Curveball Confessions: A Girl's Softball Journey

Chapter 2

I drive my roommates, Caroline (Second Base, Junior, English) and Bailey (Catcher, Sophomore, Architecture) to practice for 6:45am at the indoor field since it's raining. We live in an off campus house thats maybe a ten minute walk from campus which is on the outskirts of the city but I rather drive so we don't need to carry our bat bags. Caroline and Bailey do not have cars since Caroline is from California and Bailey is from Alaska so their parents didn't want them to take their cars across the country to New York. My parents didn't have that logic... I am from Seattle, Washington and my Mom bought me a car for getting a full athletic and academic scholarship. Since we are barley paying for me to be hear, my Mom felt the need to pay for something big. The car is perfect since I have early and late practices with classes and labs in between.

"Hey girls." Marc says as we walk to the field. We drop our bags along the third base fence and the girls go to lay in the outfield. They look like they are trying to catch up on sleep. I am pretty sure they were up all night playing on their Nintendo Switches. I go to the grass along the third base line and start stretching before everyone else arrives. "How you feeling?" Marc asks me when I stand back up. "Fine." I plainly say. He looks at me before nodding his head. "More girls are coming. You good to lead team stretches after the rundown?" He asks me. "Of course. Thanks Coach." I punch his arm lightly which makes him smile. I bet I was making him nervous. I go back into my bat bag and get my mits out. My first base and pitchers gloves. I roll my eyes to myself before standing out.

"Lizzie! Hiya!" I hear that southern drawl from behind me. I sigh inaudibly before standing up. "Hi Beka." I say uninterested and go back to my bag. I stand back up and see her looking at me. "Yeah?" I ask, my one eyebrow raising. "I asked how your night was after tryouts." She says genuinely smiling. Why is she so god damn happy? "It was fine. How was your first night here?" I ask, trying to sound a little more enthused. "It was so nice! I love the city. The city lights. The sounds of the cars drivin'. It's relaxin'. All I had were the sounds of farm animals in Texas which gets really annoyin'. Have you ever heard a screamin' match between a cow and some horses? I would not recommend it to my worst enemy." Her drawl in full force today as she rambles. I just nod my head and fake a smile before I turn around and walk to my roommates. I look at my watch, 6:58am. I bend down and tap both of them on their shoulders. They slowly stir and yawn. I nod my head behind me before walking to center field where some of the team is. Maybe 12 or so which is about half our team of 25.

"Alright everyone," Marc starts to talk as he looks at his watch. "We are starting with batting for everyone and then we are splitting up between infield and outfield." He looks at his watch again and points at Vic and Corrie who start writing on their clipboards. "We are going to wait for everyone before I talk about the schedule. Captain, can you lead the..." He pauses to look at everyone. "Can you lead the 13 of you in team stretches? Everyone should be here by the time you are done." I shake my head. "Alright everyone circle up!" I shout as if it's not 7 in the morning."We count as a team or we redo it as a team. We will do it over and over until I hear each and everyone one you." I yell just not as loud. We all circle up around the infield and go through the team stretch routine which is about 15 minutes of standing stretches and active line stretches.

When more girls arrived, Marc just made them sit along the first base line until we were done. Marc directs us to stand behind the girls sitting. "Listen up. I am sending you home with the schedule for the season. Important dates to make mental notes of..." He pauses for Corrie to bring over a small white board. "We have a 40 game regular season. The first regular season game is a Classic, in late February in Florida. Last game is a 1v1 series in New Hampshire the first Tuesday of May. The Ivy League Championship is the first weekend of May. The Softball Bracket selection starts May 12th. First of the NCAA tournament starts May 17th and the first of the World Series starts May 30th and ends June 6th." He pauses to hand the board back to Corrie.