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After a season full of forfeited games, the two undefeated teams met in a one game playoff for the championship. The first batter from Where my pitches at smoked a line drive to right field that got past the Re-Entry right fielder for a homerun to open up the game. The next batter hit a dribbler in front of home plate, and by the time our third baseman Andrew reached the ball, there was no play to be made. Despite the auspicious start, the next batter hit a pop fly to the right side of the infield. Our second baseman, Clara, drifted back and made a nice play to corral the pop up. With the runner on first headed for second, Clara alertly tossed the ball to Taylor at first base to complete the double play, earning her the first web gem of the game. The third out of the inning followed, with Andrew this time fielding a short ball and firing to first to end the inning.

It looked like Re-Entry would go down meekly in the first inning after towering fly ball to deep left field by Andrew was tracked down by the left fielder. Taylor followed with a foul ball on the third pitch for the second out of the inning. But, then the Re-Entry bats came alive, with some help from the Where my pitches at defense. Mike opened the Re-Entry hit parade with a double to left field. Clara followed with a hit into the hole between shortstop and third base that the shortstop was able to reach but had no play due to Clara's speed on the base paths! Howie followed with a softly hit ball to the left of the first baseman, who was not able to come up with the ball cleanly, and suddenly the bases were loaded. Katie followed with the big hit of the inning---a solid line drive to right center field driving in two runs. Three successive hits plated three more runs, but on the last hit, Owen was cut down at home plate, when the Where my pitches at first baseman barely beat her to the plate to apply the tag to end the inning. Re-Entry had a 5--1 lead at the end of the first inning.

In the top of the second inning, Where my pitches at opened the inning with a single. A slowly hit ground ball to the shortstop resulted in a force out at second base, after Howie fielded the ball and outraced the baserunner to the bag. The next hitter hit a line drive to the left of the first baseman. Taylor made a valiant effort to snag the ball, but in bounced off her glove and was deflected in the direction of Clara. But Clara was surprised by the deflection, and the ball double-deflected off her shin. However, Howie was backing up the play and was in a fortuitous position as the ball ended up heading right to him. He was able to field the ball and win another race to the bag at second for the force out and the second out of the inning. A strikeout ended the Where my pitches at threat, and the score remained 5--1.

In the bottom of the second, the Re-Entry bats continued the onslaught of the first inning. After two singles to open the inning, Clara grounded into a 6--5 forceout. But that was to be the only out of the inning. Nine straight hits followed. The big blows were a double by Mike to drive in the first run of the inning and Andrew's triple to deep left center field to drive in Bryce and Clara for the final two runs of the inning. In fact, Andrew's hit would have been a homerun, except for the fact that the ten run rule was invoked after Clara crossed the plate with the tenth run. One additional consequence of the ten run inning was that it ate up a lot of time on the clock. With the game starting ten minutes late (due to the late arrival of our opponents) and an early sunset, it was not clear how many more innings could be played before darkness prevailed.

The top of the third inning resembled the first inning, when the same first batter from Where my pitches at again smoked a line drive to right field that got past the Re-Entry right fielder for a homerun. But that was all the offense that Where my pitches at could muster. After two quick outs, the last Where my pitches at batter hit a pop fly into shallow left field. Our shortstop, Howie, raced back and with his back to the infield reached up and caught the pop fly with an over the shoulder backhand grab. This defensive web gem ended the top of the third inning. At this point, Re-Entry was ready to resume the offensive onslaught. But, darkness was quickly descending, and the umpires decided that in light of the lopsided score, they would declare the game over. Re-Entry was once again the UCSC Coed Softball Champions, finally ending their recent losing streak in Championship games at three. The three year drought was finally over!

Game log

First inning

Andrew flies out to left field.
Taylor fouls out to the third baseman.
Mike doubles to left field.
Clara singles to the shortstop.
Howie singles to the first baseman. Clara advances to second. Mike advances to third.
Katie singles to right center field. Mike scores. Clara scores. Howie advances to third.
Steve singles to center field. Howie scores. Katie advances to second.
Owen singles to the second baseman. Katie scores. Steve advances to second. On the overthrow, Steve advances to third. Owen advances to second.
Bryce singles to left field. Steve scores. Owen advances to third. Owen attempts to take an extra base and is tagged out at home plate.

Second inning

Third inning