And the season is over..

It's been a few days now since the Huskies were eliminated and I feel like it's time to write my second and last blog of the season lol. I did a terrible job keeping up with the blog this season :(. It was a great season and it was heartbreaking to see it end, especially before OKC and the WCWS.

This was a great team. This was a team full of talent. But it never felt like it really came together like last years team did. This was the first time the Huskies really had high expectations for them from people outside the program and fans. They had a lot to deal with. But overall I'm proud of them! They battled the whole season right up until the end. I am going to dearly miss those 7 seniors! They were an incredible group! Next year is going to be interesting for sure! Lots of holes to fill! But a big thank you and good luck to this year's seniors! I know the future is very bright for all of them :)

Well the NPF season starts this weekend. I still can't believe they decided to start at the same time as the WCWS! So dumb! Honestly I'm having a hard time finding any excitement for this season.  They hired a coach I don't like for the Pride and then they traded a big chunk of my favorite players. The only bright spot is that Danielle Lawrie will be back! I know that once the season gets going I'll get over it but ugh lol. Right now I'm pouting!


Good luck to OU and Alabama in the WCWS!!

Update Update Update

I have tried to update on here 150 times since the Women's College World Series but it just didn't happen.   At first I was just trying to really soak it in and enjoy it. I also wanted to really think about what I was going to say. Before I got back to update my computer died. I am writing is on a Kindle. It is not very easy, so please forgive any typos lol. Well there is much I want to update and talk about, so I'm going to jump right in.

The WCWS was incredible. The Huskies did so much more than anyone(myself included) thought they would! Let me first say that the weather was crazy if you don't remember. They had one evening that all the teams and stuff spent taking tornado precautions at their hotel.  I felt so bad for everyone because I knew most of those girls had never dealt with tornadoes but everyone did a great job staying calm and everyone was safe and sound. I was so glad that they delayed the games the day of the tornadoes way before people were set to arrive. That kept a lot of people safe. But anyway the Huskies had a great run and finished tied for 3rd with Texas. They did so behind fabulous pitching and fabulous defense. The offense was frankly cold but they got the runs when they needed them. When I think about last year's team and this year's as well the thing that really jumps out at me is the leadership. They had a very strong junior and senior class last year and again this year. In my opinion and I've said this before it's starts in the circle. There were very high hopes for Kaitlin Inglesby from day one but Bryana Walker has been a little bit of a surprise and she just continues to improve. It's been amazing to watch! Words fall short in describing how proud I was of what last year's team did. They dug deep and really opened the eyes of many people. They really came together and took care of business as a team. Even facing OU in that last game they battle and gave it everything they had and I remember feeling so much pride! I really hope they can get back to OKC and make a great run again!

 I'm excited about this year and so far it's off to a great start! They are 10-0 and have played really well! We lost only one  senior.starter, catcher Shawna Wright. Kimberlee Souza was supposed to take over behind the plate but she suffered a torn ACL in the Fall. There is some hope she'll be back by the end of the season. I guess we'll see what happens. Courtney Gano is doing the catching right now and for someone who has not done any catching in college she's done great. Kylee Lahners has been swinging am insanely hot bat so far. I hope she keeps that up. I've been super impressed with freshman Aly Aguilar! Hopefully she'll continue to do well. 2 weeks in and they've already received 3 big weekly awards, which if I remember correctly is more than the whole season last years lol. Kylee Lahners  was USA softball player of the week last week and this week she is Pac-12 player of the week and Bryana Walker is NFCA player of the week! They had a great win and ended it with a win over OU in which Bryana had a career high 14ks and only gave up 3 hits!  I'll talk more about them in the next blog. This was just my general thoughts on the season so far. I'll also talk more about other teams. But this is going to be long enough lol.

Also got to watch the Pride win the championship series! It was amazing and can't wait until the next season starts! I loved watching JT D'Amico coach them and was really sad to hear he wasn't coming back. I was and am less than thrilled with the person who will be taking over and that's probably putting it mildly but I am doing my best to keep an open mind lol.

