Darden Cup

This morning I pulled myself out of bed earlier than I would have preferred, all in the name of Section B spirit. After getting out of bed, I put on a shirt that is such a hideous colour I would never otherwise wear it, save the fact that both Section B and the University of Virginia share the colour ORANGE.

Today was the first sporting event in the Darden Cup - a year-long contest that pits section against section. On the agenda for today: softball, a game that I have sucked at no matter how hard I've tried. (A fact that my grade 10 softball team was always relatively quick to remind me.) There were two ways to get points today: by winning the tournament and by having the most people out.

Section B was awesome. I was not the only one who dragged themself out of bed and put on an orange t-shirt. I'm pretty sure at some point in time over the morning, I saw nearly everyone from Section B, plus partners, kids, puppies, parents (it's parents' weekend at Darden - my parents were not there because they love my sister living in Munich more than they love me... JUST KIDDING!), second years and PROFS and their partners, kids and puppies. In fact, our Q2 Finance prof pitched our first game.

What Section B was slightly less awesome at was winning games. We were down one run going into the bottom of the last inning of our first game, and with bases loaded and our star batter up to the plate, the ball popped up into the outfield and right down into the glove of one of the members of the opposing team. Our hearts were broken and we went on to play our next game.

The second game had an equally epic ending, and we were 0-2 heading into the double elimination playoffs. You may wonder how a team that is 0-2 makes the playoffs, but it turns out there was another team that ended up doing worse than us on point spread. We played the first-seated team in the first round of playoffs and lost by a margin that I don't care to remember.

And then it happened - Section B learned to play softball. For the glory that is third place, we faced off against Section A. I must add, at this point, that Section A had only a few people left that weren't playing, whereas Section B still had a mighty strong orange-wearing cheering section. Anyway, we were up 8 - 3 going into the bottom of the 4th inning. As we watched the bottom of the fourth unfold with huge grins on our faces, the bases slowly filled up with a girl on 3rd, a guy on 2nd and a girl on 1st. (Did I mention runs scored by girls are worth two points each?)

No one needed Excel to calculate that if they all came home, they would win.

And it happened. As we struggled to get three outs, they came in one or two at a time. We finished the fourth inning in a tie: 8 - 8.

So we went into a tie-breaking fifth inning. Section B pulled it together, got a few people around the bases, and went into the bottom of the fifth up 11 - 8.

The rest of the inning was somewhat of a blur, but with bases loaded (with girls, again, I might add) and two outs, another girl stepped up to the plate. Our pitcher pitched the ball, her bat connected with the ball, the ball popped up in the air, and our catcher got under it and caught it, securing Section B victory.

And that, my friends, is how Section B won third place despite winning only one game. I'm not sure how the total points will come out once participation marks are all considered, but all in all, I had a GREAT day and am very proud of Section B.