Florida Recap

We wrapped up in Florida on Wednesday with a triple-header day. It was probably the most softball any of us have ever played in one day, but we did our best to play hard the entire time. Although we ended up dropping all three games to SUNY Potsdam, Depauw, and St. Olaf, respectively, we still had fun and we know that we're improving and learning a lot from all of these games. One thing that I think threw a lot of people off in the tournament was the size of our team. Even though we only have 9 players we still played well and hard for each game and we never gave up.

We all had a really great time in Florida! The sun and warm weather were definitely welcome! In the van on the way to our games each morning we listened to a lot of Rilo Kiley's new cd, as well as to a mix cd that Sophie made with some great music on it. Aside from softball, we got along great and we had fun after our games. Most of the time we just hung out around the hotel because we were tired from getting up so early to play two games, but we also played putt-putt, went to a spring-training game between the Indians and the Devil Rays, watched some movies, and had a cookout.

That's all from us, but we're excited for what we can do for the rest of this season and next year in Fort Myers. You should all come out and watch us play this season! Hope everyone had a great break and enjoyed reading our blog.


Ruth and Michelle
"the dynamic duo"

Living Large ...

Hey softball fans!

It was another long day on the field today, although the weather cooled down a bit which was definitely pleasing to us. Although we felt we played well, we still have a lot to work on and we dropped both games to Middlebury College, and the Alverno Inferno. We think that if we just put everything we know how to do together and keep our defense strong and our bats hot, we can have a really competitive season this year. It's already looking up, considering that last year we lost to Middlebury 14-2 in a mercy rule decision, and this year we were able to keep the game close and bring it all the way to the seventh inning. Our bats are definitely improving, and we're scoring way more runs than we were at this time in our season last year. For instance today, in our second game, Julia Chauvin and Michelle Zanni both hit home runs, so that was pretty exciting. Michelle even did a little dance as she rounded second base.

Defensively, our team is doing really well. Behind the plate, Ruth (it's now Michelle writing) has caught every game and she doesn't seem to be slowing down. She even made a few great outs at the plate in our games today!

Right now, we're all lounging in our rooms watching TV because it's spring break and we don't have to do anything (except play softball...). As corny as this sounds, the team seems to be bonding, although we were pretty close to begin with. One of the thing that sets our team apart from others is that we love spending time together, and we have fun when we play.

Tomorrow's our last day of games, so we're exiting with 3 instead of just 2. It should be a long day and we'll let you know how it goes!

Until later,

Ruth and Michelle
"the dynamic duo"

Still Doing Homework ... Even on Spring Break!!

It was another early day here in Fort Myers, but luckily not quite as hot. We had two morning games, first against Colby at 9 a.m. and quickly followed by Southern Maine at 11 a.m. Both games could have gone better for us. We weren't playing our best the whole time, but we definitely still played hard and had fun while we did it. We're happy to say that this year we fit in with the rest of the softball community, because fans (AKA parents) have followed us down to Florida and have been extremely supportive at all of our games.

After our games we returned to the hotel to get ready for a photo shoot that I (Ruth) am using for my Intro to Photography class this semester. In order to get the white background for the portrait shots, we creatively used a white sheet held up by two volunteers from the team. Everyone looked fierce in their photos.

We're still enjoying the lovely weather down here and now we're getting ready to go play some putt-putt or mini golf, and we can't wait!

More tomorrow,
Ruth and Michelle

First Day Fun ...

After a long day of travel Saturday, we finally arrived in Fort Myers in the midst of a thunderstorm. Fatigue was rampant among players, coaches, and trainer alike. We went straight to bed. This morning we awoke at 6:30 a.m. in order to be at the fields by 8 a.m to start warming up for our 9 a.m. game... but upon arrival at the fields we were informed that due to the weather of the previous night, our game would not be starting until noon in order to give the grounds crew time to get the field ready. With this news we turned around eager for a nap.

When our games finally did get under way we were more than ready and extremely excited to get on a field for the first time in a very long while. Even before warm ups started, the Florida sun was drenching us in sweat, it felt wonderful after coming from that lovely Ohio weather that we're used to. Our first game was against MIT (the smart kids... oh wait, that's us). We were excited for the game and we came out strong, unfortunately we fell just shy and gave up the winning run in the bottom of the 7th. We put that behind us quickly because we only had about 15 minutes to rest before game number two got going. SUNY Potsdam was our second opponent, and although we fought hard, we weren't able to come back and take the lead at the end of the game. The scores of both games were very close, 5-4, and 6-4 respectively. We think it was a pretty good first day out on the field after practicing inside since February.

We spent the rest of the day lounging around the hotel, enjoying the Florida weather, the pool and the hot tub. Now at this late hour of 10 p.m., we're exhausted and ready for bed. But tomorrow will be filled with two more games starting bright and early at 9am!

More to come.

Ruth (pictured top right) and Michelle (pictured bottom right) - "softball blogger extraordinaires"