Jackets Set for 2011 HCAC Tournament

We have been working for this day, we have been dreaming about this day and now it’s finally here, the HCAC tournament! We are entering the tournament as the fourth seed and will be facing Transy, the number one seed.  This will be a rematch of last weekend and with our hard work and confidence after going 5-2 last week, we know we can come out on top.  With Transy being the last team we faced, we have that chip on our shoulder and feel like we can really come out strong against them.  Being the underdog in the tournament, we have nothing to lose and have the confidence to win it all.

This is the time of the season where our performances are peaking and we must capitalize on the opportunities we are given.  We are not just a team. We are a family that has competitive greatness which sets us apart from the other teams in the tournament.  Some of the team has experienced the atmosphere of the HCAC tournament and has the taste of greatness.  And we also have players who this is all new to and get the chance to experience the remarkable feeling of playing in this high energy competition.  For some of us it is our last chance to achieve excellence and step out on the field that we’ve loved our entire lives and brought us all together in the first place. 

NO REGRETS. LEAVE IT ALL ON THE FIELD.

Jackets Prepare for Senior Day on Wednesday

Recently, we played Hanover coming off of a split with Bluffton.  We knew we had to get the sweep over Hanover if we wanted to stay in the running for getting into the conference tournament.  We came out strong in the first game and won 6-0.  We continued to produce offensively to get the 6-3 win in game two.  Our theme of the week was Team Spirit. Getting the sweep against Hanover helped our team spirit a lot, because we had been down with our recent losses against Anderson and Bluffton.  It is important for us to maintain our team spirit going into a weekend with tough conference games.

Lately, during practice, we held our own Softball Olympics.  We split into five different teams and began competing on many different levels: defensively, offensively, a homerun derby, and an obstacle course.  During the defensive portion, we competed with both infield ground balls and outfield pop flies.  During the offensive portion, we competed with various pitches and bunts.  We have yet to finish all the events yet, but it’s a work in progress.  This whole thing was a great time, not to mention a great team bonding activity, especially before our long weekend away at Transylvania and Mount St. Joseph.

With this “rough” weather lately, our game against Manchester was postponed until next Wednesday.  This game was also supposed to be our senior night.  This game is important to everyone because it marks not only our last home game of the season, but it represents a closing to the seniors’ careers at DC.

Jackets Set for Match with Hanover

In the past seven days, we have had two very important conference match-ups. This past Saturday, we dropped two games against Anderson. They showed up with big bats, and our bats were unable to reciprocate. This day was also our annual “Take Your Dog to the Ballgame” day. We were able to raise over $180 for the Fort Defiance Humane Society and many people came out with their dogs to show their support.

On Wednesday, we split with our rivals, the Bluffton Beavers. Both games were tight contests. We came out on top in the first game but fell short in the second game and lost by one run. Our momentum picked back up in the fifth and sixth innings but was not quite enough to pull ahead for the win. This Saturday, we continue our conference play against Hanover at Sal Hench Field. This is also our first annual Defiance Softball Association Day.

Tasha Stucke, Ashley Switzer, Mollee Galloway

DC Softball Prepares for Conference Stretch

We played Denison on Tuesday and ended in a split. Our bats came alive again during these games, but we ended in a 9-8 loss in the eighth inning. Dr. Wolfe invited us over to his house for a special team dinner after the games. His wife and family cooked us a delicious dinner and even sent us home with desserts.

The Denison games were a close to our non-conference season. We returned to practice on Wednesday for a defensive and team building day. This was a nice break from the usually strenuous practice. Our challenge for team building was to find 25 different items with words on them and collect them and form a sentence. The sentence ended up reading “We know that what lies behind us and what lies ahead of us is of little importance when it is compared to what lies within us”.

The team discussed what this quote means, and we decided that it meant that we need to play our game and not dwell on the past or over think future games. Saturday’s games begin the part of season that we have been preparing for all season, and we finish up with strictly conference games. We are going to take it one pitch at a time and give our best effort.

Hey everyone!

Well, we are 2-0 in conference. It all started Saturday when we played Franklin College. We came out in the beginning with great intensity and it paid off in the end. We came out hitting right away and had solid defense during both games. We kept our intensity up the whole time and didn't let up even though we were up the whole time.

The JV girls played Indiana Tech Monday afternoon and came out with two tough losses. We have learned a lot about what we need to work on more as a team and what we need to do to improve. A big thing is communication. We realize that without communication, it makes it harder to come out with a win in the end.

Our theme this week was self-control.  We learned that self-control is an important factor in producing better results as a team.  As individuals, we need to have self-control in order to stay focused and productive during practices and not on other things.  We also need to stay positive for our teammates.

Wednesday we played Ohio Northern and came up with two very tough losses. This coming Saturday we play Adrian College.  We need to come out in these games with the same intensity that we did with Franklin and keep our bats and defense solid and get two more wins under our belts. Go Jackets!

