Wolfpack Thrashes Hometown Heroes

The game started out normal enough as both teams plated two runs in the top of the first. Yep, you could see it on the Pack players' faces, “Here we go again.” In the second inning, the Wolfpack decided to take the suspense out of this game. Billy Parker, on the mound for his fourth start of the season, shut the Hoyas down. Then, in the bottom half of the second, the Pack got nasty with their bats. Actually, nasty probably isn’t a good enough descriptor. Let’s try, the Wolfpack got really nasty. After the first batter flew out, Dean Duhon followed with a walk. Of course Dean in his first year in the league has obviously already earned a reputation that has spread throughout the league as the Hoyas staff continuously pitched around him. After three at bats, Dean had walked three times. That’s what I call putting fear into the enemy. Of course, maybe after last week’s write-up describing that first disastrous swing and miss, he was just scared of risking a repeat performance.

Following Dean, Melissa Hein and Kara Martin got on base to load the bases. Greg Marlow delivered with a run scoring single, and the merry-go-round just started going round and round from that point. Brian Copeland, Phil Blalock, Ed Taylor and Billy Parker got hits. And the hits didn’t stop there. Everybody was getting a hit. Claire Hackney, Dean Duhon, Scooby Doo, Scrappy Doo, Kara Martin, Melissa Hein, Fred Flintstone, Yukon Cornelius, Hermie the Elf, the Abominable Snow Monster……and do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all. Yes, even Rudolph got on base. I told you everybody got on base. The final tally had the Wolfpack sending nine runs across the plate. Also, for the first time in Wolfpack softball history, a female batter reached base twice in the same inning. Of course, not just one person performed this feat, but two did. Both Kara Martin and Melissa Hein reached base twice in the inning that sunk the Georgetown ship.

Of course, the Pack just couldn’t allow themselves to enjoy a good thing as the lead was cut to 13-8 after the fourth inning. It would have been even closer if not for a dazzling play by Claire Hackney at 3rd. With the bases loaded, a ball was hit foul down the third base line in the middle of the Georgetown bench area. Hackney managed to dodge duffle bags, bicycles and baseball bats and still make the catch as she tumbled to the ground. On a scale of 1 to 10, we can only give Claire a 5 for her gracefulness, but the catch was definitely a 10. Bruce Baldwin, who had entered the game for Billy Parker at pitcher in the 4th, held the Hoyas scoreless in the 5th. Of course, this came with help from the Wolfpack defense.

The Pack offense once again erupted with hits from Jason Singer, Phil Blalock, Bruce Baldwin and many more. Heat Mizer, Cold Mizer, Mother Nature and Mr. and Mrs. Claus even got hits. Now don’t tell me you don’t recognize that list of characters? Come on people, pull it together. That’s from “The Year Without a Santa Clause.” You know the one. It has the song, “I’m Mr. Heat Mizer, I’m Mr. Sun. I’m Mr. White Christmas. I’m Mr. One Hundred and One. They call me Heat Mizer, cause what ever I touch…..starts to melt in my clutch. I’m tooooo much.” I knew that would jolt your memory. Yeah, I know. It’s not the same without the music. Don’t know why I’m on the Christmas cartoon kick. Guess it’s all this nasty weather we’ve had this Spring. Anyway, before I went off on my tangent, the Pack scored twelve runs to open a 25-8 cushion and cruised from that point taking a 26-8 victory.

Many of you probably don’t realize that after the games, the Wolfpack team joins other alumni groups at one of the local watering holes for burgers and other items. Well, one of our rookies, Nick Higgins, gives a pretty good account of some of the things that occur at these gatherings in the following excerpt. Just for the record. This publication in no way endorses the drinking of mind altering substances after softball games. Well, that is, unless they make you dance better, or more entertaining to converse with. But for any other reasons beer is not acceptable. None of the participants in the following event became inebriated due to participating in the mentioned event. Well, at least they claim not to remember being inebriated. It's kind of like that old saying, is there actually a sound is nobody is around to hear it. Well, in this case, if you were inebriated, but nobody in the group can remember anything about the night, were you really inebriated?

After an invigorating defeat of the Hoyas from local Georgetown University, the Wolfpack Softball team decided to head over to their favorite post-game watering hole, The Bottom Line.

Long after the seasoned veterans had left the bar with their walkers, 5 rookies found themselves left to fend for Wolfpack pride in "Last Man Standing", another softball tradition. (The team with the most members in the bar at 11:00 wins.) Amber Huffman, Jason Singer, Allison Lunsford and Liz & Nick Higgins tried their chances against a larger crowd of well-beveraged Michigan State alumni. After 2 rounds of a shouting match, the judges couldn't come up with a decisive winner, so the night bartender decided to settle it like any normal person would, via a drink off.

3 highball glasses and three shot glasses were laid out for each side. Beer flowed from the Miller Lite Tap into the highball glass and the bartender carefully poured 6 shots of apple liquor into each representatives shot glass. The rules were relayed to the participants, "Chug the beer first, then take the shot". Jason, Nick and Liz decided it was their turn to step up to the plate to try to win the Wolfpack some points. A strong start by Liz enabled the Pack to jump out to an early lead, but the Michigan State representatives were too much to overcome and the Pack suffered a tough loss.

During the obligatory congratulations, the Wolfpack ladies decided to challenge the Spartans to a friendly game of flip cup (another beer drinking game, imagine that). Even the DJ and bartender joined in the fun, but this proved to be a bad idea for all those involved who weren't wearing the Red and White from NC State.

NC State finished the evening with a 3 - 1 flip cup record under the leadership of Allison, Liz and Amber with the only loss coming when Nick subbed in for Allison to grab some water.

We can't make any promises, but we were told this stellar flip-cup performance earned NC State a tie with Michigan State in the record books for the May 13, 2003 "Last Man Standing" contest.