud as possible. Then the umpire decided that they had to get out of the dugout, so they cheered with us on the bleachers.  

 The score was 6-2 and then… “beep..beep…beep” screeched the timer. We all screamed and jumped as we raced to the line. “WOOOOOO!!” Everyone yelled. We exchanged high-fives with the other team and said good game to everyone and then the adults handed out an awesome ring to each player.  A droplet of sweat rolled down my face, but I didn’t care. Everyone got a picture with the plaque and we hugged a lot. 

On the way home, my phone was blowing up with texts from the team group chat, and my throat was scratchy from cheering. After my games, I had to  play in a Little League All-Stars game. But most importantly, that day I learned that you can achieve anything, as long as you work hard.  I also learned to bring a lot of cold water and snacks during a long, ninety degree tournament day, but that’s besides the point.