Day 1 down, 2 more to go!!! We had a great win against Australia today! Tomorrow will be a long day for us. We have a doubleheader against Chinese Taipei and Japan. Going to get a good nights rest since I had an early morning today.  I woke up at 4am this morning, so I have been up for a long time today =)

Go USA!

July 30,2009
Konnichiwa!!

I know that it has been a while since I last wrote but things are busy as usual. We just arrived yesterday days ago after an 11-hour flight and a 5-hour bus ride. What a day! It’s great to be back in Japan. I almost feel like this is my second home since I have spent so much time here in the last year. The people are always so welcoming and hospitable, so it makes it very easy to travel here!

We have a practice today, and have our first game tomorrow vs. Australia.
This is our last competition for the summer, so we want to try and end it on a high note!

Before arriving here in Japan, I had a couple days off in between our last events in Canada and our World Cup in Oklahoma. It was great to be home for a couple of days to catch up with friends and family. I’m looking forward to the 3 weeks that I will have off when I return from Japan before I head back to Japan at the end of June for 3 months of my pro season.

I really enjoyed getting everyone congrat comments after our World Cup!!! Keep the questions and e-mails coming! I love hearing from you all! I will try to write often while we are here to keep everyone updated!

Stacey Nelson (Los Alamitos, Calif.) made her first appearance in the Red, White and Blue at the top of the fifth needing to keep Venezuelan runs off the board to ensure the run-ahead victory. Starter Osterman finished her four-inning appearance with 11 strikeouts, allowing just one hit. Nelson completed her mission allowing no hits thanks to the help of the defense, with three groundouts. The 7-0 victory gave the 2009 National Team its first win of the year.

With a break game in between, the United States came back to face 2008 Bronze medalists Australia, and would eventually complete their second 7-0 victory in five innings.

“I was really pleased with how we came out on day one especially in the circle. Both Cat (Osterman) and Monica (Abbott) dominated from the first pitch in the first inning so that really set the tone,” said Head Coach Jay Miller (Starkville, Miss.). “Offensively we did really well in both games putting runs up on the board in the first inning. That is one of our goals is to come out early and score in the first inning and we did that today. I was really pleased with the news kids in Alissa (Haber), Ashley (Hansen), Kaitlin (Cochran) and how they played as well as the homeruns of Jenae (Leles) and Vicky Galindo. Obviously we have things to work on but that’s the part of the season we are in. Overall I am very pleased with today.”

After drawing two walks against Venezuela, Haber grabbed a hold of her first hit with a RBI double to left field to score Caitlin Lowe (Tustin, Calif.) to give the team an early 1-0 lead in the first inning versus Australia.

Ashley Hansen (Chandler, Ariz.) led off the second inning and took the first pitch of her at bat down the middle and was only there for two pitches as Vicky Galindo (Union City, Calif.) hit a two-run homerun over center field. A sac by Lowe plated Brittany Rogers (Dacula, Ga.) for the 4-0 lead, who walked and then moved to third on two passed balls. The team tacked on one more when Watley scored from third off a throwing error by the left fielder Leah Parry.

“It was a lot of fun to get out there and play with the new girls. I think we had a great start to building a foundation for the rest of the summer,” said Watley. “All through the lineup the team stepped up and made things happen so that is always nice to see. I am looking forward to more games so we can really start to gel as a team.”

In the third inning, Hansen led off with a walk and advanced to second off a sac bunt by Galindo. Rogers laid down a perfect bunt to reach first and took advantage of some Australian hesitation on the play, to move to second and advance Hansen to third. Hansen scored on a passed ball while Watley put up her fourth RBI of the day to score Rogers and give the United States a 7-0 lead in the third.

Katie Burkhart (San Luis Obispo, Calif.) came in at the top of the fourth but not after Abbott allowed no one to reach base through three innings for the win. Abbott struck out seven of the nine batters faced. Burkhart worked the final two innings of play, allowing two hits with two strikeouts.

Australia held the USA offense at bay through the fourth but the game would be called in the fifth due to the run-ahead rule, giving the U.S. a 7-0 victory.

The USA will face Venezuela tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m./PT. after taking part in the Opening Ceremonies at 4:00 p.m./PT. Be sure to check out http://www.usasoftball.com/ for coverage of the Canada Cup.

Konichiwa!!!!

Time has really been flying by. I come home in less than a month. I can’t believe it
It has been a couple weeks since I last wrote. Things are still going great here in Japan. After this last weekend of league games we are 5-0!!! We are halfway through the first half of the season. We are really doing well, but we definately have some big games coming up in the next weekends. This past weekend we played in Kagoshima, which is about a 2 hour plane flight south from where we live. It’s the complete opposite from where we live, we were near water and the weather had a tropical feel!!! So it felt like a vacation destination, which was nice. Where we live is more rural and country-like. We had a neat view from our hotel of an active Volcano.

