Thwack !: A Short Story Of Softball

At the beginning of the Softball season, I had a horrible pitch, now after a ton of practice, I can finally get a perfect pitch. I always wanted to be a pitcher because there were only two pitchers on my team. But it was me against my coach and my team. Would the coach approve my pitch? Would the team accept me as a pitcher? Read my story to find out.

In between high season and travel ball season my dad has been trying to build up my confidence. Which back to the story in Alabama, something is tugging on my arm. It’s not going to well but I’m trying. New team, new coach, and new competition. Explosion are half way into the season, it’s July 16, 2016. The tournament was at Clearmont, IN. I get to the field and heard that we were playing the team that my friend from my high school team, Ellie Hulwager, a girl that is short with dirty blonde hair, with noticeable blue eyes. She plays for the Aftershock, a team that I tried out for that didn’t give me a second look, Ellie pitches for the team and also plays center field. It’s game time I get to the field, all the teams go out for the coin toss. Aftershock calls heads, it lands on heads, after conversation with the coach the player says,”We’ll take home.” The teams run back into their dugouts and we grab our helmets and bats. Looking at the lineup, I look for my spot, fourth. I sit on the bench and talk to my teammates, not paying attention to the game, I heard someone yell,”Katie, your up.” I shoot up and throw my gloves and helmet on and grab my black and red, thirty-three inch bat. I step in the batters box, I look around, bases loaded. I didn’t think anything of it. The pitcher isn’t Ellie, she winds up and the pitch comes, it’s low and out side, I hit the ball and I’m at a dead sprint to first. I looked at my

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.

Ever since I can remember, I always played softball. My Dad played it, his sister, my sister, and my brother played baseball. Like a wuss, my brother quit playing, because he had a pop up hit him in the face. Though, when I played, I would get hit by the ball all the time, and get right back up. Throughout my years of playing, and trying to find a position that I liked, I loved to hit. Every game in little league till I was in 14U, I was always fourth in the batting lineup. The older I was the better I played, sure I had a few bad games, but nothing like this.

Although it would have been easier at the time to stick with what I knew, I wouldn’t let the doubt of others instill itself in my mind. I continued to work hard, excited to prove myself when given the opportunity, with and dedication and determination I knew I had the ability to create my own luck, my chance would come soon enough. And it did. My second year of high school softball rolled around and I knew my chance had arrived. Our only third basemen graduated and it was my turn to prove myself. I wasn’t perfect by any means, but my hard work and dedication that I had put into the sport proved undeniable. At the end of the season I had received first- team all-metro, first- team all-league, and honorable mention all-region, for third

Softball isn’t all smiles and winning. Sometimes things could almost get sweet. For instance, we were the first team to ever beat Gladstone. I remember it was the second game of the season and we were playing at the dome. I remember Zeke punching the air, “Hell yeah! That’s what I want to see!” and telling us we didn’t have to clean up the equipment because we had won. We went home on a high, so incredibly proud to be on that team.

When I was playing travel softball for Angels Fastpitch in my second year of ten and under softball, this memoir began. My coach would not play me much because he said I was not good enough, he said I could not catch. He said many other things all were horrible. The emotions that came

I have known Lauryn Banks my entire softball career. Three words that come to my mind when I think of Lauryn are dedicated, supportive, and extraordinary. She is truly one of the most incredible teammates that I could ever have the honor of playing with. Lauryn is the epitome of hardwork. Our high school has an extremely competitive softball team. However, this did not discourage Lauryn. After making JV her sophomore year, she worked incredibly hard to make Varsity her junior. Not only did she make the Varsity team, she was by far one of the most stand out players on the team. Her hard work paid off when she was awarded second team all district infielder. Lauryn is both vocally a leader on the team and a leader by example. Whenever the team is down Lauryn is always there to pick us up.

I remember that day as if it was like yesterday, it was a warm day, the sun shining, and it was the perfect weather for us to play in. The important day for the Iowa-Grant Panther Softball 5th and 6th grade team, it was our championship game.

Softball ruled over my life from the time I was five years of age until I was fourteen. According to the people who had watched one of my games, I played first base phenomenally and had some wonderful at bats when I focused on centering my power to hit the ball with all the force I could muster. Unfortunately and fortunately, my father coached every team I played on from T-ball to fast-pitch. At every game, he observed my mechanics and hand-eye coordination, and this pulled memories of watching my brother hit numerous home runs and make game-winning outs from his mind. On nearly all of the car rides home, he would tell me “You remind me so much of Dusty. I see him the way you throw, in the way you hit the ball, and the way you present

Nothing beat the overwhelming emotion of stepping up on the pitcher’s mound and hearing the chant of my name, my heart clawing its way out of my chest. Before throwing the first warmup pitch, my mind raced through the entire season. How, as a team, we have made history winning all three major tournaments in the high school level. We had beaten many top competitors and lost plenty crushing defeats as well. My mind pondered, which situation will I be in today, glorious victory or destructive loss. This is the feeling I lived for during high school, it was my sole purpose. However, this was merely one minute of that fateful day in which I played prodigiously trying to win a baseball game.

Have you ever had so much passion for a sport you have been playing for almost your whole life? I love playing all positions of softball and I admire everything that comes with it that includes battle wounds, road trips to games, making memories to practicing out on home field getting ready to bat some love into their lives. Softball is not an easy sport at all but it’s my passion and a privilege to be able to stand on that field. So much love, effort and hard work has been put in over the years. After 12 years of truly knowing the sport these are my favorite things out on the field such as pitching with strength, sliding with passion, and batting to hear all of your support to make a home run!

From softball, to jobs, to community service, the plethora of knowledge I received shaped me into the person I am today. My involvement in a variety of activities make my success in life, possible. Although I may continue this sport after high school, it has still given me lifelong lessons that I will hold on to for the rest of my being.

As soon as I made my very first varsity baseball appearance, I knew that I had to be the very best I could be or there was never going to be a chance of ever putting on that white and maroon crisp cleaned dri-fit Russel number 18 jersey. My heart was beating beyond faster than it should be at my first at bat because I had always heard “Just wait you haven't seen nothing yet, wait till you face them varsity pitchers.” Players older than me had constantly been saying that throughout my freshman season and it kept repeating over and over in my head like a broken record. Although I had studied the pitcher and had seen with my very own eyes, he wasn’t as good as everyone talked him up to be. I was still overawed and very nervous about messing up.

Foremost, being a pitcher made me realize how important it is to have a short-term memory. When I was on the mound, I knew that the result of the previous batter had no bearing on what the next batter would do. For example, when I gave up a big hit, before the next batter came to the plate, I had to forget about what just happened. In softball, it is important to not dwell on the negatives, but learn from them. Because of pitching, I know yesterday’s failures can turn into tomorrow’s successes. I plan to have the same attitude in the legal field when obstacles come my way.