Well the Winter Olympics are in full swing and I'm loving it!! I love seeing so many sports  that you only see during the Olympics. I love the luge, the skeleton, and the bobsled. I love the ice skating. I adored watching and learning about Jason Brown. Watching him skate makes me want to get up and dance lol. But I read an article by a Canadian writer that made me super mad! I'll try to put a link to the article at the end. Basically she was saying that the ice dance scores were rigged and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir got screwed. It was really quite a fit she threw. The Kindle won't let me post a comment to it, so this is what I would say to her. While you waited to scream foul, you missed everything! This was most likely the last time they would skate on Olympic ice and skated beautifully! If that is the last time I'll see them skate, I can honestly say I wouldn't change a thing. They skated with their whole heart and gave it everything they had. At the end of the day weather their medal is silver or gold is really irrelevant. By feeling the need to throw a fit for them, you are taking away from what they did. Any other Olympics, that would have been gold. But Meryl Davis and Charlie White have worked hard as well and this is probably their last Olympics too. I could understand the fit if this was like the first time they'd beat them. But it isn't. In fact, they've beat them head to head almost every time they've faced off since the last Olympics. Where those judges also paid off? Both of these couples skated incredibly and neither have anything to be ashamed about! Instead of screaming about something you know nothing about, go back and enjoy the beauty that was those two skates. Go back and really soak them in because the days of watching the beauty that is both Virtue and Moir and Davis and White are limited and drawing quickly to a close. A day is soon approaching that we won't be able to enjoy that and I don't want my last time watching them being clouded with my own personal hang ups and drama.

Well this is really long so I'm going to wrap it up :). Go Huskies! Boomer Sooner! RTR Go Bama! FTG!

Huskies are headed back to OKC!

What a couple of weekends for the Huskies! Huskies went 3-0 in their Regional last weekend. In fact, Bryanna Walker no hit Hawaii and they ruled them 8-0 in the last game of the weekend! Offense wasn't a little sluggish in the first 2 games but they found their groove in the 3rd game. They fought, clawed and battled the whole weekend and came up with 3 great team wins! They set themselves up for a rematch in Supers with Mizzou. I honestly didn't know what to think about this weekend. I knew Mizzou is a good team and they have a fabulous pitcher in Chelsea Thomas. I was nervous about it. But I had a good feeling. Despite what a LOT of people seem to think this is not the same team from 2011. Kaitlin Inglesby is not the same pitcher, Bryanna walker is 100% and pitching as well as she has probably in her entire career, Huskies D has been lights out all season, and the offense has been clutch. I never doubted the talent was there but I wondered if everything would  come together.

Yesterday Kaitlin got the start and it was pretty much a pitching dual between her and Chelsea Thomas until the bottom of the 6th when Mizzou got on the board. It really seemed like that would be enough... But the Huskies had other ideas. Kaitlin got on and was lifted for a PR. The PR was able to move up to 2nd on a wild pitch and senior Shawna Wright knocked her in with a single to tie up the game. Bryanna came in and sat Mizzou down in order in the 7th. Kelli Suguro hit single and reach 2nd on a bad throw to start the 8th and Victoria Hayward hammered a ball to the outfield for a double to bring Kelli home for the go ahead run and Bryanna shut them down to win the game!

I felt the Huskies had a very good chance to win and advance today. But I also felt that with Chelsea Thomas in the circle for Mizzou anything was possible! I normally have this superstition of not wearing my national championship shirt on game day. The few times I have they always lost. But this morning I was feeling it! There was no other shirt I wanted to wear more today and so I put it on and this time it worked! Kylee Lahners robbed a 2 run HR in the top of the 1st and Victoria Hayward hit a solo HR in the bottom of the 1st and that was pretty all that was needed. Bryanna and Kaitlin again combined for a great game. The defense was stellar! Not just these 2 games but the whole season! One of the best defenses the Huskies have ever had and one of the best in the country I'd say.

