Thiel Athletics Blog

Softball Blog #4

2010-03-27T10:26:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends and Family!

A lot has happened since our debut in Clermont, Florida. The weather has finally broke in Pennsylvania and it is now time to play some ball! Since our spring trip we have had so many nice days to play and practice. The sun and being outside has been delightful. We have been preparing for our conference play and can’t wait to be a contender.

In preparation, we have been playing non-conference teams such as Penn State Beaver and La Roche College. I am happy to say that we have swept both doubleheaders and now we have a record of 6-6! Coach Schafer told us that this was the first time that the softball team has swept their home opener! Our home opener was last Saturday against Penn State Beaver. The game turned into a nail biter going 9 innings with a lot of risky plays, such as the suicide squeeze bunt that scored the tying run in the bottom of the 8^th inning. Karen Wolfe was up with 2 strikes and 2 outs with Melissa Rankin on 3^rd. Karen laid down the bunt perfectly beating out the throw to first and scoring Melissa. It was a great win and we couldn’t have fought harder to win the game. In the next game, we took our adrenaline and intensity to the next level, beating Penn State Beaver 8-2.

Yesterday, in another non-conference match-up, we played La Roche College who was 7-2 coming into the games yesterday. Emily Batiz had thirteen strikeouts in game one! Our bats were alive and we tallied 11 hits to beat La Roche 6-0. The second game was another nail biter…we like to entertain our family and friends in case you were wondering. La Roche tied up the score 6-6 in the top of the seventh inning. We answered back in the bottom of the seventh when Melissa Rankin had a lead-off double and Emily Batiz traded her places when she belted one to right field scoring the game-winning run.

It took every last one of us to win these last 5 games and we are excited for the rest of the season. We are still practicing hard and the intensity and drive is there. We are looking forward to our first conference game next Thursday vs. Westminster. However, we will be back in action tomorrow in another non-conference match-up against Ursuline College and then again on Monday at Penn State Behrend. By then we will be ready to take on the conference play at full force.

We would like to thank all of you that have come out and supported us in these past few games at home. We could not have pulled off those nail biters without you! We appreciate your support and can’t wait to see you in games to come!

Love,

TCSB

Softball Blog #3

2010-03-04T15:49:00.001-05:00

Thursday, March 4

Hello again friends and family!

As we enter our last day of spring training, it is bitter sweet. We are ready to get home, but we are really enjoying being away from all of the snow. Today we are going into our last two games with high spirits. As some of you may already know, we got our first win yesterday! It was a GREAT win! It was a team effort in every aspect and it ended up being a battle until the end. The team that we played (Oneonta University) was said to have been an NCAA regional contender last year. We ended the day yesterday with this great win and look forward to two more wins today! We face two more Division III teams today – Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and Johnson and Wales University.

Last night, we had the opportunity to have a team dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. We all finally got to get out of our softball uniforms for one night and be able to dress-up and look nice. Because of our win, we even got to dress Coach Schafer up! The team dinner ended up being one of the highlights of the week, as usual. We ended up not going to the karaoke night at the restaurant on site because every single one of us were so tired that going to bed sounded so much better. Most of us were sleeping by 10 o’ clock last night. Winning happens to be very tiring!

Since this is our last day, the seniors will get to go out to dinner tonight after our games and the rest of the team will be staying in and packing. We will be leaving Florida at 9 am tomorrow morning and will be arriving back in Greenville on Saturday in the early morning. Hopefully we will not run into a snow storm again on the way back! All in all, we have had a wonderful trip and we look forward to taking our playing experiences down here, back up north and making a conference playoff run at the end of the season. We have had a fantastic trip and we are looking to finish up our spring training on a high note by notching two more wins today.

We would like to thank all of you for your support and we can’t wait to see you at our games when we return to action at Tomcat Park in a few weeks! I hope that you enjoyed reading about our experiences and we miss all of you and can’t wait to see you!

Love,
TCSB

Softball Blog #2

2010-03-02T23:11:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, March 2nd

Hello again friends and family!

We hope that everyone is staying warm up north. Yesterday and today have been some of the nicest days that we have seen in about five months. The rest of the week’s weather forecast looks promising and we are going to soak up every ray of sun that we possibly can before we head back into the snow globe of western Pennsylvania.

Since the last posting, we have played four games. Unfortunately, we have not come up victorious yet, but we are also getting great experience playing with the kind of competition that will only make us better. Sunday we played a Division II team (Lake Superior State) and a NAIA school (University of Michigan -Dearborn). Monday we faced the defending Division III national champions (Messiah College) and another NAIA school (Cedarville University). Against Messiah, we played a very aggressive and intense game even though we came up short. I have been very proud of how our team has been playing, we have seen many good things and we are only looking to improve.

Despite the losses, we are still having fun. Today was our day off and a few of us hung out with our parents but most of the team went to the outlet shopping malls. It was suppose to rain most of the day but it ended up only raining in the morning and the sun was shining by 9 am. We have a ten o clock curfew tonight because we have games bright and early tomorrow. We are playing the University of Michigan-Dearborn again tomorrow and a Oneonta University and we expect to finish up tomorrow with two wins. Our spirits are still high and we are motivated to accomplish the goal that we came here to achieve.

Tomorrow we will have our team dinner and then its karaoke night at the restaurant on site again! All of the girls are looking forward to the team dinner because it is always one of the biggest bonding nights of the whole season. We get to change out of our softball uniforms into nice clothes and go out to dinner with everyone, definitely one of the highlights of spring break. Afterwards, we will look forward to another fun night of karaoke before we head out Thursday to finish our spring break at .500 with a 4-4 record!

I hope you are enjoying reading about our experiences throughout the week. We are working very hard and playing hard and we cannot wait to get back north to share our experiences and pictures with all of you in person!

