By Richard Lugo
This competitive spirit was taken to Wheeler Park this past Sunday, as most of the communications majors played in the inaugural SPJ@ULV Softball game. The PR and print students played the role of underdog as they shocked the overconfident radio and TV students, beating them 14-10 in nine innings.
“They came in thinking they were going to demolish us,” senior journalism major and SPJ@ULV treasurer Galo Pesantes said. “It was fun being able to leave the ACB and play softball with my peers,” senior PR major Taryn Aguilar said. “It was hot, but we won so it’s all good.”
The afternoon kicked off at about 3 p.m. with both teams warming up, putting together lineups and trying to stay cool, as the temperature had unofficially reached the low 90s. With a moderate crowd of family and friends filling the bleachers, the game began with Radio/TV jumping out to a 5-2 lead. The spark for the Print/PR team came in the form of a lead-off home run from senior journalism major and SPJ@ULV vice president of print Matt Loriso.
“I don’t think anybody expected it,” Loriso said. “I wasn’t prepared to run that much.”
Early on it seemed that with their depth and athleticism, the Radio/TV team would easily handle their opponents; however, it was the Print/PR team who seemed to get stronger each inning. Senior Troy Doolittle had a solid performance at pitcher overcoming a five run first inning and held the opponents to only five more runs over the next eight innings.
“Our team effort was clutch,” Pesantes said. “It wasn’t just one person, everybody did really well.”
Each batter got a personalized song played as they came up to bat and their name announced by the color commentators as there was an atmosphere of fun that at times overshadowed the competitiveness between the two teams.
Throughout the game lots of laughs were exchanged with fielders dancing to some select songs and dugouts throwing out chants at the pitchers. The Print/PR team chipped away at their deficit, eventually taking control of the game with bursts of offense. Both teams had their share of big defensive plays but it was the Print/PR team who made the stops when they needed it the most, winning the game 14-10.
“We were very overconfident,” senior TV major Diana Castillo said.
The only non-Communications major to play was 10 year-old Nathan Keeler, son of Communication’s Department Chair, George Keeler, who played first base for the Print/PR team. Keeler was instrumental in getting outs as he snatched every ball thrown his way.
“Without Nathan Keeler, the Print/PR team wouldn’t have won,” junior radio major Hannah Nakama said. “In our major we deal with pens, papers and computers all week but playing softball on a Sunday afternoon was a really good idea.”
“Everything went really well,” Castillo said. “Andres (Rivera) and I wanted to have something fun for everyone and I think everyone had a good time.”
