| Home | Clinics | Tournaments | Forum |
| Coaching Tips | Clearinghouse | Comments | Links |
| Winter Dome Leagues | |||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SCSU's Gensch Earns Pro Tryout 05/07/08 The Philadelphia Force, one of six teams in National Pro
Fastpitch (NPL), have invited St. Cloud State senior softball player Jenny
Gensch to a tryout on May 20th.
SCSU Softball Lands Four on Academic Honor Roll 05/07/08 St. Cloud State softball players Rachel Haines, Ashley
Homan, Kaity Strever, and Heather Trobec have been named to the 2008 North
Central Conference Commissioners Academic Honor Roll. To qualify the student
athletes must have a minimum 3.20 grade point average, have completed at least
two semesters at their current school and competed against outside competition.
Sioux place five on NCC Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll 05/07/08 The University of North Dakota softball team has placed five
student-athletes on the 2008 North Central Conference Commissioner’s
Academic Honor Roll, announced today by the conference office. St Mary's Otte and Geske named to All-Region teams 05/07/08 It was just a matter of time. Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship - VIDEO 05/07/08 There is a follow-up video to this heartwarming story of sportmanship available from ESPN.
Contributed by Donna Hable Class AAA Softball Rankings for 5/5/08 05/05/08
SCSU Closes Season With 15-1 Loss to Minnesota State 05/04/08 Top seeded Minnesota State (39-13) banged out 15 hits to eliminate the St. Cloud State (35-21) softball team from the NCC Tournament this morning, May 4, by way of a 15-1 defeat. The Mavericks move on in the loser’s bracket to face South Dakota. Ashley Homan (Cottage Grove) drove in the Huskies lone run in the third inning, but it came after Minnesota State had already raced out to 7-0 lead after a four run third. The Mavericks got on the board right away in the top of the first with a two-run homer to take the early lead. The Huskies went down in order in the bottom of the inning and in the second MSU came back for another run to take a 3-0 lead after the first two frames. In the top of the third, the Mavericks sent nine batters to the plate en route to a four run inning to take a commanding 7-0 lead. In the home half of the inning, with two outs and runners on first and second, Homan hit a single up the middle that allowed Melanie Upchurch (Waterloo, Iowa) to score from second. MSU went on to add two more runs in the fourth, and would then tack on six more in the fifth with the bulk coming off a two-out grand slam late in the inning for the 15-1 final. Heather Trobec (Sartell) took the circle for the start and suffers the loss to end her sophomore season with a 5-5 record. Jenny Gensch (Apple Valley) went 2-3 at the plate to lead the Huskies and ends her senior season with a career high .406 batting average and school record marks with 17 home runs (tied) and 62 RBI. Fellow senior, Homan, went 1-3 and ends with a .331 average and tied a career high with 41 RBI. She also leaves as the SCSU career leader with 88 walks. Lizzy Dwyer (Kalispel, Mont.) went 1-2 on the day to finish 2008 batting .421, and falls just 10 points shy of the school record .431. With a 35-21 record, the 2008 Huskies produced the best record since the 2004 Husky squad that took third at the NCAA tournament. Today’s game was also the official close for SCSU softball in the North Central Conference, as the NCC will disband following the season and the Huskies will move into the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) beginning next season. UND's season ends with 12-11 heartbreaker at NCC Tournament 05/04/08 Despite a furious late-game rally that saw the Sioux battle back from a 10-3 deficit, UND’s softball season has come to an end. Lizzy Dwyer's single in the bottom of the seventh inning drove in the winning run and lifted St. Cloud State to a 12-11 win over the Sioux tonight at the North Central Conference Softball Tournament. Dwyer’s season-ending single