CheckSwing

The Premier Baseball Social Network for Players, Coaches, Scouts, and Umpires

Hong Kong, China International Women's Baseball Tournament -- 2nd Annual Phoenix Cup


LIBERTY BELLES BRING HOME SILVER!



The Liberty Belles were very strong in their very first outing against Japan, but in the end, lost the battle, as the Japanese were able to chip away every inning with a couple of runs until they finally took the win in five innings with a shutout score of 10-0. We tip our hats to the Japanese team and hope to give them a good run for their money next year after we've trained and played together in several tournaments coming up this year.

Lots more action pics at www.hkspa.org, but still waiting on the Championship photos.

UPDATED 5/4/09 : Apparently the videos below of our game vs. Korea have been removed from YouTube. However, I have just stumbled onto a very cool Korean Broadcasting System video that highlights the Korean team, and if you pay attention, you'll see the Belles in the Opening Ceremonies and our game (the second in the video) is highlighted, and you'll see us all in there! Our game coverage starts at about 3:45 and lasts about a minute. Opening Ceremonies are (of course) at the beginning

WATCH THE LIBERTY BELLES VS. KOREA!

The other 3 parts are at:
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2uDjLP3Yns
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRaxwbuBzSk
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPrWqAj88vc

Also, watch our "Talent" Show offering at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpPrcT6Fxa4

KBS TV Show on the Korean team: It's in Korean, which makes it extra cool! Enjoy!


There are also videos of Hong Kong, Australia, and Taiwan playing on YouTube. After watching our videos, look at "other videos by batmanchina" to see them and the other teams' talent show offerings!

Liberty Belles after the Championship Game! Front Row, L-R, Amy Schneider, Robin Wallace, Kelly Bay, Ashley Medina, Jen Liu, Kat Shriner. Back Row, L-R, Coach Philipe Yan, Jill Bianco, Sam Ostrom, Lissette Lombana, Tiffany Brooks, Sarah Strohl, Shawna Macurio.

Best to all from Tiff and the Liberty Belles!

The Liberty Belles are ALL Checkswing Girls!


Who needs a bucket when you've got a shopping cart?

________________________________________________

NEWS FLASH! LIBERTY BELLES ADVANCE TO GOLD MEDAL ROUND!


In traditional Asian style, Taiwan and North America bow to each other
After the game, Taiwan and North America traded caps. Taiwan wore the Liberty Belles caps in the Bronze match!

More info to follow soon, but through an unusual turn of events, the Taiwan team forfeited in the semifinal after playing 1/2 inning, allowing us to advance to the Gold Medal round virtually uncontested. We very much wanted the opportunity to play this excellent team, but are also happy to rest-up before playing Japan for the Gold.We respect the ladies of Taiwan very much and support their decision. Lots of pictures at www.hkspa.org.
__________________________________________________________________________________

Sightseeing -- the Big Buddha on Lantau Island!

__________________________________________________________________________________


Greetings from the Liberty Belles in Hong Kong, China for the 2009 Phoenix Cup!


2009 Liberty Belles; Bottom Row, L-R, Kelly Bay, Amy Schneider, Jen Liu, Robin Wallace, Ashley Medina, Jill Bianco. Top Row, L-R, Sarah Strohl, Tiffany Brooks, Sam Ostrom, Shawna Macurio, Kat Shriner, Lissette Lombana.
We'll be posting an official team photo soon, but this was taken after our Thursday practice session with our Coach, Philipe Yan.

Belles Clinch their Pool, Move to Semi-Finals
The last several days have been extremely busy for the team, with settling-in, recovering from jet-lag, practicing and playing! I'm really happy to report that the Belles clinched our pool today, winning both games in a doubleheader against a much-improved Korea team (10-5 final score) and an always-challenging and gracious host team, Hong Kong (18-5 final score). We now are guaranteed to play for a medal, but tomorrow's game against a very tough, national-team laced Taiwan will decide whether we play for gold or bronze. The entire team has contributed in our wins, with solid defensive play and great entire-game pitching performances from Jen Liu and Sam Ostrom, and some great hitting at the plate by all. Stay tuned and wish us luck!


A very cool dance/theater performance was part of the opening ceremonies!


A fun shot with all the players at the Opening Ceremonies. The Belles are in Navy with Red Caps.


We will be making presentation at the awards dinner to all the other teams' coaches, presenting them with Checkswing tee-shirts that Bill and Kyle so graciously donated. We hope that other countries' coaches will encourage their players to join and help us build a truly global network for the development of Women's Baseball.

We will post more, including more pictures in the next day or so!

Tiff


Stay Tuned for Blog Posts and Updates from me (Tiffany Brooks) and Shawna Macurio from Hong Kong, beginning February 13!

