From the Eyes of a Fan: One Perspective

From - Trish: I was torn about not going to the game last night especially since it was a double elimination tournament. But as I have said in the past I work with some great people.  I asked one of our usual fans if they would go and cover the game for me since I had a conflict and so I could blog about it. All the credit  goes to Kate Greene Koh for "taking one for the team" and helping me out. I appreciate all the effort you went through to make it to the game, play  and write an excellent story to boot. So you will see that I am not the only one who brags on this team as you get her prespective on our team. (With some commentary from Trish; I am so sad I missed this game :(

 

From the eyes of a fan - written by Kate Greene Koh

"You could say from a Fan's perspective but personally I consider myself part of the team even though I don't get out on the field.... Haven't missed a game and so glad I went out last night.    ;) " 

                            Connexions vs. The Treatment

During the first inning we scored 5 runs!  Millard Koh had a triple as did Ian McEwan. Many had base hits this game.

Kate (Greene) Koh (Yes, I'm talking about myself) came out of retirement so as to not have the team take an automatic out due to being down a girl. Even though it was a walk, she got on base. Going into the final inning the game was tied.  Joel and Chelsea are on base and Marc Boken is up to bat. WHACK!  A Home Run!  We now have an 11-8 lead. We held them and won the game. On to the playoffs we go where we meet Richmond Ford.  (Trish - UGH...I CANNOT BELIEVE I MISSED THIS!!!) 

 

           Connexions vs. Richmond Ford

                                             

 The last game we played against this team was not pretty.

 (Trish - Yes, this is the undefeated team that kicked our butts last time...yikes!)

Like our coach Joel White had said before, they are a really good team (they are undefeated). We had a game plan this time. We got out there and fought.  Millard got another triple this game and there were a few base hits.  Lois got a slight injury while at bat so again Kate stepped in and fielded for her while she iced her injury.  At the end of the game, Millard Koh made a super impressive sprint from left field and slid to the ground.  As he laid there we all held our breath as we looked to see if he caught it. He raises his left hand with a neon yellow ball at the tip of his glove. WOW. What a catch! That earned him the game ball.   (Which he proceeded to drop as Joel tossed it to him after the game; guess he ran out of steam after that last catch)  There were many great plays by the infield and especially in the outfield by our team.  Chelsea and Millard ran their tails off out in left field.  Joy took over at first base while Chelsea gave outfield a try this time.  Did I mention how well these players work as a team?  The game plan was well executed and helped a bit but we still came up short. 

As a former player, I have seen this team grow, bond and get stronger. Chelsea Scheetz has always been a star at first base. Her hitting and running have impressively improved. Hannah (Goodwin) White is a great asset in the infield as well.  I've seen Rachel Law improve in just this one season. Kristen Johnson's batting skills have improved. Joy has been an awesome catcher and has also had improvements in her game.  Lois Green, Kim Burns and Patti Kelly have all been great teammates as well. Colin Kelly and Marc Boken had a great pitching season. Millard Koh is quick and a great fielder. Joel White has always been an awesome shortstop and is a great coach.  Ian McEwan, Chad Cosgrove, Tony Ramkey, Mike Meyers and Shane Rowley are all great fielders and hitters.  This team has got heart and works so well together. Thanks coach Joel for taking over the reigns and getting Connexions back on the field.  

If I may add, Mackenzie Greene has done a great job this season assisting her mom, Kate Green Koh keeping the scores of the games. I think the team has enjoyed having the Koh's dog, Miley, out at all the games as well.  

As we move on in the playoffs, the next game is next Tuesday August 20th at Dorey Park Field 1 @ 8:00pm. If you can, you should come out and check out our dedicated softball team. These players play with heart, play hard and do it as a team.  Indeed a great team to watch play.

Play the game you love, and love the game you play!

Softball is like love, first you learn the rules of the game, and then you forget the rules and play from your heart.

Connexions Loyalty Softball Team - 2013
(Missing Kristen Gordon, Joy D'Agostino, Ian McEwan and Mike Meyers)
 

Connexions vs Slugworth - 10 - 4

Connexions vs. Richmond Ford - 0 - 15

This team plays with all heart. First of all I would like to thank the fans for coming out to support the team - Thank you Kate Greene, Shavon Moore and Greg Hoover much appreciation for championing on the players.
Second of all a lot happened in game one. We had Colin our pitcher get hit in his leg but that was before he slide into 3rd base dust flying every where but is he safe ??? YES he is safe!

