Exciting Weekend Pushes us into Fourth Place

Hello everyone...I'm a couple days behind getting this posted, but read on and you'll see why!

Our weekend ended up being a little longer than we had planned, but it was worth it. We started our trip on Thursday morning, and since Okayama is at least a 10-hour drive, Natalie, Miyako, Yamane (our pitchers and catcher), and I were allowed to take the bullet train or "shinkansen." That made the trip much easier, as the train ride was only 3-1/2 hours. After arriving in Okayama, we had lunch at a small cafe that serves udon noodles. Udon is a thick noodle, and mine was served in a broth with tofu. It sounds pretty different from anything in the States, but its delicious! We then went straight to practice at a local field with the rest of the team before heading to our hotel. LeoPalace has a hotel location in Okayama, so we were able to take advantage of great accommodations there.

We had our official pre-game practice on Friday at the game field, which still allowed us a little bit of free time afterwards. Natalie and I squeezed in a quick trip to Okayama Castle between practice and dinner. The castle was beautiful, and is known for its unusual black roof.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate on Saturday, and our game against Toda had to be postponed. The Sunday game was played as scheduled, so we started with Denso on Sunday afternoon. They were one game ahead of us in the standings, so it was a must-win if we watned to stay in the race for playoffs. Our offense has been amazing all year, and Sunday was no different. We had five different players with RBIs and took a 6-0 lead into the seventh inning. Denso is a great hitting team as well, so they wouldn't make things easy for us. A couple of solid hits, followed by a well-placed bunt and an infield single started their rally and led to three runs. Fortunately, we were able to escape the threat, and came away with the 6-3 win. I pitched all seven innings to earn the victory.

Monday proved to be another exciting game for right up until the end. Toda scored one run in both the fourth and fifth innings to take a 2-0 lead into the seventh. Our shortstop, Kageyama, started off the top of the inning with a single, and with one out, our left fielder, Ono, singled as well. Then our captain and leadoff batter Misato kept things going with a walk to load the bases for one of our veterans, Fujimoto. She was a gold medalist in Beijing, and proved why she's one of the best in the world by hitting her first home run of the season, a grand slam. Yamane finished the game and earned the win, 4-2. It was definitely an exciting weekend, and now after 15 games we've moved into a tie for 4th place:

League Standings as of Sept. 15

Renesas 13-2

Shokki 13-2

Toyota 12-3

Leopalace 10-5

Denso 10-5

Software 9-6

Yuden 6-9

Sagawa 5-10

Toda 5-10

Shionogi 3-12

Honda 2-13

Iyo Bank 2-13

We won't play another League game until October 10, but we still have the Japan Cup September 25-27. My family will be arriving in Japan that weekend, so I'm getting very excited to see them! My dad was able to visit this past spring, but it will be a first for both my mom and sister.


Talk to you soon!

Stretch Run Begins in Japan

Hello everyone. I hope that you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend. My Japanese team, Leopalace 21, got back to work with a pair of important games Saturday and Sunday.


We started off the second half of our season with a win over Honda, 8-1. I started the game and threw five innings before Yamane came in to close it out after a great performance by our offense. Sunday we faced one of the teams tied for first in the league, Renesas Takasaki. Ueno pitches for them, so we knew it would be a hard-fought contest, but unfortunately we came up a bit short.


We were able to get off to a fast start in Sunday's contest thanks to a walk and a bunt, followed by a timely hit by our right fielder Nagayoshi, that allowed us to take an early 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, the lead didn't last long, and Renesas came back to score two runs in the bottom of the first.


Yamane started, but I came in to relieve her during that inning. Since we are nearing the end of our season, the innings are adding up for the foreign pitchers, and we have to be careful to manage them wisely. We are limited to 99 innings for the entire year, so we try to save any extra innings that we can when there is a chance. I left the game in the sixth inning since Yamane could reenter.


Renesas tacked on two more runs in the sixth, but we answered with another of our own in the top of the seventh. With another baserunner on and two outs, our center fielder Misato hit a long fly ball to the warning track. It was so close, but unfortunately didn't quite have the distance, and we fell, 4-2.

After 13 total games, the standings in the league are as follows:


Renesas 11-2

Shokki 11-2

Toyota 11-2

Denso 9-4

LeoPalace21 8-5

Hitachi Software 8-5

Taiyo Yuden 5-8

Toda HP 5-8

Sagawa 4-9

Shionogi 3-10

Iyo Bank 2-11

Honda 1-12

We play Toda and Denso this coming weekend, so the Denso game will be especially important for us as we try to work our way into the top four. I'm also excited for this weekend, because Natalie, Yamane, Miyako (our interpreter) and I will be traveling to the games via the bullet train, or 'shinkansen.' We are playing in Okayama, which is about a 10 hour drive, but will be less than five hours on the shinkansen.


I'll report back to let you know how the games go and tell you about the train ride. Enjoy your week!

A Long, Fun Summer...Now Back to Japan!

Hello again. Thought it was about time that I updated you guys on what's going on.

It's been awhile, but I'm finally getting around to updating on what's been going on since early August. I had a great time in Venezuela with the USA Pan Am Qualifier team, and we took home the gold medal after a long tournament. I was excited to head back to Akron to meet up with the Racers as we geared up for the NPF playoffs. Unfortunately, things didn't go our way and we lost two tough games to the Rockford Thunder. The Thunder was on a roll, though, and they ended up winning the NPF title.

It was hard to say goodbye to the Racers, since I had a great time with both old and new friends. I was able to spend the summer with Kelsey Hoffman, who was my catcher for four years at Virginia Tech. After the playoffs, we both headed down to Palm Beach, FL, to prepare for her wedding to fellow VT alum Nic Schmitt. It was a beautiful wedding, and I was flattered to be her Maid of Honor. It was a great mini-vacation as well, and went by way too fast! I was scheduled to leave for Japan the next day (last Sunday), but Typhoon Krovanh cancelled most flights to Tokyo, so I spent the day in Chicago instead. It ended up working out well, and I was able to do a little last minute shopping and enjoy some Chicago pizza before flights resumed on Monday.

The weather had mostly cleared by the time I arrived on Tuesday, with just a little residual rain remaining. I joined the team on Wednesday for practice, and we left for our first game on Thursday! It was a whirlwind week, but we finally got settled in on Friday and ready to start playing again in the morning. We had a great pre-game practice and were also able to participate in community service in the area, traveling to the Niikawa School in the Toyama prefecture, which works with kids with mental disabilities. Our team put on a demonstration of various positions, performed "knock" (rounds of defense with the infield and outfield) and played catch with the kids.

It was a little difficult for Natalie and I to interact because of the language barrier, but we still had a great time shaking hands and taking photos with some of the students. We start off with Honda today (Saturday) at 10:30 and play Renesas Takasaki at 1:00 on Sunday. With only 11 games left, every one will be very important as we are fighting with several other teams to work our way into the top four.

Check back soon, and I'll try to have updated standings and results as the second half officially gets underway.