I just could not be more happy for them right now! This group of girls are very very special! I think about last season and I think we got a little taste of what these girls were made of in pre-season. But when Pac-12 season started things fell apart. I look back at those blogs and I remember how frustrating it was the watch and I remember the frustration I could see on their faces. But the beauty is those are the games where the biggest lessons come from. It's very interesting to me the thing that was maybe the worst part of the game for the Huskies is now the best, not just for this season but the best defense the Huskies have had in a long long time... maybe ever. The defense last season was no where near the top, they were a hot  mess. But this year the experience, the chemistry, the talent, and the right combination of players has led to an extremely strong defense which in turn leads to better pitching. When a pitcher know she can count on her defense to back her up, she is going to be more relaxed and it opens up her pitch availability. But all around this team is more well rounded. Coach Tarr has done a fantastic job with these girls! But it took alot of disappointment, alot of hard lessons, and even more practice to get here.

At the end of the game Kaitlin Inglesby and Bryanna Walker hugged for a long time and it was probably the most beautiful and emotional moment for me. If there are 2 pitchers who have fought through more adversity  than those 2, I don't know who they are! Kaitlin is 80% deaf, has Graves disease, and was smashed in the face with a ball off of Hooch Fagaly's bat leaving her with 47 breaks in her face(you don't even have 47 bones in your face). She also had issues with injuries last season and pitched almost every inning her freshman season. Bryanna Walker broke her leg her freshman year and had to have a rod put in it(it's purple btw lol). And what few people know is she also lost her father. But they both just kept pushing on! They are the co-leaders of this team! The trials of their early careers have made them strong, confident competitors and leaders. The taste of defeat in Super Regionals the last 2 years that both experienced has put a fire in their bellies! I read a blog earlier that referred to them as a two headed monster lol. The blog was poorly written and frankly didn't give enough credit to these two women for what they've accomplished but I think the person who wrote it got that right! They are a great 1-2 punch and are such different pitchers that it's really hard for hitters to adjust! I know this was sweet revenge for Kaitlin. I remember how upset she was when they lost in 2011. You could just see she was putting the full blame on herself. The smile on her face and Bryanna's face was just... priceless!

Two more players who I think are leaders for this team and strong competitors are Shawna Wright and Victoria Hayward. Shawna's bat has not always been the best but as a catcher she is one of the best! She is also a great leader! I love watching her with the pitchers. She is always smiling and always able to get them to smile and take a deep breath. The thing about Shawna was that there was no easing into the role. She came in right after Alicia Blake graduated and was expected to catch Danielle Lawrie, probably the best division 1 pitcher in the country at the time. You might think she would be a little intimidated but if she was she never showed it. She stepped in there and caught Danielle like she was a Senior too. The next year she took on an even bigger challenge, catching a freshman when she herself was still pretty inexperienced and on top of that new pitcher was 80% deaf! She's done great though! The Huskies have 4 pitchers(plus one other player who can pitch) and she has caught all of them. Shawna is a senior and no matter what happens in OKC 2 thins are certain about her career. First off it will draw to a close and second off she's left her mark all over this program! I will miss watching her play for the Huskies. I'll miss that big smile and the passion she plays with.  Victoria Hayward has always been a favorite of mine. She has always been great in the field and a strong hitter but this season has seen her really step forward and take on a huge leadership role(I've written more about her in previous blogs you can check them out). Hooch Fagaly is another who has really stepped up. Honestly at one point in time every one of these girls has stepped and made a play, or got a clutch hit, or scored a key run. That's the beauty of this team! It's not just one player, it's all of them and they wouldn't be where they are without every single one of them! This team plays with passion and energy! I love watching them play!

I'm done babbling now lol! No idea if any of this even made any sense! I am just so happy and proud of them! Congrats to the Huskies on sweeping Mizzou and being the first team to punch their ticket to the WCWS! I of course would love to see them win it all but whatever happens I'm proud to call myself a Husky fan!

I'll update on other things and teams later. I just wanted to take the time to congratulate the Huskies and express my happiness and pride!

Go Huskies!!

Post season

I can't believe the regular season is over! I know I say that like very single year but it just goes by so fast. I just love it so much, ever single second of it and it zooms by! Huskies were fantastic this season! These players have really matured and grown not just since last season but as the season has gone on. It's been fun to watch!