Nurse Rachel to the rescue.

The pitcher is down!

Nurse Rachel Law flew to the rescue with her first aide kit to patch him up and give him a Hello Kitty band aid to make it all better. Hannah gets a base hit and then Joel is up to bat. Whack! Home Run baby! Joel is off and running and hot on Hannah's heels as he speeds around the bases, come on Hannah he is coming around fast....run Hannah run! They both make it it to home plate safely whew! What a rush!
Great pitching by Colin as we get the Slugworth team out 1-2-3.
I also learned a new slang term last night - Snow cone catch - Term used to describe a catch that barely stays in the tip of the fielder’s glove. The top of the ball sticks out, resembling a snow cone. Yeah, Millard had one of those; it looked like he caught it with his bare hands. Good catch Millard! This game went by pretty fast as we won 10 to 4.

Game 2 - Against Richmond Ford the No.1 team in the league. Everyone on their team is a good player. They just beat a team before us 15 to 4 and they are 14 - 0 in the season. 
But we are not defeated yet nonetheless they are 1st up at bat and they are practically knocking the balls out of the park. I think they took like 9 runs in the 1st inning before we even got up to bat. We have to do some major shifting around in the outfield and we pull Chelsea off of 1st base (Yikes) and replace her with Kristen Gordon but she does a great job at 1st even though she does get knocked down and she just dusts herself off and is back to playing. Hannah is in the outfield ready to catch the next high pop and she does. Not to be out done Joel jumps about 3 feet into the air to catch the next ball and pitches it to Chelsea at 1st base "yer out"! Even though Joy is our catcher she rarely has a chance to catch a ball but last night was her chance and she chased after it and caught it. Way to go Joy! We just could not get ourselves out there; excellent field play, hits by all the girls but they were just a good team.

Message from our coach:
First off I want to say that Richmond Ford is a tournament team and should not be in our league. They are 14-0 on the season and from what I understand the games have not even been close. I know it was a little discouraging last night, but they beat us we did not beat ourselves. We played pretty good in that game and it was pretty cool to see the flip of our infield playing outfield and Kristen at first base. You did great over their even if that guy ran you over for no reason while that team was up by like 20. Anyway I have some ideas on how to combat their game plan if we meet them in the playoffs, and we have to shake things up against them. Again good job staying positive and not letting a team that should not be in our league get the best of your emotions on the field.

Here is the bracket for the double elimination tournament. We are going to at least play 2 games and our game against The Treatment starts at 6:30 on Dorey 1. It could end up being a long night so please plan to be at the field until at least 9pm, and remember to hydrate.  

Thanks

Joel

 

So come on out to the tournament and help cheer on your company team. August 6th.

Eye of the tiger

Face to face, out in the heat
Hanging tough, staying hungry
They stack the odds 'til we take to the street
For the kill with the skill to survive

It's the eye of the tiger
It's the thrill of the fight
Rising up to the challenge of our rival
And the last known survivor
Stalks his prey in the night
And he's watching us all with the eye of the tiger


If anyone has seen any of the Rocky movies Rocky fights until the end. He endures a gruelling round for round fight always going the distance. He even manages to get to his feet after bringing knocked down with an  uppercut which always appears to be the end of the match. But he gets back up staggering to get back into the fight. Both fighters look beaten, bloodied, and bruised by the end of the bout. This is how I saw our softball game last night!  It was a knock-down-drag-out fight till the end just like a Rocky fight. It looked liked we had them on the ropes. It looked like they had us, then we caught up and then and then we were holding them steady. For the last 3 innings it was a tie score of 7 to 7. We were up at bat but we just could not make it all around the bases; we surely got on base time and time again but no score. We got them out 1-2-3; OK we can do this we just need to get a run. Here are the highlights - Joy hits a line drive straight to the short stop and it practically stung his hand but he caught it. Ian McEwan can always be counted on to get us to that next level. Rachel makes it to 2nd base. We had a great pitching by Mark Boken.  Hannah practically did a split catching the ball thrown to her by her husband Joel playing shortstop. Team Reveille UMC were hitting those balls hard and fast; one was hit so high it was hard to see. But Millard Koh acted like it was child's play and easily plucked it from the sky. Kristen had a great play at 2nd base. But last night we did not survive as they scored the last run of the inning and won the game. The 2nd game was a forfeit so it was won by default.

Come help us battle it out at Dorey Park next Tuesday July 30th against Slugworth at 8:10pm and again at 9:00pm against Richmond Ford.

