Softball in the Gig Harbor sunshine
I’m happy now. I love softball. I’m not sure what it is that I love so much, but I just love playing. Yesterday was the first game of the season for our team, the Believer’s Fellowship Harborites. At 6:15pm, we gathered at Harbor Ridge Middle School underneath a glorious sun filled sky. You know that picture you always see of Gig Harbor, the one with the boats on the harbor and Mt Rainier in the background? That’s the view from Harbor Ridge.
With temps in the 70’s our team met up with the folks from United Methodist Church. They can hit. They can hit far. They did hit far. At the end of 1 1/2 innings, we were down 8-0 thanks to 3 balls that they hit over the trees that make up the outfield fence. I was ready to bench our pitcher, Phil Hoffman (owner of Phil’s Landscaping in Gig Harbor; not the most creative name but certainly one of the most creative and best landscapers in Gig Harbor), but he’s a nice guy and I can’t pitch, so I figured might as well leave him in there.
I’m happy to report that even down 8-0, we were still all having fun. We’ve got a great group of guys and gals on our team this year, and while we weren’t thrilled about getting trounced, we were still having fun. To make a long story less long, Phil settled in, our defense woke up (minus my 2 errors at short), and our bats woke up (well, Steve Harlander’s bat did…he’s a member of one of our vocal teams at church and an auto mechanic who was complaining about old age, but he didn’t look too old crushing a ball over the right field fence trees and later legging out a triple to center). Steve and recent GHHS grad Brandon Mower kind of kept us in things. We entered the bottom of the 7th (we only play 7 in softball) down 10-9, and a 2-RBI double by Scott Mower gave us a walk off win. Fun stuff!
There aren’t too many good softball fields in Gig Harbor, but I think there are some proposed parks that are working on that. Harbor Ridge is beautiful, but the infield is kind of like concrete. One of my errors was a result of me being in perfect position to field the ball, then having the ball hit a rock and bounce up off of my forearm (my other error is the result of me not being able to catch a pop up…ooops). The sunshine, the folks, and the game made for a perfect day. I love softball, and I love summer in Gig Harbor! You can follow all of the league’s action at our new website, www.ghcsl.org
Lighthouse Christian School principal Tim Hoy preps to hit a 6th inning double to help bring us back in the game.
It looks like Jay Buhner’s out of retirement, but really it’s Scott Mower, on his way to hit the walk-off double that gave us the 11-10 win.
“Mommy, why doesn’t daddy catch the ball? All the other people are catching it?”
Our only fan trying to figure out this funny game.