While waiting for them release the Pac-12 awards, my only thought was if they don't include Hooch Fagaly, Victoria Hayward, and Kaitlin Inglesby there is something wrong! These 3 have anchored this team this season. Thankfully the Pac-12 saw it my way and all 3 were named to the first team All-Pac-12! To my surprise and delight Shawna Wright was named Pac-12 defensive player of the year! Let me clarify something here, I don't mean that as a knock to Shawna in the least! She is a fantastic catcher and I was disappointed when she wasn't drafted. What I meant by being surprised was that honestly the Pac-12 and the rest of the country seem to be completely over looking this team. Shawna deserved that award no doubt, I just didn't figure they would give it to her! Kylee Lahners was named to the 2nd team! Shawna, Kelli Suguro, Kimberlee Souza, and Jennie McNeill were all honorable mentions! I really honestly was not looking forward to them releasing these because honestly I figured they would screw the Huskies over. The Huskies had 1 Pac-12 pitcher of week this season and 0 Pac-12 player of the week! They just feel like most people aren't looking at the Huskies. I think that's good in some respects. Always good to sneak up on people and and not give them a chance to prepare for you. But on the other hand I'll be honest it really bothered me! They lost only 2 series in the entire Pac-12 season and they lost those to Oregon and ASU. They were never swept and finished 3rd. Their record was actually the same as ASU's but ASU got the tie breaker because of head to head. I think what really really irked me was that the only thing noticed from this past weekends games was Jolene Henderson's return to the circle. Completely ignored was how well the Huskies played and the send off they gave their wonderful senior class. They haven't had this many players named to the All-Pac-12 teams since the 2010 team who were ranked number 1 through most of the season! Yet nobody notices! I don't know it just bugs me! No matter what happens in the post season this team has a lot to be proud of! On top of that, they bring back all but one of their starters next year! Although that one starter is a big one(Shawna Wright), they are in position to really make some noise next year(not that anybody will notice)! They are hosting Regionals for the 4th year in a row(20th season in a row they've made the post season, that's success!). Their Regional is a little harder this year than last and should provide when with quite a challenge. They will have Portland State, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Hawaii beat them once already in the beginning of the season and they haven't seen Minnesota. I have really followed them closely but I know they came on strongly to end the season. Hopefully all goes well though! If they win their Regional and Mizzou does they'll be headed out there for the 2nd time in 3 years for Supers. Honestly was not so thrilled when I saw that!

Oklahoma had a fantastic season and are the number 1 seed going into Regionals. They were given a pretty easy field. They swept the Big 12 awards taking Coach, Pitcher(Keilani Ricketts of course), and player(Shelby Pendley) of the year! I think at this point they are the team to beat!

Another team that has a lot to be proud of is St.Edwards! The rolled into Canyon for Regionals last weekend and ran away with it! They are headed to Denton this weekend to take on Texas Women's in a best of 3 series for Supers! Sarah Debrow has been quite the work horse for them and has had one heck of a season! Good luck to them this weekend!

Tennessee and Alabama will host this weekend as well and if both when they will face off in Supers for a spot in OKC! Should be interesting to see how that plays out!

The Islanders never really got it going and the on top of that the injury bug bit and bit hard! I hope next season is much better for them!

Well that's all I've got! Good luck to all the teams playing this weekend! Go Huskies! Boomer Sooner! Go Lady Vols! RTR Go Bama! FTG! Go Islanders!

Finally able to update!

Well I spent most of February without internet and have just not been able to get back in the habit of writing. But I've gotten a couple of request to get back to this so here I am!

The Huskies have been a little up and down. Last season they just blew through their non-conference schedule and then crashed during Pac-12. This season was different. They started the season kind of rough and then seemed to get things together and had long stretch of wins, and then again hit a rough spot right before the start of Pac-12. They started Pac-12 with Arizona and really had a nice series. They won 2 of 3. The pitching was good and the hitting was good. This weekend they played Oregon. Oregon is good no doubt but I really felt the first game the Huskies were just not ready to go. They looked really lost out their and struggled to make adjustments on both sides of the ball. I didn't get to see the 2nd game(it was on the Pac-12 network which I am learning to really hate lol). The third game yesterday they really played well and really battled. I was really impressed with their ability to forget the other 2 games and just do what they do best. They will take on UCLA in double header on Tuesday and a single game on Wednesday and then turn around and play Oregon State at home next weekend. That's like 9 games in a week! Crazy Pac-12 schedules this year! So I decided I'll list some good things about the Huskies and then some things that need work.

