Women's Baseball National Championship -- Tucson, AZ, Oct. 2-5

Here are four of us "Checkswing Girls" from the National Championship:

Pictured from L to R are: Kat Shriner (sporting a broken nose from the tournament!), Great Lakes Tide; Tiffany Brooks (author), California Sabres; Shawna Macurio, Great Lakes Tide; and Jen Liu, also of the Great Lakes Tide.
Note:

For those who haven't noticed, this blog is in reverse chronological order...which means the most recent post is on top. Just scroll down for the earlier days

Day 4, Championship and Final Standings

Congratulations to the New England Lady Red Sox for their amazing 5th National Championship title and to the Chicago Gems (Silver medal) for an outstanding performance at this year's National Championship. In the end, however, the crafty and experienced Red Sox outlasted the Gems, with a final score of 3-0.

2008 Women's National Champions, New England Lady Red Sox

Final Standings:

A hearty congratulations to all the women I played with and against this year. Let's continue to grow Women's Baseball!

Best of Luck to All,

Tiffany J. Brooks (aka "Tiff")

Day 3: The Playoffs, The Checkswing Girls, and the End (for us)

Howdy once again from windy, warm Tucson, where every day is a baseball day and every meal is a feast! Oh well, the first part is true! Just a side note, though, for anyone coming to Tucson, speaking of feasts, I have an unpaid recommendation for a Mexican Restaurant: EL Charro is it... I mean IT!!! They have been in continuous operation since 1922... yes, that means they somehow survived the Great Depression...no mean feat for a restaurant! Look it up and try it! Tell 'em Tiff sent ya! : )

So...now back to BASEBALL...

We got our seeding (6th) and had to play at 9:30 am. The good news (or so we thought), was that we were going to play the Washington Stars for the first round...the team we beat on Day 1, you might remember. The bad news is that while we slept, the original, error -prone, five-pitcher-outing team of the two days prior was somehow bodysnatched and replaced with baseball-loving MLB/AAGPBL aliens. Holy cats! There was never a greater turn around than what we saw today. The Stars came out of the box at a full run, scoring five in the first inning against an overworked Sam Ostrom (who, by my reckoning, pitched either 15 or 16 hard innings in three days). We battled back with two runs of our own spread over a couple of innings, but after numerous pitching changes,

The Blog Author delivers a fastball against The Washington Stars

the Stars tacked on another two runs, to end our playoff hopes and national championship dreams. In the end, we played fairly solid ball, but we didn't hit as a team, and there, alas!, was the downfall of the mighty Sabres...and so ends our season with more than a whimper, but less than the roar we hoped for.

In other games, the Great Lakes Tide were eliminated in an afternoon see-saw battle with the undefeated Chicago Gems, and the DC Thunder, Bandits, and PacWest Wildcats were also sent packing. The semifinals were underway beginning at 4:00 pm, with The New England Lady Red Sox pitted against the Washington Stars and the Chicago Gems taking on the Chicago Pioneers int heir own version of what would be a "subway" or El series if back in the Windy City. My money is on a Lady Red Sox/Gems matchup for the gold medal.

I will post more when I get the results, but it may be a few days for the wrap-up, as I'm headed up to the Grand Canyon in the morning!

A Special "Thanks" to Kyle and Bill for starting this site and for asking me if I'd be interested in blogging. They also sent some Checkswing.net t-shirts down to the tournament, and every girl who got one was overjoyed. They asked lots of questions about the site, and I did my best to answer them... but in the end, I hope to see them here in our "diamond" community!


And in closing, here is our team photo of the Cal Sabres. Yes, Women DO play BASEball!

Best,

Tiffany J. Brooks (aka "Tiff")




Day 2: The Saga Continues

Howdy again from sunny Tucson! Sorry for being a bit tardy on this post, but we played a doubleheader Friday, then went to a team dinner (at Macaroni Grill...Yumm!) and got back a bit late...and no, we did not "partake of the spirits!" : ). Friday was a tough day for us. In the morning opener, we went up against the talented and ever-tough NE Lady Red Sox, 4-time defending national champs and last year's rivals in the Gold medal round...and...sad to say we came up short. We played them tough for the first four innings, but eventually our cold bats caught up with us, and it ended in a lopsided score to them. Some days you just have to tip your hat, and this was our game to do just that.

