[OK, ’twas also a beautiful day the day before ’twas a beautiful day for a ball game.]

Finally . . . a softball game.  Tuesday, May 7th.  And the temperature was in the 70’s!  For the few times they have played this spring, our Cardinals have shown they have spunk.  Well, “spunk” sounds like something you’d treat with antibiotics – and as Lou Grant once said, “I hate spunk!”  So, the alternative would be, they’ve done good [sic].  On this day, we were taking on the Sabres of Sartell, a conference foe.  I had no idea whether or not the Sabres had spunk.  But I learned as we rolled along that their pitcher is only 14 years old – and thus I was not concerned when we had one of those innings (the 2nd) when nothing goes right and the Sabes put a 5-spot on the board.  I could sense that it was always just a matter of time – though I did not expect we would score SEVEN insurance runs in the bottom of the 6th.

This is the complete and total video of the entire first inning.  For your Cardinals on defense, Taylor Ellingson, junior, No. 7, is pitching; Emily Kuennen, junior, No. 4, is catching; Danielle Carlson, senior, No. 2, is shortstop; Jess Syrud, senior, No. 1, is 2nd baseman; and Jana Roste, senior, No. 12, is centerfielder (and who’s on first and I don’t know’s on 3rd).  You can hear our batters announced as they come to the plate.  Danielle drove in the two runs with a triple. The background voices are not me (for the most part), but a couple of neighboring senior fans and we all sound alike:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReNOQ3nQx4M

[I hope you appreciate that you can get coverage like this no where else . . . with the possible exception of the in search of section of Mad magazine? 😉 ]

So, let’s introduce your Cardinals:

[The JV on the adjacent field.]

[The official photographer, i.e., the guy who has access “inside the ropes.”]

[The varsity]

[Then, in my senior amblings, I did something that I also did once during the hockey season.  I hit a button, knob, or toggle switch that put the camera in “zombie” mode?  I was not aware of it at the time.  I lost a lot of photos because of it (hold the applause down, please) and have a lot that look eerie, like this one.  It’s Natalie Berglin, senior, No. 6, leftfielder.]

[Still Natalie.]

ErinAnn Schueler, junior, No. 15, first baseman]

[And again, with a pop foul.]

[Cardinal dugout where boys learn to spit and chew sunflower seeds.  I don’t know what girls learn in there?]

[Anna Lee, sophomore, No. 9, rightfielder]

[And again.]

[And again?]

[May still be Anna?]

[Yup, it was Anna, because here we’re back to the top of the order with Bud’s youngest, Sarah Bruzek, a/k/a, “Baby Bruiser,” junior, No. 13, 3rd baseman.]

[And Sarah is a terrific hitter.  Harmon Killebrew, anyone?]

[Batting 2nd, Jana Roste, senior, No. 12, centerfielder, a player with great wheels (she’s fast).  Amanda Christianson was the centerfielder last year but has opted for spring basketball this year.]

[Look out!!]

[Taylor is a pitcher who can really help herself out with the bat.  Batting out of the 3-hole, she hit some shots!]

[Jess hits 4th.]

[Head on the ball.]

[A soccer and basketball player, just a good all around athlete.]

[Years of experience analyzing this game leads me to believe this was probably a pop-up.]

[Suspect this is Danielle, dead pull hitter with power.]

[Emily also can hit it out of the park.]

[Don’t like that one!  Back to Natalie again.]

[A mighty swing.]

[Hitting behind the runner?]

[Emily on 1st – liked the ghostly aspect.  😉 ]

[Still Ms. Berglin]

[Sarah on 3rd.]

[Kaila Dewanz, sophomore, No. 8, pitcher]

[Hockey player, too.  Like the photo format – too bad it was still in “zombie” mode.]

[JV’s, toward the end of their game.  They had been averaging about 3 touchdowns a game (you knowing, scoring over 20 runs).  As the varsity game was winding down, a roar went up at the JV game.  The Cards scored 3 runs in the bottom of the last inning to win 7 – 6!    🙂 ]

[Earlier in the day, I played my first round of golf for the year.  The course opened on Sunday, 7 weeks later than it did last year!  We were interested to see how the reconstructed Hole No. 7, our signature hole with the Minnesota green, survived the winter.  Seems odd that for this late in the year, in our 2nd 70-degree day in a row, beautiful Lake Darling in the background is still totally ice locked.  And you can still see remnants of ice in the pond fronting the green and in the sand trap.]

[Coming down the 6th hole, overlooking No. 7 and the frozen lake.]

[No. 7, getting up close and personal . . .]

[It probably won’t be playable until July, so we will continue to play a temporary hole between the 8th green and the 9th tee . . .]

[Some time later this season, club president, Roger Riley, and I will probably do another photo op flyover.]

[The “boys of summer” trudge up to the 6th green.]

[No. 7 from the cart path turn around on the northside.]

[ICE]

[And including the new 8th tee.]

[As noted in our opening, the day before, i.e., May 6th, was also a lovely, 70-degree day.]

[The supervisor noted the lovely sunrise over Lake Darling . . .]

[I was accordingly obligated to shoot such.]

[After we got out the lawn furniture . . .]

[And did other associated spring tasks . . .]

[The supervisor sunned on the deck with the anomaly of a totally frozen lake in the background!  🙂 ]