t's finally (and, I fear, oh so briefly) summer, the official season of Americans' favorite way to relive their glory days of youthful athleticism: co-ed, slow-pitch softball. Maybe you're one of the many young professionals suiting up in company colors each week to take to the field against a rival firm. Maybe you're in a drinking league with a softball problem. Whatever kind of softball you play, you're likely a few games into your season, far enough that your teammates know whether or not you've got the goods when you step to the plate.

Do they whoop and holler, or cringe as you take your warm-up cuts? For the player who clears the bases, or the player who clears a path back to the bench, there never seem to be enough at-bats. But there's a surprising absence of quality batting cages around here where you can practice.

I'd been to a couple of low-budget outdoor tunnels in the past, and was therefore delighted to discover that there's an tip-top indoor operation close to my office. Extra Innings in Watertown is one of those places that's tricky to find but easy to get to. The year-round, 13,000-square-foot facility features six tunnels for baseball and softball, including options for live pitching, hand-fed machine-pitching, and automatic machine-pitching. The pristine space is in a small industrial area hidden in a residential neighborhood.

I'm one of those people who don company colors on the diamond each week, so I grabbed a teammate and headed over to the cages on a weekday after work. We spent an hour in one of the softball tunnels taking turns crushing yellow, dimpled softballs, convinced that every other swing would have sent one over the fence had we been outside. Next to us, a group of guys in their mid 20s live-pitched baseballs and sized up players who'd seen action in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

I haven't been in a proper batting cage since high school, and spending an hour swinging at an endless number of pitches reminded me how much I love being at the plate and how good of a workout hitting can be. I was even feeling confident enough to try a few at-bats from the opposite side of the plate—an experiment I quickly abandoned. Switch hitter, I'm not. My teammate tried the same, and fared much better, though I did still laugh when he missed one entirely.

"It's more interactive than most batting cages," general manager Dana Levensaler told us. Unlike most of the cages in the Boston area, where a certain number of balls per token are launched at you automatically, Extra Innings lets you play around with the aim, speed, and frequency whenever your companion is at bat. "You can feed the balls in quicker, laugh, and try to hit one at the screen to scare them," says Levensaler. "It's an awesome first-date place."

First dates, solos, and teams alike are regular visitors to the cages, and reservations are recommended. Extra Innings also hosts private parties and local Little League teams gearing up for their seasons. But the lone hitter need not worry; there are two automatic pitching machines that look like they were taken from the pages of a Dr. Seuss book that can handle baseballs or softballs. It also has a top-of-the-line pro shop, so if, like me, you forget a batting glove, you're covered.

After spending time in the softball tunnel this week, I've got my eye on the baseball pitching machine next. I'll be back soon to see if I could have made it in the major leagues. It just better not throw off my swing in company games. What good would my glory days of youthful athleticism be then?

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