Outdoor Fall Practices End with First Annual Pumpkin Festival
October 27, 2008 | Softball
Oct. 27, 2008
LUBBOCK, Texas - The final outdoor practice session of the fall for the 2009 softball team included drills designed to test throwing and hitting accuracy, at the expense of some lovely pumpkins, and included a pair of extremely entertaining relay races.
The winning team, pictured on the front page, featured team members from left, Danielle Matthews, Amanda Wagner, Megan Shupp, Leah Legler and Emily Bledsoe, who were most successful in their attempts to destroy their pumpkin by hitting it with various throwing and hitting drills. But, it was their ability to carry their favorite-fall-overgrown-fruit and transfer the pumpkin quickly from team-member to team-member as each player scampered around the bases that set this team apart and eventually carried them to victory. Given that each pumpkin weighed more than 15 pounds, the most amazing stat is that none were dropped as three, five-member teams tried to outrun teammates on the bases at the same time.
"It was a gorgeous late October afternoon in Lubbock," coach Amy Suiter said. "We wanted the team to enjoy the fruits of their labors of fall [editor's note: all puns are always intentional] and we think trying to hit pumpkins from various parts of the infield and outfield demonstrated the level of skills we've achieved as many players plunked the pumpkins with great consistency. And, the relay race? Well that was just a bonus to add conditioning drills and fun to our afternoon. I'm certain that part was more entertaining for the staff than maybe the team?"
The second-place finishers, Liz Eimen, Ashley Hamada, Jennifer Lee, Ashly Jacobs and Holley Gentsch. made a late charge at the leaders, but fell just short (although no pumpkin hit the ground) of surging past the first-place team.
The third-place team embraced their bronze-medal performance as success and wanted to remind fans that they were at a slight disadvantage given that three of their five members are pitchers, after-all, who are not expected to be quite as quick as people who have the nickname "Rocket"! That team was: Tye Coats, Stephanie Drewry, Karli Merlich, Skyler Peterson and Alex Watkins.
Drills largely move indoors for the remainder of the fall season as players focus on their academics, community service commitments, which include work for such organizations as Habitat for Humanity, and to improving individual skills. The team also looks forward to hosting several prominent recruits at the end of the week. National signing of letters of intent are part of the schedule for November and will be announced at the appropriate time.
The team's competition schedule for 2009 is in the process of final approvals and will be released over the next few weeks as well.
