We're in it.

Being completely honest, after our series against Monterey Bay and having two heartbreaker losses in the seventh inning, not performing to our potential, and being honored for the first time thus far as being one of the five seniors on the team I think everything really started to hit me and soon after my mini breakdown had begun. 

While the team was mingling I headed to the van and loaded my stuff up, perched myself in the back left corner, with no iPod because it was dead and just empty space to think and feel.  I had felt like my season may or may not be slipping away from me, that my career is coming to an end and it may happen much sooner than I had anticipated and hoped but worst of all that I was allowing it to happen by not contributing enough and stepping up in situations that would better set us up for success.  Tried to fight back some of the tears but it was inevitable and they weren’t really tears of sadness but just so many mixed emotions because of how bad I want this, how much I love what I do, and how close we are to capturing it all and letting it all go at the same exact time.

I couldn’t sit and lament about this for all that long though because the three biggest series we were about to embark upon were happening in the next two days because of having to make up our four game series with Chico State.  It was made very clear to the team that we were a little bit down but most definitely not out, we had the opportunity to bounce back in a big way against (at the time) the number two team in conference standings, Chico State.  That Monday morning we decided to come ten minutes earlier into the locker room because we figured it might take us a little more time to get into softball mode since it was pretty irregular for us to be playing in that sort of time frame.  First, our opponents pull into the loading dock as I am walking to the locker room with music blasting.  Next, as we are already in the locker room they stroll in and start to get ready as well.  All of this was on top of the already lengthy discussions about when we would make up these games so that they were best prepared despite the inconvenience it played for our team.  These things were bothersome to me than it would or even should be to anyone but it made me want these games that much more.  I truly felt that Chico thought they were going to take four from us, that these games were going to be cake and that our performance would have been similar to our past games played against each other this past season.  They could not have been more wrong and out of this entire season so far and all the games we have played there were no four games that I personally wanted more than our four game series against Chico.  It was made very clear to our team that we owed them our best and that with our best we could not fail.  We came out on top swept the first two games of the series and after that first day filled with momentum I was sure we were going to sweep and send a big message to our conference that we were not to be counted out and the only reason Chico State and UC San Diego were the top two teams was because they had yet to face Sonoma State.  We won the first game on Tuesday, our offense had been really productive and consistent one through nine but in the second game of the day mindless errors and sub par defense plagued our chance at a sweep.  Coach had mentioned that she was unsure if we had all truly wanted four games and that it looked like we had settled for three wins and were content with that because deep down we weren’t really sure if we were going to get that. 

The sense of complacency was felt throughout and I knew something had to change and fast because once again within the next two days we were headed down to San Diego for another huge series, one that would put us in the running for first place in conference.  Prior to flying out to sunny San Diego we had a sports psychology meeting with Carrie Cheadle where we got a little bit off topic as far as what she had on the agenda for us but brought up some much needed discussion about the desire that we as a team have but more importantly as individuals and self checking to see if each and every one of us was embracing our roles and giving 100% of absolutely everything they have to contribute to this teams success.  In this discussion we brought up the need to call each other out when we recognize someone is not performing to their potential in addition to being able to receive that criticism and feeding off of it and being thankful that someone cares enough to call you out.  I was sensing that this conversation was being driven by seniors and returners and I wanted to make sure that it was not being made out to be a plea by the seniors to do well so we can go out with a bang but so that each and every one of us is fighting and working and playing with everything in them for a personal reason in addition to the common goals that we all committed to so many months back.  After that meeting, I had never felt more confident that our team was on the same exact page and truly felt that if we physically brought our best game to the table in San Diego we couldn’t be beat. 

