Tales from the Diamond No. 14

 WINCHESTER, Va. - As part of our "Friday Feature" series, it is time for another edition of Tales From the Diamond, the life and times of the SU softball team.

Ed. Note: This is the last blog entry of the 2012 season.

Going into our last week of the season, we had a little fun this week at practice but still prepared for our games against York (Pa.) on Friday.  We started things on Monday with some defensive work to get back in the swing of things before switching stuff up on Tuesday.

For Tuesday's practice, we were told to meet on the turf (the football stadium), which was confusing to us since we never really practice there and so we weren't sure what to expect.

After warming up and taking some reps at our positions, Coach announced we were doing obstacle courses and relay races! We were going to be split up in teams of Freshmen/Sophomores and Juniors/Seniors again!

Our first game a relay race where each team had to hit a ball off a tee and the other team had to chase the ball and place it back on their own tee before the next player could take their turn.

Ed. Note: Since the team was on the turf, they ended up running at least 100 yards to chase down and return every batted ball to its proper tee.

There was also another tee about five feet in front of the first tee and if you managed to hit the second ball off of the tee with the first ball, the other team had to retrieve both balls and return them to both teams tees.

Ed. Note: This happened exactly once.

After strategizing for a while, we began and out of three games the Juniors/Seniors won two of three contests!

Our next game was an obstacle course. The first part of the course was Dizzy Bat five times before going through the agility ladder and then laying down a bunt. The course finished with water pong and running back to your side.

We (the Freshmen/Sophomores) won two out of three for the obstacle course to bring the game back to even!

After a fun day coach promised that we would be focusing on game day for the rest of the week. Wednesday was a little more softball oriented. We warmed up as usual, took some reps, and scrimmaged for the rest of the day. The scrimmage days really get into the mind set for game day.

Thursday we played our game on the field with the same class-split teams. Only this time there was a new rule. If your hit burned an outfielder, it was five points for your team. Juniors/Seniors spanked the underclassmen by like 20 points and took the bragging rights for the rest of the week! :(

Following practice, Lauren McCabe told us to meet by Denise Mitchell's car to talk a little before our last game of the season. Although some of us were in on the secret plan, the rest of the team was oblivious! Inside Denise's trunk was a cooler FULL of water balloons! On the count of three, we slung tons of water balloons at every one, paying special attention to the seniors! We were brutal. Some girls walked away with welts and Shatora Lane even got a full water balloon stuck in her hair, courtesy of me. :) We were definitely ready for Friday's double header.

We got onto the field Friday afternoon for our last game of the season and we definitely wanted to end it on a good note for Shatora, Brooke Over, and Ashley Woods. We did just that; they were two great games! We run-ruled York 10-0 in 6 innings in game one. Game two, however, was a little more interesting. We played 10 innings against the Spartans and ended up coming out on top 8-7! It was a great way to end the season and we were happy to do that for our seniors who will truly be missed!! They definitely left the program better than they found it and those of us that are returning are ready to workout and get ready for Spring 2013.

Until next season…GO HORNETS!!!

Ed. Note: I would just like to thank Erica Kondzielawa for doing such a great job with the blog this season.  Erica will return with the blog on a limited basis in the fall and then it will resume its regular rotation in the spring of 2013.