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| Courtney Ryan |
Courtney Ryan is a pitcher from Grayslake, Illinois who began playing in 2009. A communications major, she will share her thoughts throughout her career.
This past week the women’s softball team hosted a Nike softball camp for future Pioneers ranging from the ages of 9 to 16. The camp lasted for 4 days and 3 nights. The days consisted of campers embracing, as well as improving, their fundamentals in; fielding, hitting, base running, and pitching. The campers also participated in daily scrimmages. The scrimmages were an opportunity for the young players to apply their new fundamentals in game situations as well as bond and come together as teammates.
The camp was coached by Head Coach Townsend, third basemen Katie Lenz, short stop Chantal McReynolds, incoming freshmen Melissa Anderson, as well as myself (pitcher).
Hello everyone!
It's been a while since my last updated blog. I do apologize for that but there hasn't been much to say. Our season hasn't been as great as we had hoped for it to be. However, we are a young team and have been learning what it takes to play at the college level. Over the past couple of weeks we have lost some close games, and have won some games; it has been a season of ups and downs and overall a season of growing together as a team.
When asked by our coach why we wanted to be here and play softball for Platteville, the common answer made by many of the players was because of the girls on the team. Being on the softball team winning or losing is a unique experience. Our team is made up of so many different personalities and quirkiness and we all get along great. We have grown together as a team and have put in a lot of time and dedication that I am sure will pay off in the end. I am confident in my team and have faith that we will finish the season strong. Thank you to everyone that have come out to our games and supported us. We hope that you come out and support us in our last home game this Wednesday as we take on UW-Stevens Point game time starting at 3 P.M.
Hope to see you there and if not until next time …
Sorry for not updating my blog game to game from AZ, it was a little tricky without a computer, but here is a recap from our spring break trip.
The first day (Saturday) was a beautiful day outside, it was sunny and warm, and our team got ready and took trip to tour Colasso Cave. It was really interesting and educational, as well as fun; I thought the whole team enjoyed the team activity. After the cave, we had a team picnic before getting on the bus and heading to our fields for our first games of the day. Our First game we faced SUNY College from NY. It was a tough game because it was our first game on dirt and SUNY’s last game of the week. They were a good hitting team, and had great fielding. Our team played well, and made contact with the ball, Tera Burr hit a homerun, but still even with a homerun we came up short and lost the game. The second game however, we came back with fierce fire and the intensity to win. We face Augsburg College from MN; our team had more bats to back up our excellent fielding during this game. We finished Saturday 1 and 1.
Sunday was a fun morning; we woke up and went to the Tucson Zoo. It was a lot of fun because we saw many animals, we fed giraffes, and we saw polar bears (I personally love polar bears! So they were my favorite animal to see!) After eating at the zoo we journeyed to our fields for the two toughest games we would play while in AZ. Our first game was against a very respectable ball team, Central College from IA. Central in my opinion was the best team we faced, they were big, quick, and had excellent hitters as well as fielders. We put the ball in play a number of times, but central was everywhere we hit. It was a tough loss but it wasn’t our toughest.
After losing to Central we played Amherst College from MA. We came out on the field bats blazing, fielding spotless, and pitching great. We were winning 7 to 0 going into the 5th inning when Amherst started to put the ball in spots that we were not. We however, kept fighting, and scoring, but even with a homerun by Jordan Johnson it was still not enough tbattle off the rallying Amherst College who managed to win 12 to 11 in 7th inning. This was by far our hardest lost and our toughest day in AZ. We ended Sunday 1 and 3.
Monday our team woke up fueled with fire and desire to win two games that day. Our first game we played Denison University from Ohio; they were a good team that played neck and neck with us throughout the entire game. We would score then they would score, it was a close game right down to the end of it. We ended up tying after 7 innings so we went into extra innings with an international tie breaker. After a great bunt by Tera Burr to move our runner Chantal McReynolds to third then an excellent slap by Megan Nelson to score Chantal and put us in the lead. Coming out on defense we held our ground, the infield didn’t let anything past, and the outfield didn’t let anything drop. We finished the game strong, and won! Our second game that day we played Schreiner University from TX. We came out high off our win from the last game and played toughed. With a couple of great at bats from Schreiner we left Monday from the ball field 2 and 4. .
Tuesday was our last day of games; we started the day off by stopping at the University of Arizona. It was fun we got to see their softball stadium and some of the girls even got to run the bases. When it came to game play for the day we were facing two WI teams so we were pretty pumped for the games. Our first game we played Marian University, we played well, we hit the ball, but in the end our hits left us dissatisfied and we got prepared to take on Lakeland College. Lakeland another big team, hit the ball to where we were not. Although, we had many hits, we seemed to hit the ball to where their defense was.
We left the fields Tuesday 2 and 6, not as well as we had hoped to do; but the trip gave us insight to what we need to work on for our future games. The trip also brought us closer together as a team and we are all looking forward to kick our season off Wednesday March 25th at home against Augustana at 3 pm.
I hope all you Pioneer softball fans and bloggers can make it to our game.. and if not, I’ll keep you updated.
Thanks and until next time… GO PIONEERS!
Hello Pioneer softball fans and bloggers!
This is a big week for the UWP softball team; it is a big week because we are preparing for our spring break trip to Tucson, Arizona, where we will face fierce competition from all over the nation. We have been practicing our hardest, because as many of you know, you practice the way you play.
Over the past couple of weeks we have been fine tuning our mechanics as well as getting prepared to take on the competition. The entire team is excited for the AZ trip because we will finally be able to play outside in nice weather, which will be a nice change from practicing inside. Other than the tough competition. the great thing about this trip is the team bonding we will share in and the educational activities our coach has lined up for us.
We leave March 13 and return home March 18, our first game will be played March 14 at 2:30 pm vs. SUNY College. Then we play Augsburg College at 5 pm. Wish us the best of luck and if you happen to be in AZ while we are there be sure to stop at the Tucson Invitational Games and see us play. For more information on our game schedule and the invitational in general you can check out http://www.tucsonsoftball.com. However, I will also keep you updated on our trip and our performance from Arizona.
So until next time …
Take Care and Go Pioneers!
Hello fans and bloggers;
My name Courtney Ryan and I am currently a freshman pitcher at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. I have been asked to write a blog which will allow all you bloggers to follow me and my fellow teammates on our journey throughout this season. For the next couple of months I will be blogging regularly to you about our games, road trips, and anything else I think will be informative to you about our team. So sit back, relax and get ready to know your UWP softball Pioneers!
Our season opened Friday at the University of Northern Iowa’s Dome against Mount Mercy. Our team is made up of 14 freshmen and 8 upper classmen, as a primarily a younger team you can imagine the nerves vaulting through our bodies before our first college game. It was also a little intimidating playing at such a big and beautiful complex, but we moved past the intimidation into our first game. The first couple of innings were played with nerves and shakiness, but we soon settled down and played our game. Although we lost the first game, we came out with a bang in the second game. Our bats were loud; our fielding crisp; and our bench was never quiet despite the lateness of the game. Although, we split with Mount Mercy 1 and 1 the whole team was excited about the win and tired because it was so late. The bus ride home was quiet because everyone was sleeping. But overall the team came together and moved past first-game jitters. We now look forward to playing eight games over spring break at Tucson Invitational Games which take place March 14- March 18.
But until then…
Take Care, and go Pioneers!