Tucson Games – Day 5

Greetings again, faithful Blugold Fastpitch blog followers!

It was another good day for the Blugolds. We gave up 10 runs in 2 games today, but we also scored 25 of our own, so I guess I can't complain too much. I'd like to see us give up fewer runs - if we face an opponent with dominant pitching, we could be in trouble. Today we defeated Pomona-Pitzer College 13-5 and Denison University 12-5. We are a little beat up now that the end of the week is drawing near, so it's probably good that our last day is tomorrow. However once again we've been able to play a lot of people, so that is helping with the aches and pains. It is what it is - no excuses.

Tomorrow morning bright and early we play a scrappy Central team for the second time this week. We will need to come out prepared to play, as Central always takes full advantage of an opponent's miscues. We follow the Central game with another game against today's game 2 opponent, Denison University. Immediately following that game we'll head back to the hotel to shower, pack up, eat, and hit the road to fly home from Phoenix.

Tonight I'll feature 3 Blugold players who had notable performances today. First is freshman Jess Freagon from Chippewa Falls McDonnel High School. Jess played shortstop for us today and hit the ball very hard all day. But the most memorable incident from the day was the pop up that her shoestrings interfered with. As she was retreating deep into the 5/6 hole to catch a pop up, one of her shoelaces got caught on a cleat on her opposite shoe and she took a digger. Amazingly, she ALMOST caught the ball anyway. Maybe velcro-closure shoes will help her. :)

The second Blugold tonight is another freshman, Nikki Bromelkamp, who hails from Zumbrota-Mazeppa High School (MN). Nikki caught game 1 vs. Pomona, and played right field in game 2 vs. Denison and was 5-7 for the day from the plate. No funny stories about "Bromel" tonight, but will keep you posted if anything should happen....

Our final featured Blugold tonight is senior, Bri Sturm, also from Zumbrota-Mazeppa HS. Bri pitched vs. Denison today, and although she gave up 5 runs, she pitched very well, which is something we really wanted to see from her. Bri has the ability to be extremely effective for us, and it was good to see her pitches working well, hitting her spots, and getting batters to pop up quite a bit.

It's an early morning tomorrow, with 6:00 breakfast, 6:30 departure, and games at 8 and 10. We'll get ourselves mentally on track by reminding each other that it's really 2 hours later at home, so it's not that big a deal. Not sure if I'll have a chance to post tomorrow, but our SID, Kevin Meinholz, does a great job of getting our scores posted quickly, so we'll be sure to phone the scores in after we play.

Hoping to finish the week strong!

Coach Huntington