I met up with a couple of my friends and walked over to the UT girls’ softball game against Florida Southern around 5 p.m. this past Friday. I had never been to a UT game before, but was familiar with the high ranking our women’s team has received: currently 13th in Division II softball, according to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association. I’ll be honest with you in saying that I’ve never been a fan of baseball or softball in general. I’ve always thought the game moved too slowly and the last softball game I went to was when I was 11 and my mom dragged me out to watch my sister play. However, I was never a big fan of volleyball either until I went to my first college game and watched our UT team basically rip apart every opponent they played. Knowing that, I thought I’d give it a shot, and as a member of the cross country and track team at UT, I can understand the importance of having fan support.
As I walked into the softball stadium, I was extremely impressed with the facilities. The seating area for the fans was small, but at the same time I got to sit about 20 feet away from home plate, which really put me in the middle of the action. The field was beautiful and bright green with the advantages of Florida weather and it definitely wasn’t like the sandlot I was used to seeing. I noticed a slew of girls, no older than 13, run around the stands, giggling with popcorn and hotdogs in their hands. Some of them wore their softball team’s T-shirt to the game. It reminded me of when I was little and my club soccer team got to watch the local university teams play. We idolized those girls and hoped one day we’d get a chance to play in college as well. I’ve noticed this at a lot of our soccer games with some of the little kids actually asking their coach if they could get the players’ autographs. I think this shows how much UT athletics is a great benefit for the Tampa community. Sure, we may not be Division I, but at the same time local coaches are able to get cheap tickets for their team to watch some pretty amazing athletes play.
The crowd lacked in size, with a small attendance of about 50, mostly being parents with a handful of UT students. However, the passion they had for the game was obvious, even at times when they didn’t agree with the umpire’s calls. I started to tune out the crowd as I became increasingly interested in the game itself. I was surprised at how fast the game was actually going which I think had to do with the field being smaller than the ones used for baseball. The players on the team had all sorts of cheers they would chant in the dugout and some of the fans even chanted with them. I think the combination of watching an extremely talented team play and seeing how excited they were to play, made me want to watch the game even more.
The Florida Southern Mocs led the game in the beginning leading with two in the top of the first inning. However, the Spartans quickly struck back when Stacy Piagno hit a triple RBI (run batted in) that sent Kayleen Boatwright and Katie Bannon across home plate. Taylor Storey’s double was able to get Piagno across the plate as well. While the Mocs tried to catch up, scoring two more, the Spartans were able to secure the game with a score of 6-4. The end of this game marked the Spartans winning all three games of the series against Florida Southern.
I think going to the game was a great experience and I recommend anyone that hasn’t been to one to try it out. It may or may not be your thing, but I think students should really take advantage of all the great athletics programs we have and the opportunity to attend these games for free.