I see a lot of good things in this team. Top 4 are Victoria Hayward, Hooch Fagaly, Missy Taukeiaho, and Kimberlee Souza! All 4 of have had a wonderful season both in the field and with their bats! Next would be Kaitlin Inglesby, Jennie McNeill, Bryanna Walker, and Shawna Wright! Kaitlin and Bryanna have both pitched very well! Jennie McNeill has taken over that SS spot nicely! She is a heck of a SS! Shawna has always been a great catcher and leader and this season so far her bat seems to have really warmed up! The defense for the Huskies has been incredible so far! Kelli Suguro has done a great job at 2nd as well and has had some key hits! The base running for this team is great. Lots of speed on this team!

The biggest thing that needs work is their ability to hit good pitchers and make a adjustments against good pitchers. In the first 2 games of the Oregon series they had 5 hits an 3 runs(2 of which were unearned due to an error). They did make adjustments in the 3rd game and it was really good to see. I hope in the next few weeks they can continue to improve and build confidence. Pitching has been a little less than stellar the last couple of weeks as well. But our pitchers are good and I look for them to only improve.

Overall it's been a nice season for the Huskies! I hope they are able to take atleast 1 from UCLA and I'm hoping for 2 against Oregon State! Go Huskies!!

On to an unrelated topic. I've been following both the women't and men's final 4 competition. I was really sad to see Baylor's women's team lose today. My heart breaks for Brittney Griner! What an amazing career and what a devastating way to end it! She said on her Twitter page earlier that she was a disappointment and that just broke my heart and made me cry! Nothing could be further from the truth! She has done so much for women't basketball and women's sports! One games couldn't never take that away or change it! I would also like to say my thoughts and prayers are with Kevin Ware who badly broke his leg during the Louisville/Duke game! Both teams for Louisville played some great basketball tonight! Congrats to them on moving on!

Well that's all I have for now! Hopefully I'll be back with better updates on all of my softball teams in a few days! Go Huskies! Boomer Sooner! RTR Go Bama! Go Lady Vols(got to add this one, loving the Lady Vols this year!), FTG, and Go Islanders!!

Running behind!

I have been meaning for weeks to do a preseason softball blog but I've been so busy it just never happened. I started college again in January and I have dove head first into it! I'm glad to be back and really enjoying it! It's a lot of work but it's worth it! Well I'm going to do a blog over the first weekend of softball and hopefully get back to my opinions of what this season will look like!

The Huskies played in Hawaii last weekend and I think I can say with quite a bit of certainty it wasn't exactly the weekend they hoped for. They went 4-2 dropping games to UAB and Hawaii. However I was very happy and proud to see them bounce back on Saturday and win the tournament championship! Hooch Fagaly had a fantastic weekend and was named MVP of the tournament! Bryana Walker was certainly the best pitcher of the weekend. She was lights out! I was extremely impressed with Missy Taukeiaho and Jennie McNeill! They both did wonderful in their first weekend in college softball. Overall I thought it was a good weekend. I think a lot of lessons were learned and I think in the end those to loses will only help them to be better!

OU had an amazing weekend! They won all their games and most of them in run rule fashion. Kelani Ricketts  had not one but two no hitters on the weekend! The offense was already really good and they added more power with Shelby Pendley! Awesome weekend for them and they are sitting at the top of the polls because of it!

Bama has a nice weekend as well and won all of their games. I've got to be honest here I didn't really get to follow their games as close as I would have liked but I know they did well and I am excited to see how the season goes for them!

St. Edwards started their season the weekend before last and won all but 1 game! They look like they will be very strong this season! This last weekend they played two teams twice each. They won their games on the first day and lost both of their games the second day. It was two really tough teams and they really battled! I'm excited to see what they do this season!

