Mike Vlahovich: Sometimes you have to sit out a dance

There are times when the law of “unintended consequences” turns out to have a gratifying ending.

Take Saturday, when the Ferris Saxons were facing their third loser-out game of the District 8 4A baseball playoffs, against Mead with a potential state berth on the line, its pitching staff already depleted.

Because it was also Senior Prom night, the situation was made even more tenuous when four Saxons players, including potential pitchers, opted for the dance rather than the 5 p.m. game.

Bud Kittredge, the Saxons ace who had pitched Wednesday and in the seventh inning of an earlier Saturday win over Gonzaga Prep, took the mound on a couple of days’ rest.

Understandably, he gave up 10 hits and the Saxons trailed 7-4 in the top of the seventh. But Ferris pulled out the improbable victory when Beau Brett, whose three hits in the game drove in four runs, smacked what proved to be a game-winning two-run double.

Kittredge, who had struggled on such short rest, gritted his teeth and fanned all three Mead batters in the bottom of the final frame.

Hall of Fame coach John Thacker, familiar with postseason success and heartache, said, “I’ve been in a lot of baseball games, but that one stands out as far as comebacks go.”

Thacker didn’t fault the kids for leaving. He said it was too bad the game and prom conflicted, forcing the players to make a choice. Earlier this year, the Saxons and Rogers changed the day of their Greater Spokane League game to avoid just such a conflict.

As it turned out, Ferris’ victory reinforced the adage that no player is bigger than team.

But the issue goes beyond that. Suppose that every player on the baseball team had a date to the prom and faced the same choice. There was no opportunity to reschedule and had a majority opted for the prom, the Saxons could have forfeited.

We start our children playing sports as early as kindergarten. We provide them with the best opportunities money can buy, from youth sports to select teams to summer camps and personal training.

We pursue our dreams and theirs, preparing them for life as an athlete in high school and beyond.

But sometimes we as parents fail to impart other lessons: How team means what it says and a ball club is only as good as its whole. That every choice the individual makes will affect those around us.

We must stress the importance of accountability when teaching young athletes skills necessary to play the game. That is something that carries over in life beyond athletics.

A year or two ago, I remember when another team under similar circumstances was playing in the same district loser-out, winner-to-state baseball game. The players’ dates showed up at Avista Stadium dressed in their gowns to watch the completion of the game.

A life lesson was learned, a memory made. The team had come first while their chariots awaited to whisk them off to the ball. And everything worked out at the end.