Hayward tournament wrap up

The final tournament of the 2009 season for the Wildcats would be the farthest distance and an overnight stay for most. An 8 am start on Saturday morning in Hayward with games spread out throughout the day tested the Wildcats focus. With each tournament the girls played in improvement was obvious and the final one was no different. Responding well to difficult situations is key in any sport, the Wildcats would use a tough early saturday loss to fire themselves up to play 2 of the best games of the season in back to back fashion. Temperatures approaching 100 degrees at 12:30 when the Wildcats took the field for a short notice double header. Bats would come alive throughout the lineup for the most part. Defense was solid, making the easy outs and mixing in a few tough ones. Catching was superb as it has been for the last 2 tournaments. Pitching was crisp and hard from start to finish. Sunday morning brought another new team for the Wildcats to face. The final sunday was the site of the best game played of the season be the girls. A 9-0, 5 inning shut out where the girls put everything together at the plate and in the field. All of the hard work in practice showed up as the Wildcats dominated from the first pitch ( a Big Mac double to right ) to the last ( Taylor striking out her 9th batter of the game ) A second straight third place finish for the first year travel team from west county. Some fantastic bordering on ridiculous performances were had in Hayward. Mackenzie Kearns would move up to the lead off spot and thrive, finishing the weekend 10-13 at the plate including a 4-4 performance in game 4. She would also play great defense at first throughout the weekend netting an unassisted double play and not letting anything past her glove. Haley Millerick once again played the entire weekend at the catcher position. Her play this weekend was stellar, squeezing the strikes, framing pitches for the umps to get a better look, and using her voice to command the defense to do what they are supposed to on every single play. At the plate Haley was 7-12 in the clean up spot. Hailey Elmore would battle the heat at second base for the entire weekend making the most of almost every ball hit to her with outs at the bags. She is always dangerous at the plate due to the speed 5-10 with 3 walks including 2 bunt singles gave her a chance to annoy the other teams on the bases with stolen bases at every chance. Taylor Christy once again was the only Wildcat in the circle for all 5 games, over 400 pitches to some top level teams. She was able to block out the cheers from the other squads and use her pitches, hit corners, and lead her team. Hitting in the 3 spot she found a way to go 8-10 with 2 walks. These are first year travel players playing to this level in after only 6 weeks of travel practice against high level pitching and hitting for the most part. Hopefully some pictures from the weekend will come my way soon so I can put them up for all to see.