I wish I had the time to start my own place for people to talk softball. I have a couple of places that I go to talk softball but I feel like the odd man out in all of them. I feel like I spend my time defending myself and the players and teams that are close to my heart and it's just gets to be more work than fun. I left one site for several months because the drama was too much. I've started going back some but don't most much. I just wish I had a group of people who liked the same teams and player I do. But I don't and I guess I'll just have to make do.

Well that is all I have for now! Go Huskies! Boomer Sooner! RTR Go Bama! FTG!

Long time no write!

   It has been a long time since I wrote lol! Not a ton of softball going on right now, so not much to write about. But I'll talke about a few things and then I'm going to tell you about about 10 all time favorite softball players. I though I'd done this before but in going through my blogs I didn't find anything like this and if I did and I missed I'm sure so of them have changed lol. If not I'm sorry to waste your time lol.

The NPF Back to School Tour was great! The NPF wasn't quite as successful as years past droping 3 games(Michigan, ULL, and Oklahoma for the 2nd year in a row). But it was still fun to watch! I was thrilled by how many schools had livestreaming and I saw alot of good softball by not just the NPF but the college teams as well! I'm itching for the next college and NPF seasons already!!

The Japanese legaue wraped up their season last weekend with their version of the championship series I guess lol. Again rain came in to play but better planning meant that they got everything in! Danielle Lawrie, Megan Willis, and their Shokki teammates had a wonderful season, especially the 2nd half of the season! I wasn't sure at the beginning of the 2nd half of the season that they would even make the playoffs but they had a fantastic 2nd half of the season and just snuck by Honda for the 4th spot! They played Denso to start the weekend. They hadn't beat Denso all season and I knew they wanted that win. I wanted that win. Denso is the team that Jordan Taylor and Megan Wiggins play for, so you can put 2 and 2 together as to why I wanted them to beat Denso so bad other than wanting them to have a chance at the championship lol. Danielle was fantastic! She didn't give up a hit until the 5th or 6th inning and ended the game with only 2 hits! She pitched her heart out and looked incredible! Shokki finally got their win against Denso, winning 1-0! The moved on to play Toyota the next day! The next day it was raining but they started the game anyway. It was wet, muddy, and cool. Finally the field got to be in too bad a shape and the rain wasn't letting up so they called the games for the day after 3.5 innings. I was thinking they'd pick it up in the bottom of the 4th the next day but apparently the rules are different in the Japan leauge and they had to start all over the next day. Danielle pitched well but Toyota was too much and they lost. But they still placed 3rd and in that league that is pretty dang good! Toyota and Renesas played 10 innings before Toyota finally got the win and won their 3rd championship in a row! Monica Abbott was named MVP and she totally earned it! In 48 hours time she pitched 28 innings and that is after 9 months of almost non-stop softball! Ueno was impressive herself as always! In my opinion, those 2 are probably the top pitchers in the world with Cat Osterman right behind them. Always exciting to watch them duke it out and I got to watch them duke it out twice in 48 hours times! I enjoyed it :)! I also enjoyed watching 2 younger up and comming greats duke it out in Danielle Lawrie and Jordan Taylor! All around agreat weekend of softball!

Now I'm going to move on to my top 10 all time favorite softball players! I thought about doing pitchers and there will be alot of pitchers because I like pitchers lol. But I decided to include everyone. Maybe one day I'll do like top 5 pitchers, catchers, infielders, and outfielders! That would be fun but not today lol. So here we go!

10. Kelly Kretschman! Kelly is an Alabama Alumni where she broke several hitting records and left as one of the best hitters to not only play for the Tide but to ever play the game. She was an alernate for the 2000 Olympic Gold team and was apart of the 2004 gold medal team and the 2008 silver medal team. She was also one of the first national team members and big name players to believe and sign to play in the NPF! She started with the Akron Racers in 2005 and played her 4th season with the Pride and 7th season in the league last season. She is the oldest woman in the league at 33 but to watch her play you'd never know it! She is still one of the best all around hitters in the NPF! She can hit for power but she also has the speed to lay down a bunt and steal bases! She is one of those players that you just never get tired of watching!

