Northwestern University Athletics
Erin and Kelly: THE DYER BLOG
2/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
Blog Entry #2 February 8, 2009
Hey 'Cats!
So it is the end of day four of our season-opening journey and we just got picked up at Midway Airport. It is about 9:50 P.M. and probably the earliest we have ever been home from a non-conference tournament, although it still feels like our usual 2 a.m. return. This past weekend was pretty exciting because we made our first trip out to Arizona! It was beautiful when we got there and I was so happy to finally get some sun after looking like a ghost for the past few months. We flew in on Thursday, and after what seemed like a 40-hour flight, we touched down and headed to practice. Now, as most of you know practicing outside in Chicago would be insane. Therefore, Thursday was our first day on a real field since the fall and we looked awesome!!!! Nobody got hit in the face with a grounder, and Adrienne Monka was hitting bombs! Also, two of my favorite alums, Katie Logan and Courtnay Foster, surprised us when they showed up at our practice to hang out. It was nice to see them now that they live so far away.
On Friday we played Cal State Bakersfield and Nevada, the day started out great with our first win and a chance for me to get some of my first innings as a pitcher!!! For those of you who don't know, Jessica Smith, one of our two pitchers, fractured her leg about four weeks ago, thus propelling me back into my pitching career. After our first win, we ate some snacks and started up game #2 vs. Nevada. A tough game, lasting 11 innings, much longer than any of us would have liked it to go. In international tie breaker, as the visitors, we failed to push across a run in the top of the 11th and Nevada succeeded with a timely hit. It was a tough loss, but the team fought hard and learned that execution is something we need to work on.
Saturday led to another great win against one of our rivals, Arizona, 3-1 at Arizona State's stadium. Nicole Pauly crushed the ball to put us up by two and we held them in the end by getting out of a bases loaded jam. Later that day we were matched up with Kansas. By the end of the first inning we were down by five, but not one person in the dugout doubted we would come back. It was awesome to see the fight and support from each girl on the team and I was so proud to be a 'Cat in that moment! We ended up coming all the way back, but dropped the game at the end. Although we lost the game, we learned that we could come back from any deficit and I was happy to see how we were working so well after only playing four games. Unfortunately our game today was canceled due to an unusual rainstorm in Tempe, but we did get out for a 20 minute team run, which we all thoroughly enjoyed....wink wink!
All in all I thought it was an awesome weekend and we learned a lot as a team. We now have a 2-2 record and will be practicing hard this week to go undefeated next weekend in Las Vegas!
On a side note, Erin and Michelle Batts have been videotaping everything that we have been doing as a team while traveling. I hear that Erin is working to attach some footage to our blog so look forward to some crazy dance moves from our esteemed pitching coach Tori Nyberg, traveling through the airports, sleeping on the planes and Me, Nicole Pauly, and Ashley Lafever's impersonation of the Five Dollar Foot-Long commercial!!
Oh and I almost forgot...Erin and I would especially like to send a shout to our Aunt GG and Uncle Dave. You guys rock and we love the support you give us!!! We love you too Maranda and Colleen.
Go 'Cats!!!
Live the Dream K-dye
