Welcome to the Concordia softball blog from Decatur, Alabama! Throughout the week, we will be posting logs written by members of the team as well as pictures of the events of the day.
May 24, 2010
Jason Dormeyer here. The girls are definitely ready to get back onto the field. It’s rather odd to have been here for as long as we have and have only played a couple of games so far. What constitutes good drainage on a field depends on your perspective as the general thought was that folks in Oregon could have gotten the fields ready without a hitch on Friday!
But everyone at the tournament is in the same boat and we are about to grab some pregame lunch before facing Simon Fraser. They will be looking to clinch the pool champion with a 3-0 record while the Cavs will be aiming to knock off SFU for the second time this season and hope for to claim the tiebreaker. A Bellevue win over Lindsey Wilson in an early game would help us quite a bit as we have posted a win over Bellevue already and would rather it not go to the next tiebreaker (run differential).
As for the past couple of days, on Sunday the group took off in the late afternoon for an all-out practice at the field where we hosted the clinic last week (seems like a long, long time ago!). We arrived at 4:30 to simulate what the conditions would be like for today’s games. We were all feeling the heat (low 90s) and drinking plenty of fluids to get through the session. After doing work with the fielders and a bit of batting practice, the team stepped over to the ‘mini’ field for a home run derby.
Coach Kos gave it a good run before Ali Paz and Laura Thorp went head-to-head. Making it interesting after the first couple of rounds, the duo had to aim for opposite field jacks to remain in contention. Ali survived for the title as most of her drives held on with plenty of room to spare (several cleared the batting cages and one made it to the other side of the adjacent field).
Afterwards, once everyone got cleaned up, we grabbed pizza and salad at Chuck E Cheese. Although I think some were skeptical upon arrival, once the competitive spirits started showing, several players got into several of the games. The highlight of the night was Camy’s drive to set the scoring record on the basketball machine, which she finally accomplished to a thunderous applause around 8 minutes after the establishment’s closing time (
Video of the record-breaking turn). Camy somehow kept finding quarters as she approached the record on several occasions before crushing the mark in her final turn. The only question now is how sore her right arm is after putting up a couple 100 shots. In the end the girls pooled together their tickets at were able to present Coach Koz’s soon-to-be 2-year old Grace an early birthday gift.
--Jason
May 20, 2010
“LAAAUUUURRRA,” screamed Camy as she ran by our room at 10:15 this morning—forty-five minutes later than we were told to wake up. We all (room 214) sat up, looking at each other and then the clock.
I asked, “Are we late?” Mal responded, “Yup. We definitely only have a half hour to get ready.” This may seem like a simple task, but not when four girls are sharing a bathroom. Somehow, we pulled through, and will be double-checking our alarms tonight.
After taking batting practice in what we believe to be the front lawn of a condominium complex, we ate lunch and arrived at the field to warm up. Both Tina’s mom and Tara’s dad surprised them to show their support in Alabama, joining the crew of CU superfans (a.k.a. parents and family members) before the game.
Although we were off to a slow start, it being our first game in two weeks pulled out a win in the bottom of the ninth with a hit up the middle by my pudding-loving bedmate. Afterward, we were forced to parade around the field in the pouring-down rain for opening ceremonies, before heading to Big Bob Gibson’s Barbeque for dinner with our extremely generous host family and their two darling daughters.
After dinner, the traps continued in room 214. While Larv was showering, we (Kyndell, Mal, and I) thought it might be funny to remove all her clothes and towels from the bathroom. After informing us that we had lost all our bathroom privileges, she preceded to show her frustration, “I hate you guys and I want new roommates!!!” It is ten-thirty p.m. and she has yet to return to the room after three hours.
(A wide shot of all the teams in the Parade of Champions can be found in the CU Photo Gallery)
It’s been real, but we have an early game to win.
Signing off, Kayla and Mal. Stay classy, Portland.
May 19, 2010
Mallory here reporting from Decatur.
After discovering that the continental breakfast in our hotel was non existent we took the rest of the team’s advice and went to the Waffle House for breakfast a couple blocks from the hotel. It was cheap and scrumptious. Kayla hasn’t ordered anything besides sweet tea since we’ve been here. In her mind she believes its only delicious because we are in the south but I keep telling her it’s the same tea they sell at McDonalds for a dollar back home, but she insists there is a significant difference. After that we went to the field to have our last practice of the season. There weren’t very many mixed emotions because we would all rather be playing games than practicing, but it did make us realize this is the last week of our season and inspired us even more to end the 2010 CU softball season with a bang!
