An Evening on the Plains

...at Plainsman Park that is!

Last night we got to go see Eric's "little brother" play baseball.  He plays for the University of South Alabama and they had a game against Auburn last night.  We have not been able to see him play since he was in high school so we jumped at the chance.  What made this game even more special was that his BFF from high school plays for Auburn.  They grew up playing together; BFF was a pitcher and he was his catcher.  Last night was the first time they'd faced each other in a college game.  We had a pretty rowdy crew of family, friends, and former coaches that came out to support both of them and the game was lots of fun.  He was the lead-off batter and scored the only run through 5 1/2 innings, but Auburn got hot in the late innings, scored a few runs and ended up winning 6-1.

Aubie came by to say hello.

This happened, plus peanuts, plus popcorn, plus hot dogs...I am a sucker for ball park food!

Any night out with his guy is a fun one in my book!

The highlight of the game came in the top of the 8th inning.  Since BFF is a relief pitcher we weren't sure if he'd pitch.  I am not sure if the Auburn coaches knew the situation or who was in the crowd, but they called him up to pitch and little bro was on deck.  I can't imagine how anxious the two of them were because all of us were freaking out that not only were their teams playing each other, but they would actually get to face each other! It didn't last long because little bro hit the first pitch BFF threw right back at him.  BFF barely deflected it and the 3rd baseman ended up throwing him out at first (barely). It might have only been a few seconds worth of action but for about 50 people in the stands it was a VERY exciting few seconds.

The stare-down...

The Pitch!

My only complaint was that I didn't get to see Bruce Pearl (Auburn's recent men's basketball head coach hire) in person. I was really hoping I would get to see him in the flesh since I've heard he's been around campus lately.  I have already decided I am going to see a few games this year and I recruited a few friends to go with me since basketball is not Eric's favorite sport to go watch.  =)