Awe...some Mondays - Tourney Time

Over the past decade, girls softball has become a very popular sport in our area. During the summer and fall there are numerous tournaments. Recently my wife and I drove a couple of hours east to see our great niece play. The first three images are general tournament images. I don't know anyone on these teams.

 

If you're the home team that is sponsoring the tournament then you are responsible for preparing the field prior to each game. These girls played four games in one day and did the field prep between games. I am sure they slept well that night.


 Here, our great niece (No. 16) is in the batter's box. She fouled this pitch off the umpires mask.

Meanwhile her teammate rounds second base after hitting a double into right field.

A lot of the players wear the face masks full time. One safety feature in softball is the double first base. The runner may tag the orange base when running from home plate and avoid a collision with the first baseman who will have her foot on the white base.

Safe at first.

I wanted to try out my new 18-400 mm lens in full telephoto mode, so I walked outside the park and around to centerfield which is about 200 feet from home plate. I put the lens into an opening of the chain link fence and captured a couple of images.

This is our niece hitting a double into center field. I really like the range on this new lens for day time sports that requires me to be some distance from the action.