In Texas in the fall of 1980, college freshman Jake Bradford, a hotshot pitcher in high school, moves into an off-campus house with other members of the college baseball team. He meets several teammates, including his roommate Billy, who has been nicknamed "Beuter" because of his Deep Southern American English. He joins Finnegan, Roper, Dale, and Plummer cruising the campus by car, looking for women. Upperclassmen Roper, an unapologetic hound dog, and Finnegan, adopting a false feminist tone, both "strike out" with two attractive young women, but one of them, Beverly, says she likes Jake ("the quiet guy in the back seat"); he makes a note of her room number.