I will admit it. I cry in movies like a little kid, sometimes. South Park, for example. Why can’t they just leave Kenny alone? And Dumb and Dumber… why couldn’t they get on the bus? Why?

I even cried in A League of Their Own, perhaps one of the greatest movies ever. God, I loved that movie. Geena Davis spouting her loud mouth, Madonna and her feminine wiles. It all ends with Geena Davis’ sister hitting the game-winning home run by overcoming her shortcomings to become the Women’s World Series hero.

Apparently, movies are just movies and softball is nothing like that.

So was my revelation last Friday afternoon, sitting on rain soaked grass and watching the CMS Athenas dismantle the Sagehens 9-1.

Losing never comes easily, much less to the Athenas, much less by eight runs, and much much less on a rainy Friday afternoon.

Entering the contest with a 1-6 record, the Hens met their their neighbors who struggled with a 1-3 record.

The Athenas struck first, scoring one in the first inning and two in the second. Until the sixth inning, the Sagehens were able to play a fairly tight game, as they trailed by only three runs on a relatively strong pitching performance from Shannon Russell PI ’01.

However, the Athenas unloaded in the sixth, punishing injured pitcher Sharon Silveira ’01 for five runs and ending the game with nine runs on 12 hits, six of those runs earned.

CMS pitcher Ashley Fricks ’04dominated the Sagehen offense, limiting it to one run on four hits with five strikeouts. Further, the 3, 4, 5 spots only managed an 0-5 performance with three walks while the 8,9,1,2 spots all contributed a hit each.

The lone Sagehen run came in the bottom of the fifth, as Stephanie Lozano PI ’01 had a one-out single and Silveira doubled her in. Unfortunately, that was as exciting got because Fricks contained the briefly revived Sagehen offense.

Offense has been a sore spot for the Sagehens as only Silviera and Lozano are batting above .300, with .400 and .500 averages, respectively, and only Ashley Thompson ’03 and Julia Stiglitz ’04 are batting over .250, at .286 and .273, respectively.

Pitching was not too bright, either. Only Russell has provided a relatively stable performance, giving up 18 earned runs in 32 innings for a 5.06 ERA. The four other pitchers, however, have combined for 28 runs in 26 innings.

"I think they came out with more intensity than we did," Silviera remarked. "But we have a young team with a lot of energy and a lot of promise and I think with practice we’re going to have a great season."