( Oct. 29, 2010) — “Excitement,” said junior Ando Malikian about the final game of the softball intramurlas. “It felt like I was actually back in the elementary days when all we did was play.” In this final game, Malikian stood squarely at home base, the sun blazing down on him and the others. At the last moment, he hit the ball that was thrown too high to him. He just managed to make it to first base, the screaming cheers of his teammates propelling him forward. The next batter was up and Malikian, breathless, kicked his feet up and made a dash for it. That was last Wednesday, the final day of the three-day championship games between the Dodgers and the Yankees. Malikian stomped on first base to cheers from his teammates. He and most of the other players were not exactly dressed for playing softball, oddly enough, some wearing sweaters and long pants. The people watching the game were either in the stands or hovering around the edges of the field, leading P.E. teacher Randy Tiffany to say, “Fans are in the stands,” and wave the excited students back. Malikian sprinted to home base at the next hit. Through his and six of his teammates’ home-runs, the Yankees won the championship games, winning the final day with a score of 7-6. Junior Douglas Centeno was pitching the ball to his team, thinking hopelessly to himself that they are down by six points, there are four people who are up to bat before him and two outs as it is. He somehow managedto get his turn to hit the ball, and everyone, on both teams, knew that the outcome of the game was riding on this one hit. The bases were loaded and the Dodgers were now down by four. Hands firmly around the bat, the only thing going through Centeno’s mind was, “I have to hit a grand slam.” And he did. One could call it one of those moments, when everything is perfectly aligned and the batter is left disbelieving, going so far as to call it what he considers to be the best game he’s played. Running in to home base, Centeno ran into a group hug from all his teammates, junior JP Vergara visibly thrilled with what had just happened. “Douglas is amazing. Douglas is our MVP,” says junior Randi Robins, Vergara interrupting with “MVP for life!” As for Centeno, for whom this was the first grand slam while with the Dodgers, he said that every time he went past a base, he kept thinking to himself that he couldn’t believe it. “I still couldn’t get it through my mind that I had just tied an impossible game.” This would take the Yankees and the Dodgers to the third and final day to play. Having a low number of teams this year, six, compared to the usual 12-15, intramurals coordinator Judy Thomsen said that all the teams got to play one another, which of course means more play time. The two teams with the most wins would play each other in the championship games. The Yankees and the Dodgers, who tied the first two days of the championship games and had a score of 7-6 on the final day, definitely didn’t play a boring game, Thomsen said. They kept the competitive atmosphere up and did not disappoint their fans nor themselves.