GINA LaMANDRE DOESN'T GET THE CHICKEN...AGAIN - Submitted by Jeannine Gilsdorf (Gilly)

Gina up to bat. Gilly on third. Coach gives the squeeze play. The pitch... Gilly takes off for home and half way down the line Gina turns with the bat still on her shoulder gives a great big Gina smile down the third base line! Gilly makes it home & begins the "Gina's getting the chicken dance"....But wait...Gina makes it to 1st base and in a pick off attempt gets nailed in the right hand with the ball. Oh no, not the "pitching hand"! Oh yes, she was fine but for her "pain & suffering" she is pardoned ONCE AGAIN from serving time with "Helen" the chicken!

THE CURSE OF THE WHIFFLES - Submitted by Jo Tsai

All of us who's been through the program understands the stressful days of being a freshman, the new kid on the block. Besides the butterflies of having to perform "Can You Feel It" at the airport, executing a quality skit, and getting to 5 am practices at 4:30, nothing tops the paronoia that comes with forgetting the whiffles. Apparently, it seems to happen a lot. We were able to trace this "tradition" back to 1991 with Michelle Carlson. Having forgot them in the hotels, she had to muster up courage to walk over to Dr. Walker and admit meekly the cursed words "I forgot the whiffles." Dr. Walker replied "Well run to the vans and get them." To this Michelle replied, "They're not in the vans, they're in the hotel room." In her infinite wisdom and with a smile, she replied "There's nothing we can do now, go get ready to play." The surprising response had Michelle thinking, "Wow. Piece of cake. That wasn't too bad." But as she walked away, Dr. Walker adds "Oh Michelle, here you go. Wear it with pride." With that she handed her a sticker that read "Don't be a Dummy." The 1997 freshman class thought they forgot the whiffles at school and after a furious Coach Miller turned around to head back to school, they realized they were underneath the seat of the vans. Since then, we've gotten a little wiser and managed to forget them without anyone noticing until the coast was cleared. The 1998 freshman class left them in the dorm room and had to secretly set up a rendezvous point with the roommate behind the bushes the bullpen for the drop off. The 1999 class managed to LOSE the bag of whiffles after the last game at the Allentown Tournament. They managed to replace the whiffles themselves before the next game.

DRIVEN TO INSANITY - Submitted by Jo Tsai

Posting this story will probably induce death threats on my part, but it's worth it. It took place during the infamous 1998 Regional Tournament, a tourney plagued by the monsoon. Coach Miller had put the on campus players in the townhouses for post season. We had already shipped our stuff home and we just have the bare essentials to last us for the rest of post season. We were without a TV, computer, or radio to keep us occupied. We won the bid to host Regionals that year, but little did we know that 4 days of torrential downpour was in the forecasts. After all, when does NJ ever get anything interesting like tornadoes or hurricanes. Also not anticipated was the electrical shutdown throughout campus. Each day we got ready to play and then linger on for hours in our uniforms waiting for word on the playing conditions. We couldn't practice in the gyms because we had no electricity. So after 5 hours of sitting around, they would send us home. So now we retreated to our caves because the townhouses had no electricity either. We actually got locked out once because the card swipes weren't working. Our sanities were really tested as we were all locked in like caged animals. Thankfully, our creativities peeped through. We looked through our belongings trying to figure out how to entertain ourselves. Krissy Medino had her giant can of industrial strength Rave hairspray. So on the first day, Trish Nolan and I decided we're gonna mohawk my hair, which was no easy feat since I do have thick "paintbrush hair". Industrial strength it was. The next day it was Krissy (Medino), Kathy Pellerito, Richelle Keilly, and Kim Luong's (Lax player & Krissy's roommate staying with us) turn to self-entertain. They put on the most hideous combination of their outfits in their collections. Dressed like Spice Girls on crack, we all drove to the local Seven-Eleven because we ran out of film. Kim pole-danced outside in her outfit while Trish went in to get film. The clerk made some confused glances at Kim and in our direction. Next we stopped by teammate Christi Anthony's off-campus house. Trish and I (the two that didn't dress up) knocked on the door, made up a story of how we walked over from Seven Eleven because we were being stalked by these 4 weirdos and we didn't know where else to go. Christi goes and locks her door. As we continue on with our lie, our friends came out from behind the bushes and knocks on her door. Surprise! We harassed Christi some more, who was already in her PJs and probably dragged out of bed to answer the door. After Christi's, we drove out to the fields (at Armstrong Park) and vogued. That's one night and one Regionals that we'll never forget.

WHAT DID SHE SAY? - Submitted by Michelle Carlson-Neveling

The rest of the 1992 season was going along very well, but it did present one comical "phrase" while on the road. We were playing Muhlenberg and were not doing very well. I remember Becky (Koenig) was pitching, and doing extremely well, but the infield was really stinking it up. I believe we all made one error each, and Dr. Walker came strolling out to the mound. She told the pitcher and catcher she was not out there to talk to them. She only wanted to see the infield. We thought we were really going to be lit into but she calmly said, "That was a major clusterfuck," and walked back to the dugout. We were in a state of shock. What did she just say? What exactly is a clusterfuck? Well...it must have waked us up because we went on to kick butt and had something to talk about forever. Again, she knew just what to say.

