Some games are remembered for great hitting. Some for outstanding defense. Some for spectacular plays. And some are remembered because everybody probably should have gone home about ten minutes earlier.
The Visitors came to play and apparently didn't believe in easing into things. DiPietro, Adkins, Ownby, Lainhart, Woodsby, Bales and Wilcox — the first seven batters of the game — ALL recorded base hits.
Seven batters. Seven hits. Five runs.
At that point, the Home team probably realized this was not going to be one of those relaxing Wednesday mornings at the ballpark.
The Home team did have an offensive hero in Ralph, who accounted for three of the team's seven runs with two doubles and a home run.
Apparently Ralph did not receive the memo about how the rest of the morning was going.
The Visitors added another run in the second when Brooks launched a home run, accounting for the only run of the inning.
Meanwhile, the Visitors' defense was apparently in a hurry to get back into the shade.
Over the next two innings, the Home team sent seven batters to the plate and recorded six outs.
And the third inning?
Tillman threw three pitches. Three outs.
That's not an inning.
That's barely enough time to get comfortable in your lawn chair.
Unfortunately for the Home team, the Visitors weren't nearly as interested in speeding things up when they were batting.
Ownby launched a home run, Woodsby singled, Bales doubled, and Wilcox, Brooks, Tillman and Taber followed with singles as another five runs crossed the plate.
The Home defense finally found the brakes in the fifth and shut down the Visitors without a run.
The Home bats also started showing some life, scoring two in the fifth and another three in the sixth.
Maybe we had ourselves a ballgame after all!
Well...
Then senior softball happened.
There was a great throw from the outfield.
There was a play at the plate.
There were opinions.
There were opinions about the opinions.
There was discussion.
There was rebuttal.
There may have been enough material for opening statements, closing arguments and a short appeal.
Eventually everybody remembered we were actually there to play softball, and the game resumed.
Briefly.
With the Visitors holding a 16-7 lead and the flip-flop rule coming into play, we discovered there were also...
opinions about the flip-flop rule.
Strong opinions.
Very strong opinions.
Apparently stronger than our collective desire to finish the softball game.
After a little more spirited debate, a few players decided they'd had enough softball — and enough parliamentary procedure — for one morning and headed for the parking lot.
And with that, the game was called.
Final score:
Visitors 16 — Home 7
We had home runs.
We had doubles.
We had great defensive plays.
We had a three-pitch inning.
We had drama.
We had debate.
We had doubles.
We had great defensive plays.
We had a three-pitch inning.
We had drama.
We had debate.
Basically, all we were missing was a concession stand selling popcorn.
What happens on the softball field should probably stay on the softball field.
We'll leave Wednesday's drama there, come back Monday, hit the ball, catch the ball, throw the ball and — here's a crazy idea — maybe just play softball.
See you on the field!