came just a half an inning after UND had tied the game in dramatic fashion. Trailing 11-7 in the top of the seventh inning, sophomore shortstop Abby Rehberger (Brainerd, Minn.) ignited the Sioux rally with a one-out walk off of Husky reliever Kaity Strever. After a Casie Hanson (Jr., St. Peter, Minn.) single and a Nicole Puerling (Jr., Camarillo, Calif.) walk loaded the bases, UND left fielder Lindsey Gaustad (So., Fergus Falls, Minn.) made it an 11-7 game with a single to left field that scored Rehberger. However, Hanson, who was on second base, had to freeze to ensure the ball would drop, and was forced out at third base, leaving the Sioux with two runners out and one final out. That brought senior third baseman Justine Wernick (Eagan, Minn.) to the plate, looking to not only prolong the game and the season, but her collegiate career. On the very first pitch, UND’s lone senior launched a towering home run over the right field fence, tying the game at 11-11 and putting a loud exclamation pound on UND’s improbable comeback. But the celebration was short-lived, however, as the Huskies bounced back for the game-winning run in their half of the seventh. UND had opened a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a two-run double by Puerling and a two-run homer by Gaustad. St. Cloud State responded immediately with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first, then added another run to take the lead in the second inning. Then the Huskies blew the game wide open with a six-run third inning, the bulk of the damage being provided by two-run singles by Sara Sbragia and Katie Hendrickson. Strever earned the win – her 25th of the season – despite allowing four runs in two innings of relief work. SCSU starter Heather Trobec went five innings and gave up seven runs – all earned – on 12 hits and four walks. UND freshman Hannah-Rose Peters (Santa Monica, Calif.) was saddled with the loss after giving up three runs on six hits in four innings of relief. Hanson went 4-for-4 to up her school-record average this season to .534. Hanson, Puerling, Gaustad and Wernick – UND’s 2-3-4-5 hitters – combined to go 12-for-17 with nine RBI against St. Cloud State. UND finishes its final season of Division II, and its first under head coach Sami Strinz, with a 19-34 record. Notes: UND hit a school-record .304 as a team this season while also setting school records for home runs (67), runs (279), hits (410), runs batted in (255), total bases (687) and walks (160) ... Wernick graduates tied for third on UND’s all-time home runs list (16) and sixth on the all-time RBI list (68).  Huskies Fall 6-4 to Coyotes in First Round of NCC Tournament 05/03/08 The St. Cloud State softball team (34-20) dropped a 6-4
decision to the University of South Dakota (18-23) today, May 3, in their first
round match-up in the North Central Conference Tournament.
The Huskies were kept in check in the top of the fourth, but in the bottom of the inning the Coyotes were able to take their first lead at 4-3. The fifth inning was scoreless, and again in the sixth, SCSU was held off the board. In the bottom of the sixth, South Dakota then extended their lead with two more runs to go ahead 6-3 with just one inning left to play. In the top of the seventh, the Huskies managed to get just
one run across the plate before the late inning rally was cut short and USD had
earned the 6-4 win.  North Dakota State Sweeps Southern Utah to Claim The Summit League Regular Season Title 05/03/08 Allison Bakke and Bekki Rasmussen tossed two-hit shutouts,
and Richel Briones and Melissa Chmielewski each hit home runs as North Dakota
State defeated Southern Utah 1-0 in the nine-inning first game and 5-0 in the
second on Saturday, May 3, to claim The Summit League softball regular season
championship before a crowd of 133 at the Ellig Sports Complex. It was North
Dakota State's first softball title since 2002 when the Bison (37-17, 14-2
Summit) won the North Central Conference tournament under the direction of
current head coach Darren Mueller.
