Intramural Softball 2010

Trafton B.

April 18, 2010 - 9:45 PM

Adding to the growing list of reasons why I love spring term at UO, the intramural softball season has begun and this year I am proud to coach our team. Team Go Team GO. Yes, the name is slightly confusing, not by design. We just want to be able to cheer, "Go...Team Go Team Go!" It may be childish, but it makes us laugh.

Last year, under the name Team Lincecum, we made it to the semi-finals where we lost in heartbreaking fashion in extra innings. We played our first game of 2010 last Tuesday and, let me tell you, this season picked up with the same high intensity level that last season left off.

To begin, we barely had enough people show up on time to play. The rule is that game time is forfeit time, and you need at least six players to start. Well, we only had five players by 7 o'clock - and our equipment man, Steven, was late with gloves and bats - but out of the grace of their hearts the other team decided to wait the extra five minutes for the rest of my team to show rather than force us to forfeit.

We started the game with only two outfielders and no catcher, but slowly everyone trickled in to fill their positions. At the end of the fourth inning, we were losing 5-2 and the umpire warned us that this would likely be the last inning because we were losing daylight.

We were the home team, so we pitched through the top of the fifth inning and had the top of the order coming up to the plate in the bottom half. If we were going to make our late inning push, it needed to happen now.

Kevin led off with a double. Emma popped out to third. I singled into centerfield, and then Kelsey grounded out. We had runners on second and third base with two outs, Steven at the plate and still down three runs. Like any true champion, Steven rips a ball into left field for a two run double, which left the game in Tracy's hands.

This is where strategy came into play. I should point out that I'm a fairly competitive person by nature, and I love baseball. I mean, I really LOVE baseball. I played since I was in Kindergarten on "George's Giants" tee-ball team. My senior project in high school was an in-depth comparison between major league baseball in the 1920s and 2000s, specifically analyzing Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds. And I road-tripped for two months around the nation visiting major league ballparks in the summer of 2007.

Back to the point though, I realize that we're in the least competitive, co-ed intramural softball league, but that doesn't mean I won't do everything within my power and knowledge of the game to win. I noticed the opposing pitcher was struggling to find the strike zone in the later innings, so I told Tracy to "take a strike," which means that you don't swing until after they pitch one strike to you for those of you wanting to know some of the more advanced baseball terminology.

Low and behold, it worked like a charm. Tracy walked, which left us with Steven on second base, Tracy on first and freshman, rookie-sensation Trey Norris - Cam's younger brother - coming up to the plate. Trey already has a solo, inside the park homerun earlier in the game and he was looking to finish the job. The smart thing to do would have been to walk him to preserve the lead, but Trey was probably going to swing at anything close anyways, so it probably didn't matter.

Trey laced a double up the middle, Steven scored and we had a tie game with the winning run on third base. Leslie, following in her roommate's steps, walked in the same "take a strike fashion" and Winston followed up with a liner that went right through the shortstops legs.

Chalk one in the victory column for Team Go Team GO.

Today, we had afternoon practice to shake off some of the cobwebs. We went over the fundamentals groundballs, fly balls and batting practice - so everyone was on the same page, too. We should be ready to go for next Tuesday's game. I'll let you know how it goes.