OFF TO A ROARING START!!!Scrimmage game #1 vs Bishop McDevitt 8-0-when the dust settled, it was our team who came out the winners!! We truly looked like a team, and to me that is amazing because that is the first time I had seen them all together on the field at once. Nicole Sweger pitched a beautiful game, complete with 9 (yep, that's right NINE) strike outs. That's not to say we didn't have a few pitches that were, um, "off" but overall, she has made enormous improvement over the past 10 months. The same can be said of our catcher,Jacqui Derr. The arm has improved dramatically, as a matter of fact, she threw a runner out at third tonight. the rest of the team did a nice job as well, with a few pleasant surprises in the infield. I also couldn't have survived this game without the help of Kennedy and Abbey. With only one coach and 18 or so players, it gets to be a little hectic. Both Abbey and kennedy did exactly what was asked of them and didn't complain. that's the kind of dedication and team spirit we need. From this point, the sky is the limit as far as this season is concerned. I think we have the raw talent and definitely the spirit to carry on and resurect the West Perry Softball Program!!, *very interesting side note...instead of little chants and cheers, the team started singing the Herbal Essences jingle. whatever. Saturday, March 24, 2001 Cedar Cliff......WIN.....37-18 It wasn't a pretty win, that's for sure.But the win today broke a streak of losses for the JV team that dates back to 1998. Weather conditions were not exactly pleasant to say the least. Nicole was struggling with her pitching, and our defense got a little rattled and lost their heads for a few minutes. When they got it back together in the 3rd inning, the game ended with a nice double play. Our offense looked pretty decent, we managed to get some practice on the basepaths, and we had some solid hits as well. now we need to get our offense and defense to show up on the same day....in my opinion, we will be unstoppable when that happens. I had personally set 3 important goals this season, and we met all of them today.* one added opinion on my part...they say what goes around comes around, and to a certain extent that was true today. enough said. Monday, March 26, 2001 Hershey......WIN.....22-14 There's a ton of things that were great about this game.. I need to say that Michelle Baker came into the game when Nicole hurt her arm...Michelle did an excellent job of pitching, and Jacqui Derr pulled off some very impressive catches behind the plate as well. We had very aggressive baserunning, Erin fell on her face at 3rd but recovered nicely. The wind chill and temp of this game was un-natural....it was 8 degrees with the windchill!! players couldn't feel their hands, I lost feeling in my face and couldn't pronounce words properly, but damn, did WP rise to the occasion anyway and take control of the game immediately and never looked back!! Overall, this was a great game and confidence booster for our team !! Wednesday, March 28, 2001 CD East ......LOSS.....11-15 This was the best overall team we've faced this season. they had size, good gloves, good bats and decent pitching. not that we didn't...We just had 2 innings of "flat playing", plus they had the ability to put the ball where we weren't. Poor Jessica Lenker in left field, when she'd move back, they'd drop it in front, when she moved in, they'd put it over her head. Nicole Sweger pitched a fine game, with only 4 walks, 3 strike outs and most importantly for her, ZERO hit batters!! Lindsey Sheriff had a nice triple, and then on the next play she fell on her face and was tagged out. We had very aggressive baserunning, Abbey Guyer was brutal to their players(go Abbey!!) and Ashley Hoffman suffered an ankle injury while coming into 3rd base. Overall, I was pleased with our team, we did not give up, and even had a 2-out, 2 run rally in the bottom of the 7th. yes, the SEVENTH inning. another goal accomplished!! Monday,April 2, 2001 Susquehanna Township......LOSS.....17-9 This game started off on the wrong foot. 4 players forgot their gloves...THAT WAS AN OMEN. We had our major troubles in the first 2 innings...they scored 12 runs in the first half of the game. We had a few walks, and too many mental and sloppy fielding mistakes. Michelle had a tough first inning, but luckily we have a little depth with our pitchers so Nicole stepped in to pitch. She threw a great game, with only 5 walks and one hit batter. 4 strikeouts added to her numbers. Our bats were dead until the 3rd inning when we were down 12-0. I did not want to see this end in the 3rd inning, and apparently the other teams coach thought the game was as good as over when he put in all his substitute players in the 3rd inning. Ha buddy, that's all it took to get our heads in it and runners on base. The game went the distance, and after 7 full innings, we came up short, but what impressed me most of all was the fact that we never hung our heads or thought about losing. we even scored in the last inning. *Brandy Woodward is on the DL for 2 weeks *Ashley Hoffman was cleared and was able to return to the line up. *Jessica Lenker was 2-for-4 with a single and a double. * Abbey Guyer did an awesome job behind the plate, with only one passed ball!! *Jacqui Derr had a great tag-out at the plate...unfortunately, she suffered an injury which may put her on the DL for a game or two. Thursday, April 19, 2001 Cumberland Valley........LOSS...... 10-0 After not playing a game for 17 straight days, I anticipated us to be a little sluggish....I was kind of right. CV's pitcher was the best we've faced all season, last year she threw a perfect 3 inning game against us. This year we played 5 innings, and we got 2 hits off this girl. We had one inning that we lost our heads and they scored 5 runs. 5 runs I can live with, we stayed competitive although we just couldnt get the bats going, but at least we didn't allow them to open up the game and score 20 or 30 runs. Nicole Sweger and Ashly Snyder had our only hits of the game. Ashly also had a nice tag-out play at third. Overall, I'm pleased with the performance considering our lack of playing time recently. I don't like to use this as an excuse, but our plate umpire was rather, um, well "inconsistant" and I'll leave it at that. Friday April 20, 2001 Harrisburg..............WIN.........26-5 This was our night to win. They had a rather young and inexperienced team to say the least. That's not to say I wasn't a little worried in the first inning when we were playing sloppy and allowed them to score 4 runs. Everyone quickly regained composure and we took control of the game, never stopping once to look back. Our baserunning was superb, I had a chance to see that we really do have some depth in our baserunning department.....we had a few people getting down and dirty at the plate, and I gotta say my favorite play was Kendra Potter's "delayed-steal-make-them-throw" to home deal. I also had a squeeze play and a straight steal to home in place but each time a passed ball kinda screwed that up for us. Defensively we looked pretty good, a lot better than the previous night. We ended the game with a double play!! As we head into next week, we are still a .500 team with a 3-3 record. We need to carry this momentum into the next 3 weeks!!! Monday April 23, 2001 Red Land..............Loss.........13-0 This was by far our worst game to date. We didn't have the hits until late in the game, and even so, we only had 2. Nicole had a tiring night pitching, issuing her season high 11 walks. We played sloppy and mentally were not with it at all. The temperature at game time was in excess of 90 degrees....I didn't accept that as an excuse since this is the team who won back to back games in snow and rain with wind chill temps in the single digits. What impresses me about this young team is their abiltiy to move on from a loss and come back harder the next game. Wednesday April 25, 2001 Carlisle doubleheader...game one.. WIN...13-12 I really need more time to write my game comments for these 2 games. for right now I'll say that 2 more goals were accomlpished for the season, a win at home, and a come from behind, take it in the last inning win. I couldn't be more proud of or more impressed with a team than I am right now. Even though the second game was a loss, it was an extra inning effort, and the JV Mustangs fought with true guts and determination. I couldn't ask for anything more than players like these who are so into the game that its obvious when the emotions are running high. I knew there was a reason why I love this game so much, its nights like these. Wednesday April 25, 2001 Carlisle doubleheader...game two.. Loss...16-15(extra innings)
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