Softball in the City
Everyone’s friendly, but everyone wants to win
“It beats work,” is the way Stephen Alerhand (MED’13) describes the summer ritual of softball on Nickerson Field. “It’s right up there with the beach and camping.”
In fact, Alerhand’s team beats many things, even some opposing teams if they’re lucky.
With 36 teams and 4 divisions — 2 men’s and 2 coed — the intramural softball league is open BU students, alumni, faculty, and staff.
But don’t let the collegial high-fives and smiles fool you. While office comradery and team-building are important aspects of the summer fun, nobody wants to lose, and everybody plays hard.
“Some teams are really excited just to play and have a good time,” says Leighann Michelle Cornacchio (SAR’11), an intramural softball referee, “and others are really competitive and come out here to win.”
With minor exceptions, the rules are the same as regulation softball. For example, three balls is a walk and two strikes is an out.
The league provides all equipment players need, except for gloves and jerseys. That allows teams to get creative. “Our classmate Jake made our shirts freehand,” says Kunal Tandon (MED’13), a member of the Med Sox, the Medical Campus team. “The only problem is, we do have a few Yankees fans.”
On a recent day, the Med Sox were outdueled by the Big HRt, BU’s human resources team, 11-7. “We got ahead early,” says Aline Babine (CAS’10, SMG’10), a player for the Big HRt, “and then they came back, and it got more interesting. We ended up winning, but they had a pretty good comeback.”
The league runs through July, with playoffs and championship games into early August. And the bats don’t stop swinging in bad weather. “We play in everything,” Cornacchio says. “Unless there’s thunder and lightning, we’ll have games.”
It’s all in good fun, says Babine. “Everyone is friendly, but it’s definitely competitive,” she says. “Everyone wants to win.”
All softball games are played at Nickerson Field. More information about intramural sports at BU is available here.
Nicolae Ciorogan can be reached at ciorogan@bu.edu. Dan Mercurio can be reached at dmerc@bu.edu.
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