It was a stormy, stormy night...

              

Who is it that everybody listens to but nobody believes? The weatherman.

Nothing prepared us for the nights we had on Tuesday or Wednesday night; not even the weatherman. I know it is easy to pick on the weatherman because he predicts the future 365 days of the year. The weather forecast is the 1st thing we check in the mornings. So when there’s that much attention paid to anything, for whatever reason many times human instinct is only to remember the “misses”. I don't want to focus on the misses of our game on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Tuesday's game started off scary because of all the ominous thundering clouds and the lighting in the background didn't help. I don't remember the weatherman saying there would be rain on Tuesday but it rained nevertheless.

Looking skyward we could unmistakably see and feel that there was going to be a storm. We start the 1st game but we can clearly hear the crackle of lightening and the rumbling of thunder. Maybe we can blame it on the rain but in the end we lost the first game and the 2nd game was called on account of severe thunder and lighting and of torrential downpour. We played the Hot Ballers and they won the game 9 - 4.

Wednesday night’s game was a makeup from 2 rained out games ago. We had just enough players and we even loaned one of our good players Mike Meyers to another team that was short players. In the end we were thinking we should of kept him for ourselves. There were enough "chances" for us to win both games last night but our team was just off. It happens and we will do better next time. This is a great team and when we come together there is nothing that cant stop them. This is why "I live to yell at the team, I live to show that I care, I live to make sure they're pumped, I live to jump the highest, yell the loudest, tell them that they are the best! I will talk about how great Millard was when he caught a high pop and how Lois Green screamed, " I got it, I got it" and screamed as she ran to 2nd base. Let's talk about how if you throw the ball to her no matter how fast Chelsea will catch that ball at 1st base. Lets focus on how Hannah landed on 2nd base. Yes, she literally landed on the base. Let's concentrate on how much improved Patty is becoming; getting a hit almost every time and getting on base. I want to talk about how nice it was that Kim Burns had hip issues but she still came out to support the team so we could have enough players. How sweet it was that Joy showed up while she was on vacation with her kiddies in tow to help cheer the team on. I want to emphasize how the other team did win both games but our inner resilience and the ability to bounce back are personal qualities that each one of these players possesses and it will help us get that next win.

Words from our coach -

It was a tough night last night. I want to thank everyone that came out and played hard (both Tues and Wed). Sometimes you just get beat by a better team, and last night (and I mean only last night we are better than them) that team was better. Lastly I want to thank everyone for being flexible with playing time and positions. I will be honest I don't like being the "coach/manager", but you guys really do make it easy. Let's keep playing hard and having fun.

Come weather the storm with us and help cheer us on in our next game.

Tues 7/23 @ Dorey Park field #2 games at 7:20 and at 9 (split games).

Dont judge a book by its cover

   Game 1 - Connexions vs Rocketts - 6 - 2

   Game 2 - Connexions vs Rocketts - 8 - 7

The English idiom "don't judge a book by its cover" is a metaphorical phrase which means "you shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something, by its outward appearance alone"

               "Don't judge a book by its cover"

These beautiful words surely reminded me not to move to judgment quickly, but rather to seek potential even in those many others have given up on. I know you will find it hard to believe but I almost gave up on our team. I did!

Our opponents The Rocketts appeared to be all lean and mean and they were young...very young looking. They looked like they were ready to whip our tails. Gulp!

I automatically looked at them as a threat to our team and I was nervous. I also had to be the scorekeeper as our usual scorekeeper was running late. Let me tell you it is far easier to sit and yell things at your teammates on what you think they should be doing versus actually concentrating and paying attention to every detail of what’s going on and keeping score in the game.
Every game when the bases are loaded everyone knows I look for that elusive grand slam and all I have to say to the player up at bat is "You know what I want right?" (They basically ignore me; but I keep asking).
Our 1st game was a surprise win to me as you recall I was nervous that the lean young looking team would slaughter us. They may have been good players but in the end we were better.
Our girls (Joy, Hannah, Rachel, Chelsea, and Kristen) really showed up last night, they got on base, caught fly balls and even brought some runs in. I underestimated them by comparing them to the other team.

