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   I love sports. That’s why I went into journalism and why I became the sports editor for the Voice, but I need to correct that. I loved only male sports. That is, until I went to my first University of Arkansas-Monticello Cotton Blossom softball game.

   At first I dreaded covering women’s softball. I liked the novelty of watching beautiful, young women play an adaptation of a game I loved to play as a teenager. Other than that, I could care less about ladies' sports. They are slower, weaker and smaller than their male counterpart. It’s an inferior sport.

   I was so wrong. These women can play ball!

   The first thing I noticed about the softball team was the women's toughness. At 45 feet, getting hit by a 60 mph fastball has to hurt. In the first game, the Pine Bluff pitcher nailed Lauren Brooks with a fastball. The sound reminded be of smacking two pieces of bologna together. If I was hit like that I would have needed an ambulance and a stretcher. Brooks just let out a primal roar and trotted to first. Later someone in the stands commented that she was hit in the same spot last week in Hawaii. Ouch! There were other signs of toughness throughout the tournament, but after seeing the way Brooks shrugged off a point-blank fast ball, I will never question these women's toughness again.

   The second thing I noticed was that softball is not an inferior sport. Gemma Gibson made plays at short that would make Derrick Jeter envious. Watching her make a back-hand stop, robbing a base-hit between third and second and launching a perfect strike for an out is a thing of beauty. I went to the game thinking that since the field is so small, the plays would have to be short and choppy. Gibson is about as smooth as a short stop can get, male or female.

   Their hitting was unreal. They totaled 38 hits and eight homeruns in the four-game tournament. They used hit and runs, squeezed bunts and plays I’ve never seen before.

   The pitching was more than impressive, giving up the first run on the tournament in the last inning of the third game. I never knew you could throw that many types of pitches underhand. I saw curves, sinkers, screw balls, rising fastballs. I even saw pitches I couldn’t name. What really impressed me was that Allison North threw over 13 innings without a day's rest. The underhand motion causes less fatigue on the shoulder than over hand, but the body still gets tired.  North never seemed to.

   The last thing I really noticed was that I got to witness the best pure hitter I have ever seen live. Baseball or softball, at any level, Becca Tipton flat out amazed me. Her stats were almost unbelievable in a four game tournament. She went 8-13 with four home runs and nine RBIs.  Her first home run went over the score board and three branches up into the tree behind the field. There are many baseball fields that would not hold that ball in the park. She made clutch hits. She hit a grand slam. She just flat out hit the ball all over the place. Even more impressive is that she is a true freshman.

   After all my stereotypes were broken about women’s athletics, I really got into the game. I noticed things, little rituals that men just don’t do. Every inning I looked forward to watching Gibson and third baseman Sarah Reed do a little dance before the first pitch. Every time the Aussie, Jenny Dunn hit a home run the whole team yelled "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!" They picked each other up if an error was made. They played as a complete team; they played as one.

   Every little thing the women did made me enjoy watching them more and more. Now I am hooked.  I am proud to say that I love fast-pitch softball. Just come and watch them play once, and you will be hooked too.

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