You see something new every time you’re at the ballpark.
For anyone at the Florida-Stetson softball game, that rang true Wednesday.
During the squads’ matchup at Patricia Wilson Field in Deland, Fla., play was stopped briefly while players and fans gawked as Artemis II soared through the sky after being launched from Cape Canaveral.
The game’s broadcast showed Florida’s Madison Walker pointing up at the sky before it switched to a shot of Artemis II mid-flight. Fans could be seen pulling out their phones to take videos and photos.
Artemis II’s launch marks the first lunar flight since 1972. It’s occupied by three Americans and one Canadian — commander Reid Wiseman, specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen and pilot Victor Glover.
It’s a historic crew, as Koch will be the first woman, Glover will be the first person of color and Hansen will be the first non-American to fly to the moon.
The mission is supposed to take 10 days, with Artemis II traveling 250,000 miles away from Earth. It will take them roughly four days to get to the moon, when they will then encircle it. When they return, they’ll land in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.
The crew will aim to travel by the far side of the moon, which has never been seen by humans before. The last time astronauts flew to the moon, the area wasn’t exposed by the Sun.
If the mission is a success, it will set up the proposed plan for a Moon landing in 2028.
As for the game on land, the Gators defeated the Hatters, 8-2.
Florida had 12 hits to Stetson’s four, while catcher Jocelyn Erickson went 2-for-3 with two RBIs.
Those two RBIs catapulted her to the 200 RBI mark for her career, becoming the sixth player in program history to do so.
The win bumped the Gators to 34-4 on the season, sporting a 9-3 conference record to boot. They currently rank No. 7 in the NCAA’s most recent rankings.
Despite the game’s result, that clearly wasn’t the most notable moment from the matchup.
