Chili Peppers

What a wonderful year we had. From starting out playing machine pitch to finishing with 2 tournaments of kid pitch. We got a little taste of kid pitch by playing in a 10U league and finished second, not bad for a 8U team. We finished the summer winning 28 games and losing 3 games. In the fall, at two 10U tournaments we went 8 and 2. Our overall record for the 2008 year was 36 wins and 5 losses. Thanks to the girls for a great year, the coaches for helping out, and the parents for their support.

1. MAWSC 10U league -- 2nd Place
2. 8U VIP @ Blue Valley -- Champions
3. 8U Hawaiian Hitfest -- Champions
4. 8U Midwest Championship -- 3rd Place
5. 8U VIP Finals -- Champions
6. 10U VIP @ Little Blue -- Champions
7. 10U Monster Bash -- 3rd Place
8. 1st USSSA Kansas Points 8U
9. 1st USSSA Region 5 Points 8U
10. 5th USSSA National Points 8U

All we have to do is win and we get 2nd place in league. But the lightning had a little trick that they played by bringing down 3 of their girls from their A league team, which is legal but not right, exspecially when one of them was their #1 pitcher. We ended up getting shut out 0-5, only getting 2 hits(Nikki and Alyssa). Our defense gave them 3 in the first inning. Our pitching was strong With Marissa going 3 innings and Jessica pitching the last two.

As our reward for winning we got to play the lightning but it was going to be in our favor because their A team was playing at the same time and the coach for the lightning could not get any one to change their game times so he could play some of his A girls down in the C league. Now that we were on even ground we came out smokin. We put 4 runs on them in the 1st inning, 5 runs in the 2nd, and 5 more runs in the third. Our bats were popping. Katie had a bases clearing double and had 2 hits 4 RBI in the game. Alyssa had 2 doubles and scored 3 runs. Haley W. had a double and 2 RBI. Others to get hits were Jessica, Nikki, Taryn, and Emy. Jessica kept the lightning bats quite and then Marissa came on and finished off the game. We were into this game from the begining and kept the emotion through out the game. On to the Championship!!

Brackets were set up great(I am kidding), with the 2nd place team(Panthers) taking on the 3rd place team(us) in the league in a 9 team tournament with the winner taking on the 1st place team. We played the Panthers in the first round and it was by far the most exciting game of the year. It turned into a pitchers dual with Jessica going for us. Jessica also got us our 1st run by hitting a triple and then scoring on Katie's groundout. Jessica then struck out the first 6 batters she faced before giving up a run in the 3rd on a walk and a double. The other pitcher struck out 9 in a row. We played 7 innings(time limit had not even been hit yet)and the scored was still tied. In extra innings they place a girl on second to start the inning. Jessica was still pitching and got a strikeout and then a groundout which got the runner to third base. The next batter walked and that brought up their best hitter. Jessica struck her out for her 19th strikeout. We just had to score to win. Ashlee was put on 2nd base and Katie was up. We asked Katie to bunt her to third. Katie made a beautiful bunt down 1st base line and Ashlee went to third. Nikki was up next, after being reminded by the coaches to lay off the high pitches Nikki swung at one over her head and knocked it to right field for the game winning hit!!!

We were playing th Dominators for the championship. The runs were going to be few, we had Jessica pithing for us and they had a lefty that was pretty good. First two inning went by pretty quick and then in the 3rd inning the Dominators got their 1st two batters on, then Jessica struck out the next two. With two outs runners on first and second the next batter dribbles one down 1st base line, Jessica picked it up and it looked like she tagged her, the home plate umpire put his hand up like an out and the girls thought that was the 3rd out. The runner from 2nd had run home and then the home plate umpire said he did not see if Jessica tagged the runner so he asked the field umpire who said he did not see it so they called the runner safe. When I asked about the run that scored the umpire said the ball was not dead so it counted. Then the game went back to a pitchers dual until the 5th inning when the Dominators pushed across two runs with some sloppy fielding. We tried to make a comeback and scored 1 run in the bottom of the 5th and had a couple more runners on base when we made the last out. The girls played great, we just got up against a hot pitcher and they can make all the difference. We got 2nd place medals for the great job we did this weekend.