A success of sorts--lots and lots of sorts

"Wow." That's all I could tell my girls after we lost our game this morning.

I honestly went into this weekend, thinking that we'd just have to survive. Figured we'd need a "B(itch) session" to let everyone express their frustrations this week. Figured I'd come out of this weekend with a notebook full of all the things we'd need to work on. But no.

We went 1-3 overall, but every game was better than the last. Our game this morning was stellar. A real great game. The girls gave 116% every pitch. And in the end, it came to a bad call on my part. We were up 3-1 against a team that ran us over yesterday (but a team we could beat) in the bottom of the 7th. That's when I switched pitchers. Granted my starter was getting tired and they were starting to hit her, but I should've let her stick it out for at least one out. We lost 4-3 with 1 out, on a sac fly and a close play at home.

My girls deserved that W. They earned it. I've never been so disappointed in myself in so long. But I trusted my closer pitcher. I thought she could come in and throw the other team for a loop. I should've known she'd need more time to find her rhythm. But just like the girls, I'm learning, too.

The best consolation I ever heard in my life is: "When two teams step onto a field, one will win and the other will lose." In this game, though, that definitely wasn't the case. Both teams walked away winners. We won that game fair and square for six and a half innings; they capitalized on my bad decision and pulled out the W. Yes, on paper we got the L, but we really did win.

I learned my lesson. I'll never do it again unless I absolutely have to. We shoud've been in the championship game today, but...

There will be plenty more tournaments, and even more games. We're lined up for seven more tournaments, including Nationals. I just hate that my girls proved so much this weekend and I let them down.

Damn. Really, that's all I can say now. We had a really bad 1st inning of the first game...after that, it was like a whole new team, a better team, each inning of each game. I've never been so proud in my life. They hit great, they had awesome plays in the field, they knew where the plays were, they communicated, they followed the coaches' instructions, they put up a helluva fight. Damn. Wow. That is not the team I'd been coaching the last 8 months. Yes--don't get me wrong!!--I knew they were a decent set of ballplayers, but they came together and played as a TEAM. Two weeks ago, before I left on my trip, I didn't have a team...I had a group of girls. This weekend, they all proved me wrong...I had a real team the whole time.

Now, I'm still learning what combinations work well and what my line-up strategy is, but that will come with time. As soon as I get that, we're straight.

All-in-all, I walked away from the tournament this morning with a HUGE smile on my face. I'm too excited for our next tournament. We don't play again until June 5th, and I lose a lot of girls this week to Varsity playoffs. So, as much as I don't want to take the time off and lose our momentum, I know we can get it back...and come out on top next time.

Watch out Virginia, my 16s are coming for your trophies. We're crazy and that's the way we like it.