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Mid-Ohio Valley Church Softball League going strong at Southwood Park for 25 years

PARKERSBURG – The Mid-Ohio Valley Church Softball League is a refreshing blend of fun, fellowship and recreation for players from ages 14 to 80 – and has been for a long time now at Southwood Park.

Matt Null is the current MOV Church Softball League commissioner along with John Badgley, the USSSA church league softball director for West Virginia.

“At one time, we were the biggest (church) league in West Virginia,” said Null, the head baseball coach at Parkersburg South.

The concept of the Mid-Ohio Valley Church Softball League “has always been fun, fellowship and recreation, and it’s a great league,” said Badgley. “We’ve always had 21 to 24 teams as long as I can remember, and that’s a testament to the kind of league it is.”

This year’s 21 teams sponsored by area churches play twice or possibly three times a week at Southwood during the summer with four league games a night scheduled Monday through Friday, except for Wednesday with only two games after evening church services, before a double-elimination tournament is held for two or three weeks beginning in mid-August.

Null explained the league’s format. “This year, we have two leagues – an upper league with seven teams and a lower league with 14 teams – and three divisional tournaments – upper, middle and lower.

“In the upper league, records will determine where the teams are seeded for their double-elimination tournament.

“In the lower league, the teams will basically seed themselves – 1 through 14 – with the first seven playing in the middle division tournament and the last seven in the lower division tournament.

“So we’ll have a regular-season league champ and a tournament champ for each of three divisions, since we want to give all the teams an equal opportunity to be successful.”

“What’s unique about our league,” noted Null,” is we don’t advertise.” To which, he added, “if we advertised, we could probably get a lot more teams. But we can only handle between 21 and 24 teams.”

“The (game) scheduling gets a little tricky at times, so sometimes you have to get very creative with it to squeeze it all in,” said Null about trying to juggle probably close to 400 games to fit them all into a composite schedule.

“But I’ve done it for so long, it’s become pretty easy for me.”

Null, who has been involved with the league for 19 years, said that “it’s a good, quality league and easy to officiate, but the games can get really competitive.”

Null is one of four umpires for the league along with Badgley, Chad Bloss (a Null assistant for South) and Ken Young (the dad of one of Null’s former Patriot players, Jesse Young).

“I’ve loved the league all the way through from when I first started playing in it right up until now,” said Badgley, who was playing in 1987 for the Knights of Columbus team when the league was still at old Don Godbey Field.

The league first played, though, where Grand Central Mall is now in Vienna, then at Greenmont School, old Godbey Field and now for quite a few years at Southwood Park.

The league moved from old Godbey to Southwood in 1992, when Badgley played for St. Ambrose Catholic Church in Belpre.

So the league has called Southwood Park home for 25 years now.

Both Null and Badgley praised the early leadership of the league by Jeff Lantz, who “ran the league for years since 1980 or 1981,” said Badgley.

Lantz died in 2009, when Null and Badgley took over the reins. But Lantz and Randy Edge “really carried the league through a lot of the early years,” said Null. “When I got on board, it was all set up already. I just stepped into it.”

Null likes that “our league is a unique league, and we like it,” citing that although a player can only play for one team, if a church does not have a team in the league, a member of that church can play for another team in the league.

That’s one of the league’s 10 rules, or “The Ten Commandments,” as Null joked, but not seriously though. “We’ll have to use that next year.”

Some of the other league rules are that players must attend church at least twice a month; you can start or finish a game with eight players, although technically you start with nine; courtesy runners are allowed for anyone who gets injured or has a hard time getting to first base; and each batter starts out with a 2-1 count already and you only get one foul ball, a second one and you’re out.

And before the teams play, they line up on the foul lines and the home team leads in a pre-game prayer.

The league, a USSSA organization, “is unique too for our area,” said Null, “for the fact that it’s unlimited home runs, but no double-wall, triple-wall, cryogenic or composite-barrel bats.

“And we use the softest softball available, so we are actually an old-fashioned base-hitters’ kind of league – and that’s why it’s so fun, because we just don’t have guys stand up there and hit home runs at will. We basically made it a slower game.

“Randy got the bats in place and when I came in, I got the balls in place.”

Null, as well, stated that “we’re very thankful to our city for allowing the league to play at Southwood.”

Still, added Null, “there’s some things we want to do with the area at Southwood, and our league’s churches will be willing to help with those areas to make a better environment.

“It’s a little run down, but also this might be a really good opportunity for us to beautify that area and to make it an area where church teams would like to come and play softball.”

Also, under new USSSA rules a couple of years ago, said Null, “we were able to move the bases back five feet, which makes the field look bigger too. Plus, the pitcher has a six-foot box behind the rubber that he can pitch from anywhere in without actually touching the rubber.”

In addition, “we run all the league by and through social media,” explained Null, singling out Dave Cale, who “facilitates our website for the league.” Null does the scheduling, then sends it to Cale, who “makes sure it’s on the webpage,” said Null.

“When I took over in 2009, we went all electronic, so on Twitter, we are @MOVChurchLeague and the webpage that runs through Suddenlink is pages.suddenlink.net/MOVchurchsoftball/

“And that’s how we communicate. If we have games canceled, we can communicate with everybody within 15 to 20 seconds.”

To finish, Null said he “just can’t say enough good things about the league. The environment is family friendly, the games are fast-paced and everyone seems to have a good time. You can’t beat that.”

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