As is often the case, the friction between the Turck 2 and Turck 4 teams preceded the game itself. I shamefully admit getting caught up in the hysteria when I lost my temper and, borrowing an insult from my second-grade sister, called my soccer teammate Drew Bahrenburg a “stupidhead.” I have to live with that now. When confronted after the game about the incident, Bahrenburg reportedly accepted my apologies, saying “It’s understandable, adrenaline gets the better of all of us sometimes, I just didn’t think he (me) had the heart to say those things.” I don’t Drew, I don’t.

Competing as one of only two experienced Mac softball players, the Turck 2 RA, who asked to be identified only as “Dave,” pitched the game’s only strikeouts. Although it drew much criticism from the opposing dugout, which erroneously claimed that strikeouts weren’t supposed to be the defensive objective, Dave’s underhand slider proved to be one of the few highlights for Turck 2.

There was brief hope for the struggling freshmen when Jacob Segal hit a ball that for any able-bodied person would have been a home run. Quite to the contrary, the play only inspired a wave of profanities from his teammates as Segal hardly hobbled to second base. It was later discovered that Segal was playing on a bad posterior, an injury from a previous soccer game.

Apart from these rare moments of expectancy, the game was primarily a painful experience for the second floorers. One swing from Turck 2 player John Gwin induced fear even in his own dugout when he completely missed the ball, mistakenly sending the bat soaring from his hands. As the airborne bat struck the backstop only feet from the un-geared catcher, players from both sides agreed that the swing could be deemed “nearly fatal.” Gwin will be fined accordingly.

Expected to be a competitive group in the 2004 interfloor games, the inhabitants of the second floor left the field stunned at their 9-2 loss. Caught in a flustered state, captain Dave told reporters “It really wasn’t as bad as the score says, plus we weren’t even trying this week. Just wait ’till we play soccer.” Yeah, just wait ’till we play soccer.