Warriors were

most certainly

a loosey-goosey

bunch

With the experience of reaching the Division II Final Four a year ago tucked neatly into their belts....er, waist bands, the Edgewood Warriors could afford to not let the enormity of the expectations they were saddled with this spring overwhelm them.

Case in point, No. 1: Deadlocked in a scoreless tie in extra innings of a game that would decide the 2007 Northeastern Conference championship, coach Shelley Monas' squad broke out the sing-song chants in the dugout.

Now, while we can certainly take issue with the Warriors' playlist, which included Tag Team's, "Whoomp, There it Is!" (complete with hand gestures by catcher Liz Wilson), Gary Glitter's, "Rock and Roll, Part II" and, without question, the bottom of the barrel - "Ice Ice, Baby," by Vanilla Ice (gag), it's impossible to argue with the results.

Perhaps spurred by the tunes, or maybe because the hitters wanted to get as far away from the dugout as possible, Edgewood broke through in that exact inning with a pair of runs on Katie McMellen's clutch two-out, two-run double, giving the Warriors a 2-0 lead that led to a 4-0 triumph.

Case in point, No. 2: Before Edgewood's six seniors said goodbye in playing their final home game, out in the left-field corner, two of them - shortstop Trisha Dreslinski and third baseman Rachel Wolford - were doing The Worm.

"I didn't know what to do!" McMellen laughed. "Trisha was coming at me from one side doing The Worm, and then Rachel was coming at me from the other side doing it.

"I felt like I was being attacked."

Ninety minutes later, the Warriors overcame a 2-0 middle-inning deficit and a 2-1, one-out, no-one-on disadvantage in the bottom of the seventh to stun the Falcons, 3-2.

"We definitely like to have fun, usually by making fun of each other," McMellen said. "It's sort of a release for us. It's a way for us to take the pressure off. We end up laughing so much at each other, it's pretty hard to get uptight about things."

While it's not a certainty, we say with confidence Wolford and fellow seniors Jackie Baird and Alexi Cash are the ringleaders most of the time.

We won't even begin to describe what the Warriors were doing as they posed for team photos with balloons after the emotional 4-3 win against the Falcons.