Softball World Series

Danielle's team finished off their season by playing in a softball world series last weekend. Her team played in this tournament last year, too, but Danielle wasn't able to participate in the opening ceremonies. This year she was able to be a part of it, and it was a lot of fun.

This world series was for 8u, 10u, & 12u teams, and there were a lot of them! To kick things off, the teams form a big parade. They wear costumes and dress up and parade around the ball park after they are introduced. The teams stop along the route to form a tunnel for the teams after them to walk through. By the time the last team comes through, they've passed by all the other teams. Everyone slaps hands and wishes each other good luck as they walk the route. It was a little emotional to be part of something so big. So many girls of all different talent levels, all different shapes, all different backgrounds, from different states, all brought together because they love to play softball. No competition at that point, just laughing and making memories. It was pretty neat.

After the parade they split up for skills competitions. Each team could nominate 2 girls to participate in various contests. Danielle was nominated by her team to do the "touch them all" competition. Each contestant got one chance to start at home plate and run all the bases to see who was the fastest. There were so many girls. Just in Danielle's age group there were 136 girls. She was hoping to finish in the top 20, but she was #43 with a time of 11.962 seconds. Still finished in the top third. She said she was over thinking it and slowed down around 2nd. She's pretty sure she could go faster if she had another chance. :) She is the fastest on her team and on most (but not all) of the teams we've played this year (and most years). She wants to do some speed work over the winter so she can be the fastest out of all the teams we play next year.