San Diego was absolutely fantastic with so much support from our friends and families coming from near and far made the competition that much more exciting.  Winning game one in exciting fashion in the seventh inning thanks to a clutch lead off single by sophomore out fielder and San Diego native, Vanessa Currie followed by a bomb over the left field fence by our most consistent long ball hitter, Ali Palermo.  Unfortunately we could not get our bats going the second game and fell to the Tritons finishing with a split on the day.  We were still anxious to make a statement on their senior day on their home field and close the gap between first and second place standings.  We knew neither of our teams were going to give up a lot of runs because in the previous three games they were truly pitching duels.  San Diego came with an athletic defense but not comparable to ours if you ask me, so I was hopeful our bats would come alive and we would be the ones to flub one less ball or come up with that one clutch ball in the gab because deep down we all knew that’s what it was going to come down to.  In the final game of the series were dominant early by scoring first and recognizing the need for everyone to contribute by getting on base, executing signs, wanting singles instead of hacking for homers, and simply getting the job done.  UCSD would not go down without a fight and actually loaded the bases in the bottom of the 7^th down one run but the combination of our three pitchers put them to rest and we came out on top with the eventual win leaving San Diego a half of a game behind the Tritons and hopeful to a great series against Dominguez Hills on our senior weekend, were still in the running for first place and we want it bad!

The end is near...

This past weekend at the Tournament of Champions started off really well.  We came in looking, feeling, and acting like the defending Tournament Champions.  We were eager to play, wanted to make a statement, and some of us even had personal agendas where we felt we had something to prove.  We faced some adversity with our pitching staff while both Sam Lipperd and Jules Martinez were being overwhelmed with illegal pitch calls from just about every single umpire at Pedretti Park.  This was the perfect opportunity for our freshman Ciara Becerril to step in the circle and earn her stripes by really coming clutch for us all weekend long and we weren’t the only ones to recognize as she earned All Tournament Team honors. 

Finally for two days straight we took the first game of the day and this really gave us some much needed momentum for playing multiple games in a day.  Another exciting change to our usual game plan was the fact that we were scoring early.  In almost every game that we played in which we scored first we were the most successful.  It was easy to recognize that it took a great deal of pressure off of our pitchers knowing early on that they had run support.

Losing to the defending National Champions, Hawaii Pacific was a very bitter end to hard fought weekend.  At first I was very angry because I felt that had our team not been plagued by the umpires the game would have been much different but in the same regard we cannot blame them for taking the game away from us because we had plenty of opportunities to make that game ours.  Next, I began to get emotional because that was my last appearance ever at the Tournament of Champions and also was feeling that I didn’t really pull my weight and had I done so maybe things would have ended differently.  Then, I began to feel optimistic because I truly had felt this team that showed up this weekend was the team that very well could be the Conference Champs, Regional Champs, and who knows…National Champs?

It is really beginning to hit me how near the end of this regular season, which makes the end of my softball career that much closer.  As I call family to make sure they are taking time off to attend my Senior day and I attempt to predict how these next few weeks will pan out as far as conference competition goes I am trying to figure out every way possible to elongate my senior season.  I met with the coaches to help tweak some components of my games that I felt were lacking because I didn’t truly grasp how important every opportunity I get is because in a few weeks I might not get anymore and that makes my eyes water at the thought of it. 

I am so looking forward to an incredibly long and successful second half of the season and will enjoy every bit of it; the good, the bad, and the ugly but hoping for far more good than bad J

Time to DO WORK.

We started off this last Friday in Turlock in dominating fashion having Samantha Lipperd on the mound gave us the momentum to get the win considering she threw her second career no hitter. We were really happy with our aggressive mentality at the plate, we did not have a ton of hits but we were attacking early, hitting the ball hard, and were confident that our balls would soon find gaps and end up dropping.  This approach would be sure to help us find offensive success in the near future. 

Game two of day one was an interesting one where we struggled early on with giving up free bases and crediting Stanislaus with a few clutch hits in the gap allowing them to score early.  Down early for a few innings we finally busted out our bats and were actually even to gain the lead for an inning.  Even though we were able to muster up 7 runs we were unable to get the win and were outscored by Cal State Stanislaus 12-7.  In a game where 19 runners crossed the plate and 7 of them were Seawolves we were obviously disappointed with the loss but happy with our fight and offensive performance at the end of the day.

Going into this series we were looking to take four.  I personally had predetermined this series as being one that was either going to boost our success onward and really solidify ourselves a spot in the top of the conference standings or we were going to have to fight our way up and rely on other teams to fail in order to make moves because we had dropped games.  Losing one game on Friday still left us with the opportunity to win the series so long as we took both games on Saturday. 