After practice, we went to Wal-Mart to stock up on food for our rooms. Unfortunately, our hotel doesn’t provide refrigerators so room 214 opted to fill up two garbage cans and a Styrofoam cooler with ice to keep our milk, pudding, Hi-C juices, celery, pickle spears, and string cheese cold for the remainder of the two weeks. Unfortunately, in this heat it doesn’t take long for the ice to turn to lukewarm water.
We spent the evening at the NASA space station. Although this is what I told everyone back home, we were really just at the opening banquet which happened to be held at the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. Kayla and Kim forced me to go on a ride, even though I am terrified of heights and I screamed the whole time. All in all, the banquet was fun with delicious barbeque chicken sandwiches—despite a significant loss suffered by Larv and Camy in the Guitar Hero competition. A direct quote from Camy following the defeat as the winners from Lindsay Wilson with an impressive 303,000 points were announced, “It feels like when we lost that first game at the conference tournament.”
The traps from room 214 began upon our return, when we (Kyndell, Kayla, and I) locked Larv out of the room and tossed out her blanket and pillows. We’re fairly certain she’s ready for new roommates...
Kayla here. And this is when the night got really interesting. I woke up at 3 a.m. to my bedmate Mallory tapping on my shoulder, “Kayla. WAKE UP. You won’t believe what I just did. Help me.” I looked over to see an empty container of the pudding (Mallory had insisted we purchased a 12-pack earlier that day) lying next to her, and its contents spilled all over the sheets and herself. “I fell asleep eating this pudding and now it’s everywhere.” Not one of Mal’s finest moments.
Days 1-2
Cavs in the HOUSSSSSSSE
We experienced our first taste of southern hospitality on the flight. In celebration of Courtney’s 21st birthday, the flight attendant asked the entire plane to shut their windows and turn on their book-reading lights for a birthday cake with candles in the sky. The entire cabin then sang her happy birthday. All in all, the flight was a smooth four hours. We ate at the Chili’s in Nashville where we were astonished to learn that their servers only make 2.15 an hour. After a two-hour drive filled with prank phone calls between vans, we arrived at the Holiday Inn in Decatur. Before bed, we had our first team meeting in Alabama to discuss the week’s events. Our room was already yelled at for being late; even though we showed up a minute early. Allan surprised us with two new dry-fit uniform tops. He had a left over 2XL and thought it might be funny to put my (Kayla’s) number on it. Little does he know, I’m gonna wear it.
Favorite thing about the south: the accents. Least favorite thing about the south: the lack of continental breakfasts. We learned that the hard way, when Kyndell (Andrews), Larv (Laura Thorp), and us walked down for breakfast in our pajamas and bed-hair, passing straight through the buffet line that was filled with delicious waffles, potatoes, French toast, grits, and a variety of fruit. We were all commenting on how the hotels in the Pacific Northwest need to step their breakfast game up to match that in Alabama. It wasn’t until we were half-way done with our first plate that Patty brought us our bill. Coach Kos has yet to learn that we charged it to the room, as we did not bring our wallets to what we thought would be a free breakfast.
Before lunch we went bowling to get us out of our hotel rooms for a bit. Although we had fun, we regret to inform you that we are not nearly as good at bowling as we are at softball. More than half the team didn’t break 100. However, there was an exciting neck-and-neck competition between Becca (Gawlista) and Camy (Way), and Becca pulled through with the win in the 10th frame: 109 to 107.
Editor’s Note: Renee Santos had the high score of the day with a 145 and was closely followed by Tina Garcia with a 141.
Our rooms are already messier than our rooms back home. We thought Larv and Kyndell would be happy to be our suitemates, but we snore like bears and are constantly complaining about Larv’s TV choices. Stay on one channel.
Kos told us that the pre-tournament banquet would be at the same location as NASA’s Space Camp. These were the questions that our team fired back at her within the following ten seconds:
Kayla: “Kos, will we get to try on space gear?”
Renee: “Kos, can we try the space food?”
Mallory: “Kos, will they have space helmets and WILL they fit over my hair?”
Kyndell: “Kos, can we go to space?”
Robin: “Kos, where will we go to the bathroom in space?”
Okay its time to get ready for practice. Signing off, Mal and Kayla. Stay classy, Portland.