The team was amazing fighting through the flu, late nights and early mornings to play four outstanding games out of five. They could have easily made excuses but everyone stayed positive and I stayed proud of them.
The flu and cold bug hit us harder than ever in my 15 years of coaching softball. Jen Sansano and Kristin Sullivan spent the entire trip in their hotel room while others faught with a real tough head cold. I have not had to take many trips to the doctor while on the road but we had to on this one.
We slugged the ball in every game but one. Pittsburgh showed us the level we want to get to while our games against ETSU, South Carolina State and North Carolina A&T showed us that we are getting better as a team. There were a ton of positives that came out of the trip. The freshmen, Lindsay Stowell, Christine Watson, Kacie Strong and Ashley Snider all contributed and got their feet wet. Stowell and Snider both hit homeruns on the weekend and Christine Watson got her first two college hits of her career.
The upperclassmen showed what they are made of. Sophomore Jessenia Andujar is hitting at a robust .480 clip and junior Ashley Nowak has gotten herself back in the groove at the plate. Junior Brooke Frey hit an absolute bomb and put a few more hits together on the weekend as well. Sophomore Hali Enderby hit a homerun that just missed hitting the scoreboard and senior Kara Morenus when yard twice and could have had a few more hits if she did not get unlucky by hitting the ball right at people. Junior Brittany Storch had a huge hit and the eventual game winner against SCSU. Brittany has been working harder than ever this year and it paid off! Last but not least...Senior Maureen wells hit a game ending homerun to end the entire trip against South Carolina State. You can't ask for anything more than that! Walk off...let's go home! :)
The ones I have the most respect for on the weekend was the pitching staff! We knew going in that Jen Sansano was most likely out and the combination of juniors Diana Phalon, junior Erin Nargi and sophomore Jill Murphy stepped up and put in a lot of innings. Not once did any of them fold. They took the ball when I asked them to and went into the game full throttle. After an initial rough start for Erin Nargi against Pitt, Erin was outstanding with 12 strikeouts against SCSU Saturday night. Diana Phalon threw like 10 million pitches and kept us in every game. Our new pitching instructor, Paul Furlong did a great job keeping everyone calm and ready to go. I am hoping we don't have to go into any tournaments shorthanded again but if we have to...we know with have pitchers with a lot of guts.
Overall...I would have liked to have a better showing against Pittsburgh but a we swung the bats well all weekend and that is a great sign. With a healthy Sansano to go with Phalon, Nargi and Murphy, we have a shot a making a lot of noise in the Atlantic 10.
Next stop...George Washington University. 12:00pm start in Mount Vernon. GO BONNIES!!!
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