April 27, 2009 (Final Entry)
Well, the Lady Jacket softball season has come to a close. Although it was not quite the season we had all envisioned at the beginning of March, it was still memorable with lots of laughs, some tears, great hits and some key victories!
We finished our conference play with a sweep at Malone! They were two great games! We won the first one after a 10-inning struggle. Sara Koepke started our victory off with a home run and Charissa Rowe came up big for us in the fourth inning with a two-run hit with two outs and we battled it out from there! Emily Young pitched an amazing second game striking out nine and allowing only five hits.
We are definitely going to miss our two seniors as they graduate next weekend. Thank you from all of us to Charissa Rowe and Sarah Hoffman. They both served as our captains this year and were amazing leaders on and off of the field. Charissa stepped up this year to help the team at second base - traditionally an outfielder, she did an amazing job in the infield. Sarah Hoffman also caught most of our games and did a great job calling pitches and taking charge of the field. We are definitely going to miss them next year!
Thank you to all of our coaches for sticking by us through the whole season! We owe so much to Coach Rowe, Coach Stew, Coach Uncle Dave Freese, and Coach Fagan! Thanks for all the ground balls, high-fives, and encouragement this season. Thanks to all the parents that made it out to games this season (a special thank you to my biggest fan - my dad) and a big thank you to all of our fans, too! It's always great to see you out at the field and we'll see you all out there next spring!
April 20, 2009
What a great week we had last week! We played six games and came up .500 for the week! A definite improvement! All of our pitchers got wins this weekend, including Leah Baker who earned her first college win, and our freshmen made a huge showing at the plate. Emily Young hit her second home run of the season, Lexi Mitchell had a huge at bat to help us secure a win, and Stephanie Griffith had two hits in two back-to-back games. Christina Zorn also came up big for us at the plate with a triple and Charissa Rowe had an amazing day at the plate on Saturday. It was also a great time of fellowship as we got to stay overnight in Pittsburgh.
We are looking forward to this weekend to get a chance to compete in the NCCAA Midwest Regional Tournament and I think we are definitely going to make some noise. But, before we head to Indiana we are facing an always tough opponent in ODU on Wednesday and then heading up to Malone on Thursday.
It's going to be quite the week of softball for our team but I know it's going to be a great way to end our season. I know our seniors Charissa and Sarah are definitely looking forward to the weekend and the rest of the team is hoping to send our seniors out with a bang! They have meant so much to us this year!
April 13, 2009
Unfortunately, due to the rain, we were only able to play two games this past week. It was a bummer to drop both to Mount Vernon Nazarene, but we have an exciting weekend ahead of us as we head to Pennsylvania!
And, with all of the games being rained out, some of the girls were able to head home for Easter break to be with their families. But now, due to all of the rain and canceled games, we are going to be busy, busy, busy with games - playing almost everyday until finals week! So, stay tuned!
April 6, 2009
Although our win-loss record may not prove it, our team is continuing to improve! A loss on the board is never something to get excited about and it is certainly disheartening to drop a doubleheader. But what the W's and L's on our record do not show are the steady improvements our team is making.
For example, even though we lost four games last week, our bats are coming alive. We have struggled this year with scoring runs, but we at least scored in all four of the games. Sara Koepke hit our first home run of the season at Shawnee and four players ripped home runs in our games at Walsh. Once we put our newly-awakened offense together with strong defense, we will be on our way.
We have three sets of doubleheaders at home this week and next week. If our offense keeps up, I think we are going to put a couple W's on that board.
March 30, 2009
Rain, rain go away...come again another day!
Unfortunately, the Ohio weather didn't quite work with us this week when four of our eight games were canceled due to the rain. However, we did take a game from Rio Grande in our doubleheader on Tuesday which was very exciting! Unfortunately we lost both to Notre Dame on Saturday.
One of the things that Coach Rowe keeps telling us is that if we have a solid offense and solid defense on the same day... we can take any team that we play! Our pitchers are doing a great job and our defense has definitely improved. We just really need to get our bats going and we will definitely start taking both games from teams. But our team is continuing to learn a lot from one another and we are growing closer as a team. And we still have a month of our season! I think promising things are to come!
