Pitching: A Short Story

The Women’s College World Series is the last round of the NCAA Tournament, where the National Champion is decided. Every little girl, that plays softball dreams of playing in the Women’s College World Series. This past season, it was a dream come true for the Michigan Women’s Softball team to make it to the World Series. As a player and as a fan the World Series is one of the best experiences to be a part of. Fans are outside of the stadium tailgating all day long. Then at came time thousands of fans rush in to the stadium to take their seats. This past year the overall attendance record was broken. There were 78,078 fans, breaking the previous record of 75,960. Everyone’s family and friends wants to be there so badly.

Neil has been coaching the Connecticut Charmer’s Showcase Softball team for 26 years. He has watched many including his one and only middle aged daughter clime the latter to success. Everyone in the competitive softball world that is driven to play for a well-known college softball team knows Neil. Not even an entire year goes by when the parents, players, and other coaches realize Neil is not just any ordinary coach. He only goes by one way and that’s his way.

Have you ever seen a pitcher pitch a one pitch inning. That's 3 outs in one pitch. Ben Jablonski did that in a baseball game over the summer. In the end they were still defeated by a lot of runs.

As the first day started, butterflies filled everyone who stepped on the baseball diamond. The distinguished and admirable upper classmen smirked at the scrawny freshmen in disbelief of our abilities. I was not one to draw attention to myself, so I went about minding my own business trying not get noticed by the older boys. As the notorious head coach strutted onto the field, every single soul cowered at his presence. The coach then bellowed, “Let the tryouts begin. We will start with our hitting.”

Physics is the study of matter, energy, and the interaction between them. Physics is involved in so many things, from sports to spacecraft to instruments. One of the sports physics is involved in is softball. Newton’s first law states when an object is in motion it stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force. This is the key element in softball.

By now, Jennie’s life was focused on softball, though she did have a normal life outside the sport. She liked to shop, try on her mom’s makeup and hang out with her friends. In school, she was an excellent student. But softball consumed most of her free time. Every summer the sport brought her to a new part of the country for a national tournament.

I could feel the pitcher’s stress from 200 feet away in the dugout. We were up five at the top of the eighth, but the win was not secure. I could tell the pitcher was struggling to keep his composure. Suddenly, the coach calls me to warm up in the bullpen. I was excited and nervous to enter the game; I knew my warming up would add pressure to the pitcher and this was the Legion Sub-State Semifinal game, which determined our chance to advance to state. By the time I got to the mound, the bases were loaded with two outs. I noticed the packed stadium, felt the sweltering 90 degrees, and sensed the crowd’s tension. I had never pitched against this team, so I relied on communicating with the catcher. I threw a knee high fastball--STRIKE ONE. Next, I threw low and away curveball--STRIKE TWO. The catcher signaled a high fastball, knowing the batter was expecting another curveball. The batter chased the ball--STRIKE THREE. We won the game and moved on to finals. Two hours in the dug out, five minutes in the bullpen, and thirty seconds on the mound--not to mention fifteen hours a week, ten months a year for fifteen years--all culminated in a few seconds to advance

My breakfast started to creep back up my throat as game time got closer and closer. I walked across the patch of grass behind home plate and was towered over by the 30 foot backstop with a huge net suspended from it. My bulging bag of equipment was beginning to make my shoulder hang. I walked down the steps into the cement dugout and placed my bag under the bench that spanned the entire length of the dugout. I sat down, laced up my cleats, and put my warm-up jacket on in preparation for batting practice. I stepped onto the grass surrounding the dugout to get the feeling of how wet the grass was. I dug my cleats into the grass and began my usual routine of taking certain practice swings as I gazed upon the press box in the wake of the backstop. Preceding the burn in my forearms, caused from the practice swings, I marched behind the dugout to the rows of batting cages to wait my turn in line. Pacing back and forth I knew I had to keep my nervousness to a minimum. I popped in a wad of Big League Chew and continued to

Clouds mugged the sun of light as the day progressed. Dusk filled the air on the baseball diamond where I would leave my legacy. Forth, was the championship game to be played, and the pressure of the starting pitcher, was not fazing me. In the zone, we said the Little League pledge. Jolts of excitement filled my muscles as I recited the piece that I know all too well. Warming up, I was controlled, and was ready to bring it. The game began with a bang. Strikeout after strikeout I fired, giving my all every single pitch. ‘BOOM’ went the glove after every pitch, whizzed right by the petrified batter. However, this was not much different for our team. Just two hits filled the board, I and my teammate Ian Keth. Scoring off of this was efficient,

