Take a few friends, a softball and bat and a name like Clutch Papi, and what do you get? A Northeastern intramural softball team.

Tuesdays and Thursdays through September and October, teams like Lee’s Batters and Clutch Papi meet in the Fens to face off.

For many, the decision to play on an intramural softball team is simple.

Ken Pangbun, a senior communications studies major, was a high school athlete and wanted to continue in college. Varsity sports weren’t an option, but when he and friend Greg Case learned about intramural softball, they formed Lee’s Batters.

That was two years ago. Pangbun and Case, a middler music industry major, continue to play today because the league is both fun and relaxed, Pangbun said.

“They’re more fun because you just pick a team and go out and play,” Pangbun said. “They aren’t as demanding schedule-wise.”

The games in the Fens differ from more competitive leagues, according to campus recreation’s Web site (www.campusrec.neu.edu), because they’re slow-pitch, use 10 players in the field and an unlimited number of batters.

While the relaxed atmosphere makes for fun games, the league’s leisurely attitude can pose problems, Case said.

“A lot of the time the other team, and even the umpires, didn’t show up to the game,” Case said. “People were also always late.”

The turnout was so bad, in fact, that intramural softball hasn’t yet had their traditional playoffs, even though the games ended in the middle of October.

Greg said he wishes “intramural sports were publicized more. They’d have a better turnout if they were taken more seriously.”

– Jess Bailey, News correspondent