Hello Mil-town! It’s your Alverno softball team, and specifically your personal reporter Sarah Gruber, checking in from Fort Myers, Florida! Yep, you heard right! Florida! We are down here for Spring Break 2008 playing our first 10 games of the season against teams from all around the nation. This is quite the opportunity that no player wants to miss! We haven’t been down here for even 24 hours at this point, but a lot has already transpired. For starters, when we reached Fort Myers airport and were claiming our bags, we discovered that two of our teammates’ (Rosie and Megan) bat bags had been put on a different flight! Considering what our purpose for being down here was, this meant trouble! Luckily, we found out that the airline would be delivering the bags on the next plane flying into the area, and with everyone’s effort, we were able to compile an extra uniform and softball gear to get the players through the day until their things arrive. After a van ride full of terrible singing and silly picture taking, we arrived at our hotel, settled into our rooms, had a team meeting to discuss last minute game concerns, and then we were off to bed. This morning, we had to leave the hotel at 7:00 a.m. to get to the field to begin warm-ups. Although a short and heavy morning rain shower delayed the beginning of our game, we had overcast skies and a nice breeze to start the first inning. Overall, I think we could sum up our first game as a trial and error experience. It was our first time this season that we were able to play on an actual softball diamond (living in Wisconsin, I’m sure you can guess why), and you could tell that we were a bit nervous and hesitant. We made some mistakes in the field and couldn’t string our hits together to score runs. In the end, we ended up with a loss. However, in between games, we had a pow-wow about what we could do differently to improve our game, got our jitters out, grabbed some grub from Subway, and warmed up to play our second game of the day. Our next game was a success! Pitcher Jessi’s most excellent rise balls and Melissa’s in- the-park-homer were just two of the many ingredients that contributed to the win. I would like to give a personal congratulation to our team, who today, tied the record for Alverno Spring Break wins on our first day here! Everyone was really excited, and I think this win has motivated us for the remainder of our games because we now have confidence and know that we can play at the level of these other teams. Tonight, we will do some shopping for necessities, and then probably lay low and just hang out. Now, for the list of super-important things to report on, which I will formally call “Sarah’s Super-Important Things to Report On.” This is a section that I will write daily to inform you of the silly occurrences that only our team probably deems important, but we decided to tell you anyway: 1. Sarah Schwenn is happy to inform everyone back home that she put on her SPF50 sunblock twice for a total protection of SPF100 (or so she says), and her pasty skin did not burn in the sun. 2. Coach Heather only lost Coach TK’s van once while racing through a yellow-almost-red stoplight. 3. A team from Maine repeatedly made fun of me (Sarah) for my Wisconsin accent. I don’t think we sound that silly, do you hey der hey?! Alright, that’s all for tonight! Talk to you tomorrow! Sarah
Good morning! We woke up bright and early again today at around 6 a.m. in order to get ready for our first game. Although it was a little bit easier to wake up this morning than it was yesterday, we are still looking forward to having later games tomorrow so that we can sleep in later. We ended the morning with two loses, making our current record 1-3. However, today we played our strongest competition yet, and this will probably end up being our toughest day collectively. These teams were solid hitters and played clean defense, which made scoring runs and defending in the field no easy task. However, there were elements of our games that were positive. For example, we communicated well about which plays we were executing, what base to throw the ball to, and cheering on our teammates. Also, although much of the day we spent playing a game of catch-up, we never hung out heads and kept up a positive attitude. By doing this, we were able to make solid plays and score a few runs. Melissa Bankenbush hit three for three and scored two runs in the game against Keene State. Also, I think it is important to commend our outfielders (Jenna, Rosie, Megan, Melissa, and Liz), who worked hard to track down hit balls and make accurate throws to their infield cut-offs. Nice job ladies! Now, its time for... Sarah’s Super-Important Things to Report On 1. Coach Kristin was able to con Coach Heather in getting her Dippin’ Dots on demand. 2. Sarah Schwenn has discovered her hidden talent, which she will use to become filthy rich... impersonations of her most favorite friends! 3. Umpire Curly Jane would like to give a shout out to all of our Wisconsin fans. She thinks we are one of the most respectable teams she has ever umpired for.