9. Crystl Bustos! Anybody who knows anything about softball knows who Crystl Bustos is! In my opinion she is the single best hitter to ever play this game! She has an icredible swing and when she unloads on a ball she can hit it futher than any hitter I have ever seen! I think the ironic thing is she didn't even attend a division 1 school! She went to a community college! How did every division 1 and 2 school miss that? I'll never understand it myself! She is a big muslcuar woman who alot of people think looks scary. But one thing I've figured out over the years of watching her and with talking to her on Twitter and reading her tweet is she has a huge huge huge heart! She is a very sweet sensitive person! She has given and continues to give back so much to this sport! She is not playing right now but I've seen talk of a comeback on her twitter page, so we'll see what happens!

8. Yukiko Ueno! I know most of you are ready to hit me here or call me trader but I can't help it! She is without a doubt one of the best and most dominating pitchers I have ever had a the oppurtunity of watching! She has changed the look of Japanese softball forever! She has an incredible combination of speed and movement to her pitches that leaves hitters either looking dumb or just completely stunned! At worlds this past summer she threw over 30 innings in 2 days, won the gold medal, and turned 30! But what makes her even more special is that she is also one of the best hitters Japan has ever produced! A pitcher that hits is dieing art I'm afraid and I really hate that. Coaches are afraid of injuries and want to protect their pitchers and I get that. But you are really hurting these athletes I think by taking them from being what I refer to as a 3 demensional player to 1 demensional! But Ueno has been lucky that her coaches continue to allow her to hit and do her thing! I often say I don't believe she is fully human because she is just so good and never seems to get tired! So hate me all you want but I love to watch this woman do her thing!

7. Natsha Watley! Natasha Watley is probably the fastest softball player I've ever had the pleasure of watching! There are other extremely fast players( Caitlin Lowe, Kimi Pohlman, Rhea Taylor just to the name a few) but none as fast as Natasha. She went to UCLA and won a National Championship as well as many other awards and personal highlights. She played on the 2004 Gold medal Olympic team and the 2008 silver medal and many more! She has been everywhere and done everything! She is an amazing athlete! She has also started her own foundation to further not only softball but women's sports as a whole!

6. Lisa Fernandez! Lisa Fernandez was one the first pitchers I remember watching and just adoring! She was an incredible pitcher with a ton of energy! She loves softball so much and you could just see it on her face! She like all these other women has a long long long list of awards and achievments! She went to UCLA and is now the pitching coach there. She played on the National Team leading the team to 3 Gold medals in the Olympics! She has given and continues to give so much to softball and women's sports in general! She without a doubt will always be viewed as the one the best pitchers to ever play the game and I am glad I got to witness it!

5. Monica Abbott! As I said when talking about the Japanese league championship she in my opinion is one of, if not the top pitcher in the world right now! She is a dominating pitcher in every sense of the word. She is very tall at 6ft 3in! She is probably the hardest throwing pitcher in the game right now and maybe ever, easily hitting 71+. But she is isn't all speed. Pitchers with just speed don't dominate because it's easier to adjust to speed! She has movement, great movement! She has movement that seems to only get better with age! And last but not least she is like the Energizer Bunny, she keeps going and going and going and going and going lol! You don't want to get in a pitchers dual with her, especially if goes into extras because the longer she pitches the stronger she gets! I've watched her since she played for Tennessee and she was an amazing pitcher back then but over the years she has only gotten better and better and better! I enjoy watching her pitch as long as she isn't pitching against one of teams....saddly it happens more often than not that she is pitchng against my team lol!

4. Megan Willis! I haven't watched Megan Willis as long as I've watched any of the others players. She just wasn't on my radar honestly. But Megan is easily one of the best catchers I've ever seen. She is good at calling games, knowing the pitcher she is catching for, and most of all she is good at throwing out runners! She has a cannon for an arm and I know I wouldn't consider trying to steal on her lol! She has a wonderful firey personality that makes her so much fun to watch! There isn't a catcher that I like to watch more!

