catch up softball

I'm going to try to catch up on my blog a bit even though I find Blogger ever so much more difficult to use since it's last major update some time ago. I'm going to try to get used to it.

This past spring's softball season was the most interesting so far. The twins were signed up to play along with a few others from their girl scout troop, as they did last year. When Kate broke her leg the coaches nicely said they'd hold a spot on the team for her, and she could join in whenever she was ready. 

Allison took this season much more seriously than any previous season. My grass-picker, as another mom called her a couple of years ago, now at least kept her eyes on the game when she was placed in the outfield.

The outfield was her least favorite position as it got relatively little action. Catcher was a little more interesting.

 But having a base position and infielding was the best. And she was pretty good at playing a base, making many outs throughout the season. She really wanted to win each game, even though scores aren't kept until playoff time.

This is how she looked if her teammate did not make the out at base.

She is a fast runner, the fastest on the team, and god help any opposing player blocking her way to a base because it wouldn't end well for them.

 

Fists clenched and dying for the next hit so she can outrun the fielders.

About 2 weeks before the end of the season, Kate finally got the all clear to run, so she joined in. She was instantly one of the more consistent hittters, but probably the slowest runner with a kind of hoppy, limpy run. We talked about having another player run for her after she hit, but she managed to run fast enough to get to base more often than not, so she ran for herself.

 For the first time, we hit the batting cages between games for extra practice and that helped the girls quite a bit.

When the playoffs came around, they won their semifinal game but then lost in the finals, making them the second place team in their division. This was the first time a team Kate and Allison played on won any playoff game, so I thought the playoffs were really exciting, and they only lost in the finals by 1 run.