At Bat with Beka Sumock - 2009 Softball Blog
March 9, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - This season, senior Beka Shumock will give fans an inside look at the Saint Joseph's softball team with this weekly blog. Be sure to check back often for more updates. February 16 Hello everyone! Welcome to the 2009 season with Saint Joseph's Softball! As I begin my senior season on Hawk Hill, I hope you'll follow our progress towards our goals in this blog. The past week was pretty exciting since we opened up our season at the Campbell University tournament. We're playing earlier this year than we have in the past, so we're hoping that the early start will help us once we get to A10 play. It definitely gave the team a different feel at practice, since we know we had less time to prepare for games--it feels more like jumping into the season right away rather than having over a month of preseason in the gym. Playing outside at this time of the year felt great for our whole team, and gave us a measuring stick to go by before we go to another tournament and then to spring training against some nationally ranked teams. As for this weekend, we started with Ohio University and Charleston Southern on Friday. We lost our first game against Ohio, but won the second. We came in expecting to win the tournament, so that first loss was a bit hard to take. We didn't play great in the second game for the win, but it did get us the first win we wanted. After not hitting the way we'd expected, we came back the second day with the goal of sweeping our next two games. Although we didn't, we finally started to hit the way we felt we could as a team in the last game, and managed to beat the host team (Campbell). Now our goal through practice is to continue to hit as a team the way we did in that game, but to put everything together so that we can play a solid, all-around game before taking on national powerhouse Arizona over spring training.
February 23
There's not much to talk about from the past week because we haven't played any games since coming back from North Carolina. Our main focus has been on preparing for next week's game against Delaware, then traveling to George Mason University for a tournament over the weekend. Overall, we feel like this week definitely helped us prepare for the tournament because we had a lot of practice time to go over the mistakes we made at Campbell. Week-long breaks are not going to come by at any other point in the season, so we've tried to take advantage of the time to tune some things up. I'm sure there will be a bigger update next week after we've played five more games. March 2 So three games in the weekend was definitely an experience...but before we went down to George Mason, we played a scrimmage at Drexel University because our game at Delaware was cancelled. Even though the scrimmage did not count as a contest, it really helped to prepare us for the weekend by being outside and seeing pitching aside from our own. Once we got down to GMU for the weekend, I think the improvements we made over last week really showed. In our first two games, we scored consistently across many of the innings, which we didn't do at all in our first tournament. We managed to put up 9 runs and then 8 runs, which was a fantastic boost in confidence in our hitting. As a team, we were excited that we were able to get some rallies going like we did in our last game of the Campbell tournament. Following the first two games, we were excited to play Cornell. Unfortunately, the hot streak of hitting disappeared and we only had 4 hits in the game. Our final game of the weekend was then cancelled due to weather. We felt a little deflated since, for the second time, we weren't able to sweep all of our games in the tournament. On the bright side, we have a winning record to take into spring training next week. This week will be super busy since many of us have midterms and we leave on Thursday to fly to Arizona!!! We're all definitely excited for the weather and the competition--we'll play Creighton, Minnesota, and the University of Arizona, then on to California. Make sure you get the update next week to see how we did! March 8 So we're on spring break right now and I'm waiting in an airport to fly into Orange County, CALIFORNIA! But first, here's the recap of the past week...we spent the week practicing after the GMU tournament, then left on Thursday to fly into Arizona. We spent the weekend in Tuscon to play at the University of Arizona in the Hillenbrand Invitational Tournament. On Friday, we played two games against Creighton, then two against Minnesota on Saturday. We didn't do very well in either doubleheader, as we dropped all 4. On Sunday, we played two games against the University of Arizona, who is nationally ranked. We ended up having 10 hits in our first game and scored five runs, which was the bright spot in our loss. After playing some great competition, we're looking forward to playing Quinnipiac and University of Cal-Riverside in California. As for now, we're going to fly in and go to an episode of The Price is Right!!! Apparently if you have a large group, they usually choose someone to be on the show, so we'll see if we can get anyone on stage. Then it's on to 4 more games this week before going back east. March 9 Here's the rundown for Monday's action: we drove through LA and saw the Hollywood sign in person! When we got to the studio for The Price is Right, it took a long time to get in because you check in and every audience member goes through a short interview process. We finally got into the studio and Erika was called up to go bid! She never won the initial bidding though (she was $1 over on one bid), so she wasn't on stage with Drew Carey. She still won some prizes for being on the show, and we'll be on TV on March 27. After the show, we got to our hotel in Laguna Beach and got to bed so we can open up play again tomorrow. March 10 We just played Quinnipiac and won the game 3-2. We were feeling a little deflated as a team because there's been so much going on this week, but we pulled through and were still able to come out with a win in our night game. Have I mentioned yet how beautiful the mountains in California are? We played at Mt. SACC, which is a junior college, and the field was gorgeous. We're also enjoying the weather--it's a lot better than being in the cold at home! March 11 We played a double header today and the University of California-Riverside, and looked like two entirely different teams. Our sponsor, Mizuno, had a representative there to watch our games, and the first one was ugly. We didn't field or hit well, so we wanted to come out in the second game to show how we've grown as a team since last year. We ended up winning and showed much better than we did in the first game, so we came out on a high note. After the games, we went to Monica's grandparents' house for dinner. The whole team had a fantastic time (the tacos and cupcakes were AWESOME!) and it helped us lighten up after having mixed feelings about our play that day. March 12 We played our last game of break at Palomar CC against Quinnipiac. This game was a lot closer than the first, as we ended up going 8 innings. It was another game that we didn't play as well as we should, but again pulled out the win. I think we're getting a little