QSaturday morning we were excited to see Weatherford again and were eager to face her a second time for we had charted her tendencies against each of us and had an even better idea of what we would see from her.  Our eagerness didn’t exactly equate runs scored.  We were able to get people on base but struggled with getting them in as well as struggling with execution.  Fortunately with Brittanie Verissimo getting on base early with a single up with middle she set up senior, Kayla Ledford with a familiar situation, one where we needed her to come through clutch.  In my personal opinion Kayla Ledford is the most clutch offensive player in our lineup and has been for quite some time.  If you asked me to choose someone to get the winning run in, during a pressure situation I would choose number 3, Kayla Ledford every single time.  She thrives under pressure, has a tremendous amount of power, and has every reason to be extremely confident at each plate appearance.  Sure enough she blasted a 2 run bomb to give us the lead 2-1, and the eventual win. 

Where we were once struggling with winning the first game of the day that was not the case this past weekend.   In similar fashion to Friday’s performance we dropped the second game of the day and the final out come of this series with Stanislaus was a split.  From the coaches point of view they are hinting at the fact that offensively many of us are different players at practice then we are when it comes to games, implying that we need to take hacks just as big and just as confidently in the game as we do when we receive front toss of coach.  Coach Mack gave us some food for thought and told us to “go out and play like we had never failed”; like we had never popped out, never struck out, never flubbed a ball, committed an error etc. 

Hopefully we can carry this mentality over into our series against Chico this weekend.  Still I feel that we are seriously struggling with leaving runners on base and not stepping up and being the person that gets those runners in and instead our waiting for our “clutch” players to get the job done.  In what I feel is our biggest series to date against Chico we have a lot to prove to them and need to fill some voids in our game in order to find the success we deserve. Cross your fingers for weather that at least allows us to get these games in this weekend and till then we will prepare and take on Notre Dame de Namur tomorrow in a single game at home.

On A Mission.

Our series against CSU San Bernadino was a performance much closer to what we expect out of ourselves.  Prior to playing I had suggested that we have a meeting with the Captains/Council; which consists of the three captains and one council member from each of the remaining classes.  We sat with coach in left field and caught up on how we thought the team was doing and brought up whatever we felt needed to be addressed.  My biggest concern was the as captains we were conveying the same message to the team and that we didn’t have conflicting ideas to the team.  I felt that at this rate we have had the opportunity to get our feet wet with this years team in our conference but now is the time to expect more out of ourselves and that our performance was not good enough and we needed to put a little more pressure to perform even better.  Everybody was on board with that idea and the next step was determining what was the best way to approach this idea and how we would get this message across without beating a dead horse and without seeming as if what we are doing is not good because it is, this team is just destined to be great.

The six of us made it our personal missions, to be the driving force behind changing the road that we were on and it was apparent that it sunk in with our team and our approach to this past series was much different from the series earlier this season.  We really wanted to change the theme of dropping the first game of the day and we were able to do that Friday afternoon.  We really looked more aggressive at the plate but our adjustments weren’t made quite as early as we would have liked but coming out with two wins at the end of the day was a big accomplishment for us.  Day two of the series was again about making the adjustment we had two games worth the day before to asses our competition and we were well aware of what we were going to face.  Again we came out swinging and were starting to string our hits along and we even scored early which is a bit of a rarity for our team.  We were able to pull out a win the first game thanks to good at bats which loaded the bases and an insurance run thanks to a solo shot by sophomore, third baseman, Brittanie Verissimo which sailed high over the left field fence.

Looking to sweep the Coyotes, we were let down dropping the final game of the series.  Without a doubt the only thing that held us back from sweeping that series, was errors.  Our defense is something that we as a team pride ourselves on and we know that it is a strong suit and we know how much we excel in that area of the game.  We made some poor decisions, questioned our ability to make command decisions and carry them out, and simply were not anticipating the ball a play ahead.  With that said though Coach Mack gave us something to be proud of in stating that finally we showed up and played an exciting game, she felt that it was the best game we have played to date, aside from the errors of course. We are really looking forward to the next series in Turlock and hopefully solidify our spot in the top half of conference standings but before that happens we will come out taking hacks in our doubleheader against the Academy of Art in San Francisco.  

Time to step up, No more waiting.

