Pirates escape with 5-4 win..

St. Croix Central comes to town Thursday.

Take the ball Michelle!  See how far you can take us!

Tournament Play:  If I closed my eyes and swung, it is possible that I could hit the ball a long way...and so it is... in tournament play.  Perhaps, you have been in one of the discussions where people ask...."In what sport does the best team USUALLY win?"    I am not sure.  Each sport has its issues that it cannot control.  In softball, it is the wind......the rock...... the sun.......  So we play.  We have no control over those things.  We only try and play our best.  For each day, it may be the last game.  And when that last game comes, we will feel badly for time....then the goodness of the season will again overwhelm us.  It is this urge to test ourselves that make athletes. It is the rush of the win that keeps us practicing.  So even though tournaments are set up so that almost everyone loses the last game in high school, it is also set up as a challenge to see how far they can go.

That famous bird that keeps showing up......

Congratulations to Mollie and the Winona team.  They advanced to the college world series.  They lost the first game 1-0.  In this double elimination tournament they won the next game but eventually lost.  You DUDE good Mollie.

Jessica and Cody compare catches for the day.

And so Cumberland came back to town.   This time they threw their #1 pitcher and she did a nice job.  Michelle started the first few innings flawless.  She had a no hitter going after five innings.

Grantsburg started the game perfectly with a walk by Tiff and a bunt single by Sarah...and then a FEW base running errors left Grantsburg with no runs in the first inning.  Cumberland did help out in the third as the Pirates did score.  Cody reached on an error and advanced to second.  When Tiff lined a single to right, Cody crossed the plate with our first run. When Cumberland bobbled Michelle's grounder, Tiffany scored with run #2.  Annie came to plate and hit the gap to right center scoring Michelle.  At this point this were going well.

In the 5th inning, Tiff picked up her second single of the night, but was forced out as Sarah reached on a fielder's choice.  Michelle singled to the gap and soon we had two runners in scoring position with two out.  Annie came through one more time as she singled to center scoring both runners.

Tiff covers her ears as the crowd roars following Em's catch.

Cumberland did come to life in the 6th.  With two outs, Saffert walked and scored on Blume's double.  And THEN CAME THE 7TH...wow...Lansin started with a double.  Sorensen reached on a Grantsburg error.  Hyhus also singled driving in a run making it 5-2.  With runners on first and third, Romo threw out the runner trying to advance to second.  After a strikeout, the top of the order came up with two outs.  Grantsburg had another error and Mann tripled.  The score was now 5-4 in favor of Grantsburg.  Cumberland had its number three batter at the plate with the tying run on third.  With two strikes the batter took about a .5 swing.  In situations like this the home plate ump will ask the base ump if she swung.  The base ump ruled it a swing.  BALLGAME.  Cumberland had battled all the way to the end.  They deserve lots of credit for playing a good game.  They had a very successful season.

Thanks Brenda...Pirates Pile up another win.

For the game Grantsburg had 7 hits and 2 walks.  MIchelle, Annie, and Tiff each had a pair.  Sarah had the only other hit.  For Cumberland, 5 hits and 3 walks.  Both teams had some costly errors.

In almost any game...you put all your bad plays on one side of the balance scale and your good plays on the other. We survived to play another day!

Cody runs it down to the gap in left

TWIS:  Tiff wears Pink.  Don said something about pink.  Dan Thill, of softball legend, came over last Friday and pitched to the girls.  He threw some heat (at least for us).  He threw some drops...off speed drops...he put on a show...Thanks Dan.  It was a good warm up because he was pitching the next morning at the Cushing tournament.  Jamie came in last night to pitch.  It was fun to have her come back and help out.  I did have a chance to water down the entire team on Monday...that would certainly have been a memorable experience...but I let them off.  Cody ran all the way home.  Lauren tripped on the net.  The team had a shower for Callie.  They all discovered that she was pregnant. Wouldn't it be a shame to carry a baby for 9 months then have it NOT be a softball player? (boy)  Of course when the baseball team does laps, Ing yells BOYS!  WAY TO GO TRENT..a walk-off homerun to win the game....sweet.  Nice job baseball team. And before the game our play off record was 0-0 so I painted that on the ground.. and then the team convinced me that it looked like something else.// I just couldn't see them!  And the then ump declares the most unusual of statements...Callie and I laughed... Did you know Callie is pregnant?  I think our base running needs a lot of work.  Even MIke Thoreson came to the game...he thought the web page was still down.  Hi Satin.  Nice catch Cody...and Emily.....way to throw 'em out Romo.  The website can no longer be accessed from home...so I am going home 'cause I am hungry.  Brian had a full scouting report for us.  Thanks Scott and Greg for the pics. Do I think the last call was a strike? 

Then I watched the 8th grade play for a time.  I saw Sam and Macy pitch.  Wow. Grantsburg had its diamonds filled last night.  We were all impressed.  It was a good night.

SYBTF

more action shots from Scott

and now some more shots from Greg