Breaking It Down With Bailey: OKC-Style
June 2, 2010
OKLAHOMA CITY - Whoa whoa WEE whoaaaaaaaa!
WE'RE ALREADY GOING BACK TO THE SERIES!!
Seems like such a short year has gone by since the night we made history...
Anyway, in the 2010 Seattle Super Regional: Thursday night was absolutely nuts. Like, probably one of the weirdest games I have ever been apart of. I'm gonna go ahead and look back on it and just flat out call it a nightmare. It was just very uncharacteristic of our team to get walloped like that.
But the best part is that you have to go through those games to go from good to great. And you have to play teams like Oklahoma, to win National Championships. If we want to achieve our goal, we needed to face the teams we have faced this postseason. Let's just say it hasn't been much of a cakewalk. Not one bit. And good, it shouldn't be, or else we wouldn't get any better!
First of all, on Thursday night Amber Flores just beasted out 3 and a half home runs (she hit a fourth one a reeeeeeal long way over the left field fence but the umpire ruled it a foul ball...so basically just a long strike) and lets just say that is one of the most amazing feats I have seen in my career. Three home runs, off the best pitcher in TWO COUNTRIES...Let's just say that's preposterous and hats off to Amber for an amazing game, holy cow.
But that loss is over and done with, and we've put it in our toolbox to dig out for any adversity that may come further down this road...on this week and a half journey to the hardware.
I know that Thursday night a lot of us had trouble sleeping, for obvious reasons.
And Friday we had a lot of work to do.
Not many teams come back to win two after trailing the first game of the series. But that's why we play three games instead of just one...it is a best of three.
I believe it was a test to how bad we wanted this. It was honestly one of the more intense match-ups that I have ever been associated with. Mostly because Danielle was on absolute fire. I loooove when she gets that look in her eyes like "sorry if you didn't know, but this is MY plate".
Niki led off the 2nd inning with a frozen rope down the right field line, past a diving OU outfielder, resulting in a triple (Coaching moment: What does that teach you young ladies? Don't dive on the line...there is no one to back you up)! Then Taylor doubled in the left center gap to score the first run of the game. Later in the game We had bases loaded with puppies and Hooch "Eyes" Fagaly drew a walk to force in the second run of the ball game, and then Taylor came up again and drilled a groundball to the second baseman to allow pinch runner Maggie Wagner to hop on home from third to put the nail in the coffin.
So there you have it, we forced a game three.
We didn't change anything about our uniforms (superstitions) and we picked up right where we left off with a three-run BOMB off the flaming bat of our freshman "Shawndawn" Wright. She is not a freshman. There is no way.
Anyway, Niki Williams added a little insurance run to make sure that the best Oklahoma could do for a come back would be to hit a grand slam....which they were totally capable of.
But they didn't, thank goodness!!
I can tell you that every single pitch Danielle threw was faster than the previous and she was just ready to set them down. And with every pitch the crowd went absolutely nuts, which was honestly amazing. I can tell you right now that it was one of the most satisfying feelings to win the Super Regional at home in order to punch our ticket to the big dance for the 10th time in school history! And what is exciting about that is that it's the Senior Class's third trip to OKC in four years, so that's exciting!
We had quite the trip down here. We left the field at 4:30 a.m. for a 6 a.m. flight to Denver where we had a four hour lay-over and then proceeded to arrive in Oklahoma around 3:30 Central Time. But it sure was a long day of flying. This is funny: Maggie and I were sitting next to each other on the flight from Denver to OKC which was about and hour and a half or so, and we were just about to touch the ground when I realized that my computer was still on, my tray table was down and my seat back was still reclined! I looked at Maggie and we just started laughing!! Looks like they forgot to check the cabin for descent! Yikes.
Tuesday we went to opening ceremonies at Frontier City theme park where we had a BBQ buffet dinner and found out who the Player of the Year was...and who else would it be besides our very own Golden Arm? Danielle was honored with the award for the second time in her career, which is amazing, but she has more important things on her mind. I am sure she is jacked about that award, but that's not what she came all the way to Oklahoma City for...
Well after that great treat we ate a nice meal of corn, sloppy joes, and baked beans, and then they let us loose to ride on all the rides! It wasn't until about the fourth ride that I began to feel like it was a bad idea to eat before the rides.
Well now we've got some work to do this week: we thank everyone in Seattle (and elsewhere) for all of your support! Come out to OKC if you're bored, we'd love to have you all there! We love you guys.
Just like Eminem says: "You better lose yourself in the music, the moment, you own it, you better never let it go, you only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime".
True that Marshall.
We will live in the moment, this is legitimately our last shot as the 2010 team and we plan on seizing every opportunity that comes our way.
Stay classy and GOO TEEEAM PURRRP!
Love, 20
