Bam! I heard the crack of my teammates bat as he crushed a double into left field. It was the championship game of our tournament, and the score was tied at zero in extra innings. But my teammate had put me in a position to win the game. Everyone whooped and hollered and started cheering my name, and as the other teams coach jogged onto the field to talk to his players, time slowed down. I realized how big this moment was, and suddenly became a nervous wreck. 

     It was a perfect day, with the sun shining bright and the grass cut nice and short, but it felt far from perfect for me. I was in a slump recently, and I hadn't gotten a hit all tournament. Nobody had scored all game, and I didn't think that I would be the one to finally break the tie. There was no reason that I should be able to get this hit, and I began to remember all my past failures. I started thinking about what would happen if I didn't get a hit. I became fully convinced that I was about to let everyone down. All the fans in the crowd were cheering for me, but I didn't hear any of it. I couldn't focus on anything. The bat was like a 100-pound weight in my hands, and I could hear my heart thumping in my chest. Suddenly, I heard my coach calling me over so he could talk to me. I immediately expected him to tell me that they were taking me out of the game because I wasn't a good hitter, or just tell me to try and get walked, but no. He acted like I was the best hitter on the planet.

    “WILL! LISTEN TO ME!” He shouted “There's nobody I'd rather have hitting than you right now. We've got all the confidence in the world in you. Just go up there and do your thing, you've got this.”

    Even then, I still couldn't shake my negative thoughts. 

    He's probably just saying that because he's my coach I thought to myself. 

     I didn't tell my coach, but his speech had absolutely no effect on me. I didn't like my chances to get a hit in this situation, and it didn't help that I couldn't calm myself down. 

      Meanwhile, the other team was bringing in a new pitcher. He was left handed, but he was big and strong and threw fast. I was surprised because we hadn't scored off of their starting pitcher yet, but nevertheless I was going to have to face their new pitcher. As I was getting ready, my teammate came up to me and attempted to calm my nerves.

    “Hey” He said. “There's no better feeling than getting the winning hit in the championship game. Now calm down, and go do this thing”

    Hearing those words come from my teammate flipped a switch in my brain. I thought about what he had said, and decided I should change my thought process. If everyone else had confidence in me, why couldn't I have confidence in myself? Instead of thinking about my inability to get a hit recently, I thought about how great of a hitter I usually am. 

   You've gotten tons of hits in your life I told myself. Why not get one right here. Just trust yourself and swing the bat.

    When I finally finished my inner motivational speech, I heard the umpire telling me I had to come to the batter's box. As I walked to home plate, I noticed the pitcher staring me down. I stared right back. I wouldn't let him know that I was even a little bit nervous. I decided I wasn't going to back down from this challenge. I dug the spikes of cleats into the brown dirt, and got into my batting stance. The pitcher got his sign and went into his windup. The ball looked like a white blur as it left his hand, but I knew I was swinging immediately. It was a high fastball and I whipped my bat through the strike zone. I made contact with the ball and started running toward first base. It flew into the beautiful blue sky, and at first I thought the shortstop was going to catch it. But everyone watched as the ball sailed over his head, and into the outfield grass! I turned around to find all my teammates running to celebrate with me at first base, and realized that I had won the game.

     I felt a surreal sense of pride later during the trophy presentation, and everyone cheered when the tournament director called my name to get my trophy. But in that moment, I understood that I had done much more for myself than just get one hit that day. I realized that my skill wasn't the only reason I got that hit, but it also had to do with my mental attitude. If I would've kept my negative thought process of telling myself how awful I was, there's no way I could've won the game. But by having confidence and believing in myself, that's what caused me to get that hit. That is a very important life lesson, that will help anyone in any facet of life. You can only do so much with your natural talent, and you have to have mental strength as well. Thinking positively and believing in yourself is an essential part of being successful. And that lesson is more meaningful than anything else that happened on that day.