Hello all! Andrea Spindler here, filling in for Sarah Gruber, in sunny Florida. We were able to sleep in a little extra yesterday morning, having our first game at 11am. With our spirits high, and camaraderie strong we were able to defeat SUNY-Potsdam 12-5. As we were able to string our hits together, five of our players went 2 for 4: Melissa Bankenbush (double and 1 run), Lea Colon (2 RBI’s, 2 runs), Sarah Gruber (1 RBI, 2 runs), Sarah Schwenn (2 RBI’s), Andrea Spindler (home run, double, 3 RBI’s, 2 runs) and Victoria Billerbeck went 2 for 3 (1 run). Our offense shined but could not be complete without the wonderful pitching by Brianne Porter and the clean plays made by our defense. Although happy about the win, we had the unfortunate circumstances of our catcher, Sarah Gruber getting injured. In pain yet holding a smile, she shipped off to the doctors to find some unhappy news. The injury she endured on her leg and ankle forced her to take a flight home this morning to get started on her healing process. We love ya Grubsy and we pray you have a speedy, smooth recovery! Being worried for our friend and teammate, our mood shifted in our next game against UW-Whitewater. The game ended early due to rain and will be finished on Monday morning. Today was our much needed day off after such a gloomy, rainy day. Some of us headed off to Easter Service in the park, while the rest relaxed. The sun was shining in beautiful Fort Myers Beach as we walked the strip, went shopping and sun bathed on the beach. It was a good day to recuperate in order to be ready to go for our games tomorrow. “Super important things to report on”
Hey there everybody! Andrea here, still reporting from sunny Florida! This morning we woke up extra early to finish our game against UW-Whitewater. Our game was on but we were unable to come back for a win. The final score was 14-7. Moving right along, we played Southern Maine; who seemed to be close competition. Our defense was on and we had some powerful hits but couldn’t string enough of them together for a win. Top of third, consisted of two back to back home runs by Melissa Bankenbush and Lea Colon. Going strong at the top of the seventh, Bankenbush hit another home run with an RBI and Colon hit a double. To help out the offense, both Liz Malko and Andrea Spindler went 2 for 3. The final score was 9-5. Going into our next game, the sun was shining and it was perfect softball weather. We, however, were not able to pull out a win. The defense was strong, pitchers on key but could not get the bats going the way we would have hoped. The final score was 7-1. For our evening team activity, we were able to have dinner at the University Grill with Ellen Gardner, a member of the Board of Trustees for Alverno College, and speak with her about our Alverno experience. Brad Duckworth was also able to join us for dinner and helped cheer us on at our games. After a long day of ball, and many pictures at dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some rest. “Super Important Things to Report On”
It was a chilly morning on our last day in Florida, around 45 degrees. We started off by playing Union, who we assumed would be our toughest competitor. We held them for a few innings but our offense was having a hard time stringing hits together. Our pitchers did a great job but defensively we didn’t make some plays we should have made. We ended up losing 0-8 after a tough fourth inning.
To start off the next game against Oberlin, the sun was shining and our spirits were high. We scored 9 runs off of 8 hits. Porter pitched a solid game. After winning 9-4, we were feeling much better and finished our week on a win.
After the games, some of us headed off to the orange store to get some fresh fruit and delicious juice. Having only two rooms available after our games, we were able to shower and get out the door in record time. We had some time to kill before we went to the airport so we headed to the outlet mall for some last minute shopping.
On arriving at the airport, we were told we were scheduled to fly into Cleveland, Ohio which would have been a bit of a hike home. Instead of leaving at 8pm, we left for Chicago at 10pm. We were able to spend some time at Chili’s and get a good meal in before our departure.
Once we arrived in Chicago, we found that 8 of our bags were sitting in Cleveland. We hope they arrive in Milwaukee soon. We were all happy to be home after a long day of travel.
Overall, we had a great week. We improved our previous spring training record ending the week with three wins and seven losses. We’re looking forward to starting our conference season at Benedictine on Saturday.
"Super Important Things to Report On"
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Day 3/4 (3/21-3/22)