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DAN GUNDERSON: It's a beautiful day for a ball game. Bright, sunny skies, a light wind blowing out to right field, and the temperature a balmy 26 degrees at game time. The neon green softball is a vivid contrast to the glistening white snow. But this is high octane softball.

[SNOWMOBILE ROARING]

DARREN ANDERSON: Oh, I think he's safe.

SPEAKER 2: Safe.

DAN GUNDERSON: The players aren't wearing spikes and running the bases. They're riding very powerful, very fast snowmobiles.

DARREN ANDERSON: I think we've been doing it eight or nine years now. It's fun. It's just something to break up the winter blahs.

DAN GUNDERSON: Darren Anderson is President of the Moonshiners Snowmobile Club. He's the designated pitcher, rule maker and commentator.

DARREN ANDERSON: Here we go. [INAUDIBLE]

SPEAKER 3: [INAUDIBLE] was longer than it was.

[LAUGHING]

DARREN ANDERSON: That was my snow slider, by the way.

SPEAKER 3: Nice.

DAN GUNDERSON: The game is played on a field surrounded by woods. It's normally used as a rifle range. Four orange traffic cones serve as bases. On a more or less regulation sized field, the playing surface is covered by about 18 inches of powdery snow. There are about a dozen sleds, the players, a mix of men, women and teenagers. No one wears a softball glove. The pitcher and catcher are on foot. Everyone else is on a snowmobile.

DARREN ANDERSON: When you bring your sled up to home base, everything is shut off. Everybody has a sled in the outfield, and the basemen have a sled. When the person that's batting hits the ball, he fires his sled up and he runs the bases. Obviously, you have to-- safety first. You don't want to hit anybody. And when the ball is hit, the outfielders can start their sled to chase the ball. Some of the older sleds that the kids bring sometimes don't start so good when they hit the ball. So obviously, they get out at first base.

DAN GUNDERSON: Another aspect of this game is that you might spend some time digging for the ball.

DARREN ANDERSON: Exactly, yeah. So the person running the base has got that advantage. And while there's been times where we've actually lost them, and we didn't find them for a couple of plays later, the guy in the outfield keeps looking while the game is going.

[SNOWMOBILE ROARING]

DAN GUNDERSON: The base runner, or I guess, that should be base driver, gets around the bases in a hurry with a plume of snow flying behind the sled. But there have been no serious mishaps in the eight or nine years this annual game has been played. Mark Pollock says everyone thinks safety first.

MARK POLLOCK: We take it pretty easy. We don't anybody crashing together. We've had a couple of close calls, but it's not worth crashing, so.

DAN GUNDERSON: The players might even forget the score. After all, the winner only gets bragging rights until next year.

MARK POLLOCK: We just play until, oh, let's call it quits and go home. So we never get too serious.

DAN GUNDERSON: The game attracts a small group of spectators, mostly family members. Darren Anderson says, sometimes deer wander through the outfield, and one year, a group of snowy owls watched from nearby trees.

DARREN ANDERSON: They were sitting in the oak trees on the side waiting for the field mice to come out, and that was quite interesting. I thought that one was going to take my head off because I was playing third base that one year, and there was a field mouse out just off to my right, and he swooped down and got the field mouse.

DAN GUNDERSON: Darren Anderson says he'll be back next year for another game if there's enough snow, and it's not too cold. The Moonshiners have talked about issuing a softball challenge to other snowmobile clubs. They've just never gotten around to it until now. Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio News, Twin Valley.