On the first day we won our morning game setting us up to play another in the afternoon. In our second game we faced the Lincoln Storm. It was a very tight game all the way until they pulled away in the 6th inning scoring 3 runs. We ended up losing. The tournament was double elimination, so we were down to our last leg and weren't even close to achieving our goals yet. The next day to survive we had to win five games. Our morning game was a blowout win 9-1, but every other win was a comeback. Our second game we played the Thunder. We had already lost by one in international to them in pool play so we knew it was going to be a very close and high scoring game because of how well they hit the ball. In the bottom of the seventh we scored 3 runs to put us up 10-8. We shut them down in the bottom half and won the game! Our next game was vs The Heat Wave. The score was like a slow pitch game in which our team hit five homeruns and won 19-15! The next game we played the Minnesota Irish. We had played them several times and really wanted to beat them. We scored three runs in the 6th to win the game. Our last game of the day of course had to be the Clutch Hitters. In the second inning we were down 6-1. But we just chipped away and didn't let them score the rest of the game. In the bottom of the seventh we were down once again and we were at the meat of our lineup, Cori Kennedy, me, and then Lexi Ripka. Cori and I both got on and Lexi drove a double up the middle to score Cori. Our next batter hit a sac fly to left on which I scored. We scored three runs that inning to put us up by 1. We held them in the bottom and won!! It was our best comeback yet!! That day we were the first ones at the park and the last ones to leave, it was a long day and we wanted to do it all over again tomorrow.
Our morning game we won on two home runs, one by Frankie Mickleson and the other by Kali Aldrich in international play. Their hits put us up by two going into the bottom of the ninth inning. We closed out the game and advanced to the next round! Up next was team Nebraska. We had faced them the previous year at nationals in the 15u A tournament in Iowa. We had won that game with three total hits 3-2 in international play. To lead off the game Kali Aldrich homered to put us up 1-0, and it stayed that way until the 5th inning. Cori led off with a double and I homered to score us both. The score was 3-2 and it looked like history was going to repeat itself. But that was not the case, in the bottom of the seventh we lost by one run. It was devastating to finally admit defeat, but we made such a huge run. I am so proud of my teammates and of myself for doing what we did. All of our wins were because everyone did their part. Luckily we are not done yet, we play in the Northern National Tournament being held in Rochester this year. I am looking towards another great week of softball.
Many of you may have seen a trend as I tell you about our games, we are always the away team. Our team has been home team maybe twice this year and chooses to hit every time. We love batting first and having the opportunity to jump on the other team and score first. Plus hitting is the best part, so why wouldn't we want to hit all the time!
This whole tournament taught me how to play in high pressure games and make comebacks. I also learned how to talk to my teammates in these situations and lead them toward victory. In the beginning innings you need to remain calm and just play ball. As the innings pass you increase the intensity and the energy level. You need to stay up and into the game but not too high. Also when you are down, as a leader, you have to keep them positive and make them believe that we will come back, and we will win. I learned a lot about myself and my teammates this past week and know that we can do great things.
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