Upon Further Review: The game with a heart beat
Since moving to McMinnville in May of 2025, I have been gobsmacked by the sport that is fastpitch softball.
The reasoning’s in the name, end of story.
All joking aside, fastpitch offers everything in the realm of excitement that modern-day baseball tries to capture with constant rule changes. In reality, I believe softball and baseball have more differences than they do alike, and it all has to do with the purpose behind every pitch.
Each moment on a softball diamond is filled with energy, something that baseball can simply not accomplish in its methodical nature.
Before going further, I preface this entrance into my ever-shifting wonder by reminding that baseball is my one true love until death do us part. However, I do hope that the afterlife provides as much excitement as that which fills a softball diamond.
Other than my jealousy that softball pitchers can throw hundreds of pitches without worrying about the plague that is Tommy John surgery, the sport’s encouragement for athletes to be loud and themselves is what I appreciate the most.
In most other sports, a group full of players on the bench shouting “Too fast for youuuu,” after a stolen base and singing their hearts out to the rhyme of a teammate’s last name would be seen as misplaced. Soccer does rival it, but the constant noise surrounding the pitch often comes from the supporters, not the players.
And as my multi-faceted umpire/referee father would say, “It’s all okay as long as it’s directed at one’s own team and not the opponent.”
But that is also what makes fastpitch softball even more fun in Yamhill County.
Through heated rivalries and tense battles for league standings, many who play the game can step away from the field and share smiles because the sport doesn’t stop in the spring.
Summer and fall bring new weather, but the same game, with Dayton Pirates playing alongside McMinnville Grizzlies and Yamhill Carlton Tigers wearing the same club jerseys as some Willamina Bulldogs.
Within the county is where my appreciation for the game really began, anyhow.
My first time offering boots on the ground coverage came as the Grizzlies softball team completed a 5-0 shutout victory over then No. 25-ranked Westview in the first round of the 2025 State Championship tournament.
That very game inspired my first foray into this series, but it also awakened my senses to the talent spread between schools in the valley I now call home.
Josh Terry’s Grizzlies were speedy and powerful. They carried the same mentality into 2026, stealing 73 bases and clobbering 21 home runs with a roster built to do just about anything.
The best part about my first full spring was that I got to explore all that the county teams had to offer.
At the 3A level, one of the biggest reasons for this piece came from the utter dominance that spewed from Special District 3 … soon to be reclassified back into the PacWest for an extra assurance of twice-yearly intercounty battles.
John Kuehnel has been coaching the Tigers of YC for longer than I’ve been on Earth. Quickly, while studying his team, I realized why the program has had such sustained success.
Kuehnel takes advantage of the quickness of the game more than any I’ve seen. On such a small field, there is no time to react. Any hesitation can cost a team run, and the Tigers live dangerously by using that fact to their benefit.
Where Terry likes to initiate the steal, Kuehnel instigates extra throws with aggressive sends of runners around bases.
I had fewer moments more fun this season than watching YC’s coach of 29 years emphatically wave his players toward home. To his credit, it often paid off in the games I witnessed.
The county’s clutch on softball was even more prominent in Dayton, where utter dominance in the pitcher’s circle and squeaky clean defense exemplified the Pirates’ way of doing business. Dayton had the bats to compete with any opponent, but it was the likes of Rachel Baumholtz and Charly Upmeyer that reminded their conference why the Pirates are not to be underestimated.
At a higher level, the supremacy of Linfield University’s softball team served as the prime example of local fastpitch taking on a life of its own.
Wildcats’ Head Coach Jackson Vaughan had few expectations for his team in 2026 after a gangbusters season in 2025. They had lost program record setters in the power department but gained more right back as seniors Ashlyn Aven and Cydney Hess led an otherwise young team to their 10th NCAA DIII World Series tournament in Linfield history.
My position allowed me to speak with Vaughan at length about his own career milestones and approaches to the game.
The man never quits, and his players follow suit.
More than anything, I learned from Vaughan and many other coaches that it is failure within the game that makes the highs of softball feel more pronounced.
For every strikeout or off-speed pitch hung over the heart of the plate, it is the success that turns into full-blown parties in the dugout that make me gravitate toward the fastpitch world.
Every pitch is cheered, and every run scored is treated like a homecoming reunion, because those moments are all the more precious when someone fails in tight confines.
The sport is continuing to take semi-local ties in the form of the Portland Cascade, an Athletes Unlimited Softball League professional team that will host a slew of county-based players for their home opener on June 18.
There in Hillsboro, more young minds are sure to be driven further into their urge to play the game that can be heard from miles away. They may just come away with a few new melodies to liven the playing field, too.
Comments