And let the sun shine in, face it with a grin!
The sun did shine on Saturday for the early part of the day. In Portage it was nice to play a couple of games and see kids in short sleeves, coaches in short sleeves and some good softball games as well. New Lisbon and Portage had a 3-2 game and Poynette had to hold off LaCrosse Logan in the top of the seventh for an 8-7 win. New Lisbon and Merrill had a good game that was a 4-0 final in Merrill's favor. New Lisbon will make some noise in the Division 4 regional and sectional. Their pitcher, Mikayla Vinz moves the optic yellow pill along right in the 55-57 mph range and has mastered a nice change up to keep batters off balance. The Rockets' catcher ripped two Poynette offerings over the leftfielder's head and on a field with an outfield fence set at 250 feet legged out a pair of triples. Both would have been over any field with a 200' fence.
In Sun Prairie a group of Division 1 teams met. Sun Prairie won both of their games and will surely retain their high ranking. LaCrosse Central dropped two games there, one to DC Everest 9-4 and the other to Baraboo, 4-2. I'm thinking those losses will affect Central's ranking. Baraboo has been playing well lately too.
Monroe's Becca Armstrong twirled a no-hitter at Kenosha Indian Trail on Saturday. I've sent her coach a Fastpitch Chronicle No-Hitter certificate.
On Sunday, May 5th the Wisconsin Badgers softball team puts the wraps on its regular season with a day that high school teams can get in on a special deal. The Badgers swept Indiana this weekend. They play Michigan State in the season-ending series at Goodman Diamond.
Here is some good reading from the UW-Eau Claire sports information department. It's about a split between Eau Claire and Whitewater on Saturday.
Here is a situation for you to think about: The pitcher steps onto the pitcher's plate with her hands separated, takes a signal or simulates taking a signal, puts her hands together then the batter, without requesting time out, steps back out of the batter's box. The pitcher, reacting to the batter's action, separates her hands and steps off the pitcher's plate. What should the result of these two subsequent actions be?
Here is another one for you to ponder: With a two-strike count on a batter, the pitcher delivers a pitch and the batter swings at it. The ball strikes the batter's hands as she takes her cut at the ball. What should be the result of this action?
And yet another one: The 9th batter in the batting order appears in the box and is delivered several pitches. The defensive team's coach then appeals a batting out of order violation because it is really the time for the 8th batter in the batting order to bat. What should be the result of this action?
In Milwaukee on Friday, Rufus King completed a triple play against Heritage Christian. Here is how it transpired. In the bottom of the fourth Heritage Christian had runners on 1st and 2nd. Their next batter hit a sinking liner to shallow centerfield. King centerfielder, Katie Tuchel made a shoestring catch, tossed it to second sacker Shandi Spencer, who threw it to first where Katie Sovey completed the play. It marked the third triple play in the last 10 years. All three players as well as coach Duke O-Keefe-Boettcher have received Fastpitch Chronicle Triple Play Award Certificates for the play. Congratulations on the rare occurence (maybe not so rare in the case of Rufus King).
If you have players that are involved in such a play, pitch no-hitters, perfect games, break a school record etc. just e-mail to me and I'll send you a pdf with the correct certificate on it.
So, now check this out.
Have a great day and Keep it Rising!
Bob
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