Cleveland softball stages fundraising event
CLEVELAND — Cleveland Lady Tiger softball’s annual fundraiser dispensed with the usual bake-sale restraint and crammed 100 innings into one gloriously sunny Saturday at the ballpark.
There are conventional ways to raise money for a high school softball program.
You can sell cookie dough. Wash cars. Auction baskets full of scented candles and restaurant gift cards.
Or you can announce that you intend to play 100 innings of softball and invite the town to come take a swing. The Cleveland Lady Tigers chose option two.
The program’s second annual 100-Inning Alumni Fundraiser brought players, alumni and community supporters together for a sprawling softball event that was less about preserving ERAs and more about putting some cash behind the Lady Tigers’ program.
The event began at g a.m., with the home run derby scheduled for 10 and the entire affair wrapping up around noon. Derby entrants paid $10 for the privilege of stepping into the box and attempting to introduce a softball to parts of Pawnee County it had never previously visited.
By the time the bats cooled, the event had raised approximately $3,400 for Cleveland softball.
That is a healthy haul for one morning—particularly one built around the sporting premise that, if seven innings are good, 100 ought to be roughly 14 times better.
Players had already been circulating through Cleveland in the days before the event, collecting sponsors for the 100-inning fundraiser. The softball program used its socialmedia page to alert residents that players would be making the rounds and invited anyone interested in supporting the team to get involved.
Then came the derby. In the men’s division, Richie Roberts emerged as Cleveland’s top supplier of airborne softballs, claiming the home run derby title.
The women’s championship went to Taybor Moss. This was not some unsuspecting local who wandered onto the field holding a bat that looked like it was used to break up gravel, nor was this a discovery of a previously unknown superpower.
Moss is a Cleveland native and a rising sophomore catcherinfielder at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. During her freshman season, she appeared in 34 games, made 13 starts and batted .322. She was even better against Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association competition, hitting .394 in conference play.
Before college, Moss was a wrecking crew at Piedmont High School. As a senior, she hit .529 with eight home runs, 12 doubles and 34 RBIs. Her honors included district player of the year, conference offensive player of the year, all-state and first-team all-region recognition.
She helped Piedmont finish 32-6 and reach the Class 5A championship game as a senior, where the Wildcats finished as state runner-up. That followed three consecutive state championships during her first three high school seasons.
That production has followed her into college. Moss delivered a pinch-hit RBI triple during Washburn’s opening weekend, later went 5-for-5 during a doubleheader sweep of Newman and ended the regular season by going 3-for-4 with the game-winning RBI single against Emporia State.
So, yes, she was probably a fairly safe bet. I mean, inviting Moss into a home run derby is like inviting a chainsaw to compete in a butter-slicing contest. Just write the check.
The larger victory, however, belonged to the Lady Tigers. High school softball programs burn through money with remarkable efficiency. There are uniforms, bats, balls, helmets, catching gear, field equipment, tournament expenses and the thousand smaller costs that materialize whenever a group of athletes begins traveling around Oklahoma.
Three thousand four hundred dollars will not make all of those expenses disappear. It will, however, buy a substantial amount of equipment and breathing room—and it came directly from alumni, families and community members spending a morning at the softball field rather than just Venmo-ing money into a Go-Fund-Me account at distance.
What makes an event like the 100-inning fundraiser work? This is Cleveland softball temporarily expanding its roster to include anyone willing to sponsor a player, participate in the action itself or sit in the shade and cheer.
One hundred innings. Two derby champions.
Three thousand four hundred dollars.
And, presumably, at least a five softballs that may not be recovered until somebody mows that lot behind the fence.