I can't believe they've already played 4 full weeks of softball!! It's going by so fast, just like it always does! This weekend the Huskies played the Louisville Slugger Classic in Stockton, California hosted by Pacific! This weekend was special more many reaons and I will detail more later but overall this was one of those weekends that just makes you smile and feel warm inside! I would just like to say a big thank you to Pacific for providing a live stream and stats for these games! It was so great to finally get to actually see the Huskies play!!
The tournament started out Friday with the Huskies taking on Sacramento State. Kaitlin got the start and pitched a great game giving up only 2 hits, 0 walks,0 HBs, 0 runs. Huskies had no problem with Sacramento State and ruled them 9-0 in 5! This was another case where they had about 15 minutes to get a drink and get back on the field. They played Delaware next. Bryanna Walker got the start and did she pitch a game! She threw her first career no hitter, walked 1, and had 8 strikeouts! This looks like a totally different pitcher than what we saw from her last season! It was a special weekend for her all around and I couldn't be more proud or happier for her! Huskies run ruled Delaware 12-0 in 5. The next day they played Pacific. Before the game Pacific retired the jersey's of Cindy Ball(current assistant coach for UW) and Gina Carbonatto(former assistant coach for UW)! You add that to the fact that Coach Tarr started her coaching career as an assistant at Pacific and you get two teams that are very connected and very close. Now to the game lol. Kaitlin pitched and she just didn't seem to have her best stuff! Kaitlin throws with alot of speed but she has some pretty amazing movement as well. She just didn't seem to have that typical movement that night. On top of that the defense just sorta crashed. I mean it could have been alot worse but it still wasn't good! UW had 2 errors and there were a couple of other plays in my opinion that could have easily been called errors. Defensivly it was a nasty nasty game for both teams. UW won the game 5-4 though and set themselves up for another game with Delaware. Kasey pitched this game and she pitched a fantastic game! This was my first time to actually get to see her pitch and I am very impressed. She doesn't have the speed or power that Kaitlin throws with but she can really make that ball move and spin. She gave up 3 hits, 3 waalks, 0 runs, and struck out a whopping 12!! Offense started off a little sluggish but got it going and won the game easily 5-0. I really felt like after the easy games on Friday they came out a little complacent. The defense was nasty and the offense was just a little sluggish. But they won both games and were headed to tournament championship. They played Pacific again in the championship game. Bryanna Walker got the start and for the first 4 innings she pitched 1 hit ball and looked good. At the beginning of the 5th inning before her and Lindsay Monk took the field they had a very long conversation with Coach Ball. Obviously I have no idea what they talked about but what I did notice was they changed their pitching choice and started going away from her change up even though it had working well the whole game. I don't know if they were worried they were going to start hitting or if they were just trying to keep Pacific off balance but it ended up costing them and honeslty I thought for a bit there it was going to cost them the game. She gave up 3 runs to tie up the score and the go ahead run in the 6th. But towards the middle of the 6th I noticed them going back more to the change up and she was able to get out of the inning without giving up anymore runs. Top of the 7th and the offense finally started getting after it again. They put pressure on the Pacific defense and the Pacific defense cracked big time giving up 4 errors and 3 runs. Kaitlin came in for the 7th inning and sealed the deal quickly! Overall Bryanna pitched a nice game she gave up 8 hits, 4 runs, and 2 walks and struck out 7! It wasn't the no hitter she had friday night but over all it wasn't a bad game for her. One thing about all 3 of these pitchers is they have been able to keep their cool and not let the emotion of the game get to them!
I felt overall it was a really good weekend for the Huskies! The defense and espcially infield were a little shaky at times. But I think we all have to remember how young and inexperienced this infield is. We've been spoiled for the last few years with an extremely talented and experienced 3rd baseman and one of the best SS to every play the game in my totally biased opinion. Kylee Lahner and more so Kimberlee Souza have had their problems. But it has really been a diffcult transition I think for Courtney Gano. She accounted for 3 of the 6 Husky errors this weekend. I don't think it's a lack of talent because when she makes plays she makes good solid plays. She catches the ball cleanly and makes nice clean throws. I think the problem she is having is more mental. I think with more time and more experience she'll learn to take a deep breath and just do what she does best! I think with more time and experience we will see this infield grow and be very good. Part of that growing is making mistakes and learning from them! The pitching for UW continues to look great! As I said earlier if someone would have told me last season Bryanna Walker would look this good this season, I probably would have told you, you were nuts lol! No offense at all intended she just had a very rough freshman year. She did have an injury last season that did hamper her though. During the off season she had surgery on her foot and she just looks so much better! I am very happy for her! This was obviously my first chance to Lindsay Monk catching for the Huskies and she did a very nice job! She is very good at blocking balls and keeping them in front of her when need be. She doesn't have the arm that Shawna does(or atleast I didn't see it this weekend. Obviously it was only a couple of games so I don't for sure) but she is a strong catcher and I think it will be nice to have someone who can come in and give Shawna a break. Also with 3 pitchers doing the pitching instead of just one it's easier to have 2 catchers to keep up with everything. I mean some things are the same but at the end of the day you are dealing with 3 different pitcher with 3 differnet styles and that is alot for one person to remember. I think Shawna can rest easy in that number 1 spot because I don't know of too many other catchers who have the arm she has. One of the plays that people who were at the Cathedral City Classic were buzzing about was during the Florida game Kaitlin struck out a batter and Shawna dropped the 3rd strike. It rolled all the way to the backstop! She ran over grabed the ball and still some how managed to get it to first in time for the out! She is very very good at what she does! Well I can't think of anything else I wanted to talk about from this weekend! Next weekend will be the Husky Softball Classic and guess what it's supposed to rain all weekend lol! It always does lol! We'll just have to wait and see how it plays out but if it's like last year they won't get play half their games lol! Hopefully that won't be the case this year lol!
Moving on now to soccer! I watched the USWNT take on Japan for the first time since the gold cup came at the World Cup this morning. I really hoped they could pull out a win or atleast a tie and get to the championship game but it wasn't meant to be. It was an extremely close game but Japan won 1-0. First half the US team struggled in the middle of the field. Japan was pressing them hard and they were havign a hard time keeping possession of the ball. They brought in Lori Lindsey early in the first half and she helped them out alot with that area of the field. To start the 2nd Pia made 3 subsitutions and it did help! They were getting more chances and taking more shots! But like the World Cup nothing was going in. Japan scored on a well placed free kick towards then end of the 2nd half. I knew as I watched them set it up, it was going to give the US problems. Normally in soccer you want to spread people out so you can get one on one match ups and get to the goal easier. But Japan seemed to go with just the opposite approach. They took everyone and place them in a big ball in the box. I was thinking to myself as I watching this that there was no way Hope Solo could possibly see all of those girls let alone get somone on them. Sure enough the ball is kicked towards the back of this huge pack and headed in just past the out stretched arms of Hope. I don't think she could even tell where the ball ended up let alone who was shooting it and where to! Overall I thought there were alot of good things about this game. They had a chance to take alot of shots. Alex Morgan was getting by the defenders almost every time but her shots were just a little crazy today. I think this game was more of a mental thing than anything! They weren't attacking like they normally do and they all seemed to just be over thinking it and trying to force things to work! The defense was solid as usual! I think Pia did a nice job coaching and her lineup was exactly what I would have done. It just wasn't meant to be! They will finish up this tournament with the bronze medal game on the 7th!
Well I am about to fall asleep right here so I think I will go! Go Huskies! Boomer Sooner!! Go Bama!! RTR!! Fear the Goat(they won all 4 of their games this weekend!!)!
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