2011 USA Softball Women’s National Team Makes Winning Debut

PLANT CITY, Fla. — The 2011 USA Softball Women’s National Team made their first appearance Saturday in Plant City, Fla., in two controlled exhibition games against the 2010-11 USA Softball Junior Women’s National at Plant City Stadium. With both teams playing their compatriots for experience before heading into international play, the Women’s National Team defeated the Junior Women’s National Team 13-1 in Game 1 and 12-0 in Game 2.

For 11 members of the Women’s National Team, including NCAA Women’s College World Series (WCWS) co-Most Outstanding Player Michelle Moultrie, the Plant City exhibitions marked their first time in a USA uniform. Other newcomers to the program are Whitney Canion, Lauren Gibson, Kelly Grieve, Taylor Hoagland, Stacey May-Johnson, Christi Orgeron, Keilani Ricketts, Brittany Schutte, Rhea Taylor and Chelsea Thomas.

“We are really a young team as we have had only one practice heading into tonight. I was pretty excited for our athleticism, that we had eight different people hit home runs and for the pitch counts of our pitchers,” said National Team Head Coach Ken Eriksen (Tampa, Fla.). We have some basic base running and defensive play we need to go over but as far as an assessment of the first game, I would give it a B. We have a long road to be really, really good but I am excited. These are some good ball players, 1-18, so it’s nice to see them start to come together as a unit. It just takes time to really start to gel and through our exhibitions and training, we will be able to do that before International play.”

Kaitlin Cochran, Ashley Holcombe and Jenae Leles were all members of the 2009 Women’s National Team while Cochran and Holcombe were also on the squad that won the 2010 International Softball Federation (ISF) Women’s World Championship. Valerie Arioto, Molly Johnson, Megan Langenfeld and Jordan Taylor have international experience as pick up players for previous tournaments in Canada, Japan, and Venezuela. Arioto, Johnson, Langenfeld, Leles and Taylor also played on the USA Softball Women’s Futures National Team at the 2010 World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City.

The Women’s National Team had no offensive shortage, taking advantage of a Junior Women’s National Team that tinkered with defensive lineups throughout the night. The juniors used all but two members of its pitching staff in Game 1, saving incoming Florida pitcher Lauren Haeger and Dallas Escobedo, the co-Most Outstanding Player of the WCWS, for Game 2. Haeger struck out a team high three batters while Ally Carda, Escobedo and Nyree White each had a pair of strikeouts.

“For me as a pitcher, it was all about learning how to hit your spots better and working more off the plate than I am used to. Hitting wise, it was a great learning experience facing some great pitchers at top level,” said Carda of her experience facing the National Team. “For us as a team to put the ball into play against these great pitchers was amazing. For me I would like to get ahead in the count as that was my struggle tonight. As a team, we have great chemistry. We just need to work on putting all our base hits together because we are spreading them throughout the game now.”

Cochran, Gibson and Holcombe all had home runs for the National Team in Game 1 while Arioto, Hoagland, Leles, Orgeron and Schutte had homers in Game 2. The National team hit 10 hits in the first game. In Game 2, they had a combined 12 hits.

For the juniors, Carda, Destinee Martinez and Hallie Wilson had a hit in Game 1 with Carda scoring Martinez on a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth. They improved to five hits in Game 2. Carda, Lauren Chamberlain and Cheyenne Cordes each had one while Chelsea Goodacre contributed a pair. The team had 11 runners left on base throughout the doubleheader.

“We learned that you can’t throw a fatty down the middle. These girls are no joke. They have power. We need to execute the little things. Individually I need to learn how to hit the ball,” said Cordes. “As a team we have the chemistry we just need to pull it together.”

The Junior Women’s National Team athletes have not competed as a unit since the III Pan American Championship (18-Under) last August in Bogota, Colombia, where they went 9-0 for the Gold Medal. With the Colombian event serving as a qualifier for the ISF IX Junior Women’s World Championship in December, their focus is on preparing for the competition in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Women’s National Team and the Junior Women’s National Team will hold exhibition doubleheaders in Salem, Va., on June 29, and Bowie, Md., on July 1 before heading separate ways. The Women’s National Team will continue on to the Canadian Open FastPitch International Championship, July 9-17, in Surrey, B.C., and then the World Cup of Softball VI, July 21-25, in Oklahoma City. Ticket information for upcoming appearances is available at USASoftball.com.

The USA Softball Women’s National Team will seek the program’s ninth Pan American Games title, Oct. 17-23, in Guadalajara, Mexico for the final competition of 2011. Two months later, the juniors head to South Africa to close out the year for USA Softball.

Special Olympics softball tournament held in Shively

Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) - Athletes came from all around the state of Kentucky to Shively Saturday. They are Special Olympians on a quest to become state softball champions.

But as one local Olympian puts it, 'It's not whether you win or lose, it's about the fight to get there.'

For the nearly 330 players participating in the 10th Annual Special Olympics Softball Tournament, it is more than just a game – it’s about pride.

The tournament, held at Incarnation Catholic Church in Shively, consisted of 22 teams of different skill levels. But, they all came with the same purpose.

“[There are] very hard teams,” said Olympian Dustin Layman. “Sometimes [when you] win or lose you’re still great.”

Layman, 20, plays first base for the Louisville Wizards. He is a 2010 graduate from Butler High School and a player who carries respect both on the field and off of it.

As fan cheer on the players throughout the day that lasted from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., the Olympians strived to achieve their goals, not just in Saturday’s tournament, but in life with fierce determination.

