Conference Brings Confidence

This past weekend was our Conference Tournament, and it was a blast! The 10 hour bus ride flew by with movies, teammates, and baby Drew to entertain us. Once in Conway, Arkansas, we ate at the team's favorite restaurant, Marketplace Grill.

The weather threatened to ruin our weekend, but Hendrix College worked hard to get the field into shape. We started the tournament on fire and crushed Rhodes College, who was ranked #2 in the east division. Another highlight was our come-from-behind, 9 inning nail biter against Centre College, in which we proved victorious. Overall, we placed 4th and had an amazing trip.

For us freshmen, Conference was unlike anything we had experienced in our softball careers. Our season had its ups and downs, but we never gave up, and making it to the Conference Tournament was a wonderful reward for our perseverance. We will all miss our seniors, who contributed to the team on and off the field in countless ways. We wish Helen, Caitlin, and Texas all the best as they begin the next chapter of their lives.

I can't wait for next season!

-Megan #10

Ode to Softball

Last Conference Games,
Oh what a shame,
But we will have several more,
When we score.
Runs against our next opponent
We will put together all the components.
The season has been great
And to our seniors we will congratulate.
So to the last conference games of 2010,
Can't wait to do it all over again.

I like to write poems so I thought for my blog I would dedicate a poem to softball. We had a great sweep against Hendrix last week, even though we had a crazy flight experience. And we are looking forward to playing Southwestern this weekend. Can't wait to see what this weekend and next week has in store for us.

- Niki

Road Trips!

Last week's trip to Sherman held many exciting adventures for the Trinity softball team, including team bonding over food (two of our favorite things), team karaoke on the bus, an Easter egg hunt in our hotel, an outing to the movies, as well as a sweep against Austin College on Thursday, and our first homerun of the season (as well as our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th). Congratulations to freshmen Lindsay and Megan on their first career homeruns! Needless to say it was a thrilling trip that held much momentum we plan on building on throughout the rest of conference.

After our bus trip to Sherman last week, some of the team spent Easter with their families, and others had a relaxing Sunday at Trinity. Then it was back to the daily adventures of college and being a collegiate athlete. Another week has come and gone, this one bringing for many of the girls the last round of projects and tests before finals in May. In between all the studying and work, excitement has been building for our big trip to Arkansas this weekend to take on the Hendrix Warriors. For us freshmen, the excitement is especially strong since this will be our first flight with our Trinity softball family. The idea of a new experience that is sure to bring plenty of laughs and good times is definitely something we all look forward to. I can't wait to see what this road trip has in store for us!

- Sarah

And the beat goes on....

With Spring Break and a solid week of class behind us, time just keeps ticking for Tiger softball and the rest of the Trinity campus. At this point in the semester, life as a student-athlete can seem hectic, yet monotonous at times: class, practice, study, maybe eat and sleep somewhere in between, and repeat... But this is when that extra effort really starts to count. As the inevitable end-of-term papers begin to creep up, so does the much-awaited core of our season: conference play. Just as those long hours spent in the library are finally coming to fruition, all the scraped elbows and bruised legs are getting ready to put it on the line for a whole new ball game.

We have much to look forward to in the upcoming weeks: traveling to new places (Sherman, TX this weekend and then Conway, AR the following weekend - a definite first for me!), watching ridiculous YouTube videos with teammates in hotel rooms instead of studying (beware of Shamu!), spending our last few weeks with our beloved seniors, and of course, some competitive softball. One of my greatest delights in the arrival of April is the hopefully now-permanent appearance of the familiar Texas heat. It's not softball season without sunshine, and as it makes its debut after rainy March, so does a new team, alight to the promises of spring.

Brittany

Yay Toobing!

Sadly, Spring Break is over and it's back to classes and projects and essays. But our Spring Break was an ADVENTURE. We decided that for one of our amazing team bonding events we would leave after practice and go toobing! Softball team + cold cold water + rapids = crazy fun. Once we were brave enough to actually get in the freezing water, we had a great time, despite losing some keys and being stranded. Either way it was memorable.

And so this week we played a team from Canada!! I have to say, it was a pretty fun experience. They even had accents! Though apparently, they play softball the same way in Canada as they do here. Who would've guessed? They were a very good team and it gave us the chance to see some top notch pitching to get ready for the upcoming conference games. I'm excited for conference to start!

Karen

SPRING BREAK! ...Almost

The spring break countdown has begun! Just a few more days before we get a much needed break from homework, papers, tests... and 8:30am classes (I don't know why I torture myself with early morning classes every semester...maybe someday I will learn...). With students leaving to go back home for the break, the campus will soon become a ghost town. This may sound a bit depressing, but as I learned last year, it is anything but. Empty campus + softball team = endless possibilities. We have already started planning some team bonding activities to make for an epic Spring Break 2010.

In addition to spring break coming up, we are also about to enter into a new stage of the season: conference play. Conference games require a whole new mindset. The stakes are higher, so anticipation is building. The weather is also beginning to change. It feels like south Texas again! Nothing says softball like sunshine, blue skies, and a little bit of sweat dribbling down your back. Yep, this is what softball season is supposed to be like - and hopefully the tarp will stay at its home in right field for a while. The color is even beginning to come back to our skin - well for most of us at least...

I am excited for what this next part of the season has in store for us!

-Rachel

Bus Rides

Great news! We all survived the bus ride to and from Longview this weekend! Nothing brings a team together like lurching through 5 o'clock traffic in Austin. Luckily, our manager Texas packed us a survival kit, complete with snacks AND coloring books. And no bus ride is complete without quality movies, such as "Mean Girls", "The Longest Yard", and "Bring It On". Unfortunately, the rain came in full force in Longview, but this only allowed more time for homework, naps, and team bonding. Overall, not a bad weekend.

Back in San Antonio, the weather is looking like Spring, finally! We had a beautiful sunny day at practice today. I think the team is sick of dealing with the tarp, so let's hope it stays this way. With an exciting win over TLU behind us, we are trying to sharpen up to face Evangel this weekend. Our team grows together every time we step on the field, and I can't wait to see what we do next!

-Annie