[Ksyrup]

Well, middle school season starts Monday! Unfortunately, Caitlin will have to miss the first game of the year, but it's for a good reason - she's been accepted into the National Beta Club. We've got 6-8 girls affected by this, but only the ones being inducted have to go. The others can participate in other ways. So that kinda stinks, but I'm happy she's getting the honor. Always good to have something like that for the college resume.

Not sure what to think of this middle school team. We've got 3 excellent 7th grade pitchers, plus a decent 8th grade pitcher who seems to have taken a step back (she takes off the entire winter from softball, and while I know that's recommended by doctors and such, the results don't lie - she regressed while our girls got better). The core of the team is split evenly between 8th and 7th graders, but we don't have much depth - the drop off between good players who play travel ball and the 7th/6th graders who are just learning the game is fairly steep. We've got 2 6th graders who are good (they play on our travel team), but the rest are literally beginners. We lost some serious power and experience from last year's team, so I'm not sure how good we're going to be. The pitching is going to have to do it for us, because I don't think we're going to hit as well as last year.

On the travel team front, we're practicing on Sundays (supposedly the only "off" day of the week from middle school ball) to get ready for a Tennessee tournament at the end of the month (1st weekend of spring break). Should be another very competitive tournament, with 18 teams from 6 states. Looks like we finalized our roster, with 2 girls quitting after the Indy tournament (due to lack of playing time, always an issue on a good team) and adding 1 girl (the 2nd 6th grader from our middle school team). I think this team is really solid, and we've only got 1 weaker, clearly-a-step-behind-the-others player - she's definitely #11 on the bench.