Wounded Warrior takes on a new battle, on the ball field

BONITA SPRINGS, Fla.- WINK News introduces you to a softball player with a lot of heart. The Marine is on a traveling softball team made up of Wounded Warriors. WINK News sat down with Josh Wege, just a day before the first game of the season.

They are being called America’s favorite team! The guys on the Wounded Warriors Amputee Softball Team say they are fueled by their competition. They have been to 31 states and 103 cities and they are starting their 2015 season, where they began, in Bonita Springs.

With the crack of a bat….

“I get butterflies, we get pumped up like I was back in high school,” said Lance Corporal Josh Wege.

Wege is hoping for a home run. His favorite sport is giving him new life after he gave so much on the battlefield.

“I’ve lost a step, but everyday I am in the gym working out, trying to make myself better. I’m not a quitter, so I wanted everything that I had back,” said Wege.

On October 4th, 2009, the Marine volunteered for a routine patrol in Afghanistan, but that mission would turn into Wege’s biggest nightmare.

“Look at me now, I’m broken, I’m not whole like I used to be.”

He lost his legs when an IED exploded.

“I had just bought a stick shift car and I remember distinctly looking at my legs and thinking how am I going to drive a stick shift without legs?”

At 19, Wege was a double amputee.

“That day is the epitome of brotherhood, we had guys amidst the chaos had heir training kick in and they saved my life.”

Wege, #23, got back into game mode and is now taking on a different kind of battle in a different kind of uniform.

“We have adapted to the game of softball, we adapt to the prosthetics themselves.”

The Wounded Warrior Amputee Softball Team is made up of other American heroes who lost one or more of their limbs during their service.

“My team inspires the crap out of me, just watching them over come what they do,” said Wege.

The team will only play against able bodied teams. WINK News there as he played with the Gulf Coast Talons.

“If you think we are just amputees and not put up much of a competition, you are sorely mistaken and you will find out in the first inning when a couple balls come flying past you.”

Each time they step onto the field, they have their motto in mind, “Life without a limb is limitless.”

“The word amputee is pretty ugly, it means not whole, so I always feel I have something to prove.”

The first game of the 2015 season takes place Saturday, January 17 at the Parks and Recreation baseball fields located at 26740 Pine Ave.

At 5 p.m., the Wounded Warriors are taking on the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and at 7 p.m., they will go head to head with the Bonita Springs Fire Department.