Mackenzie Greene

Game 2 - Again I didn't think it would be so easy and it wasn't. The lean mean young team was warmed up and ready to get a win. By now our regular scorekeeper was back and I gladly handed over the reins to her daughter. Kate Greene's daughter is only 11 but as I shouted out to her "Did you see that Kenzie? Did you write that down, did you get that run?", she firmly tells me in her almost teenage voice, " I got this!" Well excusssse me!
Ok she had me there I had misjudged her ability. Go for it Mackenzie now I can nervously watch this game.
One of star players Joel White .....Yes our coach was still hurt from a previous game. Remember he likes to dive for the ball like he is a professional major league player. But we were short on guy players so he had no choice but to play instead of resting.
As the night went on I found him to be quite the opposite of everything I thought he was or would be. Joel is up at bat hits it to the outfield and makes it to 1st. Seeing the other team drop the ball he decides to make it to 2nd but grasps it too late that he can't do it. So in typical Joel fashion he would have slid back and tried his best but seeing as he was already hurt he just stops. Yep, he stops right in the middle and lets the guy tag him out. I wanted to scream (I may have). Ugh how could he get out but he knew what was best for him and not to get hurt again was the best play. We had no time to dwell on it we needed another run as we were tie and I was on pins and needles.

The Rocketts score 2 more runs but with we got them back in the field quickly now it was our turn at bat. They needed to hold us and we needed 3 runs to win. Chelsea gets to 1st base and then Millard is up and the pitcher ends up walking him to 2nd base and then Hannah gets a out at 1st but the runners move a base. Mark gets up to bat and smacks it to the outfield where "that guy" who has been catching our balls all night snags it right out of the air. Joy makes it to base and Shane got walked to 2nd. 2 runs get walked in and we are tie again 7 to 7.

At this point I can almost taste the victory... but can we do it? Kristen makes it to 1st base on a walk. Bases are loaded and I ask Tony to get everyone home and he swings and "crack" a nice little grounder that drove the winning runner Rachel Law home for the win. Woooo weeeee we win what a game! I don't know who was more astonished the lean mean youngsters or me. We all have good and bad days. Days where we are hurting but people can't see our pain. People who judge us based on our appearance and feel we can't do the job but we still show up and do our best. There are days where we may strike out or not even make it to 1st base but we don't quit. I was proven wrong and saw the potential that lies within each and every one of my fellow players and how fantastic they are as a team.

Chelsea gets a hit! 

 Come on out to our next game and judge for yourself on Tuesday July 16th at 6:30pm - Moody Middle School on Woodman Rd. and a make-up game on Wednesday.

They are singing my song!

Game 1 Tie 8 – 8

Game 2 – 13 to 0

 

Whatta game, whatta game, whatta mighty good game! (to the tune of En Vogue Whatta Man)

Our Softball Team is back! “We may not be as good as we once was but we’re as good as we ever was” . After taking a little hiatus the team is “Back together Again.” Maybe a little bit slower and older but there is still some spring in our step. Plus we have been infused with some new blood to help keep us on our toes.  

 

The Team:

Joel White – Captain, Tony Ramkey, Hannah Goodwin White, Joy D’Agostino, Millard Koh, Chelsea Scheetz, Boken, Marc , Kim Burns., Colin Kelly, Chad Cosgrove, Lois Green. Patty Kelly, Rachel Law, Ian McEwan, Mike Myers, , Shannon Powell, Shane Rowley and scorekeeper – Kate Koh.

The first game was kinda of a warm up and we were on our way to winning that game when it was called due to time. But once the 2^nd game started we were on a roll and we never let up.

The pitcher for the other team was pitching the ball too high and if the girls chose to they could have walked every time to 1^st base; but we have some real hitters and they said "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)". No names mentioned but one of our teammates needs to remember to RUN after they hit the ball (Just saying Patty) oops (no one will see this right?)

We had a lot of singles, doubles and I think someone even got a triple but that elusive Grand slam that I always look for wasn’t to be had last night. I was basically screaming to them to “Let's Get It On" “come on guys you can do it (no pressure)”

We may have  "99 Problems" in the outfield but 1st base is not one of them; Chelsea and Hannah are unstopable.

As usally our team captain - Joel White was dashing around the field like Derek Jeter at one point he landing on the ball (or was it the ground) and was still for a long time.

Finally Colin Kelly (Patty Kelly’s husband) gets to bat and brings in our 1^st infield homeroom wooo weee!!

You can "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" anytime it was a great game and good seeing such awesome teamwork.

We celebrated our win by singing "Happy Birthday" to Millard Koh. Cupcakes and brownies for everyone!

Come on out and cheer on your fellow co-workers . The next gane is Tuesday July 9th at 6:30pm at Byrd Middle School.