A Day of Softball!

Several weeks ago I was asked by Carrie from my summer softball team if I'd like to be the 6th woman for their team in a softball tournament. I'd be in town, so why not.

First game was scheduled for 9:30 Saturday morning, so I'd have a chance to sleep in. All I had to do was pay a $20 player fee and show up. When I showed up, I got a orange team shirt and saw that the team had staked out a spot for us to hang out in between games. They had an EZ-up, one of those pop-up "roofs".

Carrie let our manager Jeremy know that I could pitch, so he had me slotted to pitch inning 2 through 7 after his wife pitched the 1st. The combination proved well and we won the first game... I believe against the neon yellow team. Game 2, we kept the same rotation, but our bats fell asleep and we fell to the pink team.

Game 3 against light blue was back-to-back to game 2 and I requested a slight break, so I played catcher this game. We were down early and had to make a 5th inning comeback by scoring 11 runs. After we held them in the 6th, we came out victorious, 13-15, after we hit the time limit.. Breaktime! While we waited to see where we placed finished in Pool B and where we'd end up in the bracket, I took a quick break to go home, shower, change most of my clothes, and grab a bite to eat.

We were back at it at 3:00pm for game 4. We were a 2 seed vs a 3 seed. Back to the original lineup we went and with no mercy rule, the green team called it quits. Next up in game 5 was facing the number 1 seed, yellow team. We upset them and left their a$$hole "team leader" complaining and pouting. For a "bush leaguer" like me... it was sweet, sweet victory! Dude hit a homerun off of me, so I played it safer and pitched him crap while trying to hit the back right corner of mat... thus making me a bush leaguer in his eyes. He just couldn't keep his trap shut the hole game and all the other teams had the same experience.

After the upset, we watched a bit of the semi-finals game and came to realize we'd be playing the pink team again. We got our bats going in the previous two games, so we new we had a fighting chance. By game 6, fatigue was starting to set in for many of us and our play was not quite up to par, but we were able to stay in the game, only a few runs behind. We just couldn't find that bigger inning of runs to overtake them. Gosh darn pink team.

After, I found out we'd get a plaque for placing second, so I met up with most of the team and others from the tournament at the after party. I hobbled my way into the Stadium Club, grabbed a free "ballpark" meal and waited for the award ceremony.

Below is a picture of the plaque and by blistered foot from playing 6 games of softball in my uncomfortable cleats. Gotta hit the end of season sales and get new batting gloves and comfortable cleats, if they exist.
$20 player fee = 1 t-shirt, 6 games with fun team, 2nd place plaque, and free meal. I feel like I came out on top during this Easter Seals Softball Tournament. I'll have to find a way to help support this group in thanks for such a fun day.