After the trek up to Humboldt we came out with a split this weekend and are far from satisfied.  These first few series that we have played have had a common there; waiting. We have waited to score, we have waited to attack and we have waited to find out what type of team we are going to play as.  We have predetermined early on in the season when we created our team goals the type of team that we were going to be this year, we are going to be the team that increases it’s success each year, the team that helps build a legacy, the team that is going make a post season run, and the team that is going to be feared and where the target on our back all season long because we will be the best.  Unfortunately early on we have not played like that and the current frustrations that we have need to come to an end.  

Our pitching staff has really helped us out by absolutely dominating our competition, it seems as though our trio is playing to damn near perfection.  As great as that is to have that it’s unfair to load them with that much pressure because of lack of run support.  Thankfully though this weekend our issue was not that we weren’t getting runs across but we were just getting going way too late.  Our pitching staff kept us in the game or we were in a situation where most teams wouldn’t come back and then someone would spark something, like freshman, Tatiana Pizarro’s three run triple turned home run on a throwing error.  That then gave us reason to fight and a reason to answer back.  This game went extra innings and we ended up losing which simply proved that we cannot wait to score because all it is going to take is one mistake, one good swing, or one great play to end the game.

There is no doubt that our team has fight but it would be ideal to see this earlier on, to take the first games of the day so we can then have that momentum carry over into game two.  Game two of our, second day of games Sonoma State Softball came to play.  We scored early, we found the gaps, we made adjustments, and we forced 4 pitching changes in the 7 innings, 3 of which happened in the first few innings.  There were several hard hit balls, a few home runs, and plenty of runs scored to solidify the final game of the series in our favor with a 9-1 win.  Offensive production is something this team is more the capable of and this weekend junior, catcher Skylynn Myers was often the spark that got our team going with great at bats, getting a hit more than half of time she made a plate appearance.

Going in to this next series against San Bernadino we know we will face better pitching and are ready to attack the ball, put pressure on early, and prove to ourselves that we are more than capable of being the team we have set out to be.  We’ll get some game time action in before the conference series against the Academy of Art, San Francisco in a non conference doubleheader and we’re looking to take two wins to take momentum into this weekend.

Make A Statement.

After sweeping East Bay at our home opener we were anxious at another shot to prove ourselves.  Although we came out with the four wins we knew deep down that our performance was not representative of the team that we have worked to be.  We had faced San Francisco State earlier this February in the Best of the West Tournament in Turlock but our team was lacking then too and we had owed them a much better performance on our end.  Eager to host them at our home field, in front of our fans we were ready to get a head start in conference standings and rack on some more wins.  Really cannot say enough about our pitching staff who have really been the driving force in our teams success thus far and I truly believe they will give us the upper hand against all of our conference opponents but it is long over due for our offense to step up and take some pressure off of our three pitchers via run support.  In game one, our offense was sporadic and we continued to struggle scoring early but were able to come out on top. Game two seemed to mimic game one a little bit and both pitchers were dueling and we were constantly getting runners on base, even runners on early but were struggling getting them in.  Our need to capitalize with runners in scoring position was very apparent but after twelve innings in the freezing cold the game had to be carried over to Monday because we had eventually lost daylight.  We felt very confident that we were going to protect our house and at the conclusion of Sunday evening we had made it a team goal to end game two in one inning.  Sunday morning we did exactly that, Jules took the mound and the defense had a solid three up, three down inning and then turned it over to the offense to seal the deal.  In outstanding, crowd pleasing fashion despite the rejection of her beloved bat Ro came up clutch yet again and drilled the first pitch that she saw for a walk off jack to finish game two in our favor.  Game three started almost immediately after and our hits were coming in spurts and our inability to execute hurt us.  We lost game three by one run but were determined to end our weekend on a high note and win this series.  Our team was in agreement that our first series, although it ended in our favor was not what our team was about and we wanted to make a statement to our conference, to our competition and especially to the non-believers and that is what this final game was about…making a statement.  A change in the line up was the spark that changed the lull in our offense and we finally scored early.  We put five runs on the board in the first innings and it sparked a hit parade, everybody was attacking and taking big hacks.  We scored nine runs early to mercy San Francisco in five innings.  We ended the series on a good note and finally gave a bit of a sneak preview of what should be expected out of Sonoma State Softball this season.  We take on Humboldt this weekend at their field and are expecting them to come out swinging but we’re ready to do the same thing in addition our solid pitching staff continuing to do exactly what they do best.