Yesterday was Earth Day,
and the Cougars celebrated on the organically grown* grass of Howard Park
(*portions of this blog may or may not be true).
Someone forgot to tell
Mother Nature that it was opening night of our beloved softball season,
however, so instead of global warming the mercury only read 46 at game time.
Our spirits were burning clean energy to keep us warm, but you’d have
sworn we were fuel-injected from the way we pounded the ball and motored around
the bases.
Slaughter House 9 was the
opponent who attempted to pollute our first game and their lead-off hitter
scored for a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. In our half, we tallied
5 runs as we put our footprints (non-carbon, of course) around the basepaths to
take the lead. Boom led us off with a single and Rads did the same by
knocking him in with a hit. Martini laced a single and Thejokewriter’s
tremendous triple knocked the two baserunners in. A Bobi base hit gave us
another RBI and solid singles by Li’l Rads, Diddy, and Presch gave us our fifth
run. Cougars 5-1 after one.
SH9 added another notch
in the second inning to make it 5-2, while we went down in order.
In the third, our
opponent pushed a run across the plate. In the bottom of the inning,
consecutive hits by Hogs, Diamond Dave, Boom, Rads, and JD enabled us to score
three times for an 8-3 lead.
The Cougars held them
scoreless in the fourth inning as Fort, Presch, and Li’l Rads worked tirelessly
to protect the defensive environment and the Cougar lead. When it was our
turn that inning, Bobi bashed a shot that just about pierced the ozone layer and allowed
him to touch ‘em all. Score 9-3 Cougars.
During the top of the
fifth inning Slaughter House continued their attempt to acid rain on our parade
with two more runs. We reused our offensive power, though, and hits by
Ski, Hogs, and Diamond Dave led to a score by Flandog. Cougars up 10-5 after
five.
Our defense was rock solid
in the sixth inning and we put them down in order. In our frame, we
scored 5 times with a leadoff single by Rads followed by more of the same from
JD, Martini, Thejokewriter, and Bobi. Diddy, with an amazing display of
energy conservation (and with a little help from Philthy and Flandog), achieved a
walkoff at-bat that turned the lights off an inning early for SH9. Cougars victorious 15-5.
In an effort to stay
local, the postgame was held at the Rad Pad where we celebrated not only our
undefeated season, but the 90th birthday of Diddy and Ski. Ok, Diddy is
actually 40 and Ski is 50, but if we say “90,” aren’t we sticking with the 3
R’s and reducing the amount of numbers we use? There was no
reduction in the amount of food we consumed between buffalo chicken dip, NY
style pizza, and birthday cookies.
In conclusion, there is
a synchronicity in winning our first game of the season on Earth Day.
I’m pretty sure it means that the entire universe is screaming, “Go
Green!!!”
