When I was just 8 years old I started playing softball. And I continued to play all through my freshman year in high school. I had tried soccer for one year, but hated getting kicked in the shins. So softball ended up being my sport. Every summer my sister and I signed up for AGS (Arizona Girls Softball) and my Mom would help out on our teams too. It was so much fun seeing and making new friends every season.
So now I am the Mom of six daughters, and I’m thinking, at least one of them will play softball, right? Well my older two tried it for a season and they didn’t really like it. Then Autumn and Devyn started playing when they were old enough. I signed them up for PGSA (Prescott Girls Softball). They both continued to play and it was a lot of fun watching them. Tayleigh played for 2 years also. Madison didn’t come to live with us until she was 13 and she has no interest in sports. (Pictures below from 2016 season)
Last years tournament was so exciting to watch. Autumn and Devyn’s team lost their first game. It is a two game elimination and there are four teams. So the second night we played the other losing team at the early game time. We ended up winning so had to play a double header and beat the losing team of the winning bracket so they were eliminated. Then it was down to just two teams. The other team only had to beat us once and they were undefeated. Well we won the first game so had to play a double header again! And our girls were SO EXCITED because they won the championship!
This year Tayleigh chose not to play. Devyn wanted to play, but with being in Student Council and Band and going to an art group, I didn’t give her the option to play. Besides, she is afraid of the ball. But as she puts it “only when it’s coming at me”. Well sweet Devyn, that is every pitch when you are batting. So I just had Autumn on a team this year. And she moved up to the 12U (12 and under) level.
What I love about PGSA is the teaching and the levels. At 8U just the coaches pitch to the girls and they get pitched to until they hit the ball. After several attempts if they don’t hit it when the coach pitches they will bring out the Tee. Every girl on the team bats before they switch sides and each team bats twice. At the 10U level the girls are starting to pitch, but they aren’t exactly that accurate. So after they have pitched 4 balls, then the coach gets to come in and pitch as many strikes are left on the batter (for example, if the pitcher pitched 2 strikes then the coach only gets to throw one ball) and they play three outs and switch sides. This year was a learning experience going up to 12U. First of all, only the girls pitch, no coaches. And there is lots of stealing bases. And there is a dropped third strike rule, where if the catcher drops the ball on the third strike, the batter can try to run and get to first base. Autumn actually got a home run on this rule because the ball was overthrown a few times. (2017 season pics below)
We ended up having quite a few girls on club ball team on our team this year and at first I was a little worried of how good they would be and how inadequate the girls (including Autumn) would feel who didn’t play club ball. But it ended up being an amazing season. Our coach and his two assistant coaches were wonderful and supportive. And all the girls were supportive of each other. It just made me smile to see them cheering each other on.
So playoffs this year. We once again ended up losing the first game. But instead of both winning and losing brackets playing at the same time the next night, the winner bracket played the early game and the losing bracket played the late game. Well we won that night. So the next night we had to play the loser of the winning bracket and we ended up winning that game. That once again brought us to the undefeated team. This night was not planned out very well. There was a possibility of playing three games for us. The girls got to the field at 4pm to warm up for their 5pm game. We started the second game at 10 after 7pm. We WON! So that brought us to 9:30pm and the other team did not want to stay for a third game, they wanted to reschedule. Our team couldn’t reschedule because we had a lot of players going out of town (and technically the season was over that night). There was a lot of talk and worry that we only had one aging umpire who probably would not be making good calls given how late it was. Worry about keeping the girls safe because their arms were wore out after two game (although our girls were ready to play!). So eventually the league decided to call it a tie and gave the championship shirts to the other team and said they would order another set for our team. Big disappointment for the parents, coaches and players on our team to not get the chance to play the championship game.
So we ended the night at McDonalds for ice cream. The girls gathered around a table and chanted “Green Machine, Green Machine, Green Machine” (their team name). There was laughter and fun and new friendships were formed. It was another fabulous softball season.
Beyond My Plan 