10 and Under Girls Softball

It's time to get spring kicked off right and get started playing softball. This year our 10 and under girls will be playing in the pitching machine league with the Valdosta/Lowndes County Parks and Recreations Department. Our team is open to all young ladies in the 4th and 5th grade who had not turned 11 years old before January 1st 2007.

I very happy to announce that we will have a new Coach for this year's 10 and under team -Coach Morgan Plyler. Coach Mo, a hard charging former Region and State award winning softball player for Ga. Christian, brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge of the game of fast pitch. A hard work ethic and good Christian character are her two greatest qualities and the lessons she imparts upon these young ladies, whether by example or instruction, have us all blessed by her agreeing to work with us.

There will be a note going out the week of Feb. 26th informing everyone of the first practice on Thursday March 1st @ 3:15 pm. Practices, unless otherwise noted, will be held on the G.C.S. softball field.

Sign up information as well as equipment requirements, Coaches expectations and practice schedules will be addressed at this first practice - please make plans to be there.

Spring Ball

There will be a meeting, Feb. 16th after school, for all girls who plan to participate in Varsity and Middle School softball next fall.

Pitching practice will begin on Saturday March 30th at 9:00 am at the G.C.S. gym. All returning pitchers and those who wish to learn need to attend.

Tuesday and Thursday hitting and fielding practice will begin after school on April 2nd. All girls wishing to play next year and not actively involved in Varsity or Middle School soccer, are encouraged to attend. Please show up with both cleats and sneakers. If rain prohibits practice on the field - we will practice in the gym.

Back in business

Forgive me for it has been 30 days since my last blog.

If you are a blogger and you wish to know just how many people are checking out your site, you need only to skip a few weeks and you will shortly discover just how many people have been reading. I've had personal encounters, letters, emails and one phone call as to my where abouts.
Please note that all is well and softball at Georgia Christian is plodding along.

Let's talk softball.

Just a quick update on the schedule. GISA Region 3A is the region in which G.C.S. belongs. Contained in this region are 5 teams - 3 of the 5 teams are ranked inside the top 5 teams in the State. We have or will play 8 region games and 8 non region games. All non region contests are against AA schools.

Game 2 Citizens Christian. After holding back CCA in the first innings of the first contest, this second meeting of the schools got out of hand in a hurry. After three innings the score on our side of the board was zero and it looked like another 3 innings and out game. This is when the Lady Generals started pouring it on, scoring 6 runs in the 3 inning to push the game to a 4th inning. Pitching struggled again in the in the top half of inning four. There were a couple of runners on base in our 1/2 of the 4th but a couple of hard hit balls, straight at the shortstop and left fielder ended the inning without any other runs being scored. A heart breaking, but well played ball game.

Games 3 and 4. We traveled to a Saturday tournament in Thomasville to face two old GISA foes, the Warriors from Brookwood and the Lady Patriots of Randolph Southern. Again in both games we placed the bat on the ball and manufactured a few runs - play very good defense when the occasion called for it, but, we were still vexed by trouble getting the ball across the plate.

Game 5. Westwood (whatever they are called) came to town. Again it looked like the same old story different day. The top half of the first inning was awful. Walk, runner steals second, running goes to third on passed ball, runner comes home on past balls and the next pitch walks the batter. This cycle was repeating itself over and over. Finally a strike out and a couple of good defensive plays got us out of the first inning. This is when the Lady Generals went to work. A couple of walks and a couple of hits followed a couple of walks and a couple of hits and we were in this game.
Christina Martin settled down on the mound and went on to pitch her first complete 7 inning game and pick up her first win of the season.

Game 6. Fullington Eagles or Falcons or somethings. We traveled up I-75 to Pinehurst to take on the regions newest member. This is the first year in sometime that Fullington has played in single A.

Funniest thing about this game was the trip to Pinehurst. After arriving at the school, no softball field could be found. Someone noticed a small sign that read " Softball field 8 miles" and had a big red arrow pointing down this country road. 50 or 60 miles later we came upon what looked to be the set of the 1989 movie Field of Dreams. The only exception being the fields were cotton and not corn. This was the only funny thing about this trip. 3 innings 3 hits 5 runners on base and a whole lot of walks made this the longest three inning of the season. This was the first ball game of the year in which we had failed to score.

The bright spot on the day was Kailynn Jeffords first full inning on the mound. Kailynn was able to stem the flow of runs caused by walks and forced the Eagles to put the ball in play.

Fullington 17 G.C.S 0

This is where I will conclude today's Blog. Tune in tomorrow for the continuation of "The Season to Remember". We will catch up the rest of the games, including today's game against Fullington, tomorrow.

Workin' at the Car Wash

This past Saturday was great. We had a SUPER turn out with 19 young ladies giving up their Saturday morning to help wash cars. We had several parents stick around to help and even had a couple that wash their own cars. No exact count of cars was kept, but I estimate it was in the 45 to 50 range. The good news is we exceeded our goal by over $100 !
Thanks to everyone who helped and donated !

It's back to work for the girls this week as we get ready to face the Lady Patriots from Citizens Christian again. We are home this week - Thursday 4:00 pm.

Looking back on Friday's recap of Thursday game, I notice a posted comment. It was from Steve Hawley - Coach Hawley, for you folks who may not know, was a very influential teacher and coach at G.C.S. back in the early 80's. His first baseball team at G.C.S included a goofy little Sophomore named DeWeese and a lanky Jr. by the name of Redshaw. I converse with Coach Hawley frequently through the magic of the internet and am always glad to hear from him.