March 23, 2009
Although we had a bit of a rough beginning to our week, we finished our 10 games in five days on a positive note. Yay! After being shut out in several games, our bats and offense finally came alive and we were able to score over 36 runs in our four games on Saturday. It was a ton of fun for everyone involved!
After discouraging games on Thursday, Coach Rowe gave us a pep talk after the game to prepare us for the weekend. He knew that playing two games on Friday and four on Saturday was going to be a tough weekend physically and mentally. He told us that we were going to have to dig deep for the games on Saturday, especially the last two against Rochester.
We were definitely all trying to dig deep when we arrived at the field on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. and it was still dark outside. As we pondered what to do since we couldn't really warm up in the dark (even though our softballs are a highlighter yellow color - it's still rather hard to see them when it is dark out), Coach Rowe came up with the idea of shining the bus headlights onto the field! If only you could have all seen our faces when he told us that, thankfully after about 5 seconds of uncertainty he smiled and chuckled and we all breathed a sigh of relief that he was not being serious. Luckily the sun rose about 20 minutes later and we were able to start warming up. But it was quite the way to start the morning!
After winning our first two games we kept reminding ourselves to dig deep to finish the next two games. We made Coach Rowe's encouragement more tangible by saying "bring out the shovels" several times in our huddle as we headed out to play defense or when we were getting ready to bat. We did break out the shovels and continue to dig as we won our third game against Rochester. But unfortunately we were not able to get that fourth win as we finished the day.
However, it was still a great weekend of softball. If you ever get the opportunity you have to try one of Coach Rowe's homemade milk shakes. They are absolutely amazing! We were privileged to stay at Coach's church and were treated to milk shakes Saturday night and an amazing continental breakfast in the morning!
March 16, 2009
Although our 1-3 weekend in Indiana wasn't the best softball we have played, there are still positive things that can be taken out of every weekend:
- Freshmen pitcher Leah Baker was finally able to come back and play and she did a great job! She made her debut finishing up our first game against Taylor and pitched her first full game against Indiana Wesleyan allowing only one earned run and no walks.
- Freshmen Stephanie Griffith had two hits in our second game on Friday.
- Lexi Mitchell and Sara Koepke were able to overcome injuries suffered in Florida and were able to get back out on the field this weekend.
- Sara Koepke also had an amazing diving catch in center field that definitely would have been in our Cedarville Sports Center Top 10.
- We were also able to grow closer as a team during the overnight trip.
Although it wasn't how we would have liked to see the weekend go, we did learn a lot and gained more experience. The important thing is to move on and focus on the games ahead. We have a really busy week this week with ten games in five days. We are going to be playing our first home doubleheader on Thursday at 3 p.m. and it would be great to have everyone out there to support the team!
March 9, 2009
It was a wonderful week in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Although it was sad to leave the beach and warm weather in Florida, it was nice to come back to Cedarville to somewhat warm weather. When we got off the plane the upperclassmen discussed that although we were bummed to leave the Florida sunshine, at least we weren't returning to Cedarville in a huge blizzard like last year!
Although Spring Break has ended and we are getting back into the groove of schoolwork and busy agendas, we made some great memories during our trip. We had a wonderful stay in Cocoa Beach and for those whose parents came down for the tournament got to spend a lot of time with their families. We are so blessed to be able to travel to Florida and play in the warm weather and thank you to our wonderful coaching staff who took great care of us.
We came out of the tournament with a 5-5 record which, as Coach Rowe put it, isn't bad for such a young team. Although we did finish the week on a loss we grew a lot as a team. I was especially impressed by the freshmen who excelled during their first spring break tournament and really helped carry the team, especially the last day when we were plagued with injuries and we had to play slightly out of position.
Coach Rowe always tells us that our pitchers will carry this team and during last week, our pitching staff proved that they can carry us a long way this season. Our offense also came out strong last week with a ton of hits and I'm looking forward to seeing where our team will go throughout this season!