bit tired as a team because we've played 10 games in 6 days, but now we're looking forward to a nice dinner tonight and some relaxation for the rest of our break. March 13 We spent today on Catalina Island, which is about 50 minutes off the coast of Long Beach, CA. The island is GORGEOUS, and pulling up in the boat was an experience. We spent the morning walking around in shops and checking out all of the golf carts in town--people drive them instead of cars! In the afternoon, we went to the local high school to run a practice with the school's softball team and had a great time with the girls. They were really excited to have practice with players from college, and their enthusiasm made it a great time for us. After the clinic, we had dinner at a local restaurant and headed back on the boat. March 14 Today is our last day of break, so it's been a free day for everyone. A lot of us spent the day walking around Laguna Beach and going to the shops in town. No, we did not see anyone from the TV show, but we did think we saw Lauren Conrad's house once. Tomorrow it's a full day of travel to get back to Philly. March 23 The action doesn't stop now until the end of the season. We got back from break and were back in action Wednesday against Penn, then played La Salle were at Lehigh over the weekend for two games. First, playing Penn is always fun because we love playing city rivals. However, the most important part of the week was opening A10 play with La Salle. We were all pumped to start conference play because the most important thing to our team this year is how we're going to compete in conference. The two wins were HUGE for us and it got us started on the right foot. Our west coast trip helped us out a lot because we saw what we could do after playing some great teams and the confidence boost showed. Our hitting was on throughout the Penn games and the two games against La Salle. We tried to carry that into the weekend against Boston University and Lehigh, which would be tough games. Against BU, we continued to hit well and pulled out a win against a tough team. We were really into the game and played great softball. Unfortunately, we couldn't carry that momentum into the Lehigh game, and the score stayed tied until we lost in the bottom of the seventh inning. Games like that are heart breakers because we've been on a roll and just didn't make the most of our opportunities. As for next week, we're all a little bit bummed that there's no conference games until Sunday against Charlotte. That will be a big one so check us out at Villanova's field or on GameTracker! March 30 There hasn't been much to report this week because we've been rained out a couple of times now. Our win against Drexel on Tuesday was great, but our charity game on Thursday was cancelled and our games against Charlotte were rained out as well. We're disappointed that we couldn't play them this weekend because we feel like we've been hitting the ball great since we got back from spring training. We feel like our biggest challenges in conference this year will be Charlotte, Fordham, and UMass, who is currently nationally ranked. To not play such a big game is kind of deflating. We do have a couple of non-conference games this week, then back to A10 play with Fordham and George Washington this weekend, so our focus is on continuing to hit to be ready for those games. We're 2-0 in conference play right now, so we're trying to preserve that 0 in the loss column. *Knock on wood* Wish us luck! April 6 April 13 Saturday was eventful for me as a senior, as we had our senior picnic at the boathouse on the Schuylkill. It was weird for the five of us (Me, Sue, Sarah, Dani, and Erika) to have our senior day approach so fast. I think it really hit all of us that this is our last season in Crimson and Grey. On Sunday we had the official festivities before the game with the announcements and that whole bit, and it was great to get the sweep to finish the weekend. Even more significant was the fact that we regained a winning record in the conference. Overall, I don't think we could have asked for more as seniors. I think I should probably stop writing now before I wax sentimental...there's still a lot of softball left for you to follow! April 20 April 27 On a sad note, we played our last home games of the season, which really made an impact on me since it's my last year. Despite being at Villanova for the games against Dayton, it's weird putting on the white jerseys and knowing it's last time you'll do it outside of playoffs. Unfortunately, we couldn't come home with a sweep on the day. After putting away the first game of the doubleheader, losing the second one and evening up our record again was a bit of a disappointment. On a good note, we can go into our last weekend knowing that we only need one win to clinch our playoff birth, which is always a good place to be. May 4 While traveling to St. Bonaventure over the weekend, we knew that we needed one win to seal a place in the tournament. We got it in our first day of the series, which was a huge weight off of our shoulders. It was great to get the first game out of the way and know that we were already in the tournament, regardless of the second game. It was also great to realize that we've achieved one of our goals for the season: to get into the conference tournament. But even with that out of the way, we still had our last regular season game to play. We came out against the Bonnies in game 2 and Lauren Pembleton pitched a great game to hold them to a shutout and get us another conference win, which was good for the 5th seed in playoffs. We open up on Wednesday with Fordham, which is a game we're all excited for. Opening up with the host team may be a challenge, but we feel ready to get finals out of the way and go play...keep watching on Gametracker! May 11 Here are some notable aspects about the tournament and the close to the season: -First, we knocked every team out of the tournament except for champion UMass. We looked at it as every team having to come through us in the losers' bracket, instead of us going through them. It was a great way for us to end the season because we showed that we can beat the best teams in our conference, and we put everything together when it counted. -Second, we set the tournament record for runs scored throughout the series with 26, and tied the record for stolen bases with 8. -Third, Dani Gonzales tied an individual record for games won with 3, and was named to the All-Tournament team with freshmen Monica Aguilar and Bernadette Moran, and sophomore Dana Bieniek. -Fourth, we finished the season at 27-20 overall while playing some fantastic competition, which was the first winning season of my four years at Saint Joe's. There was a lot about this season that was memorable, and it was a satisfying way for my class to leave the program. Thank you to all the girls, coaches, administration, parents, and fans for the love and support you gave us--it made it possible for us to reach this point. I'll miss being in the Crimson and Grey next year, but I have the confidence in the remaining team members and incoming freshmen to continue building on to what we accomplished this year, and I look forward to supporting them as they and others supported me. Good luck, and I love and will miss all of you! |
