The Rookies Arrive
By
Anna Strien
It was my first time up to bat in the game I was scared; I couldn’t remember all the signs the coach had told me. I started to time the pitcher she was fast probably the fastest pitchers I had ever seen. She threw in the mid 60’s that’s pretty fast. So I got up to plate I took a great swing and I hit a line drive to left field. I got a double and knocked someone in. Then it was the bottom of the sixth with 2 outs we were leading 4-2 with runners on first and second. I was playing right field the girl hit the ball short but I leaped and grabbed the ball and caught it we won.
One day after school my friend Sammie from Jesup called me up to tell me that her team had picked me to play for the USSSA softball world series. I was so excited and so thankful that they had picked me. My father was proud of me so was everybody else in the are family. Sammie told me that I would start to practice with them right away.
It late was late July I was getting packed to go to Florida. Nervous was the only state I was in for that whole month. I thought I was going to do terrible and mess everything up. I went to practice with them a few times I only knew a couple of people, the rest of the teammates I had to learn them. At practice I hit a few one-hoppers to the fence. The night before we left I couldn’t sleep at all.
The day finally. Sooner than I thought it would. My family had went to Florida a couple of years before and I had gone a plane. But that doesn’t mean I still wasn’t scared of them. My father took me to Jesup and then from their my friend Sammie and her family and me left to Cedar Rapids for are flight. We landed at about 10:30 P.M. at the International Orlando Airport. Right when we got off the plane we picked up are rental car and headed straight towards Daytona Beach. When we arrived at are hotel on the beach at 12:30 A.M. I was physically and mentally tired.
When we woke up the next morning it was sunny and you could here the seagulls. Right when we got up we headed straight for the beach. After the whole day of collecting sea shells and boogie boarding on the waves we left to back to Orlando for the tournament. We were so anxious in the car and so happy to be able to come down here.
We arrived at are condo that we had rented out for the week and a half. Saturday afternoon the other teammates had arrived. We had a meeting at are condo about the rules and about the opening ceremony the next morning. The next morning when we arrived at the ceremony are names were called out over the speakers and there was a least 5,000 people there. The teams were from all over Iowa, Texas, Minnesota, Arkansas, Alabama, much more even including two Canadian teams.
After the ceremony there was a pro softball game. It was really fun until it got rained out. After that we left back to are condo’s. The next day we woke up ate breakfast and had a quick practice before are game. We played 6 games and we went 4-2 and had at one point in the tournament the most runs average. That’s not bad for a bunch of girls from Iowa.
We got placed 17th in the nation out of a lot of teams, over 200 teams didn’t even make it to the tournament. During are time off after some games we would go swimming or go to the Universal Theme Park and ride rides. It was probably the best trip I had ever had. Are last two games we lost and we dropped out of the tournament. But being this as are first world series 17th in the nation isn’t that bad.
On are way to the Sanford, Florida Airport we were getting ready to take off.
Until I thought I recognized one of my friends back from Cedar Falls. It was my friend Skyln Tibbals we sat with each other on the plane. She was visiting her aunt and uncle some how we found each other at the airport. I think that fate had sealed a perfect ending to a wonderful exciting trip.
