I got back to Columbus about an hour ago from Moline. Wow, what an unbelievable week. This week with the Heat - and getting to see all five other Ohio teams - was one of my top three highlights of my softball coaching career.
First, congrats to the Doom 95 for a top 20 finish. I was able to watch them three times and meet some of coaches and parents I had known from OFC, which was a nice treat for me. Excellent team that just kept playing incredibly solid ball. I finally got to see Emily Anderson pitch and she just kept holding one team down after another.
Second, congrats to the Doom 96. I don't know as many of their people, but that's neither here nor there. Do you know how good you have to be to be a young team at 12-U or 14-U and finish high at ASA "A" Nationals? I also saw the California Cruisers, San Diego Power Surge (1996 teams) and the Tennessee Fury 96, which were fantastic teams. Those girls mostly look like little kids compared to some of the huge 95 girls. Well, the Power Surge pitchers actually look like college girls in size and in talent.
The Lasers Black and Intensity each had tough draws and suffered tough losses. I only saw the Lasers Black once. They were beating an excellent Coastal Chaos (MS) team 1-0 most of the way before losing. The Coastal Chaos hadn't lost to a 14-U team all year until they lost later in the winner's bracket to one of those Fury teams.
I saw the Intensity three times and got to meet several people who I knew from OFC. They were stuck with the American Liberty Kruzers (TX) who might still be alive, not sure. The Kruzers have two excellent pitchers who were being watched by Arizona and on down. Then the Intensity probably should have handled the California Cruisers, but some untimely errors hurt in a 3-2 (or 4-3) loss. Watching Jenna (?) Lilley was fun. Not only did she hardly make any outs when I watched, but I really enjoyed watching her instincts for the game. She just knows when to go, when not to go, where to go, where to throw, where to look, etc. The Intensity also had some serious speed in the lineup, along with one or two more girls besides Lilley who were just totally into the game like players should be.
I only saw the Stingrays once and I don't think I know any of their parents or girls. I saw them play the Washington Hustle, which had to be one of the worst games of the year for the Stingrays. I'm sure they are a much, much better team than they showed that day. One Stingray hit a long home run and made a couple of good plays at third and the shortstop also had several nice plays. Even though they went 0-2 in bracket play, that's better than any other record at any other tournament at this time of the year.
As for the Buckeye Heat, man am I glad I made the trip (sorry, Carol!). Of course I'm glad I got to see them do so well, but also glad that I saw the great ball being played all week. I watched games pretty much morning to midnight every day until we left about 2:00 today.
After a rough start the first three games and probably a feeling among the girls of not being sure they belonged at ASA Nationals, there were a couple of key hits against the Heartland Havoc 95 and they just kept coming for almost 48 hours. Combined with John Cooper's crowd encitement, it was a fun, fun atmosphere. Sometime during that game against the Havoc, John decided to start circling the Heat bleachers after each half inning on defense, screaming "Here we go, here we go!" and insisting on a high five from anyone in those bleachers. His run was usually followed by a loud "OH" "IO" chant. This went on for five straight games and corralled some innocent bystanders into the mix.
The Heat won four straight one-run games, hanging on for dear life in the 7th inning in three of them and losing the lead in the other in the 7th only to win in extra innings. This would be tough to take at any tournament, let alone at ASA Nationals. The Heartland Havoc were down one run and had 2nd and 3rd and one out in the 7th before Makayla Cooper struck out the cleanup hitter and got the next hitter to pop out to end that game. The Heat gave the California Grapettes a run to let them tie the game at 1 before taking a 2-1 when Ashley Salyer (I think) scored from second on a Grapettes error on a bunt (that could be totally wrong). I think Megan McLaughlin set them down in order in the 7th. Megan pitched a great, great game against the Grapettes, keeping them totally off balance and really impressing one Div. I assistant coach.
The Heat then came out hitting against the Worth Prospects (MO), who we were told won the NSA World Series this year (not sure if that's correct). The Prospects used two pitchers, one throwing probably 60-61 and the other around 62-63. The Heat had a 3-1 lead when Kylie Gross launched a solo shot about 240-250 to left center. The Prospects battled back to make it 4-3 late in the game. I can't recall the details, but I'm thinking the Heat walked two Prospects in the 7th before escaping. I think we might have hit a batter as well to load the bases, something like that.
And then this morning (Saturday), the Heat got the Newtown Rock Elite who had dropped from the winner's bracket. The Elite got one in the first before the Heat tied it and then got two more for a 3-1 Heat lead. The Heat appeared to finally be headed to an easy victory, taking a 5-1 lead into the 6th. Some key hits by the Elite and less than stellar Heat defense resulted in three runs, but the Heat made a great play at the plate on a wild pitch to get the third out and keep the lead. The Heat then failed to catch a fly ball to start the 7th and the Elite ended up tying the game. After the Heat didn't score in the bottom half, it was on to the ITB. The Elite popped up the bunt attempt and never did move the runner. The Heat chose not to bunt with red-hot Cooper at the plate, but she popped up. After another out, a passed ball moved Katie Bell to third, which was a heads up play since the ball only went a foot or two away. Jess Wellman then hit a 1-2 (I think) pitch into left field for a clean single to win it. I can't imagine the ballpark was any louder all week than right then.
The Heat was tied with the Minor's Gold at 1 after two innings, but the Minor's Gold just hit the ball well and kept adding runs for an 8-3 win.
The Heat really hit the ball well at the top of the order, with Cooper and Raker seeming like they were getting hits every time at the dish. Stewart was getting on pretty regularly at the top of the order and scoring a lot of runs. And then the bottom half would chip in with key hits here and there like Wellman's and Gross's at opportune times.
The Heat got great defense for the most part, especially in innings 1-4 and 7. The 5th and 6th innings seemed to be another story. The Heat had great pitching the entire way from McLaughlin and Cooper. They were just clutch against some of the top teams in the country.
For a team to go from not being sure it belonged there to being in the top handful of teams in the nation in less than 48 hours is just a huge rush, not to mention a gargantuan confidence builder. You simply have to shoot for the top and go for ASA A Nationals if your team has any realistic chance of qualifying. I found out several years ago that once you've been there, it's hard to turn back and do anything else at the end of the season. Again, the team has to realistically be good enough before you take that path, but I would think any top 10 or 15 team in Ohio has a realistic shot.
It was a rough road leading up to that run by the Heat. In pool play, the Heat created some chances against the Shamrocks pitcher who throws 66 and even had 2nd and 3rd with no outs in the 5th, down only 2-0. The Shamrocks got four in the 7th with two outs and won 6-0. The Heat players weren't down after that game, as they knew they had faced a pitcher from another planet and had threatened in two innings against her. The Shamrocks would go on to be one of seven teams to tie with the Heat for 25th place.
I thought the Heat stood a 50-50 shot of beating the San Jose Lady Sharks, but lost
4-1. The Heat had some good moments in the game, but just didn't play all that well and left tons of runners on base. This game was a bummer.
The Heat drew the Louisiana Patriots and lost 4-0. McLaughlin threw a very good game, but the Patriots pitcher was excellent and just shut us down. At that point, I think many of us worried that it was going to be an 0-4 trip to Nationals. But as we all know in this game, things can change just like that.
I couldn't be more proud of the girls and more happy for them, Ted, Carol and the rest of the coaching staff.
And we will definitely brush up on the proper way to conduct a protest.