Love,
TCSB

Softball Tourney Blog #1

2010-02-28T22:44:00.003-05:00

Sunday, February 28th

Hello friends and family,

Greetings from Thiel Softball in Davenport, Florida! We finally made it! We left Greenville around 8 p.m. on Friday night while it was snowing and we checked into our hotel at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night. Our trip was very long but it was a great time to catch up on some sleep for most of us. It didn’t stop snowing until we got into the southern part of Virginia. West Virginia was by far the worst to travel through because of the mountains and the snow covered roads. Our bus driver, Bill, gets the gold star. He trucked through the storm like it was nothing. Good news to all of you still up north though, GRASS STILL DOES EXIST! We spotted it for the first time when we stopped in North Carolina about 5 am Saturday. Emily and Mel get the award for most sleep on the bus. They may have been awake for maybe 4 hours out of the whole trip! We also had two birthdays to celebrate on the bus trip down. Kirstie and Laura Wise’s birthday was on Saturday. What better way to spend it then with the softball team!

When we finally got to Davenport, we stopped at the grocery store so we could all buy a few items to have in our room. Some of us bought some fruit and water, others bought cookies and chips. A few of us actually met a Thiel graduate at the grocery store in Florida! Her husband graduated from Grove City and they moved down here to escape the cold winters. I do not blame them one bit. It is beautiful down here right now.

At this point we were all very restless and we were all ready to have some fun in Florida. Coach told us that our resort was hosting a karaoke night at the restaurant on site. Well, you did not have to tell us twice. After we had a short meeting and an 11 o clock curfew, we headed down there and sang our hearts out. Ashley Jo and Jackie sang “Just the Two of Us,” Mel and Ashley Jo sang “Raise Up,” Elise, Becky, Laura Davin, and Amy sang “Friends in Low Places,” and finally Coach Vinski sang “I Want it That Way” to name a few. We had such a great time and they told us to come back on Wednesday night for another karaoke night. We met up with two elderly Canadian men named Floyd and Tim and they told us that if we had this much energy on the field as we did singing karaoke, that we should win every game! We agreed and we gave them a standing ovation after they sang an old country song.

This morning, we all got up for breakfast at 9 am. Mrs. Schafer made us breakfast with the help of Coach Vinski, even though she said his bacon wasn’t good enough because it was “too floppy.” We had pancakes, bacon, and eggs. Jackie was first in line for the bacon. Now, we are all hanging out and enjoying the sunshine and warm weather (it’s about 60 degrees) and we are getting ready to play our first double header against Lake Superior State! We can’t wait to be on the field and play. We are looking for two wins today to start off the season on the right foot! We are all very anxious and enthusiastic.

We miss you all up north and we hope that you enjoying the glimpse of our time here. We can’t wait to share our experiences and pictures with everyone when we return.

Love,

TCSB

New stuff on ThielAthletics.com

2009-10-15T09:32:00.002-04:00

We've been working to add a few new features to our Thiel Athletics site, some of which are finally ready for public use... this blog is one of them!

You may also notice a new ad on www.ThielAthletics.com for a free SMS texting service. The plan there is to send out scores and other information right to your cell phone as soon as we get them in. Through a few tests, this system is working pretty well and we're looking forward to keep the 'Tomcat Nation' a little more up-to-date.

In the coming weeks we're planning to roll out a new E-Newsletter with the latest Thiel Athletics news and notes AND within the month, we're going to be testing and re-launching our Thiel-eVision feature.

More about Thiel-eVision... we're tentatively planning to webcast all of our indoor home events LIVE on the website. We're keeeping our fingers crossed to have the system in place for the end of volleyball season. This feature will be available for a small fee, which is yet to be determined. We'll keep you posted!

That's all from the Athletics Media office for now. If you have any questions or comments please leave them below or shoot me an email at bmitchell@thiel.edu.

Nationals - Day #1, post 2

2009-03-05T18:36:00.000-05:00

Rob Miller: So far my experience has been pretty fun and I was happy to have someone to work out with this year instead of just my brother and Jeff Linn. The arena is a nice place and we got some nice items this year from the sponsors. I was excited to enter the celluar center for a second time, but this time I feel alot better and more prepared than last year. Tomorrow is game day and I cant wait because I feel that Ive been set up pretty well to become an all american and know as long as i wrestle my best I should become one. Well iam gonna go relax and maybe work out later. Ill be posting again probably sometime tomorrow hopefully with good news that I will be an All American......

Corey Brown: My trip to nationals has been great experience so far this is my first trip to the state of Iowa and hopefully it wont be my last. Today's workout i felt ready and not that nervous i worked out with rob, alec and coach linn and got to roll around on the mats at the cellular center. This is my first taste of the national tournament. Being here as a freshman, I feel there is really nothing to lose and everything to gain. Knowone really knows who I am which I think will benefit me. Tomorrow is what i have thought about from the beginning of october. All and the work that I have put in will hopefully payoff. Well im goin go relax maybe hop in the pool and get mentally prepared for tomorrow. Catch you later..........RUIN OR GET RUINED

Nationals - Day #1

2009-03-05T15:00:00.000-05:00

Coach Linn: We arrived in Cedar Rapids at 7pm last night, checked into the hotel, the got in a quick workout. The roadtrip was a fun time and think the guys had a fun time listening to our antics and incredible singing ability. This morning Corey and Rob woke up and had a short workout at the hotel at 9am. We really like where the guys are mentally right now. They are both feeling extremely confident, and truly expecting to win their first round bouts. Rob will be wrestling the #5 seed and Corey has the #7 seed. Oh well, heading off the arena to workout, I will have the guys sharing some their feelings and comments later on this evening.....