Living The Big League Dreams, Part 2: Rayados Fight For Their Season

This is the conclusion of a two-part series in which I chronicle the season of softball club The Rayados as they play at Big League Dreams in League City, TX. You can read the first part here.

This season hasn’t been pretty for the Rayados.

In a season that only consists of 8 games and 8 teams competing for 1 champion, every game is a must-win. Every hit is a clutch hit. And every run is needed to keep hope alive.

The Rayados, led by team captain Cesar Madrigal, managed to thread the needle and keep their playoff dreams alive by scraping everything they could to a 5 and 3 record. It isn’t the dominant lead that they’ve been seeking, but it’s enough; they made it to the big show. The playoffs.

“We actually beat the best team in the league [Team Bad Intentions] in the last regular season game” says outfielder Ivan Gonzalez, “that’s how we barely made it.”

It’s a good thing they got their practice against Bad Intentions. Because that’s the exact same team the Rayados are facing tonight, in the first round of the playoffs. And in these playoffs, there are no second chances. You either win this game, and advance. Or you lose, and go home. And nobody on the Rayados wants to go home.

I’ve noted before how these men – office workers, sales men, managers, laborers – make softball a “double life” of sorts. In an increasingly volatile job market, all of these guys give their day jobs 100% because they have to.  There are mortgages to be paid, bills have to be taken care of, and there are families to tend to. All of that stuff stays hidden away while they take the field. What’s remarkable about tonight is how changed these men truly are. On my first trip out here to meet the team, there were wise cracks and teases.

Today, everyone is here with their game face on. Nobody is smiling. Because nobody wants to come all this far to lose it all in the end.

Game On

Playing as the “Away” team, the Rayados have the offense first. Showing just how serious they are about this, the Rayados begin a bonafide hit parade, with first game hero Raymond Figueroa hitting a bomb to centerfield to bring in the first two base runners. And like a top 40 music superstar, the hits just keep on coming. It’s like a freeway in this stadium the way that line drives whiz by Team Bad Intentions. Indeed, 7 of the 9 players on the Rayados get an at-bat in this very first inning, quickly driving the Rayados to a 5-nothing lead.

It wouldn’t last.

Team Bad Intentions matches the Rayados blow for blow, stringing together their own offensive steamroll. After the leadoff man doubled to start the inning, Team Bad Intentions made those intentions well known to the Rayados, sending base runner after base runner home as the hits kept raining down on the Rayados. After the dust settled, stunned spectators all over the stadium looked up the scoreboard.

End of the 1st inning, Rayados 5, Team Bad Intentions 5.

“It’s a whole new ballgame!” shouts Beto Landos from the dugout, trying to rally up the Rayados. Similar cries are heard from players all over the dugout, doing anything in their power to recover from the staggering rise and fall the team went through in a single inning. And, to some degree, it works. After the continuous assault both teams took at the start, both teams step back out into the field and shut down the opposing offense for the next two innings.

At the beginning of the 4th, the halfway mark, the game remains close. Rayados are only down one run, 6 to 5.

Trying to stop the bleeding

Rudy “Comal” Garcia, Catcher, is no stranger to pressure.

Having missed the first game of the season, all Garcia has known this season is the art of catching up.

It’s nothing he doesn’t already know. In his other life, a salesman’s life, Garcia is all too familiar with the pressures and expectations that an entire team has riding on him.

“It’s hard. It is hard,” Garcia emphasizes. I’m not sure if he’s commenting on this game or his career or both, but Garcia hasn’t become as successful as he is both on the field and off by sitting back and just taking a loss. Being a brand new homeowner, plotting out the next phase in his life, looking forward to a more challenging and engaging level in his professional career, Garcia manages a smile in the shadow of the mountain of stress.

But deep down, he knows one thing. “We need to get some hits.”

The Rayados do just that in the fourth, finally scoring their first run since the end of the 1st inning to once again tie the game. It’s a hard fought run, with Abraham Reyes digging deep for a hit with a runner in scoring position. That’s a theme that would haunt the remainder of the game – runners in scoring position, just waiting for one solid hit to bring people home. The Rayados grow increasingly more frustrated at the lack of clutch hitting, as heard when Ivan Gonzalez flies out to left field to end the fourth inning, leaving two men on base.

Team Bad Intentions intend to make the Rayados pay for that.

Bad Intentions lights up the scoreboard in the 5th inning, stringing together a few consecutive hits to erase the Rayados run. Not content with this, they pile on a few more runs to bring down the Rayados to an 8-6 deficit.

In softball, offense is key. To offset that offense, the Rayados fight tooth and nail to slow the run count being put up by Bad Intentions. No fielder is safe as balls rain down on everyone from the pitcher to the outfielders, and a few of them inevitably get by the Rayados’ defenses. These later innings would prove hard on the Rayados, as they fall back to an overwhelming 10 to 6 run count.

They don’t have many chances left.

In this softball league, the teams aren’t only facing each other. The far more looming, but far less visible threat is Father Time himself. If a team has a lead after a certain amount of time has eclipsed, the game is called, and the leader automatically crowned the winner. It is ever more necessary in these playoff games, as the winning team advances to the next game that very night, meaning that one of these clubs will be playing a second game.

The Rayados want to be there, in that second game.

The question is, will they be able? Can they surmount the onslaught from both Team Bad Intentions and the all-powerful clock?

The Rayados dust themselves off of the top of the 5th inning, hoping to buy themselves one last chance.

Team Bad Intentions, also keeping an eye on the clock, take up their bats to try and stave off the Rayados offense. Swinging their bats well, keeping good baserunning, they bring home a few more boys to increase their lead. The Rayados are in a visible panic mode, rushing plays an doing everything in their power to keep the game moving.

It’s not enough.

After these runs score, the umpire/timekeeper calls the game.

The Rayados have lost. Their season is over.

There’s always next season

“We didn’t hit. We didn’t hit” laments Cesar Madrigal after the game. Sharing a similar sentiment, albeit with his more direct tone, Ivan Gonzalez comments “we weren’t clutch. We didn’t hit when we had to.”

Quite a few players, visibly upset, declined to comment.

“It was just some unfortunate plays that were big in the end” remarks Raymond Figueroa, “if we would have been consistent throughout the game, I’m sure we would’ve won in the end.” Ultimately, Figueroa looked back it all fondly.

“It was a good game in the end” he would say.

Garcia perhaps put it better than all. “Bottom line, it’s softball. We just had to hit. And we didn’t. So we lost.”

With that, the team packed their things, said their goodbyes, and headed home from Big League Dreams. But not to worry.

I’m already hearing plans for next season.

I’d like to send a very special thank you to Team Captain Cesar Madrigal and the rest of the Rayados squad for inviting MyHoustonLife to chronicle their season. To know when MHL posts new content, be sure to “Like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.