Bat Attitude

First Place

Fall Co-ed Softball at Queen Anne Sundays

The championship tilt for the QA late summer league was a hard-fought battle between two exhausted teams, as Bat Attitude emerged victorious with a 24-20 win over Sodo Mojo at the Dahl ballfields. It's their second Underdog championship, having also won the fall season in 2021.

Both teams had to win two games earlier in the day to get this far. Bat Attitude defeated Catch Balls Not Feelings and Masterbatting Octopuses; and then Sodo Mojo, who ended up playing three consecutive games with very little in the way of a break, advanced by beating The Bomb Squad and the top-seeded Panthers. "I tweaked my lower back on a play in the first game," said Mojo leadoff man Tyler Yi, "so I was actually kind of hoping we'd lose to the Panthers and I could go home. But, you know, this is fun too." Yi then staggered slowly back to his dugout in search of hydration. "So thirsty..." he muttered.

Meantime, Bat Attitude had a break of a bit more than 2½ hours, which they used to fuel up with a meal at a nearby tavern. "Plus beer," said outfielder Yuichi Watanabe. "Wait, were we not supposed to have beer?"

Suitably refreshed, Attitude responded to Mojo's 2-run top of the first with an immediate home run by team captain Ryan Hollis and plated two more in the frame to take a 3-2 lead. They expanded the gulf in the second and third, ending that frame with a seemingly comfortable 12-5 advantage. But Mojo would not go quietly into the rapidly approaching night—they erupted for eight runs in the top of the fourth, the extra tally coming on an aggressive tumble into the plate by 3B Brent Vogel after chugging around the bases behind runs 6 and 7. The score was then 13-12 Mojo and things weren't looking so great for Bat Attitude.

For about three minutes. Attitude responded by putting up their own max-runs inning to go ahead 19-13 and never looked back. With three more runs in the 5th and two in the 6th, they survived a late comeback attempt by Mojo as the sunlight faded over the expansive park.

"Everyone played a part in this win," said Hollis. "Stacy kept getting those perfect-hop hits on pitches above her head; Nick dove for balls all afternoon in the field; Yuichi, Jonathan, Ray, Blair, Drew, everyone came through with big hits." Said outfielder Stacy Crandall, "We came together as a team. Everyone did their part. Well, not Frankie, but everyone else."

Regular catcher Frankie Estep chose to miss the playoff day of games entirely, apparently having better things to do. "She's at some poolside in Italy or someplace, some villa," Stacy said while rolling her eyes and making air quotes around "villa." "Like going to Europe is cool or something. Whatever. I'm going to Manila next week but you don't see me missing softball."

Hollis credited Sodo Mojo with a fine effort on the other side. "Those guys are really good," he said. "They gave us a real run for our money." He then held up his Underdog Champion Wristband. "But we got these."