Attention all female fans of Nicholls State University Softball:

I would like to personally invite you to a very special event we call Women's Day At The Ballpark. It will be taking place Saturday, October 22nd, at the Nicholls Softball Field beginning at 10am.

For the past 4 years, the softball team of Nicholls State University has welcomed moms, sisters, aunts, nieces, cousins, grandmothers, friends and fans to our field for a once in a lifetime experience. With lots of pink involved, Women's Day offers you a chance to become part of the Nicholls Softball family as well as raise awareness and support the fight against breast cancer.

Women's Day is split into two parts.

The first part of the day consists of the Nicholls softball players guiding the women through the typical college softball experience. The ladies get to see what it is like to be a collegiate athlete. We welcome the participants of Women's Day and get to know who we will be instructing. Then, we get right to work. My teammates and I take the ladies through our stretches, which usually involves lots of laughter from the women who normally can be found on the other side of the fence. Our moms, as well as our fans, begin to realize that what we do on a daily basis is a bit harder than it looks. Next, we break off into different stations. Some women begin with learning the proper throwing mechanics and others find themselves attempting to hit a ball off of a stick looking object, we call a tee. Some of the women laugh off their long gone athletic abilities while others show off that "they still got it." Last year we gave each woman the opportunity to show off her hitting abilities with live BP on the field, which allowed players like myself to be the ones critiquing swings for once rather than hearing it from our parents in the stands. We also gave the ladies a chance to show us their best pitch from the mound. This exercise almost immediately made my mom, who has watched me pitch for the last 8 years, realize quite a few things. One of the things she realized was that she doesn't have the slightest clue of where to even begin with pitching mechanics despite the countless hours she has spent watching me, and the other was that she isn't quite as accurate with a fastball as she imagined she'd be.

The second part of our day consists of lunch, ibuprofen, and wine. We treat the women, who have humbled themselves enough to accept our invitation of experiencing a day in the life of a collegiate athlete. These women take this time of Women's Day to mingle and relax, having gained a greater appreciation for us college softball players. At some point after we've recovered, all the women gather together again. This is a time when the moms of upperclassmen offer advice to the moms of the freshmen, still wet behind the ears. It wouldn't be Women's Day without a few moms getting a little choked up about how proud she is of her baby girl flourishing into a successful young woman thanks to the loving family atmosphere of Nicholls Softball.

If you are interested in becoming a part of our Nicholls Softball family, please join us on Saturday for Women's Day At The Ballpark! It is free of charge and no sign up is necessary.