The Whitnall Rage program added a 10U team to it's offerings this past fall and they have now taken the diamonds in two of their 6 tournaments for the season.  The roster is very young.  Only 4 players have experience playing club ball and the other 8 are essentially out of coach-pitch rec leagues.  However, despite their inexperience, they are beginning to put things together between the lines.  

Their first tournament of the year for the group was the Cudahy Early Bird NSA National Qualifier and they didn't have a soft landing.  Matched up against the always tough Queen of Diamonds the girls got a rude welcome to the world of tournament ball, losing 15-0.  That "rude" theme would stay with the girls for the rest of the weekend as they had also play the Wisconsin Lightning (11-7 loss) and the Kaukauna Ghosts (16-2 loss) - both very deep programs that always field highly competitive teams.  Despite the losses the girls did show improvement from the beginning of the tourney to the end and they really started to put the ball in play against the Ghosts who had the best pitchers in the grouping.  

This past weekend the girls were back in action in the Wisconsin Twisters Spring Fling.  Again, the team did not get a favorable draw and had to play the host Twisters in their first game.  The more experienced Twisters team had their way with the girls winning 14-0.

Game 2 of the weekend found the 10U team playing the Kenosha Cylcones and the girls picked up their first victory of the season!  Hits were falling in, pitchers were strikes, and the defense was crisp.  Moving into Sunday, and with a victory under their belts, the girls had to battle against the Wisconsin Lightning again found themselves on the wrong end of a lopsided score.  But the girls rebounded quickly and picked up a great win versus a capable Burlington Blast team 8-7; and then battled the always tough Xplosion Fastpitch club out of Columbus before losing 7-0.  

While the losses are hard to take you can see the lightbulbs starting to go on for the girls.  They are playing great defense, they are moving well defensively and are in the right positions to make plays.  The bats are coming alive with hits becoming more regular and the pitchers are getting more consistent with balls in the strikezone.   We knew this was going to be a building year, and to this point it has been a bit humbling given the successes of our 2013 12U and 16U teams.  However, we are confident that everything is heading in the right direction with this group!  League play starts for the 10U group this Thursday in Burlington and it will be great to play a couple of games without the pressure of a tournament setting.  Every time this team steps on the field they are getting better and we are looking forward to what June and July has in store for us!