That's a wrap: 3 National Tournaments

The summer softball team has come to an end, following 2 weekends of some exciting ball and 3 National Tournaments. Say what!?  Yea, three.
Regan's team earned their berth to a national tournament way back in May by taking home the Championship in the Gold bracket. With two National options this year, our coaches decided on taking the first of two weekends and attending NAFA nationals. 

It was a very rainy weekend. Very. I'm pretty sure I sat through rain Thursday from 7am-7pm. 

And so did my side-kick :) 

I had taken the full week off from work which meant he was out of pre-school all week and got to tag along to every. single. game. 

By the end of the weekend, he was bored out of his mind. 

Sadly they didn't seem to play well in the rain and lost out unfortunately, but they are a team that grew together and had an incredible year filled with memories.

And thankfully, most of them would be coming back for round two the following weekend!

As for Sidney's team, while they did not earn a National berth, being a host team for the tournament was sufficient to allow them a berth.
Day one is always the parade, and those girls were busy the weekend prior coming up with a theme for the team. Fitting they choose Emojis.
Weren't they cute!

Sadly's Sidney's team this year was not strong enough to face the competition at nationals. There were a lot of newer kiddos on her team to this age division (her included) and those who were experienced, didn't seem to shine. Sidney was our lead off batter all season, she was nervous and it took her a few games to realize this was privilege and should be taken as a complement.
She did so incredible well as lead off; but I cannot get out of my head the silly chant they would sing to her all year long: "Lead off Lead off Lead off, we want a double....."

Though she was a "new to 10" kid, we were surprised to see that she got quite a bit of time on the mound, which only helped her to grow. When she can get past the devil in her head, she will do great! In the meantime, she needs all the support from her teammates cheering her on. The muscle memory is coming, and I'm so proud of her for having the courage to get on that pitching rubber and do her best. She was one of only three pitchers on her team.

Back to Regan's team.....the berth to the MOA National tournament came in the form of sponsorship. They had the talent (sadly we lost a few players when we added this tournament on at the end, so we had to recruit some other talented girls) and the berth, but it required extra funds. The team was lucky enough to have several sponsors pay the way on their behalf. On day 3 of the tournament, these girls battled through 3 International Rule innings where they hung in there just until the end before losing :( That one game was the equivalent of playing 2 full games when we looked at the clock. Two hours and 4 minutes.
And it was intense. Like, really really really intense!
I, like many other parents, spent the bulk of that game pacing in the background. 
And sadly, it was lost only on account of a new umpire who didn't know the game. Shucks.

As their tournament weekend came to a close and the season ended, I couldn't resist taking a picture of these long-lost cousins who were fortunate enough to meet up on this team.
We didn't know it at the time, and wouldn't have known it, except my mom happened to be at the first game of the season back in May and asked my new friend-Dana (the mom of the cute girl on the left) if her parents were Carol and Jerry. Um....what!? Yep, turns out our grandparents are siblings.
Which means this pitcher/catcher duo are long-lost cousins. 

We hosted Regan's team party on Sunday to wrap up the season. Proud of these girls who now have the option to spread their wings and fly as they make the big decisions to head off to Club level fastpitch. They're sure growing up too fast!