The team watches the action from the dug-out.  (Wolan)

At the league managerial meeting earlier that week, the A’s challenge everyone to a game, and the “Always Growing” team accepted the challenge. And thus, the A’s invitational was on.

With Clara and Annie unable to make the game, the A’s were forced to put A-WOL on the mound, who suffered an injury to his pitching hand in Game 12. The A’s would also take the field short on man-power, as they were only able to round-up 9 players by game-time. Though short on fielders and playing against an A-bracket team, the A’s were determined to fight the odds.

The A’s defense gave-up 5 quick runs in the 1st inning, but quickly got itself back on track thanks to a double play turned over by Jason and Tony. After that, the defense was rock-solid, giving-up only 3 runs in the next 4 innings. This was mostly due to some outstanding outfielding work by John, Dale and Derek. Derek personally made two outstanding catches in RF in the 3rd to limit the threatening AG to just a run.

The A’s offense was alive and never gave-up. A 5-run rally in the 3rd kept the team in the game. After the 5th innings, the teams were tied at 8. The A’s rallied once again in the 6th to take a 5 run lead.

Despite A-WOL hand injury, he managed to pitch a solid game. However, after 5 innings of work, fatigued settled in. AG took advantage of the situation and scored 5 runs of their own to tie the game. Ironically, AG gave A-WOL some unintentional help by exceeding the 5-run HR limit in the 6th with a HR, which lead to an automatic out. Regardless, the damage was done and the two teams were tied going into the seventh.

In the seventh, the A’s managed to string together some hits to take the lead. The runs came courtesy of Jason’s 2-out 2-run double.

To close the game, the A’s went with the mile-high ball-tossing pitcher Dale.

Now comes the controversial part. Despite playing hard and by the rules all game, AG desire to win the game caused them to make a foolish decision. They decided to change their line within a live game so that their heavy hitters would lead-off in the inning. They did this because their women batters, who were batting 4 in a row, were going to lead-off the next inning.

Despite throwing at the A’s the best they could, AG was only able to match the A’s performance by batting in two runs themselves. Regardless, the illegal reordering of the line-up in the 7th inning leads to forfeiture on the part of AG. And thus, the A’s earn their 3rd win of the season. A-WOL picks-up his first career win while Dale picks-up his first save with the A’s.

Andy Wolan is a reporter for MLSB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Softball or its clubs.