The Adult Inside Makes the Softball
Team 05/03/08 Last August, my 13-year-old daughter, Annie, surprised me. Dad, I want to try out for a traveling softball team, she said. At that point she was playing many sports — basketball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, softball — and as far as I could tell, softball was at the bottom of her list. Some were middle school teams, some local recreation teams, some C.Y.O. teams that played near us on Long Island. Though were a big sports family, and her three older brothers have all been captains of high school teams, none had played travel ball. Id coached Annies local Little League softball teams and had talked to a few dads whose daughters played travel. It sounded daunting and insane. All winter, they practiced several nights a week indoors; the girls were expected to take private hitting lessons at $45 a half hour, and if they were pitchers or catchers — Annie catches and plays infield — a second private weekly lesson. The tournaments started in early April, could stretch from Massachusetts to Virginia and consumed almost every weekend through July. I explained to Annie how hard making a team would be even though she is a good athlete — dozens of girls turn out, we didnt know any coaches, and I had no confidence they could pick her out of a crowd. I worried about her feelings. I said if she did make a team, shed have to give up most other sports. Wed grown close to the C.Y.O. families wed been playing with since second grade; I told her most girls on the travel teams had been together since age 10 and shed be the outsider. I told her she wouldnt be able to go to her music camp in Michigan in July when her friends went; shed have to go in August with girls she didnt know. I was piling it on. I know Dad, its O.K., I want to try, I remember her saying. She didnt beg or whine; she sounded quiet and sure. Nor did she waver when I turned on my hard Dad stare. One of the toughest things Ive found as a parent is knowing when youre hearing the whimsies of the child — which can be tamped down — and when youre hearing the adult inside the child. I was pretty sure this was the adult inside, the one telling me: I figured out something about myself, Dad. This is who I am. The child of course cant verbalize that yet. But Im better at hearing it than I used to be because Ive had three older boys and made mistakes, particularly with my son Adam, whos now 17. Starting at age 10, hed tell me he didnt like baseball or basketball. I thought this was obstinance; I thought he was saying this because he wasnt as good as his twin, Sam; because he didnt want to work at it and didnt like taking orders from his coach — me. We had blowups. I had to bench him for calling an assistant coach a jerk. Eventually I realized the problem: me. The adult inside Adam had spoken and Id missed it. He didnt like baseball or basketball the way his two brothers and I did. The adult inside Adam wanted to be a swimmer and diver. It took about a year for me to hear, but once I did, the problems disappeared. On the diving board there were no behavior issues, no laziness. He loved practicing. So one night in mid-August, Annie and I and the adult inside went to a tryout, an hours drive away. I got lost, and though we arrived on time, we were the last ones among scores of eager girls. The Web site had given three tryout dates; this was the final night. When we signed in, we learned most girls had gone to all three. They pinned number 132 on Annies back. She performed solidly in the field and at bat, and one coach seemed to be talking a fair amount to her — catchers are hard to come by. At the end, the coaches gathered the throng of parents and said wed hear if they were interested. Each day Annie asked, Dad, do you think theyll call today? After three days I had to say, They would have called by now, sweetie. I thought we were done. She wanted to try out for another team. I said we were going away for a weeks family vacation in Cape Cod. She asked if we could go to the tryout and then drive to the Cape. She didnt beg, whine or plead. It was a similar scene. They said theyd call. Walking back to the car afterward, Annie said: I think they might be interested. One of the coaches talked to me a lot. I didnt say what I was thinking. I said, Great. Before getting on the highway for the Cape, I stopped for gas around the corner from the tryout field. While I was filling the van, my cellphone rang. They wanted Annie. Starting in September, it was four times a week: Thursday night private lesson at a batting cage; Friday night team hitting at the cage; Saturday afternoon three-hour team practice in a gym; Sunday catching lesson and team practice at another gym. At first, it seemed daunting and insane. But as my dear mother used to say, Michael, you can get used to almost anything. One thing that made it easier was that a lot of her other sports ended. She didnt play middle school basketball, and she quit her club lacrosse team. The stereotype of travel teams is a bunch of rabid parents hellbent on getting their kids Division I college scholarships. I didnt find that. The thing about travel ball — its very humbling. You go to these tournaments, you see how many talented girls there are out there. You know all the money and hours youre putting in will never be recouped. (For the record, my son Adam — whose 10-year-old adult inside was initially ignored by me — was recruited to dive by Division I colleges, and the one he selected didnt give us a cent, though there is a major benefit: college swim team members must attend 10 hours of study hall a week.) Annie loves her travel team. She does not complain about practices. It was hard at first. She was the new girl. She was the worst hitter. During fall tournaments, she batted ninth. She was the second-string catcher. She played mostly outfield. But the coaches were encouraging. They taught her a million new skills — how to bunt and how catchers use their legs to make their throws to second stronger. Most important, all winter they told her she was improving, even when her own father wasnt so sure. This spring, in eighth grade, Annie tried out and made the high school j.v. team. When youre a middle schooler, it feels huge to be going to the high school every afternoon and having actual 10th-grade teammates. At a recent travel tournament, she batted fifth. And shes made a ball field full of new friends. After a tournament near Trenton, we ate dinner at Applebees, and all the girls squeezed into a booth meant for four. Because Annie loves it, so do I. Not because I think shes going to be a great softball player, but because shes learning what excellence takes, which will serve her well in whatever she does. I dont resent the long drives to tournaments. I enjoy my time with Annie. At an age when kids start grunting at their parents, we have lots to talk about. Where do I think shell bat in the lineup this week? Why do the coaches seem to favor the teams Columbia blue uniforms over the navy blues? Is a walk really as good as a hit? Source: NY Times
SCSU's Homan, Gensch Land On All-NCC Squad 05/03/08 Seniors Ashley Homan and Jenny Gensch represent St. Cloud
State on the 2008 All-North Central Conference softball team. An Apple Valley
native, Gensch, has been named to the team for the second consecutive season,
while Cottage Grove native, Homan, headlines the squad as the only four time
selection.