In the second game, which started early (12:30), we were pitted against a young and athletic Chicago Pioneers team. The Pioneers have been spotty over the last few seasons, sometimes soaring with the eagles and sometimes knocking on the outhouse door. Unfortunately, we got the "soaring with eagles" version! After a tough pitching start from a 13 year old... yes... you heard me right... a 13 year old (hats off to her in her first National Championship outing!), a more experienced hurler entered and kept us well under control. A fierce wind blowing in to the plate wreaked havoc on our outfielders and when we got up, hung all of our flyballs, turning otherwise good gap shots into something like small white balloons. The Pioneers pressured us and caught up to tie in the bottom of the seventh. Still in the bottom of the seventh, with bases loaded and one out, I battled at 3B with an aggressive runner and the inevitable squeeze. It was baseball as it was meant to be played, and I found myself in a foot race with the runner on every pitch. Good thing this wasn't my first National Championship -- I would surely have been more nervous! : )
With everyone playing in, the next ball linedrived its way into Left Field. my heart sank, as I knew it was over...but instead our left fielder made a diving grab, snagging it out of the air and then throwing to me at 3B for the double play! A miracle!
Going into extra innings, the curses laid upon our bats -- by too many TSA inspections at the airports or something --continued, and we failed to plate a run. The Pioneers came out swinging, and after again loading the bases, our exhausted pitcher walked in the final run. Truly a heartbreaker, and anti-climax to an otherwise fine battle. This left us in the unenviable position of being 1-3 coming out of pool play. All that we had to do was wait for the seeding. We knew we would make the first round of play offs, but also knew that to advance, we would have to find a Gypsy Woman -- or something similar -- to lift the curse from our bats.

Best to All,

Tiffany J. Brooks (aka "Tiff")





Hi All!

Howdy to all from Tucson and the Roy Hobbs Cactus Classic Women's Baseball National Championship!

To set the stage for the excitement, here's the sign that greeted us as we got off the plane at Tucson International Airport:

Pretty cool, huh? Some of us came in a day ahead of time, but most of the players came in mid-day to late evening on Wednesday for check-in and registration where we got our National Championship T-shirt

ID tag

and our "goodie bags" with a bunch of fun Roy Hobbs stuff inside.

Today, Thursday, was the first day of the tournament, with 9 teams vying for the crown. As luck would have it, our first game was in Tucson Electric Park, home stadium for Spring Training for both the Chicago White Sox and the Arizona Diamondbacks. The stadium is beautiful and seats 11,000, most of whom did NOT get the memo to show up! : )

Ahhh... the Cathedral-like quality of an untouched field!

As some of you may know, I'm playing this year for the California Sabres, who finished with silver last year. Our first game was against the Chicago Gems (3rd place last year), a good-hitting team and well-practiced, as they play together throughout the season in the Windy City. Their good bats and team cohesiveness came through today, as they out hit us, winning in the 10 am game, 4-1.

Samantha "Sam" Ostrom started for us on the bump this morning, giving nearly four innings of great work, leaving the game with us only behind 1-0. Our first reliever came in and gave up another run, but we scored one to make it 2-1, Gems leading. I came in in the top of the seventh, inheriting two runners with no outs. After an error and a hit, the two runners scored, making the tally 4-1. I finished off the side with a flyout (an excellent diving catch by our left fielder!) a pop-out and strikeout. Unfortunately, we came up short in the end.

The second game of the day (4:00) went better for us as we matched up against some of my former teammates from the Seattle-based Washington Stars. The Stars struggled with pitching, bringing different hurlers to the mound in a darkness-shortened game. The Stars pitchers gave up several runs from back-to-back-to-back-to-back walks on a couple of occasions. Coupled with some key hits by our team, we ended in the winners' column 8-4, with a Day One standing of 1-1.

Tomorrow we have a true doubleheader, with our first match at 10:00 against the New England Lady Red Sox, the four-time defending National Champs.

Wish us luck!

Until tomorrow,

Tiff


Pre-Tournament Post: I will be heading out early Tuesday morning for the Roy Hobbs Women's National Championship at Tucson Electric Park and the Kino Sports Complex.

This is my second National Championship in Women's Baseball, and I'm really looking forward to it! Last year I played with the South Florida Crush and had a blast. This year I will play with the Cal Sabres, who finished 2nd last year. A former teammate of mine, Samantha "Sam" Ostrom (from Calgary) will be joining the team. Sam is a former Team Canada pitcher and player. Many of the women playing in the National Championship are recent past, present or near-future Team USA members and other elite players from around the country. Occasionally elite players are picked up from Australia, Japan, Korea, and in the case of Sam and a few others, our northern neighbors, Canada.

As a "new" player on the team, I'm not sure where I'll be in the rotation or what position(s) I may be playing, but I'm jacked just to be going, seeing all the women I've played with and against over the past couple of years, and also meet with a few people to talk about the future of Women's Baseball in the US and around the world.

I will also be recruiting at Tucson for a team I will be taking to play Women's Baseball in Holland (Netherlands) in April 2009. If you are a female player over the age of 14 and are interested in making the trip, make sure to contact me. The roster will be capped at 12-15 players to ensure maximum playing time. There will be ample opportunities for making Dutch friends, playing ball against both women's and men's teams, and for travel in Europe.

I will be trying to post daily from Tucson with some pictures. Stay tuned! : )

Best of luck to all the teams,


Tiffany Brooks