Past and present meet at WWU softball alumni game

The active Vikings softball roster, the 33rd in program history – called Team 33 for short – faced off with players that had come through the program before them on Saturday, Oct. 26 at Viking Field in Bellingham Wash.

“If we’re gonna win, we’ll win fair.”

That’s what the alumni in the third base dugout had to say to the current players offering the alumni lineup five outs per half-inning as opposed to the standard three.

Fourth-year catcher Emma Andrewjeski-Ramirez lined a homer over the left field fence on a 3-2 pitch leading off the second inning, and from there the current players never looked back.

The alumni, playing as the home team, were able to get on the board with a run in the bottom of the fourth, but the current players held on to win 4-1.

Regardless of who came out on top, there were more important facets of the day’s gathering.

Head coach Sheryl Gilmore hoped for all those involved to come away with a sense of community and belonging.

“Alumni are such a big part of our program, and they mean a lot to us,” Gilmore said. “The aim is to give them an opportunity to come back and feel like this is still their home.”

For Alison Richards, a 1999 alumna, the program she returns to for the annual alumni game looks vastly different from the program she played for.

During Richards’ time in the program, the team didn’t yet have a field at Western, and instead played on the community fields at Civic Stadium, three miles north of the team’s current home at Viking Field. 

“It’s been fun to see the program continue to grow and expand,” Richards said. “Being able to track the team last year especially.”

Last spring, while the team was competing for the national title where it would eventually finish as the runner-up, Richards sat at her desk with one screen devoted to her work and a second screen showing the broadcast of the Vikings game. 

Rachel Christensen, a 2023 alumna, was similarly invested in the team’s playoff run, even managing to get some high school students into the sport while she was substitute teaching in Bellingham. at a local high school.

For Christensen, the time she spent playing the game and the time she gets to spend connecting with old friends and teammates at annual alumni events is all about letting loose.

“It’s my personality just to have fun; I try not to take things too seriously,” Christensen said.

In the fourth inning, Christensen was headed out of the dugout to catch for the alumni team when she dived into the dirt, just for some laughs and to lighten the mood.

“It’s funny. Everyone laughs and it kind of boosts my ego,” Christensen said with a smile.

After the game concluded, a home run derby was held between the alumni and current players.

Which side came out on top depends on whether student assistant and former player Ashley Jacobson, who scored five home runs at the end, counts for the alumni or the current squad.

What is certain is that the most impressive derby performance came from Andrewjeski-Ramirez. On top of her second-inning home run in the game, she belted seven more long balls in her derby round.

For Andrewjeski-Ramirez, who hit her first home run on a high school field at age 10, power has always been a part of her approach at the plate, and her favorite part of the game in general.

The last portion of the event involved current players and alumni splitting into small groups where the current players were able to ask questions and the alumni gave as much advice as they could cram into the roughly 20-minute conversations.

“I think perspective is the biggest thing,” Gilmore said. “Sometimes when you’re in it you don’t realize… that it really is about the relationships and who you become along the way.”

Within hours, that additional perspective was already proving helpful.

“College has been kind of hard for me, so seeing people be happy and be able to come back is very motivating for me,” Andrewjeski-Ramirez said. “It gives me hope.”

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