DRINKS ARE ON ME - Submitted by Robin Payne

South Carolina spring trip was proving grounds for post season. We were playing Division I URI. The game was tied when we came to bat in the bottom of the 7th. Sue "Willie" Wilson counts the batting order proclaiming she is batting 4th and going to hit the winning run in. Sure enough, bases loaded and she hits in the winning run. You could see that Dr. Walker was happy. Post game speech: If you can change quickly and get down to the lobby, drinks are on me. She thought we would never make it. Happy hour was almost over. We didn't even change, went straight to the lobby and ate all the appetizers while waiting for her! She never did that again!

HOW DID THE GEESE GET IN THERE? - Submitted by Jo Tsai

As with any team that has ever been formed, all the younger players naturally look up to the seniors as their role models. For the most part, the seniors do an excellent job living up to the expectations. However, occassionally they're allowed a brain fart or two. This was the case with Kathy Pellerito in the year 2000. We had just returned from a week in Florida and it was our first practice back on the field. As most of us are familiar with, our school has been blessed with the overpopulation of furry and feathery friends of squirrels and geese. So while the human population was on vacation for spring break, our little friends sure made the campus their playground and the softball field was no exception as it was littered with geese crap. So as the team reacted nauseously to the landscape, Kathy goes, "Wait...how did the geese get in there? Wasn't the gate locked?" So Trish Nolan wisely chimed in, "Yea, they pooped outside but then they flung it over the fence with their wings." Tracy Norlen adds, "No, they stacked up on each other's shoulders and then hopped the fence." Poor Pells...

THERE'S A SNAKE IN THE BATHROOM - Submitted by Krissy Medino

My sophomore year (1998) we went to the Mary Washington Tournament. After playing the first day, we returned to the hotels. When we went in to check out the rooms, we were happy to find our room was connected to our teammates next door. Coach had lectured us on bringing books for the weekend to study so we don't fall behind. Most of us were doing our schoolwork (or pretending) and suddenly, the bathroom door flung open and Kristen Coyne (freshman) comes running out screaming something with her pants half on. OK, Kristen freaks out over weird stuff. I thought she just forgot her books at school or something. Then we made out what she was screaming, "There's a snake in the bathroom!! OH MY GOD!! OH MY GOD!! There's a snake in the bathroom!!" Suzanne Merrill took some towels and grabbed the snake. Coach Miller had came out of her room to hear what the commotion was all about so Suzanne chased coach back into her room with the snake and towels in hand. Coach ran into her room and slammed the door behind her. Never seen coach run that fast before. She probably could have stole home. We freed the snake in the neighboring trees outside but Suzanne plopped the remaining towels on the floor outside coach's hotel room. Coach never came out of her room until those towels were removed.

NAKED HOKEY POKEY - Submitted by Anita DeFeo

This story took place in 1997, but the warnings started freshman yr when we got to nationals and were told that they might be randomly taking players from each team for drug testing. So of course the upperclassmen had to start telling stories, and Dr. walker was not any help in alleviating any fears we may have. She told us if they pick you, just don't drink too much of the apple juice. It'll give you diarrhea you big dummies. We'll come back to pick you up later. Luckily no one was tested that year. But at regional my jr. year, I was one of the lucky players (5 lucky winners) picked from our team to experience this joy: Trish Nastro, Sue Mac, Marlena, Kathy Pellerito, and myself. We were accompanied by our trainer Kelly to a locker room in the back of the facility. We were nervous, none of us had been drug tested before, and also didn't expect to be at this time. Nobody warned us we just finished a game. Sally called us five over so already we were wondering what kind of trouble we were in. She said you guys are getting drug tested. Give your bags to someone and go w/the official. We get back to the room we were like OK give us the cup, pee in it, and be on our way. Man were we wrong! The lady gives us instructions, we have 2 jars, tape, other stuff. The bathrooms don't have doors. She said when you're ready go into the stall, pull your uniform shorts down to your knees and your top up to your chest and turn around, keep your hands where i can see them. Don't let that cup out of your sight after you turn. I'll let you know it's ok to start. We are like whaaat! Just then another Tourn official comes to use the bathroom. So the lady with us then proceeds to ask her if she could watch. That helped alleviate some of the tension. Trish had pee anxiety, Marlena had to do more than just pee, some of us had our period, and some of us peed on our hands because we had to balance with our clothes half off, squat, and aim in a tiny Dixie cup, then transfer to another cup, seal it right down info...no this was not a pleasant experience. While we were doing it we decided it felt like we were doing the hokey pokey, but we were basically naked. So this became the naked hokey pokey.