Room23: Last Games

Hi All,

Well its been a busy few days. Here's whats gone on:

Friday - we practiced.

Saturday - we played a double header against East Carolina and University of Maryland/ Burlington Country (UMBC). We lost to East Carolina 9 - 1. They had a really good pitcher but she was incredibly annoying. What is probably not so well understood is that the girls are between the ages of 18 and 22 years of age. They are just outa high schoolwhere things are...well...a little over the top. Most girls will not go out and play without their make up done and something done to their hair! Most girls have a BIG bow in their hair that goes with the colour of their uniform. There is also chanting and all kinds of other shinnanigans including tribal hand gestures and the like. This team from East Carolina was over the top! Why am I picking on them more than other teams? Well they did that one thing I cannot stand on a softball field..... disrespect the opposition by bunting and stealing when you are 7 or more runs up. There is nothing more disrespectful in softball or baseball. We had to play them again the next day, so this action formed a big part of our debrief and inspiration for Sundays game.

Then we played UMBC and beat them pretty convincingly.

Sunday - we only had to play one game... against East Carolina. We were alot more switched on for this game and made a good adjustment by staying of pitches out of the strike zone. This really got their pitcher off balance and off her game. We won 3 - 0 with two of our girls hitting some timely home runs. That will teach them for disrespecting us on Saturday!!!!!

Monday - I was up at 0530 for the bus ride at 0615! It was 3.5 hour ride down to North Carolina and Campbell University where we were due to play another double header at 1200. Campbell is a Christian University and once again forced their beliefs onto us. This time is was prayer before the game. Oh and I must mention that these girls wore the BIGGEST bows in their hair of any of the other teams I'd seen. I must say though, Playing Campbell reminded me of home probably more than at any other time that I have been here. Their schools colour is exactly the same orange as my car, which I miss.

Anyway, a softball game is 7 innings, but in the first game we had to play extra innings and we went to 11 innings before we won 4-1. One of our bench players came on to hit a 2 run home run which was just unbelievable for her. Well done Marcy Boo. I was very happy for her and so was her mum who ran to get the ball, only to have it demanded from her by an official from Campbell. Now apparently Mrs Marcy went off at this guy, not very Christian for a person who on Sunday pushed a Christian publication about the story of Easter into my chest imploring me to read it!!! She knows I do not have faith and continually tries to get me to see 'reason'. Apparently this book had 'facts' in it about Easter, I told her I know the 'story' of Easter. Don't get me wrong though, she is a lovely lovely lady and so are the whole family. It is all done in jest... kind of ;-)

So the second game was quite delayed. But once we got under way, we ended up winning 5-4 in 9 innings. So we ended up playing close to 3 games in two! In the second game, one of our players stole third base. Our hitter swung at the pitch and ended up in the box when the catcher tried to throw our runner out. Apparently, through NO deliberate action on the part of our hitter, our hitter was in the way of this girl trying to make a good throw. This is part of the game, however the catcher didn't like it much and pushed our girl in the head! This was broken up by the umpire. The girl got off lightly as there is no reason why she was not thrown out by the umpire for that alone. But the opposition cried foul like you would not believe. This umpire was pretty weak though, he'd made some terrible decision throughout both games.

Once again though, Christian College, hitting people in the head during a game of softball. I can't stand this hypocritical behaviour. It is one of the big reasons I began to lose faith in religion. One of our people responded to someone on our team pointing this out by saying "Christians are humans too, even Jesus turned over the tables in the temple".... O.K fine, BUT DO NOT preach to me one minute and then do exactly that which you preach against the next. You become a hypocrite by your own standards and lose all credibility.

So after the game it was showers and then dinner and then a 6 hour bus ride to Athens, Georgia! We got in at 0300hrs! The plan was then set to get up for brekky at 1100. I didn't sleep well as I never really do in a new bed and when I have to get up to an important alarm. So we got breakfast and then practiced. Tonight we went out for a very yummy dinner. Best I have had since being in the USA I would say.

Tomorrow we have a double header against the University of Georgia who many believe is the best team in the country! I am very much looking forward to playing them. After the games we have an 8 hour drive back to Farmville... yuck!

When we get back I will get as much sleep as I can and then I am hiring a car to drive up to Philly to see all my friends before I leave. I don't have much time so I will try to maximise my time with everyone to the best of my ability. I was sposed to be up there today however these games were thrown on at the last minute. Oh well.

Below I have included a variety of photos. I will explain each photos as I go.

Speak soon

D

This is a cake Mrs Marcy made for our last game at home! The green is the cake and the rest you couldn't eat :-) With all players and players and ME having a slice, there was still heaps left :-)