My Chemistry Department has a picnic every year called the Snout Out. The reason for such a name is for the whole pig that is roasted the previous night (or, rather, over night) and brought to the picnic. Other than that, there is typically hamburgers, brats, chips, etc. and a few games (volleyball, badminton, and the like). This year, however, the group that organizes the Snout Out decided to run a Divisional softball tournament (slow pitch) for the first time. The Divisions (Analytical, Materials, Physical, Inorganic, and Organic) were each given a team (Analytical and Materials were combined...both divisions are small and Materials was created out of Analytical just a few years ago). The games went: Analytical and Materials (my team) vs. Physical, Inorganic vs. Organic, 3rd place game, Championship game. My girlfriend was the team captain of the Analytical team (she is on the committee that organizes the Snout Out). Walks and strikeouts were not allowed (an absolutely brilliant rule for this type of tournament) and we were only playing 5 inning games, but all of the other rules were typical intramural slow pitch softball (such as ten fielders).

Well, the first game started pretty good, our first three batters all got hits (1 scored, the others were on 1st and 2nd) and then I came up to bat. I hit a fly ball to left center that dropped in front of one of the left-center fielder. Now, this grass was extremely dry, which had two effects: the ball did not bounce very well when it hit the ground and it would roll forever. So, when the ball bounced in front of him, it went under his glove and kept going. The guys on 1st and 2nd had held up, so I had to run slow for awhile...but as soon as it bounced they took off. Since the ball kept rolling, it was a pretty easy 3-run home run (my first in softball). We were up 4-0 at this point. No other scoring occurred until the bottom of the 3rd when the other team picked up 4 runs on us (I had an at-bat in there somewhere where I popped the ball up trying to hit it to right field, with a man on 3rd and 1 out...it was my Steve Finley moment). In the 4th inning, we scored 2 more runs to take a 6-4 lead and held them down in the bottom of the inning. As a sort of side note, our left-center fielder was a girl (she had played in high school and had been doing well out there) and she made a fantastic running catch, stretching all the way out for the over-the-shoulder catch, saving at least a man on 2nd and maybe a couple of runs that inning. Up came the 5th inning with the bottom of the order up first. Two outs, 2 on, and a run in later, I was back up to bat. This time I hit a long fly ball to left-center and it went over all of their heads. The runner on first again had held up, so I had to wait a little bit. My last look at the ball was as I was rounding second and they still weren’t near it, so I turned the afterburners on (the guys in front of me were far enough ahead at that point that it didn’t matter) and went home without caring where the ball was. Well, that gave me my 2nd 3-run home run of the game. And I was so exhausted that I sat out from fielding the next inning, but we pulled it out 10-4. As far as fielding went, I played 1B and SS, with not that many plays at first while I was there. I did get to catch a pop up at SS, though.

After that game, I went to find something to eat (a nicely charred burger) and drink (root beer from a keg...excellent). The Organic-Inorganic game was played and I came back and sort of watched the last two innings while talking to people. Organic won the game (I never found out the score) and the last two games were set. The 3rd place game took awhile and I found myself doing the same thing I did for the previous game (watching and talking), while trying to recover from my out-of-shape exhaustion and soreness from the two home runs. It came down to the last inning and Physical Chemistry had a man on second in the bottom of the inning with the score tied. The next batter hit a solid shot to left for a single, the ball was fielded cleanly, but the guy on second just kept running. He went all the way home and made it after the throw, but the catcher couldn’t hang onto the ball, and the game was over.

Onto the Championship Game, where we played as the home team. Things started rough as the Organic team picked up a run in the top of the first and had runners on. I again batted in the first inning, but I came up with no one on this time (the guy before me picked up a two-run homer). I was left stranded at first after a clean single. I then played some right field and had no balls come my way, but the right-center fielder (a staff scientist from my lab who wanted to play outfield because he can run and feels he still has it from playing softball a few years ago) made a couple of solid catches. Things were running pretty smoothly until the third inning, when the other team loaded the bases with 1 out. Fortunately, we were able to cause a pop up and a grounder to SS (me), where I assisted on the force at second. In the bottom of the inning, I batted once again, and hit another pop up (woohoo for the Steve Finley inside of me...as a matter of fact, I propose that pop ups from now on be called Finleys) In the bottom of the fourth, though, we broke out again, scoring 4 runs to put the game out of reach. In the top of the fifth I played first again, and all of the hits were grounders to the infielders for pretty easy outs to me. We won 6-1 and were the Chemistry Inter-Divisional Snout Out Softball Tournament Champions for 2005. I finished 3-5, with 2 home runs, a single and 6 RBI (oh yeah, and two Finleys).

Because of this, we also won the trophy: a styrofoam pig on a wooden base, all spray-painted gold and with a (real) fork sticking out of its back. This is a classic trophy, that you really have to see, but I do not have a camera. I am going to try to get a picture of it on Monday and post it here. My other trophy from the game is one that will only last a couple of days: soreness and exhaustion. Oh boy, I am sore.

UPDATE: Here are the pictures of the trophy: