With the first two games behind us, we are on track to be champions! From the first pitch of the first game, we came out hungry to play. We had been waiting for this day all year long, and we were ready to make the most of it.

I am going to highlight a few girls who stood out to me today, but every player contributed to our success in some way or another. In game one, Lani's diving catch on the first play of the game was the perfect start to the season. It pumped everyone up and set the tone for the rest of the game. Great job Lani!

I loved the aggressiveness and confidence we had in the box today. Three Tigers combined for four home runs. Jess, Leigh, and Kailey led us today with four lasers over the fence. Let me tell you, these home runs were legit....each one was SMOKED over! Jess hammered 50 percent of our home runs, Leigh belted in 50 percent of our RBIs and Kailey had a three-run walk-off home run! Amazing girls, great job!

Vanessa did a great job of keeping the hitters off balance and feeding her teammates behind her. Complete team effort!

Although we came out with a loss in game two, Carly Hummel showed signs of greatness with her 12 K college debut performance. She was a rookie who pitched with the poise and confidence of a veteran. On one occasion, the batter popped the ball up and we had a miss-communication that resulted in the ball falling in foul territory. Carly took the ball and said, "That's ok, that just gives me another chance to strike her out". Two pitches later, that batter was walking back to the dugout and Carly added another K to her resume. I love it Carly! However, lucky bloop hits from Wichita proved to be enough to steal the win.

We saw some things we need to work on, but we also saw a glimpse of how great this team can be and how talented our group is this year. We will take one day at a time, perfecting the little things at practice, and continue to come out each game with the confidence that we have prepared ourselves for six months to do something great this year. In the week ahead, we will ride the great things about this weekend and work on the things we need to improve on. Then, add some more wins to our record in our home tournament the Blues City Classic next weekend. Make sure to make plans to come out and watch us! Go Tigers!

Heather Mott #10