Can't Take The Country Out Of The Girl: Our First First Place!

Team Synergy played in a tournament this weekend - our first first place finish! THIS weekend they played like the team we saw hints of last fall. They hit well, played great defense, and most of all had a wonderful time. This team has bonded well and I know Alex looks forward to practices and tournaments because she enjoys spending time with these girls.

Saturday was a beautiful day for playing softball, in fact, there were lots of sunburns on Saturday. Unfortunately, though, on Sunday they were only able to get the 9 a.m. game in before the rain set in. This two day tournament turned into a one day tournament. When we finished pool play we were the number one seed going into tournament play. We played one tournament game on Saturday night, which we won, and were ready to play our second tournament game Sunday morning. We had played 1/2 an inning when the game was called and the tournament was cancelled. Somehow, they used the scores from yesterday (runs scored and possibly runs allowed) to determine that we were the first place team. While we would have liked to have played out the tournament and gotten our win by playing/winning our way through, we are sure this is what the outcome would have been anyway! We are forever and hopelessly optimistic.

Alex getting ready to bat. Batting is the area that she struggles the most, she has been hit too many times and dreads the next hit with a passion. Right now she has a bruise on the inside of her knee that has been swollen and has spread down into her calf. It's almost two weeks old and seems to be in no hurry to leave! While this is the area she struggles the most in, she hit quite nicely this weekend. I can't remember all of her hits but I do remember one double that came at a very nice time. I can't wait to see what she is going to be able to do at the end of the summer - the improvements seem to be coming in leaps and bounds. This team is very well coached and it would be impossible not to improve greatly.

She also pitched in one game this weekend. Luckily, Team Synergy has three pitchers so she is able to play other positions and still get a little mound time. She's been used to being the only pitcher on her team so this is such a luxury to her to be able to play other positions. She struck out 9 of 16 batters on Saturday, allowing only one run.

During a time out by the other team, Kaci, one of the other pitchers, came to the mound to chat with her. We were wondering what they might be saying, maybe, "Why don't you hurry up and get this over with?" Or the usual small talk among these girls, "Hey loser." "No, you're the loser." Whatever it was, they made it look stretegic. And secretive. They need to do like the college players, and hold their gloves over their mouth so no one can read their lips.

Okay, funny story. When they had played their two pool play games, and were playing their first tournament game on Saturday night, (where it had gone from a nice 70 degrees to a fairly chilly 40 something in a matter of minutes), they were goofing around. Alex and Lindsey had found this tree limb and they called it their tree. They stuck it in the ground and hung water bottles and chip bags on it. They decided it would probably be good luck so they took it to the dugout and stuck it in the ground there as well. Right outside the door of the dugout. Everyone was very careful with it, gingerly walking around it. Even the umpires. During the game, after we had scored four runs, the other team scored one or two runs. What was happening? How could this be? Well, we looked over to the dugout and the TREE HAD FALLEN! The girls were on defense so they couldn't stand the tree back up. Since this was a situation that required immediate attention, one of the girls uncle went and stuck the tree branch back into the ground, which immediately stopped the scoring by the other team. So, the tree rightfully was named the "Mojo Tree." The tree was well cared for overnight and was placed in the ground outside the dugout for the first game on Sunday morning. Now, the "Mojo Tree" is in my trunk, awaiting our next tournament.