3. Cat Osterman! Cat is a completely different pitcher than the others I've talked about. The other pitchers I talked about have a deadly combination of speed and movement. Cat doesn't have the speed. She has never been known and will never be known as a power pitcher. But that's okay because she doesn't need the power. To be very hoest to pitch at the level she does you typically need atleast some speed but if you have the movement of Cat you don't lol! Cat unlike Lisa Fernandez is very poised, quiet, and almost unreadable in the circle. That is part of what I think makes her so dominating. Her emotions rarley get the best of her.  She doesn't ride the wave of the game. She just does what Cat does!

2. Jenn Salling! I think she gets very over looked in the grand scheme of things but she won me over the first time I ever watched her play. The first I saw her play was for the Canadian National team! She dominates the infield! I've talked about  her before but you get to read it again lol. She is fast, she thinks fast, she reacts fast, and she can throw across the diamond like nobody I've seen before(there is a video on Youtube of her throwing out Rhea Taylor all the way from behind 3rd base to 1st during Super Regionals 2 years ago that I could watch over and over and over and in fact have! Look it up, it's a thing of  beauty!). She is what is refered to in softball as a tripe threat. She can slap, bunt, and hit for power! She has speed and isn't afraid to take a risk! She is a leader. She is always cheering, encouraging, and giving advice. She speaks and people listen! She is incredibly selfless! She loves softball, she loves the women she plays with, and she loves her fans! But the thing I love most about Jenn is her story. She fought to get where she is. She did something few other people have done and it paid off big! She started off at Oregon. She red shirted her freshman year. Her redshirt freshman year she tore it up! She set records and made a huge name for herself both in the field and with her bat. In 2008, she redshirted again to play in the Olympics for Canada and during that time decided even with the success she was having in Oregon she wasn't happy and decided to transfer. Because she decided to transfer to Washington which was in the same confrence she had two choices. One she had to miss an entire season and just lose that season or two she had to go get an Associate degree. She chose to do the 2nd. She worked her butt off and got ther Associates degree and was cleared to paly for Washington in April of 2009! She went on to be key in their National Championship as well as a huge part of the team in 2010! But I think the biggest thing Jenn did was in her Senior season. Everyone one and their dog predicited UW to fall off in a big way with the loss of Danielle Lawrie. But with an incredible freshman pitcher that turned out to better than anybody could have guessed she would be and the incredible leadership of Jenn the team made it all the way back to Super Regionals! It's unreal to me that it's been almost 2 years since she played for the Huskies! She is still kind of waiting in the wings for her turn to break out in the NPF but it's coming! I know it is and she'll keep pushing until it does because she never gives up!

1. Last but not least and I'm sure you guys already knew this, Danielle Lawrie! When Coach Tarr took over the troubled UW  program the first player she recruited was Danielle and I think we all fully understand why! Danielle combines speed and killer movement to keep batters always guessing. She has one of the best change ups in the world! Danielle fully understands the game of softball. In college, obviously she dominated in the circle but she also left UW as one of their best hitters. That is what I orginally loved about her. She was all over the field and dominating in all of them lol. She broke all kinds of records as a pitcher, threw several no hitters and perfect games. And then she could turn around and belt a homerun as well lol! She is passionate and competitive! You can tell with ease what she is thinking and feeling! She is leader and people naturally are drawn and listen to her. She is just an all around incredible athlete! She is a 2 time National Player of the Year and she did something nobody had done before and nobody has done since. She won National Player of the Year the same year she won a National Championship! Sadly she hasn't been as lucky as Ueno and most of the teams she plays for now do not let her hit. It seems like such a waste to me but they have their reasons I suppose! Danielle is young and she has many seasons ahead of her! I will be surprised if she isn't the best pitcher in the world by the time she retires. She is certainly pretty close now! A few more years of experience and no doubt in my mind she'll be a force to reckoned with!

There are many more I adore that I wish I could have included! I almost wish I would have done top 20 but this alone took me several hours lol! There are so many amazing softball players out there! That's one of the reasons I love this game so much! These women are talented and hard working and they do everything they do simply because they love the game!