Softball equipment. Image by pictureback from Pixabay
IOF Loses Semi-Final to Psychology in Final Inning
John Updike once observed that every true story has an anticlimax. Following the preceding win, the aesthetic choice would have been to leave the field. The prior playoff win had been so long coming, such a perfect presentation of perseverance, pluck and payoff that to continue to play could only have served to puncture the magic of the performance.
But the win earned a second-round match-up against Psychology, to begin immediately after the first game. The sight of the Psychotic players taking to the field beseeched the IOF players to the plate, and the semi-finals began.
The Psychotics are a mean team, notorious for beating the Botany Department team so badly in 2018 that the “Flower Children” folded the next day and switched to permanently playing wiffleball. The RCMP had to be called to one of their games against Dentistry in 2019 to enforce the 5-run per inning mercy rule. The IOF showed no fear.
The game was played tight in a light rain. The Reefs offence struggled but the defence shined. A laser from Ben O’Connor from the outfield to complete a double play at first base. A diving catch behind home plate by Captain Kristen Sora to secure an out. All-star Anna McLaskey making it look easy shagging fly balls in right centre field.
Despite a Psychotic’s third baseman intent to get under the Reefs’ players skin, the IOF played the game to a near draw. Down 3 runs in the top of the 5th, a triple by Ben Staples drove in 3 Reefs players, Jacob Lerner, Elliot Roocroft, and Sterling Vanderzee. Ben himself scored on the ensuing at bat when Dana “Full” Price laced a line drive to left field. The IOF was up 1 run with 6 outs left in the game.
Both teams went scoreless their next time up, and it was down to the final at bat for Psychology to determine who would make the championship. Though you would not have known it because Haley Oleynik was still awake, the clock had stuck midnight on the IOF’s Cinderella story. Several hits pushed through the Reef’s defence and the Psychotics took the game by a run.
With the game over, the IOF loitered on the field, unsure if they should be content with their stunning early victory or crushed by their proximity to greatness. By the time the team repaired to Biercraft for overpriced drinks and slow service, the sky was glowering and the light rain had stiffened to a steady pour, the wan evening light casting an apposite gloom over the proceedings.
The season exhausted, the Reefs took stock of the future, embracing that ineffable feeling that often settles over the end of summer camps and college graduations. Some players will be defending their theses in the coming year, likely not to return next season (Lekha Thlo); others plan to be back (Adam Hicks, surely). That future team will inherit not just the returning players, but the 2022 team’s irrepressible spirit and penchant, like sea otter intestines, for the occasional surprise.
Tags: IOF Student Society, softball