Katie, Stephanie, Kari, Hallie

Jackets Blog One Day Before Conference Opener

Greetings from Shauna, Kaycee, Kelly, and Aubrie,

Last week’s games got the team really excited about what was to come next this season.  Going 4-2 last week with splits against Trine and Olivet and sweeping Baldwin-Wallace, we were feeling pretty good both offensively and defensively.  Monday and Tuesday were spent preparing for our games against Heidelberg and the open of conference play this weekend. 

Today we had our first away games against Heidelberg after getting pushed back from yesterday’s scheduled contest.  We did a lot of little things right, like get on base, move runners into scoring position, made a few good catches in the field, but we were unable to put it all together to get two wins. Kind of a heartbreaker.  We’ll definitely be focusing on putting everything together at practice tomorrow in order to prepare for the start of conference play as we host Franklin on Saturday.  These will be two crucial games for the team to not only get ahead in HCAC standings, but also make it back to .500 on the season. 

Our teammates presented on the topics of intensity and alertness this week.  Marah, Nicole, Gloria, and Tiffany did a stellar job at relating the themes of the week to what we do both on and off the field.  These are two themes that are going to be really important this weekend against Franklin, because these games are so important in turning the tide in our favor for this season.   

The JV squad will be playing at Indiana Tech on Monday and the team is definitely excited!  The varsity squad will be out to support the team that afternoon for the first JV game of the season, which will give some of the younger kids collegiate experience and some others at bats and situations to better prepare for the varsity level. 

We’re praying for warmer weather on Saturday as the forecast is calling for snow.  Looking forward to seeing you all at the home games this weekend!  Peace!

Kelly, Kaycee, Shauna, Aubrie

Jackets Talk About First Week of Home Games

Our season got off to a quick start once back from Florida with a busy first week.  We started off splitting with Trine on Wednesday, sweeping Baldwin-Wallace Friday, and then splitting with Olivet on Saturday.  After playing in sunny Florida, we have surprisingly seen some nice weather for our game days, which is always a plus for the beginning of our season.

After struggling with producing offense in Florida, our bats finally came alive this past week.  All of our extra hitting practices when we returned definitely contributed to our better at bats.  Now that we have our bats back, we really need to work to get everything back together.  Once we have our defense and offense working together well, we will be a tough competitor for any team to compete against.

Anna Vasquez, Hallie Sullivan, and Tasha Stucke

Freshmen Jackets Chime in on Start to the Season

Softball season for the Defiance College Yellow Jackets softball team is in full swing. We kicked off our season in Kentucky at Centre College. We then continued our travels to Orlando, Florida, where we competed in the Rebel Spring Games tournament.

We started out the tournament strong by earning two wins on our very first day of competition. We worked hard as a team to fight back and earn another win in an extra-inning game. This win showed us our potential as a team to work together and compete strong as a team. As much as we enjoyed our time in Florida we are excited to get back home and show what we can do as a team.

Stephanie Esquibel, Mollee Galloway, Tiffany Rathwell, Maggie Neanan

Butt and Robinson Talk Florida Road Trip

As two seniors on the Defiance College Softball team, going to Florida is going to be very bitter sweet. While the excitement builds up surrounding our last and final pre season practice of our careers, we have a lot to prove to everyone, ourselves included. Our team is very talented and has put in a great amount of hard work over the past six weeks to prepare to get the season underway. 

Our first stop is in Danville, Kentucky against Centre College. After we sweep there, we’ll get back on the bus to drive overnight and arrive in Florida early Saturday morning. Stepping off the bus to see palm trees and feel warm weather is a feeling you look forward to every morning when you’re waking up at 4:00 a.m. We’ll practice our first morning there and then head out to the fields to watch games. Finally getting to see a softball field gets you pumped up and ready to play. A lot of the teams we play in Florida are comparable to teams we will face in our conference so it is nice to see competition on that level to help better prepare us once we get back up north. It’s a great feeling to get down there and know we have eight games against good opponents to go back up to school with some wins.

With only one practice left, Florida came quicker this year than it seemed to in the past three that we have been here.  While we are sad that this is our last trip down south in a Defiance uniform, we couldn’t be more excited to get going and get some games under our belts. We’ve got a very talented team this year and we can’t wait to show everyone what we’re all about. From throwing the Frisbee in the parking lot, walking to Old Town, and getting dirty playing the sport we love, Florida is an amazing experience and we couldn’t have picked a better group of team mates and coaches to share it with.

GAME TIME!!!

Kaycee Butt and Marah Robinson

Seven Days Before DC's Florida Road Trip

So... SEVEN MORE DAYS until our first game at Centre College!! We are all counting down the days and getting anxious for our first game. Our theme of the week is Industriousness. Industriousness means diligent and hardworking, someone who is earnest and makes a steady effort. By doing ordinary things well, one can have extraordinary results. Individually, we are average but collectively we are extraordinary because of our industriousness. Over the next week, as we prepare for our first game, we need to work hard on the little things to make ourselves better so we can have extraordinary results.

