Snaps take the title for women’s summer softball

Every summer, for the past 20 years, locals have taken to Veterans Field in Vineyard Haven to compete in the much beloved softball league.

For players, it’s not just about competition but also finding ways to come together regardless of where they are in life, or how busy the summer months are; and for many players, it’s simply a way to keep swinging the bat, playing the sport they love.  

“I think for me and a lot of the girls, summer is so busy. But getting together every week, I have met a lot of great friends [playing softball] that I don’t know what I would do without,” Anne Sullivan, first-year captain of the Creamers who lives in Oak Bluffs and has played on the team for 12 seasons, said. “It’s just a great sense of community, and gives us something to look forward to during everything else that’s going on.”

The women’s summer softball league closed out its season last week, when the Snaps defeated the Creamers 7–4 in Game 3 of the best-of-three championship series. The game capped off a hard-fought playoff run between two of the league’s oldest teams, which have both existed since the league’s inception in the early 2000s. 

The Snaps entered the finals after a strong regular season, having lost only a single game. Their longtime rivals, the Creamers, reached the championship after battling their way through the losers’ bracket. 

“We’ve always had a back-and-forth of winning and losing, and it’s always a challenge, but the Creamers are also an original team, and they are like our rivals, so it felt good to win,” Jackie Millard, the Snaps’ team captain, said in an interview with The Times. 

In the game, Thursday August 20, the Creamers were leading 3–2 after the first few innings, backed by strong infield and reliable outfield plays, keeping the ball in front of them. But the Snaps rallied in the fourth, finding gaps in the Creamers’ fielding and tallying a total of five more runs to bring the game to 7–3. 

The Creamers, as the home team, tried to rally in the bottom of the seventh and final inning, but the Snaps only let up a single run before putting them away to win the championship 7–4. 

“We were pretty much down the whole game, but we put it together in the sixth inning,” Millard said. 

One key highlight was an outfield catch by Snaps center fielder Kursten Moore, who leaped to catch a ball slugged by Sullivan to the outfield and over Moore’s head, with runners on base.

“I thought it would tie the game, but Kursten jumped last minute and caught the ball that we thought was over her head. We were able to keep the lead and get through the seventh inning,” Millard said. 

The Creamers’ newest second baseman, Kelly Pacheco, a senior who plays for the high school softball team, said that since she started playing, she looks forward to every Tuesday and Thursday night, when games are held.

“It’s a great community of women to look up to. It’s a fun thing for past athletes to do,” Pacheco said. “There’s so many women on my team that played softball in college or played throughout high school, and they are just looking for a way to stay involved and keep swinging a bat, and that’s what it’s all about.