By Danny Dunn
One of the greatest aspects of playing sports is the ability to play in front of a home crowd. Unfortunately, Humboldt State’s top rated softball team has not been able to play a single game this season on their own home field.
The team had to play their last home series in McKinleyville located about 5 miles north of Humboldt State University.
This did not prevent fans from coming out and showing their support for the softball team. Sydney Roberts, who plays second base for the Lumberjacks, said fans had
creative ways to come out and watch the team.
“In McKinleyville we had people ride up on horses to come watch our game,” Roberts said. “Locals love us, they support us, and we cannot have their support if we cannot play at home.”
Roberts spoke on whether the team will be able to even play a home game at Humboldt this season.
“We cannot if it rains two days in a row at Humboldt,” Roberts said. “We are hoping to play our first home game against Chico on April 10th…we have already had to reschedule twice already with them.”
Roberts went on to say how she would like to play at least a couple of home games at HSU in her senior year, and considering that the softball team is one of the winning teams on campus it would be great to play at home for the fans to see.
“We do not lose at home,” Roberts said. “But we do not get the opportunity everyone else gets playing on their home field…it is harder to keep yourself pumped up when you do not have that home field advantage.”
Breonna Bejaran, who plays catcher and 1st base for the lumberjacks, says that playing at home can really energize the squad.
“We really feed off of the home crowd energy,” Bejaran said. “Something should have been done along time ago with the success of our team, not just this team, but past teams also…there should be a field that is playable for us in Humboldt County…I would love to play here as senior at least once.”
Pitcher Madison Williams expresses her feelings about not being able to play at home.
“It is definitely frustrating having to play all of our games on the road,” Williams said. “But we cannot control the weather…Our home field is in bad condition and it would be dangerous to play on right now.”