Winners at Saturday’s tournament will go on to the regional tournament and then on to the state softball tournament held in Bowling Green, Kentucky on September 9.

Softball Rules Simplified

THE GAME

There are 9 players on a softball team.
The playing field is divided into the infield and outfield
The lines between the bases are 60’ apart and when joined they form a “diamond”, inside the baseline is known as the infield
Outside the baseline but inside the playing field is called the outfield.
Any ball going outside the 1st or 3rd base line is a foul ball ( runners can not advance and the batter gets another try unless the ball was caught in the air, which translates to an out)
An official game is 7 innings (a inning is when both teams have had their turn to bat)


PITCHING

The pitcher must have both feet on the pitcher’s rubber and can only take one step forward while pitching.
The ball must be thrown underhand.
Both hands must be on the ball at the start of the pitch.

BATTING

Batters must follow the same order throughout the whole game
The batter is out if and when:
a) three strikes have been called

b) a fly ball is caught

c) the batter does not stand in the batter’s box

BASE RUNNING

Runners must touch each base in order
Runners may overrun 1st base only, all other bases the runner may be tagged and called out if they are off the base.
Runners can not lead off a base, they must be on base until the ball as left the pitcher’s hand
After a fly ball has been caught the base runner must tag the occupied base before advancing to the next base
One base runner can not pass another base runner that is ahead of them.
Stealing a base is not permitted
A runner is out if:
a. they are tagged with the ball before reaching a base

b. the ball gets to 1st base before the runner

c. they run more than 3 feet out of the base line to avoid being tagged

TERMS:

Ball- a legally pitched ball that does not enter the strike zone (four balls equals a walk)
Grounder- A ball that is hit on the ground
Force out- when the runner has to advance to the next base to make room for the following base runner.
Fly ball- ball hit up in the air to the infield
On deck- the next batter
Pop up- ball hit up in the air to the infield
Strike- term used when a ball is swung at and missed or is called when the ball enters the strike zone and is not swung at all.
Strike zone- the ball passes the batter over the plate between their chest and knees

Jennie Finch: A Famous Softball Player

Jennie Lynn Finch was born on 3rd September, 1980 in La Mirada California. She is arguably one of the top ten best softball players of all time. In 2004 Summer Olympics, she won a gold medal for her USA team. She occasionally uses her husband’s surname “Daigle” who is a former American softball player. Jennie is one of the most famous softball players in the history. She began playing softball at the age of five and pitching at the age of eight. Her father was his first pitching coach. While studying in “La Mirada High School” she lettered four times in softball and twice each in both basketball and volleyball. She was an All-CIF Div. 11 choice in softball and All-Suburban League selection in her sophomore year which is a great honor.

Personal Life

Jennie Finch got married with major league baseball pitcher “Casey Daigle” on 15th January, 2005. Casey Daigle proposed Finch on softball field at University of Arizona that is her Alma Mater. Finch recorded this incident as, Daigle blindfolded me and tool me to mound and said “You have been the queen of diamond for four years. Now I want you to be the queen of my heart”. Their son was born on 4th May, 2006 and named “Ace” and they are also expecting another child in June 2011. She is an avid fan of “Los Angeles Dodgers”. She retired from softball on 20th July 2010 to focus on her family. Jennie Finch said in an press interview that “I just feel like it gets harder and harder every year with Ace getting older and time away from my husband and even family events such as birthdays and friends’ weddings and things that I’ve always just missed out on because of softball”. She also said that “This whole career has been way more than I ever even imagined or dreamed. The opportunities that I’d be able to enjoy and appreciate to be a part of, it have been incredible”.

Finch had a 2-0 win/loss record in the 2004, Athens, Greece, Summer Olympics, striking out 13 beats in eight innings while giving up only one hit, one walk and no runs at all. Her pitching leads the American team to the gold medal.

link here.

softball history and informations

Softball is a form of baseball that is played nine to a side on a smaller playing field. It was invented in 1887 by George Hancock of Chicago's Farragut Boat Club, who imagined that the popular game of baseball could be played indoors. "Indoor baseball" became very popular, and the game was soon played outside in parks and on playgrounds.

Traditional softball is played on turf with a dirt infield. As in baseball, the playing field is diamond-shaped, with home, first, second, and third bases. Home base is at least 46 feet from the pitcher's mound for men, and 40 feet for women. The bases are each 60 feet apart. The object of the game is to score runs against the other team. The infield consists of a catcher, a pitcher, three basemen, and a shortstop. The outfield consists of a player in left field, center field, and right field.

There are seven innings in a softball game, and each team gets a chance to bat and field every inning. Each team is allowed three "outs" while at bat; an out occurs on the third strike, when the batter "bunts" (taps the ball without swinging) a foul ball after the second strike, or when a foul ball is caught before it touches the ground. Upon three strikes, the teams exchange positions.

One difference between baseball and softball is the pitching technique. A baseball is pitched overhand, while a softball is pitched underhand. Another difference is the size of the ball. A softball is heavier and larger than a baseball, with a diameter of approximately 4 1/2 inches, and a center of cork and rubber. The bat is wooden, no longer than 2 feet 10 inches and no more than 2.25 inches in diameter, although an aluminum bat can also be used.

Organized softball teams typically wear uniforms similar to those worn in baseball, as well as cleats and helmets while batting and running bases. Any player may wear a glove, but the catcher and first baseman use special mitts. Masks and body protectors are also worn by the catcher.

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