Since the 2026 graduation ceremony, Alfred University faculty and staff members have been gathering to have a little fun outside of classrooms and offices – playing softball on the University field below Main Street.
The impetus for the fun comes from the Alfred University Teaching and Learning Center (AUTLC), where Associate Professor of Mathematics Elizabeth Matson serves as director and Assistant Professor of Geology Michaela Fendrock serves on the AUTLC advisory committee. Together, Matson and Fendrock organized the summer softball league as a way for university faculty and staff members to play, compete, and have some fun beyond their daily work schedules.
“It’s a great way for people who work in different areas of the university to meet and get to know each other,” Matson says.
Five teams have formed for the inaugural season. Matson and Fendrock estimate between 50 and 70 faculty and staff members have joined in the fun, practicing and playing in seven-inning games that are held in the late afternoon and early evening of gamedays. Excessive heat forced the cancellation of this week’s two-game series; future games are to be played on July 8, July 22, and Aug. 12 in two time slots: 4-6 pm and 6-8 pm. Games are played on the University softball field.
Fendrock serves as commissioner of the league, with responsibilities that include enforcing a convivial set of softball rules, including prohibitions on strikeouts, base stealing, and leading off bases. Five team runs or three outs end an inning; games may be called if play extends beyond two hours, or if one team leads by 10 or more runs. Both both teams of course may agree keep on playing through the seven innings.
Spectators are welcome. Children already are regular features of games and practices. Matson’s eight-year-old son Arius threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the first game, and children provided valuable support returning foul balls and retrieving ball hit over the fence.
The children also got to run the bases after the last pitch of the game. Summer softball is all about fun.
