What was May 4 in Sun City?
“Great day for baseball. Let’s play two,“ said Chuck Hund, President of the Sun City softball team.
Players, fans, friends, and family headed to Eakin Field for opening day. The first game pitted the Monarchs against the Travelers. Playing a tight game, the pressure was on for the two teams for 10 innings when finally, the Travelers prevailed, winning with the score 8–7.
The following game brought the Adjusters and Coyotes on the Field. The Coyotes were short a player. Stepping up, Dave Sanders volunteered.
“I didn’t want the Coyotes to forfeit,” he said.
Just in time, a team member appeared, but still left two men short on the field. The rules did not allow a non-team member to sub if the team had 9 players. So, the Coyotes manned the field with 9 men instead of 11.
The Coyotes came on strong in the first inning scoring four runs. he Adjusters quickly caught the Coyotes, leading by 1 in the 5th.
A Coyote fan in the stands, Linda Kalocinski howls as her husband, Tom brings in the tying run in the 5th. This is their first game ever at Eakin Field. They had just moved to Sun City in February. Beaming, she states, “If you think you can play this game, you can play this game. All you have to be is young at heart.”
Linda is a past softball player herself.
The Coyotes continued to rally, hitting the maximum 5 runs in the 6th inning. Rich Pearl predicted, “This is going to be the best season ever.”
Why?
“The teams got better,” he continued. “This is the happiest place on earth. Look around the field. They are all 12 here. It’s great that we have this, some of these guys wouldn’t be able to play. Sun City gives them that chance.”
Coyote fans continued to howl with every run until the 8th inning. The Coyotes had some devastating errors, allowing the Adjusters to score 4 runs. Looking bleak, the Coyotes got out of the inning with a line drive caught by the third baseman.
At the top of the 9th inning, Coyotes loaded up the bases and took the lead by one. The Coyotes managed to hold the Adjusters in the bottom of the inning and finished the game with a score of 14 -13.
Dave O’Neal, Manager of the Adjusters said, “It was fun just fun to get our Adjuster team back together for another season after a long winter. Win or lose we have fun and enjoyed going out to lunch after the game. The Coyotes are a fun bunch of guys.”
Robert Ruckoldt added, “Dave said it all. It was good to get back after a long winter.”
Pat Katt, Co-Manager of the Coyotes, said “From my perspective, we turned our record around last year from 5-11 [in 2017] to 11-5 [in 2018]. We are really starting to come together as a team. We have learned how to play for each other and with each other.
We are looking to take the next step this year. We play a first division schedule this year which means we play the tougher teams twice. This will be our next challenge.”
Katt continued, “If we come together as a team and play good solid baseball, we will do just fine. The key to Coyote success will lie in how much fun we have playing this kids game. Have fun, support each other, play this game the right way and the wins will take care of themselves. By the way, we have instituted a HOOwwlll as our signature. So, if you hear a howl coming at you, you know who it is…”
At the end of the games, Hund stated, “The competition was close for both games. Only sad note was Monarch player Chip Campbell going down for season-ending injury.”
This is only the start of the Sun City Softball season with many more games to come.
