By Garland Cooper

This past week went by really fast. After playing three games the weekend before, we only had one day of practice until we traveled again!

On Thursday we got on the bus headed to a place called Gifu. I, of course, have no idea where that is. We played two games, one against a team called Taiyo Yuden and the other against Maxcell.

These were big games for us in determining whether we make it into the top four or not. If we make it, we stay two extra weeks and play in the championship tournament. If not, our season is over. Needless to say, we needed these wins!

Our first game against Taiyo Yuden would be the toughest of the weekend. We had lost to them in league once already, and we lost to them in a tournament as well. Their pitcher is an Olympic team member, and really knows how to hit her spots. She throws hard, but her ability to hit her spots really keeps batters at bay. We certainly had struggled with her in the past!

The game started off well. I hit a homerun my first at bat, and put us ahead 1-0 in the first inning. From there we were able to hold them until the fourth when the scored two runs off of our ace Japanese pitcher, Nozomi. Our coach decided to bring in our relief pitcher, but she gave up a run in the same inning! From there, our head coach put in a third pitcher that was able to get us out of the inning. The damage had already been done and Yuden took the lead, 3-1.

After their big inning, we were unable to answer back with our bats. Coach ended up putting our ace pitcher back in and she was composed and also was able to keep them off the board for the final three innings. I was proud of her for being strong even after getting taken out earlier in the game. A pitcher has to be very mentally strong to come back and pitch a better game after being pulled.

Just when it seemed hopeless in the seventh inning, down by two, Toyota did what we do best; we rallied. The bottom of our lineup pulled together and scored two runs for the team; just enough to keep us in the game.

From there we went into international tiebreaker. If you haven't noticed, we do this a lot&Our leadoff was the runner on second and we had one of our lefties up. It was textbook softball as our number two batter laid down a nice bunt and moved the runner to third. I was up in the eight with one out and a runner on third. The first pitch was high outside and I swung and fouled it off. The next pitch was high and inside and I swung again, but this time I droppeds a line drive into right field, scoring the run. We moved ahead, 4-3.

Of course Yuden had to score in that inning as well, so we were tied again. Finally we scored in the ninth and held them on defense so we came out on top! It was another nail biter, but we finally were winning the close games!

It was our first win over Yuden, and it was one step closer for us to make it into the top four.

The next day we played Maxcell who is towards the bottom of the league standings. In the first inning I hit a two-run homerun to give us a quick lead and the game escalated from there. We ended up winning easily, 6-0.

This weekend was really good for our team. We needed these two wins to have a chance to make it into the top four, but also I think it gave us some confidence going into our last weekend. This coming weekend all we have to do is win both of our games (one of them is against a really good team) and we will be in! This is the first time in ten years that Toyota has been so close to the top of the standings and everyone is really excited about the possibility of making it to the final tournament.

I'm really proud of our team for playing as hard as we do. Sometimes I feel like everyone is pressing and they are so nervous they make mistakes. Now, it feels like everyone is just playing, having a good time, and leaving it all on the field. Everyone is really going for it, and we are playing really well as a team.

Next weekend is a big one so I will let you know how it goes!

Until then, Sayonara!