First pickup game in the books

The first pickup game for the Malta Co-Ed Softball League is in the books. The game featured 19 participants that held a seven inning game at the Trafton Park Softball field last Tuesday, July 14.

Team A defeated Team B 15-9 thanks to a strong outing in the fifth inning which the team scored six runs.

Team A consisted of Lyle Stiffarm, Clayton Kill Eagle, Cheyenne Young, Omar Lett, Jill Thompson, Shannan Fried, Jerry Benge, Kate Cleveland and Jesse Young.

Team B consisted of Jo Tharp, Wes Kill Eagle, Francine Stiffarm, Lance Webb, Shyla Gairrett, Scott Thompson, Kayla Young, Justin Paul, Nathan Fried and Pierre Bibbs.

Cheyenne Young, who was a part of the winning side, was pleased with the opening game.

"First base is a lot farther than I remember," Young told the PCN.

She played fast and slow pitch softball in her childhood years when she lived in Oklahoma.

"When we lived in Oklahoma, I played left field," Young said, noting that she hadn't played since age 11. "I play right field now because no one hits in there."

She would have loved to continue playing baseball or softball but at the time Malta didn't have a steady baseball league for kids her age.

Over ten years later, Young had no idea that she would be playing again, but once she heard about the league, she was intrigued.

"I had no idea about it because Jo had talked about it on (social media site) and I'm not on any of those," Young said. "Kayla and Jesse were going and they were insistent on me going."

Last Tuesday, was her first time on the field in a while and she was encouraged.

"It went a lot better than I thought it was going to," Young said. "I thought I was going to strike out every time. I didn't ever really think I would make contact with the ball."

She made it to first base a couple of times that evening and even scored on a hit from Lett.

"I think it was Omar that was behind me and he hit it far enough out that I made from first all the way to home," Young said. "I was really out of breath after that."

Many players hadn't played softball in years and struggled to keep their breath. But the mood wasn't tense.

"It was so much fun," Young said. "There were people there that had never played softball before in their life," Young said. "No one really cared if you did good or if you even caught a pop fly ball or hit a home run. Everyone was just out there to have fun."

Young didn't have many opportunities to make defensive plays, but she remembers one that got away.

"I went to right field because no one hits it out that way and I was getting kind of distracted," she recalled. "there was some kind of weird noise coming from behind me, so I turned around to look and all I could hear was Omar and Jesse yelling my name because someone actually hit it to right field and I totally missed the ball."

She went on to say it was a lot of fun and that she is recruiting more people.

Inning by inning scoring:

In the first inning, Team A jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Team A would score again in the second, but Team B exploded for five scores, making the score 5-3 at the end of the second. Team B would outscore Team A in the third inning 2 to 1, giving Team B a 7-4 lead at the end of three innings. Neither team would score in the fourth inning. In the fifth inning Team A would go on a scoring rampage, racking up 6 runs, while Team B would score only one run, giving Team A a 10-8 lead after five innings played. Team A would then score five points in the sixth, while shutting down Team B's offense. The score was 15-8 at the end of six innings. Team B's infield tried to stop the bleeding, ending the top of