Cambridge signs retail development deal and includes a new ball park! 05/01/08 In stark contrast to the stalled retail expansion news in
other parts of Minnesota, the city of Cambridge closed a triple commercial
development deal today (Wednesday, April 30) with Lowe’s, Kohl’s and
commercial developer Opus Northwest. Recreation center creates economic impact Full Story: Isanti County News MN Vets College Showcase to be Held June 20th in White Bear Lake, MN 04/30/08 There will be a college showcase, sponsored by the MN Vets on Friday June 20th, 2008, from noon to 5:00 PM. The showcase will be held at White Bear Lake's Otter Lake Fields. Clinicians will include Jim Berbee, Stan Waldhauser and College Coaches. The cost to attend is $50.00. Registration information is on the FastSports Clinics page.
Central Washington offers the ultimate act of sportsmanship 04/28/08 Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky had never hit a home run in her career. Central Washington senior Mallory Holtman was already her school's career leader in them. But when a twist of fate and a torn knee ligament brought them face to face with each other and face to face with the end of their playing days, they combined on a home run trot that celebrated the collective human spirit far more than individual athletic achievement. Both schools compete as Division II softball programs in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Neither has ever reached the NCAA tournament at the Division II level. But when they arrived for Saturday's conference doubleheader at Central Washington's 300-seat stadium in Ellensburg, a small town 100 miles and a mountain range removed from Seattle, the hosts resided one game behind the visitors at the top of the conference standings. As was the case at dozens of other diamonds across the map, two largely anonymous groups prepared to play the most meaningful games of their seasons. It was a typical Saturday of softball in April, right down to a few overzealous fans heckling an easy target, the diminutive Tucholsky, when she came to the plate in the top of the second inning of the second game with two runners on base and the game still scoreless after Western Oregon's 8-1 win in the first game of the afternoon. "I just remember trying to block them out," Tucholsky said of the hecklers. "The first pitch I took, it was a strike. And then I really don't remember where the home run pitch was at all; [I] just remember hitting it, and I knew it was out." A part-time starter in the outfield throughout her four years, Tucholsky had been caught in a numbers game this season on a deep roster that entered the weekend hitting better than .280 and having won nine games in a row. Prior to the pitch she sent over the center-field fence, she had just three hits in 34 at-bats this season. And in that respect, her hitting heroics would have made for a pleasing, if familiar, story line on their own: an unsung player steps up in one of her final games and lifts her team's postseason chances. But it was what happened after an overly excited Tucholsky missed first base on her home run trot and reversed direction to tag the bag that proved unforgettable. "Sara is small -- she's like 5-2, really tiny," Western Oregon coach Pam Knox said. "So you would never think that she would hit a home run. The score was 0-0, and Sara hit a shot over center field. And I'm coaching third and I'm high-fiving the other two runners that came by -- then all of a sudden, I look up, and I'm like, 'Where's Sara?' And I look over, and she's in a heap beyond first base." While she was doubling back to tag first base, Tucholsky's right knee gave out. The two runners who had been on base already had crossed home plate, leaving her the only offensive player on the field of play, even as she lay crumpled in the dirt a few feet from first base and a long way from home plate. First-base coach Shannon Prochaska -- Tucholsky's teammate for three seasons and the only voice she later remembered hearing in the ensuing conversation -- checked to see whether she could crawl back to the base under her own power. As Knox explained, "It went through my mind, I thought, 'If I touch her, she's going to kill me.' It's her only home run in four years. I didn't want to take that from her, but at the same time, I was worried about her." Umpires confirmed that the only option available under the rules was to replace Tucholsky at first base with a pinch runner and have the hit recorded as a two-run single instead of a three-run home run. Any assistance from coaches or trainers while she was an active runner would result in an out. So without any choice, Knox prepared to make the substitution, taking both the run and the memory from Tucholsky. "And right then," Knox said, "I heard, 'Excuse me, would it be OK if we carried her around and she touched each bag?'" The voice belonged to Holtman, a four-year starter who owns just about every major offensive