Imagine standing on a softball field expected to perform at the age of 5. Even though the butterflies in my stomach were starting a war, nothing was going to stop me from stepping on that field to play my first tee ball game as a Little Tiger. Fans cheered, but what I noticed most was a little boy in the outfield picking his nose. Standing in the box, I was terrified; the field looked huge. I had never seen anything like this before, but I knew that the little boy was the person I needed to hit the ball to, so I hit the ball as hard as I could. The ball went soaring through the air like a bird on fire. Dropping from the air, it rolled to the fence. At that time, I knew I had fallen in love with the game of softball. I was smiling from ear to ear, I couldn’t believe I had hit the ball that far! Both sides screamed, yelled, and shouted with excitement. Was all this commotion for me? I rounded first, but I couldn’t go to second because my teammate, Kylie Leach, didn’t run. I didn’t know what she was doing. Sadly, the batter after me hit a ground ball to the pitcher, and the other team threw him out at first.

The beginning of baseball has had it twist on who started the game and who made the rules to the game. The sport we know as baseball was original name stickball before it became an organized sport. Baseball was a game that many just played as part of their moderate exercise for recreational purpose or time and they used the game to stay in shape. It was usually a middle class white -collar worker who played the game.

My most memorable baseball experience came not when I was eight, beating several of my friends on the opposing Little League team, not when I was 15, against our cross-town rivals pushing my school team into the JV playoffs, but just a couple weeks ago, marking the first win of the team that I helped to coach. It was just the second game of our season, and only an hour and a half long, but it was a representation of the backbreaking work applied by everyone involved. After my ninth grade year playing JV ball, I decided that I needed to focus on my school work, as it was tough to maintain my grades while juggling sports and other extracurricular activities. However, I continued to play club baseball, as my passion for the game never faltered. The trend continued in my junior year, as I needed to drop club baseball in order to keep up with the challenging courses I took. My coach, who I’ve been with since 6th grade, asked me to come back out whenever I was available so I could help prepare a team of the younger boys in the program for the upcoming season. One of my core beliefs is that it’s essential to give back to those who helped or supported you; the least I could do for all the years that my coach helped me, was

My most memorable baseball experience came not when I was eight, beating several of my friends on the opposing Little League team, not when I was 15, against our cross-town rivals pushing my school team into the JV playoffs, but just a couple weeks ago, marking the first win of the team that I helped coach. It was just the second game of our season, and only an hour and a half long, but it was a representation of the backbreaking work applied by everyone involved. After my ninth grade year playing JV ball, I decided that I needed to focus on my school work, as it was tough to maintain my grades while juggling sports and other extracurricular activities. However, I continued to play club baseball, as my passion for the game never faltered. The trend continued in my junior year, as I needed to drop club baseball in order to keep up with the challenging courses I took. My coach, who I’ve been with since 6th grade, asked me to come back out whenever I was available so I could help prepare some of the younger boys in the program for the upcoming season. One of my core beliefs is that it’s important to give back to those who helped or supported you; the least I could do for all the years that my coach helped me, was to help him back.

Softball. It’s the art that I do when that lets me be myself. When I swing my bat and it hit the ball it’s like an artist stroking a line of paint on a canvas. When I am throwing a ball and it rolls of my finger tips it letting all the sadness, and worries go away. Playing the game is life painting a masterpiece. Each stroke on the bush is hitting the ball and running to first base. Music. It’s like a band-aid. To protect me when I don’t want to be sad, to express what I can’t express in words. Its when and artist can only express themselves when painted or drawing. And its like me when I listen to music,it’s how I express what I’m feeling inside.

As it turns out I did just as good as the last game throwing another two hitter. Next was the district championship against our rival Canfield. Unfortunately due to arm soreness I wasn’t able to pitch this game, but it didn’t matter our team had numerous pitchers. Similar to the previous two playoff games we blew them out. The game only lasted five innings and we won twelve to two. The following week game our first game in the regional tournament and we were playing Tallmadge. Unlike the district tournament we had no idea what the teams were like here, but it didn’t matter we were able to win both regional games six to four and then nine to six. At this time or teams dream came true, we had made it to the state tournament where we would play Columbus Bishop Watterson. This was one of the most nerve racking things that I had ever gone through. Once again I was named the starting pitcher. For the first time all season we came into a game as the underdog. All week long we had to hear about how good the team we were playing was and how they were going to kill us. Although everyone on the team would say otherwise I believe that we let this talk get to