With our season coming to an end in regionals on Saturday afternoon, I don’t know who all will end up reading this, but I just felt like this 2011-2012 season is something that should have written closure to it. I have two unfinished blogs from after the Chico series and after the Tournament of Champions, but they were never submitted because I was having a hard time differentiating in words, between what is appropriate for a blog rather than a personal journal. And although it took me a while to accept the fact that we were not going to make the conference tournament this year after winning it the past two years, and also took me some time to get over disappointment in my own personal performance the past few weeks leading up to post season, I feel now I can freely write about the team and this 2012 season.
It has been a long road this season and it never got easy. Through the injuries, and girls quitting, this team battled adversity day in and day out. We never had enough girls to run the exact drills we wanted to run, and we never had extra base runners for practice, and with our second pitcher walking out on us, we never had anyone to relieve Sam (Samantha Lipperd) in games. I could go on about how much I strongly dislike all of the girls who didn’t keep their commitment, and how far we could have gone if everyone would have stuck it out… but I’d much rather talk about how much I love my teammates who never gave up, and how the 14 of us, no matter what, stayed strong and battled to do the best we could with what we had.
In the beginning of the year and in my first blog, I talked about our team/season goals that we set, which were winning conference, the conference tournament, and ultimately being national champions. Making it into the regional tournament as the 5th seed, we already knew we had fallen short of our first two goals, but the most important one was still in sight. As a team, we thought, how cool would it be in the headlines to see “ DII SOFTBALL NATIONAL CHAMPIONS WITH 14 GIRLS AND 1 PITCHER.”
On Thursday night, we took the time to reminisce over the whole season and talk about memories, physical performances and favorite accomplishments about one another. I knew this team could make it to super regionals, especially after our first win against Chico (State), needing only two more wins to clinch a spot in Supers. Game two and three, though, we couldn’t seem to put runs across the board and stranded multiple runners on base, ultimately losing against (Cal State) Dominguez Hills in the 7th with a heartbreaking walk off home run, and to Grand Canyon by one to knock us out of the tournament and end our season.
Overall, I am very proud of our freshman class for stepping up to every challenge given to them and for not giving up. They matured quickly and did such a good job of coming up clutch when put into games. I can’t say enough about our pitcher, Sam, who has broken so many records and accomplished so much these past three years, especially this year, never showing she was tired or hurting. If our hitting came through as much as Sam’s pitching did then we would have been unstoppable. As for our seniors Shannon (Kehr) and Skylynn (Myers), I am so sad that their time playing for SSU softball has completed. They both made such huge impacts; Sky in all four years she played for this program and Shannon in just her one year here. They led our team in different categories of hitting and played such solid defense. They won’t be missed just athletically, but as best friends too. Watching teammates grow, succeed and accomplish goals, gives you a sense of love and respect for them, and the best of wishes for whatever comes in their future.
As hard as it is to see Sky and Shannon finish up their last year of ball, I can’t help but think about how fast my own senior year has come up. You live and you learn in college, and you set a lot of goals for yourself, but the most important one for me is to just keep bettering myself in all that I commit to, and with that said I can say I am proud of how I ended my junior year. I love this team, the 14 of us through it all. The adversity we went through on the field this past year, I know will only make us stronger and better people off the field and for the years to come in this game that we love.
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