Tons of New Stuff

Ok I know I haven't been keeping up with my blog very well and I apologize. My computer hasn't been working and it's too hard to type on the German keyboard where the Z is where the Y should be and the apostrophe is too difficult to find. My computer is now fixed and I will try my hardest to keep y'all updated.

Where do I begin....well I will begin with our win over Mannheim. Mannheim is the team that is made up of mainly national team players and was undefeated before we beat them :). We lost the 1st game like 11-0...wow what a great way to go into game 2. Game two was probably the most intense game I've played for a couple of years. It was me versus the American from their team who played at a Division I school on the East Coast. She threw very hard but didn't have much movement...thank goodness...my poor teammates looked like deer in the headlights when she started to throw. We managed to put across 2 runs and then had none...until the 5th inning when they had back to back triples...and scored 2....we went into international tie breaker in the 8th and we squeezed a run in...when it was there turn (because they were home) we held them...I ended up with 12 strike-outs and gave up 5 hits....Who says NAIA players are just as good as DI.

After that game I got invited to pitch against the German National Team. They were having a training camp about 2 hours away from Munich and asked that I be apart of it. The first day I pitched against them, I played with the local team there....um...not so good. The catcher didn't want to call pitches and told me just to throw it and she would catch it....that was on a Tuesday. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Regensburg, Germany which is a beautiful city north of Munich...and then back to the team camp Thursday where my team met me and we played against them in a real game. We lost 2-4 but they had no earned runs....our errors allowed them to score....boo!

One of the coaches for the National Team also coaches a team that plays in the Northern league in Hamburg. (We are in the South league) The Hamburg Knights won the German Championship last year (Haar got 4th) and because they won they get to go to the European Cup this year, which will be held in Milan, Italy. Long story short they invited me to be a pick up player for their team this year in the cup. So I will be going to Italy for a week in August...all expenses paid! My American teammate also got asked to play for a team in Austria in a different tournament in Italy...AWESOME! I am so excited...I'm glad that I don't look as old as I feel on the field!

As far as travelling goes...I am on my way to Leipzig on Monday. A couple of the Americans in my club and I signed up for a 2o euro round trip vaca to somewhere...we didn't know where it would take us until we booked...and now we're goin to Leipzig, Germany....I was hoping for Athens or something but I guess it's somewhere different. I will be there from Monday to Thursday...it's super close to Prague so we'll be headed there for one day as well.

Everything is good...no I haven't met any German boys worth mentioning (I've found they are the same as American guys...they just speak a different language..no offense). The night life is awesome and there is always something to do.

I am missing home and my family right now, but they will be here at the end of July for 2 weeks. I can't wait. Hope all is well in the States!