ABOVE: Senior Nicole Memale, hugs a teammate after scoring following her triple in the fifth against Wilton.
5/21/2009
Not once in the five years, eleven months and seventeen days of my employment at the Advocate have I covered a softball game at Westhill High School. Until today.
Sure, I’ve shot the team countless times, but never a home game.
Photographer Kathleen O’Rourke assured me the field was great for photography because of decent sight-lines but I found myself sitting in the dirt atop a couple of boxes of game balls and way too close to the on deck ‘circle’ for comfort. The last thing I need right now is to be nursing a fractured skull.
But this did provide for an up close experience of the game. Not only was I getting inside info from the shortstop – who at one point was reading signs for me – but I also could overhear the coaches and players.
When Nicole Memale was on deck in the fifth, coach Tom Pia stepped over and said “you are gonna put this in the outfield. Just wait for a pitch that’s a little outside and swing through.”
And she did.
Memale stroked an RBI triple into deep center and scored on the next at bat. She was elated. After the obligatory home plate congratulations, she settled into the dugout and said to nobody in particular, “that was exhilarating.”
As former Giants manager Roger Craig would say, “Humm baby!”
–CP
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