6:30 AM I woke up this morning. I had more energy than ever knowing that I’m about to go do the thing I love most. 

Hey, my name's Celia Vargas. I'm a 2023 middle infielder/outfielder and I play for FL Firecrackers Bordeau. It’s been around three months since I’ve seen my teammates and played a real game with them. I never knew how much softball meant to me until I had it taken away for this long. The hardest thing for me to do was find another way to occupy my time. Luckily for me, I have five siblings and a lake right across the street from where I live, so I found a way to take up some of my time. 

Going out on the lake, wakeboarding, and tubing with my family was the only thing that kept me sane during the quarantine. I knew that I NEEDED to get back on the field with my friends because the lake couldn’t solve all my problems. What I missed most of all had to be playing the game. I missed the adrenaline running through my body when I made a diving play or the excitement I felt after my teammate got a great hit. 

When I jumped out of the car at the ball fields this morning I felt new and so excited to see my teammates. Nothing had changed, we all were even more excited to see each other and play the game we love. 

The day started as I pulled up to the fields. My AirPods in my ears blasting my hype song UCLA as inspiration. Once I got to the fields with my teammates we started our warmups and jammed out to some music. Before we knew it, it was game time. 

Our games always start the same way, Ella Thomas praying for us. Ella gives us a good prayer and pep talk. After that, Tava breaks it down and we’re ready to play. 

Today our first game was against the Auburndale Synergy. The excitement for this game was through the roof. Not much happened in the first inning, but in the second inning, our center fielder Danika Best made a diving play. She laid out to catch a short ball that was hit right behind second base. That first play got everyone so, so excited. We were back! 

We started putting up some runs thanks to Bristin Bordeau who really got our momentum going. Bristin hit the first RBI since quarantine. After that, we had a couple more hits with some smart base running that resulted in four runs scored. 

Pitcher Shannon Weems, our pitcher for this game, really locked it down. There were barely any hits off of her, she was striking batters out left and right. Bristin came in around the last innings to close out the game and keep us strong. 

Synergy didn’t score any runs on us, so we won 4-0. We started the day off with a dub! After this game, we had a game break. It was so hot and humid out, I decided to go chill in my car and get a little AC. While waiting for the next game to start, I listened to some music and ate fruit in my car. We can’t forget about the gummy bears though. I always have a bag of gummy bears handy in between games for an energy boost. 

Finally, the break was over, it was game time. We were super hyped for this game against Firecrackers Williams. Most of the girls on both teams know each other so it was a bit of a rivalry. 

Madison Carney was our pitcher for this game and she came in strong in the first inning, no runs scored. In the second inning, I made my first play of this weekend. I was playing shortstop when a hard ground ball was hit to me. There was a runner on first so I fielded the ball and threw to second. We didn’t get the double play, but just getting that out felt so good! 

The rest of that game was tight defense for my team. Our bats were off to a slow start, but then we picked it up. Our first run was scored with an RBI by Ella Morris. Back to back hits up the middle by Bristin and Hannah Booth resulted in our second run to score. More great plays and hits later, it was now the last inning with about a minute left on the clock. We had battled so hard with zero runs scored on us and we scored three runs. 

The last hitter, Madison Carney hit a ground ball up the middle with runners on second and third. The runner on third scored easily, but then that’s when things get interesting. 

I was the runner on second and I am notorious for falling, what did I do, well I fell! Rounding third, I face planted in front of everyone. I got back up and tried to go back to third when I fell again. Yes, I fell not once, but twice! 

By that time the clock had run out and the game was over. I ended that game with a bang, literally. 4-0 was the final score we had won. 

And that’s a wrap. Our first day back was a success, ending the day with two wins. As a team, we could’ve done better. Everyone did their part individually, but when it came to playing as a team we weren’t completely there yet. 

Tomorrow, we’ll need to work on stringing hits off of each other and working together. Other than that, I’m so ready for more games and tournaments. Who knows what we are going to get to do this summer because of COVID, but hopefully we can play a little more. Having fun, cheering with my teammates, making great plays, really just making great memories doing what we love with our friends is what made today so special. I’m looking forward to this summer. I think my team is to be pretty unstoppable, so watch out!

Celia Vargas

FL Firecrackers Bordeau