It was the bottom of the 6th inning, two outs, and we were up by a few runs. One more out and the Norwalk 12 year old Cal Ripken baseball team would place first in the New England regional tournament and be shipped off to Aberdeen, Maryland to play in the Cal Ripken World Series. The emotions were flowing throughout my entire body, shaking with excitement and anxiousness knowing that all of this hard work would finally pay off. All I could hear at this point in time was the Norwalk crowd roaring to the point where the stadium felt like there was an earthquake about to erupt. My teammates and I knew that this third and final out would be the toughest to get, and so did the batter. This at bat was the best at bat I have ever witnessed in my…show more content… Seeing all of these players from Japan, Australia, Mexico, and all across the United States changed my perspective entirely. Each and every team had the same mind set in the beginning of the year as my team did, which was to reach the highest possible tournament at our 12 year old careers. It was just amazing how we all got to this tournament in our own different ways, only playing teams that we had a general idea about. Now we had to face competition we had literally no idea about, but one thing really stood out. We all may have looked differently, sounded differently, and played differently, but each and every one of us that took the field had the same desire to play and passion for the game. Since we had this common interest in baseball, it was very easy to get along with these kids from around the world. We exchanged various items that were sentimental to our countries such as flags, candy, and we even friended each other on Facebook. None of this would be possible if it hadn’t been for our love for the game of baseball. But, when we hit the field we knew we had to throw our friendships away for two hours and battle like