Battle Between Teammates

Imagine stepping into the box versus a pitcher that knows everyone of your strengths and your weaknesses. Intimidating right? I experience this every time my Byron High School team plays Stewartville. Cait has been my teammate for over 5 years now and is one of my closest friends, but, she is also one of my competitors. Being teammates during the summer presents us with a very interesting situation when it comes time to play each other in the spring. At-bats are like a chess match, their are many conflicting emotions you must control, and the competion is higher than ever.

No one that I know wants to step into a box and face a pitcher that knows a ton about them. Facing Cait is different than any other pitcher because of how familiar we are with each other. Not only are we long time friends but we were also hitting partners! This means that during warm-ups and during games you are constantly analyzing your partners swing to try and help them to get better. This is where the chess match begins. As I step in, Cait knows where I struggle just as well as I do. This changes your mental preparation coming into the at-bat. I know that she is going to pitch me a certain way or try to get me to chase a certain pitch. Knowing these things, I form the mindset that I will adjust my approach to hit take advantage of what she is likely to try to do. After the first at-bat you asses your strategy and the strategy she used. Through the next two at-bats you go back and forth each making small adjustments to beat the other. In the next half of the inning the roles reverse. Now I am the pitcher and Cait the batter. I only pitch during the high school season as I am an infielder during the summer. But, I still do the best I can to help my team win by pitching. Pitching to someone you know is completely different because you understand their abilities, and if you miss in a certain spot, you know they will make you pay for it. The only true way to win this game of chess is to get the other person out or to get a hit. 

Playing against your own teammates sparks so many different emotions. First there is excitement. You are excited to see them because it has been a long time. Next is anticipation. I get antsy on any game day, but especially restless when playing Stewie because of how close our games have been in the past. Last is the feeling of determination when the game finally starts. You are preparing to do everything in your power to win and have the mindset you will not fail. During the game you have to control your emotions on either side of the board whether you are having success or not. It can be a great struggle to do when you put everything you have into the game. But that is all part of the mental side of the game. 

The most evident difference when playing against a teammate is the level of the competion. You always want to win when playing, but the desire is even greater when it is against one of your own. This level brings out the best on both sides and often leads to great plays. If your teammate gets a hit or makes a play, you automatically want to do something to top them. Not only does it earn you a bit of bragging rights come summer but also it fuels your self confidence. 

A lot of different feelings and emotions come into play when you go up against your own teammate, but personally I love it. During H.S. I constantly am playing people that I know, so I am very familiar with these feelings. Even though the game is like a chess match, it brings out a lot of emotion, and provides high competition, they are my favorite games of the year.  

NDSU vs. SDSU

Most people spend their Saturday mornings sleeping in, watching t.v., and just relaxing. I couldn't tell you the last time I did that! So getting up at 6 to hit the road and watch some softball this weekend was nothing out of the ordinary. Our destination was Brookings, SD, to watch NDSU vs SDSU.

A quick gane recap: The game was tied at zero until NDSU opened it up with 8 runs in the 3rd inning. From there on it was very one sided. The final score was 12-0, with Krista Meinke throwing a 1-hitter for the Bison. It was a perfect game until the bottom of the fifth with one out and a lefty blooped a hit into short RF. It was awesome to watch NDSU string a bunch of hits together just like their last comeback win in Illinois that I saw.

I love watching college softball because there is so many things that you can learn. Each game I watch I try to pick out about  three different skills or plays that have good teaching points and talk about them with my dad or coaches. The three things that I picked up from this game was warming up through the 3rd baseman, hitting in different pitch counts,  and sliding into home. 

The first thing was doing most of infield warmups through the third baseman.  Using this technique everyone gets a ball coming from the home plate angle and the 1st baseman still fields their throws.  Instead of rolling to the ball to them,  the 1st baseman throws the ball to 3rd and she begins the next play. It also provides the right angles to work double plays. Each session of warm ups starts with the 3rd baseman rolling it to the pitcher once and then moving onto the other infielders. Every other inning they differed the situation (just going to first, turning two, or bunts). Then it is ended with the third baseman getting her two balls. I think that this type of pre inning infield provides a better game simulation for fielding balls and is more time efficient. It is definitely something that I would love our infield coaches to look into and hopefully transition to it for the summer.

The next thing I noticed was how much the count effects your at-bat. At the college level you will only see one maybe two good pitches per at-bat. Once they get ahead of you, don't expect a pitch that you can drive. That is why I feel it is SUPER important to be aggressive and be the one in control of the at-bat. In my last blog I compared an at-bat to a chess match, it is all about your strategy to beat the opposition. If you want to win you do not sit back and react, you are the one making the moves and being aggressive.  For me, this translates directly to hitting. Almost every hitter's batting average increases when they are ahead in the count. So it is simple, don't get behind in the count. Recognize the first good pitch and do something with it!

The last thing I noticed that whenever there was a close play at home the on-deck hitter for the Bison only used hand signals to instruct their teammate. Now I am not sure whether it was just because I could not hear them talking but it sparked an idea. When you do talk you help your runner but you also tell the catcher where she is going to be sliding. If you only use your hands and no voice the catcher does not necessarily know where you are going to slide. I am still unsure about this idea but it is definitely something to further discuss.

I had a blast at the game watching my Bison play and learned a few things which will be beneficial. The long drive was definitely worth getting to watch a ball game on a beautiful Saturday. 

High School Softball 2014 Preview

The start of the 2014 season marks the beginning of my fourth year playing for Byron. The start of a season always brings great anticipation and excitement over what is to come and what is possible to achieve in the upcoming games. It is a new year, a fresh start. Besides for the new start there is a certain sense of pride that you feel when you are able to put on a jersey and represent your school.

This years team is completely new besides for me and our center fielder Takota Tierney. So there is lots of opportunity to grow and improve every day. Practice starts indoors for the first few weeks because of all the snow. It is awesome that even though we have all the snow we have access to scrimmage indoors at the RCTC bubble. We also ended up playing our first two games of the season in there as well. This year we did not have an outdoor practice before our first outdoor game that was this past week. Our first scrimmages and games have been kind of rough but the exciting part is that we improve drastically every time. You can see things starting to click and the kids beginning to understand things they previously had not. If we keep improving at our current rate we could be very competitive come playoffs this year. 

Last year I set a very high standard for myself to reach again this year. To reach above and beyond that standard I put in more work this off season than ever before and am still working hard to get better. I have very high expectations for myself and even though this year has started off slow I know things will come. This year will be the biggest mental test for me so far because of all the different pressures from outsiders and myself. With all of my prior preparation I feel confident that things will come together and I will be able to compete at my usual level. 

Overall I am very excited for this season as so many things are different from the past. The team is completely new and their are so many opportunities to come. No matter how things ends up, I definitely am going to enjoy this season. :)