Women Duel in Senate Softball League Game
By Aaron Guerrero
Posted at 10:22 p.m. on June 5, 2012
(Aaron Guerrero/CQ Roll Call)
Tonight’s game between Harkin’s Heroes and the Bama Bangers, a pair of Senate Softball League teams, may have featured a first this season: two female starters.
In a seesaw of a game, the collection of staffers mostly from Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin’s office walked away victorious in their first game of the year against a team filled with staffers from the Alabama delegation.
Harkin’s Heroes had Senate Softball League Commissioner Sonja Hoover out on the hill of thrills. For the Bangers, their female starter declined to comment. But one of the team’s top lieutenants told Roll Call that she starts for the Bangers regularly. It’s league policy for teams to have three women.
Early on, Harkin’s Heroes showed some off-season rust, compiling a couple of infield errors that kept the inning alive.
“You made an error, but you made an error with enthusiasm,” one of the team’s players yelled from the sideline.
But by the second inning, the Heroes’ used the pop in their bats to jump out to a 6-5 lead against their opponents, whose lineup didn’t quite pack the same long-ball punch.
Protecting an 11-7 lead in the fourth inning, Hoover began to find her grove, recording a strikeout.
“That was half luck,” she said later.
Down by five runs heading into the sixth inning, the Bama Bangers went on a surge, adding three runs and closing the gap to 12-10. As the final inning approached, it appeared the game could go either way.
But Hoover, and the defense that had gotten off to a rocky start, closed the deal in the seventh, giving up only one run and prevailing by two.
With victory achieved, Hoover was modest about her role in it, crediting her teammates for their defensive prowess.
“I’ve got a whole field of people to help me,” she said.
