Hotel Company checks in with intramural softball title

By Jim DresbachAugust 14, 2014

Hotel Company checks in with intramural softball title
Players from The Old Guard's H Company pose for a photograph after winning the 2014 Joint Base Myer-Henderson hall intramural softball championship July 31, 2014. The team finished the season 19-4. (Courtesy photo by Family and Morale, Welfare, and R... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

JOINT BASE MYER-HENDERSON HALL, Va. - The trophy case inside The Old Guard H Company's recreation room added new hardware in the past week following the unit's convincing intramural championship run through the 2014 softball command playoff.

Following a fourth-place finish in 2013, the Hotel Company intramural softball emphasis in 2014 was to build a championship team, and with company recruitment to search for solid softball skills and early spring practices, the team finished the season July 31 with a 19-4 victory against the 529th Regimental Support Company, 4th Battalion team.

"We had actual tryouts, and we've been practicing since March," said H Company manager Jacob Dale. "I started recruiting at the end of last season. We went through the company and shook down anybody who had any kind of baseball experience. It was a big deal to put some hardware [a trophy] in our company's case. We took it seriously, and we accomplished what we set out to do."

Most H Company players had at least organized high school baseball experience and some had reached higher levels. According to Dale, Justin Burdette played division one baseball at Clemson. Throughout this spring and summer, Burdette batted third and played third base for the H Company squad.

The offense results posted by the champs were numbing. In one regular-season contest, the eventual champs scored 35 runs. In the title game, H Company scored 11 first-inning runs, while sending 17 men to the plate.

"That's pretty much what we did all season," Dale said about the offense, which repeatedly produced double-digit scores. "We finished the season 13 and 2, and during the first three games, I didn't have the lineup set the way it should have been. Once I got that lineup tweaked, it was all over with; there wasn't a team in the league who could hang with us. Not only did we have a great defense, but we could also score on you at will."

The title has instilled a winning attitude inside the H Company barracks, and Dale's endeavor is to leave a lasting legacy of athletic excellence for future Old Guard Soldiers to recognize.

"Morale is awesome," Dale said. "Everybody wants to play on a winning team. Hopefully, this will carry over to next year and even after we're gone. Now we're getting ready for the [flag] football season."

The Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall intramural flag football season begins Aug. 16.