The seniors had to come up with a challenging team building activity for last Saturday. It was all about accountability within the team, on the playing field and off the field. After the activity, they read us our mission statement. Every day before practice, we read this to prepare ourselves for the upcoming season. This is a statement that we all need to abide by to achieve what we want this season. We also got "buddies" to make sure we all hold ourselves accountable to each other on the team.

Saturday is our team retreat. During the retreat, we usually play multiple games (dodge ball, hide-and-seek), have team building activities and talk about the Florida trip. We get to find out what we have been waiting for all pre-season. OUR ROOMMATES! As the anticipation grows, we are still working hard at 5:00 a.m. Stay Tuned for another update before our Florida trip!

Katie Miller, Ashley Switzer, Gloria Basinger

Ridinger and Samples Discuss the Preseason

So….We are all really excited about our trip to Florida in less than three weeks! As of Friday, we have 11 practices until the big game down at Centre to begin our journey to the HCAC Tournament. We have been working very hard at practice to prepare for the upcoming season and the anticipation is building among the team for the end of 5:00 a.m. practices, which means the end of big ben, pain pyramids, and stairs workouts, as well as other rigorous indoor conditionings that we all love to hate. But when all is said and done, working hard during these activities teaches us discipline, commitment, and motivation to do better for not only ourselves, but for our teammates and the common goal of making the trip back to the HCAC Tournament.  

Last Friday, our team had our first Speaker on Success, Coach Oakland, who talked to the team about what we look for in a friend and in a teammate. The team came up with very important characteristics such as being supportive and honest, being committed, expressing loyalty, and being trustworthy, just to name a few, and these are all qualities we expect from one another in order to maintain a great team chemistry. The team building activities that she had us do promoted the themes of her presentation by making us work together towards a common goal, communicate with one another, and to respect other teammates’ ideas by being open to suggestions and not talking over fellow players. We always look forward to our Speakers on Success, because they always provide insight that helps to motivate us to stay on the right path in achieving all of our team’s goals. 

Finally, we concluded the winter softball clinic series this past weekend with a defensive clinic for K-6 and hitting/pitching clinics for K-12. We met some potential recruits and worked on the fundamentals of softball with the youngsters. The group that worked the defensive clinic played a major role in demonstrating the drills and simplifying the drills so the young campers could grasp the purpose of each drill and understand how these drills will make them better, more well-rounded softball players. 

We have a lot to look forward to in the next few weeks and we have to stay on task in order to be competitive this season. Our team retreat is coming up and we are sure it will be a great team bonding experience! We’ll be sure to keep you posted on the happenings of Defiance College softball. Peace!

Aubrie Ridinger and Katelyn Samples

Anticipation Building for the Start of Softball Season

It's almost the end of week three, and we have 22 days and counting until we leave for Florida! We are all really looking forward to our trip, and we are ready to have another great start to our season. Our hard work and dedication will pay off when we finally get to see warm weather and start the 2011 season.

We had a great start to the week with the Packers winning the Super Bowl, and to celebrate their victory we began practice Tuesday with a great game called dodge ball!  Also, the hitters began seeing live pitching in the batting cages, making our season really seem closer.  Seeing that it's week three, everyone is getting in the swing of things, including waking up for our early 5:00 a.m. practices.

At the conclusion of this week we will be halfway through our preseason, with Florida only three weeks away!  As a team we will stay focused, dedicated, and use our cooperation skills (theme of the week) to be ready and be successful for what there is to come.

Lisa Brophy, Izzy Huffman, Shauna Bowers

Freshmen Jackets Give First Impressions of Practice

It is our first experience of college softball and so far we have gotten seven practices under our belts. Our first practice, we were very anxious because we didn’t know how hard it would be and what would be expected of us. We had a wakeup call for the first practice with realizing just how intense conditioning would be, but as the week went on, we also realize how rewarding it is in the end.

Our next challenge came in the next practice when we woke up for our first 5:00 a.m. practice in our entire lives. As the week progressed we became accustomed to waking up early, which helped us to have a better focus on softball. With the first week down, we now have five weeks left until Florida and our first game. As freshmen, we are both nervous and excited for our first season of college softball and we are ready to take on the challenge.  

Macy Ferrall, Kari Baumgartner

DC Softball Season is Underway

Our softball season has finally kicked off with the usual 5:00 a.m. practices and another great start. The first week of practice is coming to a close and everyone is really working hard. Conditioning has been rough, but we’ve all been pushing through with the support of all.

We are taking big steps forward in practice each day, and will soon be facing live pitching and working on individual positions, which we are all looking forward to. We also had our first pitcher/catcher practice this week, and are very excited to have so many pitchers to work with.

This year, we have a lot of underclassmen and a big senior class ready to make the most of this season and to reclaim our spot at the top of the conference. This week, our theme is enthusiasm, which is very important at 5:00 a.m.

Every week we will have a new theme to focus on throughout the preseason to prepare for our trip to Florida. We are all very excited for this year’s trip, and are ready to get the feel of dirt under our cleats.

Nicole Diers, Mallory Faling, Becky Petrie, Kelly Schnipke