I have to admit the time last week did feel a little slow in comparison to my total time here because we had a week break in between our league play, so we had a lot of time on our hands. With 3 straight days of rain during the week, practicing indoors got old, but we were left with a lot free time on our hands, which was good. One night some of our teammates took Monica and I to Hard Rock Cafe in Nagoya. We introduced our teammates to Nachos, which was hilarious. They had never heard of nachos before, but they loved it! ( but how could you not??? lol)

Also=2 0during last week Monica and I visited one of the actual plants where the Toyota Corolla and IQ were made. We actually saw the monotony of an assembly line which was amazing to witness, probably not as cool for the workers..lol. It was neat to see how fast the men worked on each car, they have certain amount of time on each car to perform their certain task. If they don’t finish they are expected to stop the line, because Toyota is all about “quality”. We also learned that it takes about 6 hours to make a car from start to finish.

We also had a funny little story…usually on our day off Monica and I will ride our bikes to our favorite restaurant “Louisiana Mama” then we will go grocery shopping for the week. So on this particular day off I decided to change it up a little. Usually Monica wants to do a little more exploring than I do (lol) so I thought I would come out of my comfort zone and be “adventurous”…but my idea of adventurous is taking a new route to our favorite restaurant. I thought this would be a great idea because 1.we had a map, 2.we could also see what else was close to us, 3. we always go the same boring way! Little did we know that we were going to see a little more of Japan than we actually wanted. What usually takes us 10 minutes by bike the “boring” way, took us 2 hours the “shortcut” way….lol oh man once we figured where we were, we were not even remotely close to “Louisiana Mama”…..I was just trying to picture the way Monica and I looked, on our bikes, in Japan….cracks me up every time!!! Luckily the people here are so friendly they were able to help us out!

Lastly,just wanted to reassure everyone to not worry about Monica and I, today we discovered an international market, so we were able to get some tortilla chips, salsa, tortillas, taco sauce and seasoning!!! We are celebrating our Cinco De Mayo a little late!!

Well still missing everyone…take care!!
Go Bruins!! (my softball bruins in postseason)
Go Lakers!!
Go Toyota!!
Natasha

April 14,2009

So it has definitely been really eventful around here the past 2 weeks! 

Last week when I last wrote we were going start our toyota cup and see most of the teams from our league. We ended up winning 6 games and ended 1 game in a tie!!! So it was great confidence heading into our league games that started this weekend! 

We got to play in the Seibu Dome, outside of Tokyo, which is20where one of Japan Major league baseball team plays. So the set up and atmosphere was great. There were a lot of softball fans there. All 12 teams from the league were there and played their opening game there. Monica and I were able to see some of the other Americans that are on the other teams, so it was good to have conversations where people could understand us and compare notes on how or experiences were going. So far they are all enjoying their teams and the culture here!!!

Our opening game was versus Toyota Shoikki. We won 3-1!!! it was a great game!! Monica pitched great. It was a great win for our team because Shoikki has either finished 1st or 2nd the last couple years. So it was great confidence for our team heading into the rest of league!! Wish us luck for the rest of league!!

So we have had a couple fun things that we have done this far. After our Toyota cup 2 weekends ago, our teammates took us to a Cherry Blossom festival. Here in Japan when it turns spring, the Cherry Blossom trees bloom and are beautiful!!! It’s tradition where you have a picnic in the evening, under the trees and celebrate the spring. A lot of people come out and eat, sing karaoke, and enjoy the sceanery. The trees are so pretty, looks like snow in the spring time!(I have attached some pics)

 Cherry Blossum Party

Lastly,  Monica was contacted by a youth director from the US military to do a clinic on their base and she brought me along! !! So after our game in the Seibu Dome, we got to spend another night in Tokyo at a military hotel! I got to see sports center, eat Mexican food, and see Americans!!!! It was great!!! the military base is 1 hour outside of Tokyo so after spending the night in the city, the next morning we were able to do a little shopping before heading to the base. I even got to pick up a few things from Mizuno!! Once getting to the base, Camp Zama, it was great seeing the kids of amazing parents. People who protect our country miles away from home, and having to relocate family. These kids are very fortunate because they get great schooling on base, and are able to travel the world! They try to provide them with a normal lifestyle as much as possible. So it was great to see some kids that were excited and eager to learn a few things about the game! It was such an honor being on the base!!!

 I hope everyone had a blessed Easter!!

Missing you all!!

Natasha