record there is to claim in Central Washington's record book. She also is staring down a pair of knee surgeries as soon as the season ends. Her knees ache after every game, but having already used a redshirt season earlier in her career, and ready to move on to graduate school and coaching at Central, she put the operations on hold so as to avoid missing any of her final season. Now, with her own opportunity for a first postseason appearance very much hinging on the outcome of the game -- her final game at home -- she stepped up to help a player she knew only as an opponent for four years. "Honestly, it's one of those things that I hope anyone would do it for me," Holtman said. "She hit the ball over her fence. She's a senior; it's her last year. … I don't know, it's just one of those things I guess that maybe because compared to everyone on the field at the time, I had been playing longer and knew we could touch her, it was my idea first. But I think anyone who knew that we could touch her would have offered to do it, just because it's the right thing to do. She was obviously in agony." Holtman and shortstop Liz Wallace lifted Tucholsky off the ground and supported her weight between them as they began a slow trip around the bases, stopping at each one so Tucholsky's left foot could secure her passage onward. Even with Tucholsky feeling the pain of what trainers subsequently came to believe was a torn ACL (she was scheduled for tests to confirm the injury on Monday), the surreal quality of perhaps the longest and most crowded home run trot in the game's history hit all three players. "We all started to laugh at one point, I think when we touched the first base," Holtman said. "I don't know what it looked like to observers, but it was kind of funny because Liz and I were carrying her on both sides and we'd get to a base and gently, barely tap her left foot, and we'd all of a sudden start to get the giggles a little bit." Accompanied by a standing ovation from the fans, they finally reached home plate and passed the home run hitter into the arms of her own teammates. Then Holtman and Wallace returned to their positions and tried to win the game. Hollywood would have a difficult time deciding how such a script should end, whether to leave Tucholsky's home run as the decisive blow or reward the selfless actions of her opponents. Reality has less room for such philosophical quandaries. Central Washington did rally for two runs in the bottom of the second -- runs that might have tied the game had Knox been forced to replace Tucholsky -- but Western Oregon held on for a 4-2 win. But unlike a movie, the credits didn't roll after the final out, and the story that continues has little to do with those final scores. "It kept everything in perspective and the fact that we're never bigger than the game," Knox said of the experience. "It was such a lesson that we learned -- that it's not all about winning. And we forget that, because as coaches, we're always trying to get to the top. We forget that. But I will never, ever forget this moment. It's changed me, and I'm sure it's changed my players." For her part, Holtman seems not altogether sure what all the fuss is about. She seems to genuinely believe that any player in her position on any field on any day would have done the same thing. Which helps explains why it did happen on that day and on that field. And she appreciates the knowledge that while the results of Saturday's game and her senior season soon will fade into the dust and depth of old media guides and Internet archives, the story of what happened in her final game at home will live on far longer. "I think that happening on Senior Day, it showed the character of our team," Holtman said. "Because granted I thought of it, but everyone else would have done it. It's something people will talk about for Senior Day. They won't talk about who got hits and what happened and who won; they'll talk about that. And it's kind of a nice way to go out, because it shows what our program is about and the kind of people we have here." Source:
ESPN The AFA would like to clarify that berths awarded in 2007 for 2008 AFA Tournaments through the MMFL will continue to be honored for AFA Tournaments. It is also important to note that teams playing in 2008 Tournaments that award berths for AFA Nationals must be sanctioned or registered with the AFA prior to the start of the tournament. Registration forms for sanctioning will be available at the tournaments or online. Tournament directors should be checking with coaches to insure they have an AFA 2008 Registration card prior to awarding berths. See AFA Minnesota for more information. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home |
Clinics |
Tournaments
Coaching Tips |
Clearinghouse |
Comments |
Links
Winter Dome
Leagues
FastSports! and all content contained within are copyrighted and not to be reprinted in any form without the written consent of the developer/owner