University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina Softball Journal
October 12, 2011 | Softball
Oct. 12, 2011
Firstly, let me begin this post by apologizing for the delay with posts. I wonder where all of my time goes...oh, right. Anyway, the first set of games we played this fall were at Walnut Creek in Raleigh during a tournament in memory of one of my previous travel ball coaches and a beloved member of the softball community, Ray Chandler. There is no doubt that our team's performance during the tournament made Coach Ray smile from above though--we swept Campbell and UNC Greensboro on Saturday and split with ECU on Sunday. From my perspective in the dugout and on the field with my teammates, it seemed like everyone was excited to finally play and the team chemistry was great. I felt like each of us was anxious to play another opponent and show off the skills we had been working on thus far. I was really impressed with the freshmen hitters! We took no mercy attempting to "drowned" our competitors and the entire lineup from the most experienced players to the rookies, hit "shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots"---seriously, it was "everrrrybody!" Needless to say, the coaches were pleased with our performance and a light practice followed on Monday.
We split Monday's practice with a little bit of defense and hitting just to ensure that we worked through some quality swings and defensive repetition. I went to bed as early as I could Monday night anticipating our 7 a.m. practice the following Tuesday; however, to everyone's surprise, Coach P canceled our practice and weights! When Coach Boo sent out the text message at 6:30 a.m. letting us know that we could sleep in, I dreamt of heaven--well, not really, but I know we all appreciated the day off to recuperate! The next day, we scrimmaged. I do not know whether we tried to extend our day off into Wednesday or if everyone was still tired or what, but let's just say that our scrimmage was not up to UNC softball standards. Our mental coach, Jeff Janssen, would have definitely classified that as a "red" practice according to his traffic light analogy. Fortunately, we redeemed ourselves the next day during our Thursday morning practice--everyone was engaged in all of the drills and the team was back in the "green" just in time for our upcoming game!
Friday night we played a 9 inning game against Elon. We finally got to play at our own stadium and the team represented the "Heels house" well defeating our opponent 12-4! It felt like the game lasted forever! Even an exhausted Coach P said, "I don't know how baseball does it!" Saturday, we got the day off to welcome the incoming class of 2016 (I am getting old...) on their official visit. Most of us went to the UNC football game to watch our boys beat the Louisville Cardinals. Sunday, we were back in action and pumped for our double-header against UNCW. After a stellar performance from all of our pitchers combined, we sent the Seahawks right back to their nests with two loses. It was a great weekend to be a Tar Heel for every sport. We are working hard this week to prepare for our final fall game against the NPF (National Pro Fastpitch)! I cannot wait to play against some of our former teammates--they better watch out!
