Sports Shorts

Athlete of the Week

First-year Kate Oberg of the Oberlin College softball team has faced a tough situation this season, yet has shown courage in being the only truly trained pitcher on the team.
Oberg, hailing from Washington, D.C., has pitched nearly 80 innings during this season. In those innings Oberg has managed to strike out 31 of her opponents and allowed only one home run.
In the batting average category she has held the opponent to an overall average of under .400 and has also proven her value on the field with a .920 fielding percentage.
She most recently helped the team earn a 5-4 victory over Notre Dame University.
Oberg and the rest of the softball team will be away taking on Hiram today in an NCAC doubleheader.

In the Locker Room With . . .

This week we turned to Oberlin College’s softball team and interviewed sophomore Jaime Johnson. Johnson and the Yeowomen had two close games against non-conference opponent Notre Dame College, in which they split the doubleheader.

Where are you from originally, out of curiosity?

JJ: I’m from Cleveland.

What’s it like going to a college that is close to home, and what made you decide to stay close?

JJ: It pretty much sucks actually. And I didn’t want to be that close to home, it’s just the way it happened.

How was your high school team compared to Oberlin College’s softball team?

JJ: The Oberlin team is way hotter and way more badass. Oberlin’s team is way more fun, that’s for sure.

Why’s that?

JJ: We like to have team bonding.

So that means lots of drinking together? No wait, I can’t ask that after the tennis article, I’ll get in more trouble. All right, moving along, you split the doubleheader against Notre Dame College, how do you feel about the rest of the season?

JJ: I think every game we gain a little bit more confidence so it was really good to have those games against Notre Dame be good ones because I think it motivated us for the rest of the season. It showed us that we can compete with teams in our conference.

Notre Dame College is in Euclid, Ohio, which is close to your hometown isn’t it?

JJ: Yup. Actually, Notre Dame is where I used to play my games in high school. Same field, brought back memories.

Was this game special at all because of the close vicinity to where you went to high school?

JJ: Not really.

What happened to brought back memories?

JJ: Oh. Memories doesn’t necessarily mean special. It made me think of high school.

How many players do you have on the softball team?

JJ: Eleven. But that’s only if you include [junior] Kari Barlan, which we don’t always do.

Why don’t you always include her?

JJ: Just kidding. I just threw that in there because she says “I hate you” about five times every practice to me.

Does she really hate you?

JJ: No, she actually secretly loves me. She just likes to put on a front.

Does having so few players make the games more difficult for you than for the other teams in the conference?

JJ: Hell yeah. It’s really hard when you only have one trained pitcher. They start timing her up. She has to work so hard, she has so much pressure on her. [First-year] Kate [Oberg] is a good sport though.

So you work at the ’Sco. How do you feel about that?

JJ: Basically, I have a love-hate relationship with the ’Sco. Some days I feel like it’s Hell manifesting itself on Earth. But then sometimes it can be really fun.

Anything else you want to say?

JJ: All I want in life is a motorcycle, a tree-house because I never had one when I was little and so I feel deprived, and season tickets to whatever baseball team is near me. That does not include the Yankees because I hate the Yankees.

AMEN!

JJ: Or the Texas Rangers and I have yet to decide how I feel about the Braves.

What about Baltimore and Chicago?

JJ: I think the Cubs are great, and the White Sox suck and I love the Orioles.

How can you like Baltimore? They stole our football team!

JJ: I hate Art Modell, not Baltimore.

Ahhh.