March. 3, 2009
The record for the softball team is 4-1 which is the best we've had starting a season in at least three years. And let me just say, winning has been a blast! We were all a little unsure of ourselves as we stepped out on the field for our first games of the season, but after beating St. Mary-of-the-Woods in two amazing games, confidence in ourselves and the team was bursting at the seams.
Our flight for Florida left at 7 a.m., so in order to catch it we had to be at the Doden Field House at 4 a.m., but the freshmen were so excited for Florida that they arrived at 3 a.m. Or were they?? Actually the upperclassmen could not kick off the season without a little freshmen initiation and like I said before, Coach Rowe is quite the prankster. So we got him in on the prank and he helped us convince the freshmen that our flight had been changed and was now leaving even earlier meaning they had to be there even earlier.
Coach Rowe told us that when he pulled up around 3, there were seven rather unhappy freshmen standing out in the cold. However, they did not take it lying down. After 10 minutes of silence in the bus on the way to the airport, they sang in unison the entire way to Columbus. I personally enjoyed the serenade, however most upperclassmen put their ipods in and fell asleep. After we arrived in Orlando and checked into the hotel, we enjoyed a warm practice outside followed by a wonderful day to spend with our families on Sunday.
After an eventful weekend we kicked off our season on Monday with a doubleheader against St. Mary-of-the-Woods and ended up taking two games from the team that had beaten us previously while in Florida. Emily Young pitched an amazing first game with a shutout and eight strikeouts.
Mallory White led our team on the mound in the second game with eight strikeouts while allowing only one earned run. The second game was a ton of fun for the team because although we were behind for most of the game, we came back and took St. Mary by surprise and pulled out a victory! You should have seen the look on Coach Rowe's face, he was so excited! As were all the faithful parents who made the journey to cheer us on!
Today we also had two great wins, unfortunately we lost our second game due to errors, but we came back strong to win our third game and end the night on a positive note! Our bats are alive now more than ever and I'm excited to see how we will finish up the rest of the week. Sara Koepke almost batted around in our last game tonight going 3-for-3 with a single, double, and triple! Sarah Hoffman's bat is also on fire right now after hitting two doubles yesterday in our doubleheader. More memories to come!
Feb. 23, 2009
The Weather Channel is currently forecasting 79 degrees for February 28 in Cocoa Beach, Florida. And, the Cedarville University softball team - well, we could not be happier to hear it!
After finishing up our fifth week of indoor practices, we get the opportunity to head south to participate in the Cocoa Expo to start off our softball season. The warm weather and sunshine will be a welcomed change from the snow and 20-degree weather we are currently experiencing.
While most students are anticipating Spring Break to head down to the beaches or head home to snow board or ski, the softball team is getting antsy to get outside and play! There’s nothing like putting on your cleats for that first game of the season - hearing the click of the metal on the dugout cement, taking ground balls on the dirt of the infield and fly balls on the grass of the outfield, taking a deep breath of fresh air - and knowing our season has finally begun. In fact, the freshmen on the team have been keeping a running countdown in our locker room as they eagerly await their first spring break tournament!
Our trip to Florida is always one of the highlights of our season, not only because we finally get to go outside and play the game we love in the warmth and sunshine, but also because it brings us together and unifies us as a team more so than any other activity we participate in together during the year. It gives the team a chance to be together and get to know one another without any of the distractions of schoolwork, meetings, or busy agendas.
Although our main goal while in Florida is to get in a lot of good games that help us grow and become a better team, we manage to sneak a little bit of fun there too - including enjoying the shopping, the Orlando theme parks, the major league spring training games, the beautiful beaches, and wonderful food! In fact, it was not until last spring break that the team discovered Coach Rowe was quite the prankster!
Stay tuned to hear more about our season!
Jenna Fox is a junior integrated social studies education major from Temecula, Calif. The first baseman/outfielder batted a team-leading .323 last spring.