Shawna and I will be blogging about the experiences of the North American Liberty Belles as we begin competition against teams from Japan, Australia, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong! Last year, the North American team took silver. This year we're aiming for gold!

We have a very solid slate of players, with nearly everyone doing double or triple-duty. Twelve players strong, we have seven pitchers, four catchers, and a full roster of solid infielders and outfielders. All of these players will be prospects for the new pro league (United States Women's Baseball League -- USWBL), scheduled to begin in Florida in Winter 2009. Although we are in the off-season/pre-season here in North America (with most of the players coming from snow country), the Liberty Belles have been working hard indoors to keep pace with other teams who have had warmer weather to play in. The Aussies are always tough, and they're just ending their summer right now, so will be at their peak. We expect GREAT competition and look forward to making many new friends, helping to expand our global network of women's baseball contacts, and helping to grow our sport worldwide!

A note on our team name: We wanted something that would pay homage to the AAGPBL ("League of their Own") women ballplayers who came before us (in this case, the Racine Belles), while at the same time representing the freedoms we enjoy in the US and Canada. The North American Liberty Belles wish to honor and thank the women who preceded us and helped blaze the path for us, and also thank all the individuals and organizations who have sponsored and/or donated to individual players on the team!

Here's the official tournament website: http://phoenix2009.tripleplaycom.net/

Look soon for pictures, score updates, and more!

See you soon -- and wish us luck!

Tiffany

Views: 271

Comment by Shawna Macurio on February 8, 2009 at 9:47pm
Awesome write-up, Tiff! I can't wait to blog about our experiences on the other side of the world! I'm counting down the hours till the plane's wheel's leave the ground!
Comment by Shawna Macurio on February 13, 2009 at 12:22pm
Tiff and I haven't had much time to blog, because we've been busy organizing the team and getting ready to play. We had a great 2-hour intense hitting and pitching workout today (Thursday). We have Opening Ceremonies on Friday around noon, and then we'll watch some of the other teams' games and will scout their players. We don't play at all on Friday, and then we have a DH on Saturday. At 4 pm on Friday, we'll have another 2-hour intense hitting workout.

Some interesting things have been happening while being here. We'll blog more later and will upload pix. We're having a GREAT time!
Comment by Jeff Whitehead on February 15, 2009 at 12:13pm
I went to the web site and it looks like the Liberty Belles are 2-0. Great job so far ladies.. Good luck.
Comment by Tiffany Brooks on February 15, 2009 at 12:24pm
Hey Jeff,

Thanks for following along! I'll try to blog tomorrow evening after we play against Taiwan... should be a tough game, so wish us luck!

Tiff
Comment by Kyle Grucci on February 15, 2009 at 12:35pm
Good luck, ladies! Thanks for keeping us updated and representing US Baseball!
Comment by Kyle Grucci on February 15, 2009 at 12:36pm
Great photos, too!
Comment by Shawna Macurio on February 15, 2009 at 10:20pm
As Tiff said, yesterday, we clinched our place to play for a medal. It was a terrific day of baseball, and we came out hitting very well from the get-go. We scored 2 runs in the 1st inning of our first game vs. Korea, and that great hitting continued throughout the rest of the day.

I think we were a bit nervous at first, as this is the first time for most of us to be playing at this level in an international competition of this magnitude, but we relaxed quickly and showed how solid we are and never stopped playing in any of our games.

We have a very solid team, and our lineup is very solid. Everyone fits into their spot very well, and we have great team chemistry both on and off the field and with our play. Our coach, Philipe Yan, is awesome and knows how to manage. He's Chinese but grew up in America and has been living in Hong Kong for the past 6 years. He really knows how to run a practice and has great things to teach us. This is his first experience managing an all-women's team, and he's really enjoying it. He's learning a lot about how men and women differ in their mental approaches to playing and finds it interesting. We want to take him home with us!
Comment by Sheila M. on February 16, 2009 at 5:59pm
Go for it, ladies!! I have been blogging on the tournament at www.open.salon.com and will continue to do so. I hope to have a happy story about the Belles tomorrow!
Comment by Shawna Macurio on February 16, 2009 at 8:22pm
Cool, Sheila! I'll have to get back on Open. Salon. Thanks for promoting us!
Comment by Sheila M. on February 17, 2009 at 12:18pm
Silver's just as shiny and awesome! Good job, ladies! See you on Open Salon, LaCap!

Comment

You need to be a member of CheckSwing to add comments!

Join CheckSwing

Get Your CheckSwing Badge !

Loading…

Get My Badge

Groups and Teams

Videos

  • Add Videos
  • View All

Events

Audio

Loading…

© 2012   Created by Kyle Grucci.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

-->