Softball Tonight

Luke Krombach

The Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management is sponsoring a team in the Midland Softball Associations men’s slow pitch Central Division. The early predictions for the team were optimistic. Team manager Jeff Nowaczyk stated that, “because of the number of players that had played collegiate sports, I thought we could make an easy transition to softball and therefore have a fighting chance. However, the lack of general softball knowledge proved me wrong.” Facing stiff competition from some of Midland’s finest, the team fell short of Nowaczyk’s original predictions. 

The team posted a 0 – 4 record with one of the losses coming by way of the “slaughter” rule. The bats of the mighty DeVos hitters seemed to be silent until the 5^th game when a whopping steroids era-esque16 runs were scored.

Help came from an unlikely source in the form of a Canadian hockey player with little conceivable athletic talent. Mike Budziakowski has gone the Rudy route from gaunt punch line to indefatigable team leader.  He has posted the highest batting average on the team and has received the game MVP twice. Fascinating diving catches and overall good play have encouraged the other players to follow suit. Even with the atrocious start to the season, the guts and will of the team has shown through and spurred them to scrape and claw their way to a record three straight wins.

On June 18th, the team showed its newfound confidence by winning both games of a double header. The only negative points of the game were Muaz’s embarrassing strikeout and allegations of Mike Budziakowski’s use of performance enhancers.  (Alas, not everyone can glean as much energy from two whole pizzas like Mike can.) Additionally, Jordan Summers nearly pitched two shut-out games, falling short in the second with a few base hits that scored one run in the top of the fourth inning. Besides the minor awkward strikeout, the general play of the team was positive and praiseworthy. Although this is only my first article, I feel our paths are now intertwined and forever connected. I look forward to interacting and entertaining you in the future and in the many more issues of Softball Tonight.