Sarah Walsh '23
Staff Editor
It took four games, three fields, and forty-two total runs for the Cold Callers to become the 1L Softball Tournament champions of 2022. The tournament kicked off Sunday morning, with Tortelini-e facing off against the Cold Callers on Copeley, while J’s and Confused took on the LLM NFTeam over at Park 6. The nine-seed Cold Callers pulled off their first upset of the tournament and advanced to the next round of play on a 7-3 win over Section E, while J’s and Confused cruised to an easy 10-5 victory over the LLM NFTeam. Unfortunately for Section J, they were knocked out in the next round by the three-seed BARbarians in a close 8-9 game. Meanwhile, I’s on the Ball eked out an 8-7 win over Public InDecency, only to follow in J’s and Confused’s footsteps by immediately getting eliminated from the tournament in their following game. While Section I’s clever—if a bit overly optimistic—chants of “We believe that I will win” sounded through the air at Copeley during their eventual 5-12 loss against Aiding & Abatting, over on the Park 6 field, Guilty as Charged stormed their way to an 11-1 victory over F for Final Judgment.
Pictured: 1L Section C, Champions of the 1L Softball Tournament.
Photo Credit: Sarah Walsh '23.
It wasn’t until the 1 p.m. game, however, that the tournament really began to pick up. After doing some team stretches, high knees, and jumping jacks, the Dandelion champion Habeas Scorepluses took the field to face off against the Cold Callers. Despite a rousing chant of “Go Hoes on three, Go Hoes on three! One, two, three, HOES!” before the start of the game, the one-seed Habeas Scorepluses found themselves in trouble almost immediately, as the Cold Callers took an early lead in the top of the first with a no-outs, three-run home run. Over the course of the next four innings, Section H fought their way back to come within one run of the Cold Callers, who—by the sounds of their heckles—had brought a megaphone to the game.[1] Unfortunately for Habeas Scoreplus, it wasn’t enough. With two outs and the score at 9-8 in the bottom of the final inning, Cold Callers co-captain Sam Quinan ’25 made a jumping catch to end the game and deny Section H the Triple Crown of Dandelion winner, best 1L section softball team name, and 1L Softball Tournament champion. With that, the once-top-seeded team of the tournament cleared the field, and the semifinals began.
The first semifinal game, featuring Aiding & Abatting versus the BARbarians, started at about the same time as the rain. While the drizzling rain added to the game’s atmosphere, the sudden lack of sun threatened to bring the mood down.[2] The BARbarians thankfully brought some much-needed energy, keeping up high spirits and chirping other players, even as they fell to Aiding & Abatting, 5-15.
Unfortunately, by the conclusion of the first semifinal game, Copeley was no longer playable. Rather than postpone the final two games of the tournament (after the tournament itself had already been moved from its originally scheduled date of September 25), it was decided that the second semifinal game would be moved to the turf fields down at the Park. Despite the difficulty presented by the change, both teams graciously pivoted to playing on the turf fields without complaint, and within minutes of arriving at the Park 5 field, the Cold Callers got warmups going with “Eye of the Tiger.”
The change of field didn’t appear to be a problem for the Cold Callers, who got off to a blazing start, thanks to a leadoff home run from C.J. Wittmann ’25. However, the team’s fortunes quickly reversed following two stunning plays by Section G co-captain Marie Ceske ’25, who recorded the first out of the inning when she made a deep lunge to snag a line drive that would have easily made it past a less-skilled player. A few hitters later, Ceske also got the final out of the half-inning with a lightning-fast stop of a ball coming straight for her chest, which she then cleanly threw to first base.
Whether it was the result of seeing the life of one of their classmates flash before their eyes, the slipperiness of the rain-soaked turf, or just the general difficulty that playing on the turf fields presents, the Cold Callers’ early lead was almost immediately erased as Guilty as Charged capitalized on deep hits to the outfield to send multiple runners home. As the first inning eventually drew to a close, it was announced that there would be another change of location, this time to the non-turf Park 6 field, which turned out to be playable, despite the rain (which was still going at the time, albeit significantly lighter than before).
Both teams gladly accepted the change, and the Cold Callers came roaring back in the top of the second inning with seven runs, many of them scored on two outs. Unwilling to go down without a fight, Guilty as Charged answered with more runs of their own, and by the end of the fifth inning, the score was tied at nine runs apiece. It was then—in the top of the sixth and down 1-2 in the count—that Wittmann launched a no-doubter over the Park 6 fence to put the Cold Callers in the lead. Guilty as Charged threatened to come back and defeat the Cold Callers in the bottom of the sixth, quickly scoring their tenth run and getting runners on second and third. With two outs, the winning run at the plate, and the tying run in scoring position, Quinan once again recorded the final out of the game—this time on a shallow infield fly—to preserve his team’s lead and send them to the tournament finals.
To give some perspective on what the Cold Callers were facing, here are some facts about the two teams that made it to the final game of the 1L Softball Tournament: Going into the tournament, Aiding & Abatting was 4-0 in the regular season, with a run differential of +42. In contrast, the Cold Callers were 1-3, with a run differential of +4 and their first win of the softball season coming less than forty-eight hours before their eventual tournament run. It was thus unsurprising when Aiding & Abatting held the Cold Callers scoreless in the first inning and got on the board first with six runs. However, the Cold Callers showed why they had made it this far in the tournament, immediately racking up six runs of their own to tie the game going into the bottom of the second inning. From then on, the two teams kept the score close—hitting three over-the-fence home runs along the way (two from Section C and one from Section A)—going into the sixth inning, where they were faced with a new problem: the sun setting.
Because the use of Park 6 this late in the day had been an impromptu decision, there was no expectation that the field’s lights would go on, and the game would thus have to end before daylight did. The neon yellow of the softballs can only do so much for visibility, so the sixth inning began with the understanding that it would almost certainly be the game’s last. Then, with Section A down two runs going into the bottom of the sixth, the grace of the softball gods shone down on Park 6, turning on the field lights and allowing the game to go a full seven innings. It was under these Sunday night lights that the Cold Callers pulled off their miracle victory, holding off the tournament favorites to win 14-11.
The ending of the tournament can only be described as cinematic: The second that the final out was recorded, players on the field jumped onto one another in celebration, and teammates streamed out of the dugout to join in the hugging and cheering, illuminated by the bright lights of the field as the rain came down around them. Head Umpire Sean Onwualu ’24 presented the team with their trophy and championship t-shirts, and the team posed for victory photos. When Wittmann, winner of the Phil Tonseth Memorial 1L MVP Award,[3] was asked how the team got to their victory, he credited the team’s talent and positive energy, saying that he knew from the start that the team was capable of winning it all in the tournament. Quinan closed things out with one final message on behalf of the team: “Shoutout to G.E. White.”
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saw8rc@virginia.edu
[1] A move that I deeply respect and admire.
[2] An effect that was compounded by the fact that otherwise-excellent (and appropriate) walkup songs like “It’s Raining Men” couldn’t be played because they interfered with the umps’ abilities to discern whether or not they were actually hearing thunder off in the distance.
[3] Also known as the Tonseth Swagalicious Award, this is a Law Weekly-created award for the player who “balls out the most” in the 1L Softball Tournament. It should also be noted that Tonseth ’22 is not, in fact, dead.