By Ron Smith
February 18, 2020
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) There are wonderful days in baseball when everything goes right. The sun is shining and the wind is blowing out (or blowing in, if you are a pitcher) and the grass is perfectly manicured.
 
Your pitchers can't be hit and don't surrender a single walk. Your batters make contact with every swing and plenty of those swings convert a batter into a baserunner. Your baserunners seem to advance with ease, as though the bases are only 80 feet apart. Your fielders make diving catches and would turn double plays if your opponent ever reached base.
 
Today's game at Russ Carr Field against Marymount was not one of those days.
 
Today, was one of the other kind of days that happen in baseball. The kind of day which birthed the baseball wisdom that says, "It's only one game, forget about it and move on to the next game."
 
Today was the kind of day when after nine innings the scoreboard reads 11-1 under "Runs" and 19-3 under "Hits" and neither is the higher number for your team.
 
You can't completely ignore the game, of course, because there is much to be learned from a day like today. Lessons that can help keep days like today from happening with any regularity.
 
Nonetheless, today is the kind of day that has taught dozens of generations of baseball players that one day does not define you. It is the kind of day that calls young men to resilience, character and fortitude while equipping them with the ability to tip their caps, shrug their shoulders and say, "We'll get them next time."
 
So in that spirit, let's simply say that "next time" comes in the form of a pair of doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday at Russ Carr Field against San Diego Christian.
 
First pitch is at eleven o'clock each day. Why not come on out to the ballfield to see what those days will bring?