July 22, 2015 at 1:07 p.m.
Beautiful weather paves way for Snowhawks win
Beautiful weather paves way for Snowhawks win
Last week's game against Dazzle's Demons was played in the worst weather yet, resulting in the game being called in the eighth inning because conditions became too dangerous.
This week's game provided a much-needed change of pace for the Snowhawks, who hosted Happy Daze.
Heading into the game after back-to-back losses in less than ideal weather, the team needed a win.
For the first time all year the sawdust field was dry and the sun was shining. Everything seemed to fall into place for the Snowhawks as they smiled their way to a 20-11 victory over Happy Daze, moving to 4-2 on the season.
Jeff Smith, the Snowhawks playing manager, was happy to see the sun shining and dry conditions.
"The field was awesome," he said. "It was a fast infield but it was a fun infield and guys could run. Nobody fell a heck of a lot. There was a few guys that fell but it wasn't too bad. No puddles. It was one of the most gorgeous nights we've played so far this year."
Nice conditions gave way to some much-needed success at the plate and on the bases for the Snowhawks. The bats were hot and everyone on the team got in on the action. All 10 Snowhawks players scored at least once and each had a minimum of two hits.
"We had fun. Finally, we got hits," Smith said. "We scored two five-run innings, in the second and I think in the third to put us up quite a bit, so we started moving guys around to different positions. They (Happy Daze) just weren't hitting, kind of like us last week. At least everyone here got hits tonight. It was a lot of fun."
The Snowhawks scored in all but two innings of the game, the first inning and the fifth inning, and held Happy Daze to one run through six innings of play.
Smith said after the last couple of weeks, in which the Snowhawks struggled to come up with hits, he was happy to see a turnaround by the team.
"It's about time," he said. "There's a lot of guys that were probably 4 for 5, 3 for 4 (batting) and that's good to see. That's what we have to see."
The players were not the only people happy to enjoy the nice weather. Spectators filled the bleachers and surrounded the field in lawn chairs. Anyone late to the ball game was hard-pressed to find a seat.
Smith said other than the Fourth of July game against the Chicago All-Stars, Monday night brought the biggest crowd of the year.
The turnout was so high the concession stand soldout of food around the seventh inning - all of the burgers and brats and more than 90 homemade pies, which are sold by the slice, were purchased.
The team enjoyed the turnout and was thankful to those who came out to watch the game and support them.
"(We'd like to) really thank a lot of people for coming out," Smith said. "It was fun for us to play in front of a crowd like that and I'm sure everybody enjoyed being here with the nice weather, not very many mosquitoes and just nice to play. (We're) thankful for the crowd though today. It was a good day."
Next week is sure to bring plenty of entertainment to Snowshoe Park when local media personalities take to the field and try their hand at snowshoe baseball.
To even up the playing field the Snowhawks will be splitting up and teaming up with people from local media outlets. By the end of the game some Snowhawks will be on the winning team while others will be on the losing end. Instead of playing for the team victory or loss, this is one for bragging rights among the team.
"It's kind of fun for everybody," Smith said. "It's bragging rights amongst us team members. We just jive each other for that. It's always fun."
Be on the look out. Potentially a few of your favorite local journalists from the River News and The Lakeland Times could be spotted attempting to round the bases in snowshoes.
Lindsey Nylund may be reached at [email protected].
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