I’ve not been very good at keeping this thing updated lately and for that I am sorry! I’ve been looking at things and I see I haven’t been giving 100% to a lot of things lately. I’m struggling with some inner demons and letting them have way too much control of my life and the way I view myself. I’m going to have to dig deeper and find some strength somewhere! This semester in school has been a total nightmare! I tried to cram too much into this semester and I have totally overwhelmed myself! But it’s over half way over and there are only about 6 weeks left! I guess I’m going to chalk this up to lessons learned lol! One thing that has stuck me over the last couple of days is I have been blessed with some really great people in my life! Enough about me on to some softball news!
Last weekend was kind of a rough one for UW! They went 6 and 2 on the weekend (counting the games on Tuesday). They started off the weekend with a nice performance against Fresno State where they won 10-0 in 6 innings. They received their first loss of the season against UT and Blair Luna. Blair Luna was on fire all weekend and she totally shut down UW’s offense! In fact, she pitched her first perfect game of her college career! On the flip side the pitching for UW couldn’t hold up against the bats of UT. The final score was 12-0 in 5 innings. It was not the way I wanted to see UW handed their first loss and seemed to knock them down pretty good. This was maybe the first time all season I really questioned the UW coaching staff. Instead of putting their best (Ingelsby) in the circle they started Bryanna Walker. Don’t get me wrong here, I like Bryanna Walker! In every other game she had pitched she looked good! But up until that game she had only pitched 8 innings because of an injury. I felt they threw her to the lions to be devoured. Jenna Clifton and Whitney Jones also pitched but neither had any better luck Walker did. But being the team they are they bounced back the next day with a big 7-4 win over Notre Dame. In this game the Husky bats came alive and they hit 5 HRs! Jenn Salling, Kaitlin Ingelsby , and Taylor Smith all had one HR and Niki Williams had 2! It was a nice way to bounce back and get a little of the confidence lost the night before back. However success was short lived! On Saturday UW faced another Big 12 school in OU! OU as you well know is another one of my teams! So I wasn’t so fond of this game lol! OU took this game in a heartbreaking 7-6 8 inning game! UW fought hard and performed well against one of the best pitchers in the game right now in Ricketts! But the pitching and defense again struggled to get it done! I was proud of the way they battled but it sort of takes your breath away to go from being undefeated to having 2 loses in 48 hours! UW bounced back with 2 wins on Sunday though! The first game was a close one with Illinois. UW seemed a little deflated to me in this game. They won 3-2 in 9 innings though! A little bit later they took on Boise State. They seemed a little better in this game and won 4-1! I think everyone was ready to see this weekend end. After the games on Sunday the team took some much needed down time to do something fun! They went to see a movie and from what I read on Twitter they sounded like they had a lot fun. Also on the way to Bakersfield they stopped at a mall and got mani’s and pedi’s! I know it doesn’t have much to do with softball but I was glad to hear they were doing something fun to unwind and relax. This team (coaches and players alike) is very close! Tuesday they played a double header against Cal State Bakersfield. They won both games the first was 8-0 in 6 innings and the second was 9-0 in 5 innings! I didn’t talk about the Husky Classic and will do that next blog! One good thing that did come out of this crazy up and down weekend was Kaitlin Ingelsby was named Pac-10 pitcher of the week! I was very surprised but happy to hear this! It made a rough weekend a little easier to swallow! The Huskies are off this weekend for Spring break! Most of them have gone to spend it with their families and I wish them a restful, fun, and safe weekend! They will be back in action next weekend to start Pac-10 play against Oregon! I think it’s going to be a pretty rough rest of the season. I’m not saying they can win a lot of these Pac-10 games because I fully believe they can. But the pitching other than Ingelsby is struggling and the defense is not always offering a lot of support! I think it should be interesting to see who will step up and how this will all play out! No matter what happens I will be proud of this group of girls! If I could use 1 word to describe this season it would be ADVERSITY! They lost 2 players before the season even started (Felicia Harris and Amanda Fitzsimmons). Hooch Fagaly went down with a knee injury in Fall ball and at this point it’s not looking like she will be back this season! This team especially the pitching staff is young and inexperienced. I guess really the adversity for this team started long before the freshman even signed and even before the 09 National Championship when Aleah Macon left UW and went to UCLA. I guess we really don’t know how that would have gone as Macon has pitched very little this season because of injury. Either way this team has many reasons they should be struggling and all doom and gloom. But they aren’t! They continue to fight and be tough! That is just the kind of teams Coach Tarr makes! They don’t give up and they don’t give in! So who knows what these girls will do!
OU has continued to struggle. They look hot and really good one game and then look pure awful the next! There is no doubt in my mind the talent is there! They have a great coaching staff! But something is still missing! I don’t know what it is but there is something definitely missing! I hope they find whatever is before it’s too late!
Bama looked great this weekend! I was so super proud of that team! The swept the number 1 Georgia Bulldogs! I’ve made it no secret that I am not a bull dog fan! So to see my team sweep them when they are ranked number 1 was incredible! Although the weekend was great they had to be back to the grin when they faced Tennessee on Monday for a double header. They took the first game and dropped the second! But overall Bama looked fantastic and I can’t wait to see how great they look come June!
My last topic of this blog is the NPF draft! I was thrilled to see Kelsi Dunne go first! She totally deserves it and I wish her all the best! But because she was drafted to the Diamonds it’s going to be hard to root for her lol! But I bet I’ll find away lol! My other girl Jenn Salling much to my surprise and pure delight was drafted 3rd and to the Pride!! I was so excited to see her drafted high up and to the Pride! I was sweating bullets trying to figure out how I was going to decide who to root for if she went to one of the other teams. But I didn’t have to make that decision with her going to the Pride to play again with Danielle Lawrie and Ashley Charters! Now if only we can get the Pride to draft Niki Williams and/or Kimi Pohlman next year and we can have a huge UW reunion! Seriously though it’s going to be a great summer with those 3 all playing for the Pride! I personally can’t wait! There were some things about the draft that didn’t thrill me! There were many girls who I thought should have been drafted who weren’t! One of the names I threw out in my last blog was Stacy Chambers! She was one I really felt should have been drafted! I don’t know if she didn’t want to play in the NPF or what but I was sad to see her not drafted. Rhea Taylor was another I wanted to see drafted who wasn’t! Overall though I thought it was a great draft and it only increased my excitement for the summer!!
As a final note I wanted to let you guys know that one of our former UW Huskies has been invited and is going to play in Italy!! Bailey Stenson has accepted an invitation to play softball in Italy! I’m so excited for her! She will do great! No doubt in my mind! Bailey has such a great story! She is a great woman and a great softball player! I wish her much luck in this new adventure!
Here is a video made my UWTV about the 2009 National Championship team! It’s about 30 minutes long but it’s worth it! It’s a great video and has won some awards!
That is all I have for now! If you have any suggestions or topics you want me to talk about don’t be afraid to ask!! Go Dawgs, Roll Tide, and Boomer Sooner!!
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