Coach Hawley is a teacher and coach at Westbury Christian in Houston Texas, is heavily involved with the local ministry in the Houston area, and makes frequent mission trips to his beloved Honduras. After all these years, Coach Hawley continues to be a mentor and teacher to me and fellow students like me all over the country.

Coach Hawley is also a published author. His book titled "What Then Is This Child Going To Be?" subtitled "Lessons From The Classroom" takes his everyday observations from 25 years in the classroom and relates them to inspirational and spiritual lessons. Great Reading ! Coach Hawley also publishes a daily blog site http://www.stevehawley.blogspot.com and relays the same short inspirational messages. I highly recommend not only his book (the proceed of which goes to help support his Honduran projects), but this web site. The book can be purchased on line through this web link.

Coach, you now owe me one 2XL Westbury basketball tee shirt.

Home Opener ?

One should always expect to encounter a few glitches on the day of any Home Opener. Yesterday was no exception. We carefully worked through our check list. Field Prepared ? Check ! Purchased concessions? Check ! Folks working the gates? Check ! All is well ! Play Ball !

Well, there was one little thing we forgot to check off.........Is it a home game ?

Yes people, our home opener was on the road ! Luckily the mistake was found early enough to allowed the staff to start making arrangement for us to travel. Ms. Alley, Ms. Broome and the entire school staff did a tremendous job in getting it all pulled together. Thanks !

Now lets get back to Softball. We traveled to Douglas to take on the mighty Lady Patriots of Citizens Christian Academy.

Here is a quick run down of our starting line up.
Leading off - Billijean Black - Sr. - 2nd. base. Billiejean was the only returning starter, from last year, playing in her normal starting position.
Hitting 2nd -Madison DeWeese - 8th grade - 1st
Hitting 3rd - Rachel Swilley - 8th grade - Shortstop
Hitting clean and Pitching - Christina Martin - Jr.
In the 5th spot - playing 3rd - Erin Redshaw - Freshman
Batting 6th - Amie Clonce - sophomore -Catcher
7th playing center -Jordan Lynch - Jr.
8th in left field - Kailynn Jeffords - Freshman
Rounding out the order, playing right field - Brooke Bennett -Jr.


First inning went very well. Couple of walks, a couple of stolen bases and a couple of hits. Erin Redshaw got a timely hit over third to allowing Rachel Swilley to score. Both young Ladies were first time starters.

Bottom of the first we held a very good hitting squad scoreless. The second out coming on a caught stealing when Amie threw out the runner going to 3rd. With 2 out and the bases loaded Christina got the girl to ground out and ended any threat.

Second inning went pretty much the same way with neither team scoring. G.C.S 1 C.C.A. 0

The third inning was a bit rougher. Some trouble finding the strike zone, past balls and timely hitting by the Lady Patriot put 8 runs on their side of the board.

Fourth inning was a carbon copy of the third with 8 runs going on the board. Ending our day.

Notable plays and players.
1. 8 first time starters
2. Madison and Rachel starting in their first varsity game as 8th graders and hitting 2 and 3 in the line up. Both showed the poise and grace of upper classmen - looking forward to several great years of softball from these two.
3. Erin Redshaw getting her first Varsity RBI in her first start and an assist on the caught stealing. Very solid fielding day. Great poise as a Freshman
4. Middle infield error free. Billiejean and Rachel were flawless.
5. Everyone looked good at the plate - with only a few exceptions, good eye for the strike zone every at bat. You have to know the hits will come !
6. Amie Clonce first start behind the plate. Inexperience showed but she did a lot of things right and with each start I expect dramatic improvement. Got runner out stealing third !
7. Christina Martin - just flat pitched her heart out. This was her first time facing live hitting and struggled some after two inning, but just stuck to it in the third, bared down and got the three outs. Come Region time she will be ready to really battle for us.
8. Fans ! Great job ! Even after the confusion of home v. away of the morning, we still had over 30 folks drop everything and travel to watch us play.

As always, we will do our best to represent Ga. Christian in a way that we can all be proud. Thanks for all the support.

Don't forget the Car Wash tomorrow ! 9 to 1 at the Auto Zone on N. Ashley

Info

The softball schedule has now been posted on the schools web site and can be viewed there.
http://www.georgiachristian.org/

I am now taking orders for softball t-shirts. We have both player and supporter t-shirts available. Order forms can be picked up at the High School Office. I will be placing orders on Friday Aug. 11th, so make sure you have the forms and money turned in before lunch time on Friday.

We welcome Ms. Black home from her adventures in Alaska. We are looking forward to having her senior leadership back at practice.

Practice starts back on the first day of school, Monday Aug 7 at 3:30. Uniforms will be passed out on Wednesday @ practice.

First Game - Thursday Aug. 10 in Dasher.

Welcome to GCS Softball

I would like to take a moment and welcome everyone to the new Lady Generals' Softball Blog site.

This site will allow us to keep you informed of all the latest softball news from Georgia Christian School.

The 2006 - 2007 season has already kicked off with voluntary summer practice. These sessions have been punctuated with exceptional participation and enthusiasm among our younger players . Marked improvment among our 8th and 9th grade girls will be crucial to this team's success as our current roster only lists 1 Senior, 3 Juniors and 1 sophomore.

Full practice will began @ 3:30 on August 7th, with our first contest, at home, on August 10th. Please , make you plans to attend

Also, we will be hosting a Car Wash on Saturday August 12th from 9am to 1pm at the Auto Zone on North Ashley St. The cost of the car wash is your donation.

I will be publishing our full schedule in the next couple of days and promise to keep you informed of any practice notables as they occur.

Along with Coaches Jeffords and Redshaw, I would like to thank you all for your support of Lady Generals Softball.