The three Muhlenberg teams that went south for Spring Break for nice weather and competition all promised to check back in and let us know how their trips were going. Here’s the first report, courtesy of softball co-captain Devon Barber.
Despite having a few bad experiences with planes in the past, the Muhlenberg softball team boarded an AirTran flight from Lehigh Valley International Airport to Orlando, Florida, this past Friday night. Although we can say that the flight was more smooth than normal (yet, we obviously did hit turbulence), the process of getting through the airport in Allentown was not boring, as expected. One of my classmates couldn’t stand still enough to stop the metal detector from blaring sirens time after time. If you know the softball girls, you could probably make a great guess as to who this was (Elizabeth Sullivan). The security guard had to tell her to take a breath before she finally got through after the third try. Needless to say, we were all very excited for what Florida had to bring for our group.
After the flight landed, we were happy campers as all of our bags arrived safely, including our protective net known as Nancy, which the freshmen get to know very well each season. Although it was around eight at night, the temperature was still so hot that many of us had to ditch the black sweatsuit onesies for t-shirts and shorts. It was definitely needed, especially because we had to pack all of our equipment and bags into two white vans before we took off on our journey for food.
We stopped at Denny’s on our way to our vacation homes, which personally made me feel very content. It wasn’t even three hours into the trip and the Mules already were getting “grand slams” (pun intended). We then drove and split up into our three vacation homes, each housing teammates from each class. My home was called “Tranquility” by coach, yet she put me in a house with all worry-some, stressed out and crazy players. Being one myself, though, we seemed to gel quite nicely on our first night in Clermont.
Saturday morning we woke up early to embark on coach’s FAVORITE part of the entire trip, grocery shopping at WalMart! I hope by the capitalized letters that one might catch the sarcasm, beings that the past two years that we’ve been in Florida, there has always been an issue with our credit card. Coach, though, remembered to up our limit and things turned out great!
It is always a fun experience for the houses to shop because we get to pick out exactly what we want for the week. My house chose a lot of cereals, fruits and coffee (of course). We then had a two-hour practice at Hancock Fields in the beautiful Florida weather. Usually our practice in Florida is the first one that we have outside all season, but thankfully the weather in Allentown was oddly nice in February, so this was our fourth practice outside before the games began.
After our practice we had time to go back to our houses, shower and eat before we got to go to ESPN’s Wide World of Sports to watch some Division I games. This has been my favorite leisure part of the trip so far because I got to see my favorite team, University of Michigan, play live right in front of my eyes for the first time. It was really inspiring watching them play because they were so smooth and confident. We definitely learned a lot watching them and other teams. It was a great experience.
Sunday came around and it was all business for Berg softball. With a “Fired Up” inspired pregame chant in play, and first-game excitement jitters in our favor, we came out looking as strong as we left off last year. Simmons’ first two at-bats were back-to-back doubles, scoring one run in the first before our defense finished the half of the inning. What Simmons didn’t know was that our bats were not going to stay silent. We played a great first game and it was an amazing feeling to get a win under our belts, especially by putting up seven runs. We then battled against a tough team from Iowa and lost one game immediately after the first one.
All in all though, I felt personally that we were going to be just fine. “Not worried. Still not worried” – Shelby Smith. We came out the next morning and ended up competing in four games in a total of 21 hours. Not making any excuses, but we came out flat and tired and definitely NOT how Muhlenberg softball rolls.
Let it be known, folks, that we don’t plan on staying on the L-train for any longer. Our next games are Wednesday (today) and two more on Thursday, giving us plenty of motivation to get back to where we started the season: in the winner’s column.
With Tuesday being our off day, a lot of the girls’ families were down here in Florida and family time involved an array of activities, such as going to Sea World, Harry Potter World, Phillies spring training games, Orlando Outlets, or just laying by the pool. One thing is for sure: on our day off, we planned to revamp and refresh ourselves for our next stretch of games in Clermont. Stay tuned on the Athletics Website for scores and updates, and thank you to all who have been following and supporting us. B-E-R-G, GOOO BERG!