No need to respond but I just have to shout out how proud I am of my DD. All year she has struggled with finding a place in softball period. She LOVES the game and now she can honestly say she loves who she is on the field...and it shows. This past year, she primarily played 3B and did it quite well (with a tiny slump in Feb/Mar). Also, she picked up pitching again in December but understood she would not be pitcher on this team since she committed to being their 3B/position player. Anyhow, she has been a "guest player" for a 16U team (she is 14U - birth year 99) as a pitcher and 3B as needed.
Before I get into it, let me preface this with her DC trip. She got up at 3 a.m. Sunday (6/9/13) to meet her class for bus trip to airport...the minute they landed in DC, they toured sites and did not check into hotel until 9:30 that night...then Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs - they all had to be up/dressed/fed by 7:30 a.m. and toured sites well until 9 p.m. each night. She arrived home Thursday night at 10 p.m. Slept 14 hours straight only to get up, pack again and go out of town for a state tournament as a guest player for this 16U team. Not only was she guest playing for 16U team but the team played up in 18U division. While Friday night was rough for her, the team played well. Saturday, she played 3B and hit well; Sunday, still undefeated, she played 3B and hit well (did have one strikeout but pitcher threw good drop curves)...THEN she PITCHED championship game! OMG. Needless to say, we lost BUT she did AWESOME. It was a bumpy start (with 2 walks) but she didn't walk any more for remainder of game. She worked the zone well to full counts for almost every batter. One batter hit a grand slam in the game before champ (we put them in loser's bracket that morning)...DD recognized this batter, but still held her ground throwing 1 called strike; 1 swinging strike and then pop up to 2B. She kept her victory to herself.
The 16U coach even bragged about her to the umpires. LOL.
Anyway, I just had to brag too...she really did well, kept her cool/wits and showed them (and herself) what she is made of.
BTW, the level of confidence/play is amazingly different between 14U - 16U -18U...HUGE jump from 14U to 18U. And I know that there were college freshmen playing (our team picked up 2). Still didn't phase DD.
Before I get into it, let me preface this with her DC trip. She got up at 3 a.m. Sunday (6/9/13) to meet her class for bus trip to airport...the minute they landed in DC, they toured sites and did not check into hotel until 9:30 that night...then Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs - they all had to be up/dressed/fed by 7:30 a.m. and toured sites well until 9 p.m. each night. She arrived home Thursday night at 10 p.m. Slept 14 hours straight only to get up, pack again and go out of town for a state tournament as a guest player for this 16U team. Not only was she guest playing for 16U team but the team played up in 18U division. While Friday night was rough for her, the team played well. Saturday, she played 3B and hit well; Sunday, still undefeated, she played 3B and hit well (did have one strikeout but pitcher threw good drop curves)...THEN she PITCHED championship game! OMG. Needless to say, we lost BUT she did AWESOME. It was a bumpy start (with 2 walks) but she didn't walk any more for remainder of game. She worked the zone well to full counts for almost every batter. One batter hit a grand slam in the game before champ (we put them in loser's bracket that morning)...DD recognized this batter, but still held her ground throwing 1 called strike; 1 swinging strike and then pop up to 2B. She kept her victory to herself.
The 16U coach even bragged about her to the umpires. LOL.
Anyway, I just had to brag too...she really did well, kept her cool/wits and showed them (and herself) what she is made of.
BTW, the level of confidence/play is amazingly different between 14U - 16U -18U...HUGE jump from 14U to 18U. And I know that there were college freshmen playing (our team picked up 2). Still didn't phase DD.
