Gilbert Winter Season Co-ed Softball Champs!

A couple months ago, I reconnected with an old friend from high school who asked me if I'd like to come play softball with them. They've had this CO-ED team made up of married couples, going on 15 years now but his cousin recently divorced and they needed to pick up a girl to play second. I actually used to play softball quite a bit in my early 20's before I fell in love with volleyball. I've played second before too although I prefer the outfield. It's just a little too intimidating when guys smack hard grounders at you.....very scary! Anyway, we had a really great season in fact we were completely undefeated. I played pretty well for being so rusty. I had some good games and some not so great games too. We also had a few scary moments like during the very first game, two of our guys collided and my friend Matt was completely knocked out. There's nothing like seeing a grown man hit the ground completely unconscious. He was okay after a minute or two thank goodness. I guess it could have been worse. Then another guy on our team took a hard throw that he lost in the light for just a split second and caught the ball with his eye instead of his glove. Let me tell you, nothing bleeds like a head wound. Ouch!

So anyway we had our finals tournament about a week ago. The semi-final team we played did not have their head in the game at all and we run ruled them 15-0. I actually hit in the last two winning runs with the best hit of my life! It was unbelievable! There were 2 outs and two runners on base. The pitcher was all over the place and I had a full count (3 balls, 2 strikes). The last pitch looked good so I just took a calming breath and swung away. I have NEVER hit a ball so well in my life! It just sailed and I mean sailed right between left and center and there was no way either of them were going to touch it. I don't think I could have hit it any better and man that felt good!!!

Everyone said the look on the left fielder's face was just priceless. They said you just could see him thinking "oh, crap, I just got burned" when I hit it. I think it dropped about 40-45 feet from the fence and rolled all the way to the fence. BTW - the fields at Freestone are 300'. Anyway, I remember seeing the left fielder throwing the ball in as hard as he could from the back fence as I was running. I couldn't believe it when the third base coach directed me home as approached third. I was so excited that I had a shot at my first home run on a co-ed league but.....just as I was about 5 strides from home plate I saw the throw come in and it was good. The catcher was standing right in the base line and blocking the bag. She was blocking me too far from the bag to try and slide so I had two options; knock her out of the way or turn around and go back to third. I was so completely out of breath though at that point from sprinting around the bases. I am not a sprinter and that had completely worn me out so I just threw my hands up and surrendered to her tag. Then, I busted up laughing my head off! I don't know why I thought it was so funny but it was a great almost home run and the best hit of my life and besides that...we won the game! Yay! It was so fun!

The championship game was a little tougher. At one point we were down 6-2 but we rallied and ended up winning 12-9. Yes, WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

That very excited guy is my friend Matt and he's just happy because in all their 15 years of playing, they've never won a championship. I guess they've found their missing link, right? Ha, ha!

Celebrating at DQ afterwards with some of the players.

Roxie, Matt and their daughter. BTW, Roxie hit a home run this season. She hit right down the left field baseline and booked it around the bases. She was a sprinter in high school so, yeah, she's FAST!!! If I were as fast as her, I know I would have had my home run. I guess I'll have to work on that!

Erin & Joe, Lance & Heather.

And the now single...Casey. Ahhh, I'm sure he will find someone soon. He's a great catch.

Yay, us! Now I can't wait until the fall when we'll play another season. It was just too much fun!

PS. Thank you sweetie for giving up our Friday night volleyball for a few weeks so I could play and thank you for coming to my games and supporting me!