Posts Tagged ‘Softball’

Sports Dashboards Salutes: Trailblazing Smackers 10U Softball Team

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 by

This is a story that encompasses two magnificent feats.

Primarily, it’s about a group of young — as in under 10 — softball players who achieved a first in Marin softball history. The Nor-Cal Smackers 10U softball team traveled to Sunnyvale, went undefeated in four games over a three-day tournament, and earned the right to participate in the Amateur Softball Association Class A National 10U tournament. The Smackers are the first 10U team representing Marin to earn a berth in the national tournament, paving the way for future young teams to find their way into national competition.

But this story is also about the organization which they represent. The Smackers are only in their second full year of operation. To have brought a team along to the point of qualifying for an ASA national tournament is a real tribute to the coaching and management of the Smackers.

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MGS players boost MCAL; girl athletes score better futures

Saturday, June 19th, 2010 by

This started out as a paean to Marin Girls Softball for the quality of training they give their players, as reflected in those players’ contributions to the Marin County Athletic League when they reach high school.

However, simultaneous with putting this post together, we became aware of the research of Betsey Stevenson, which puts the contributions of MGS, MCAL and similar organizations in a vastly different light. Girls sports programs have a positive effect on the futures of their members.

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Sports Dashboards Salutes: Camille Gaito

Friday, May 28th, 2010 by

Camille Gaito delivering a pitch for her UCSD team.

The numbers don’t lie: Camille Gaito is among the elite college softball pitchers in the nation, but that’s not the only reason Sports Dashboards salutes her.

The numbers are a good place to start. Gaito ended her season with a 0.96 earned run average while pitching for the University of California at San Diego. The Tritons play in NCAA Division II as a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

How good is 0.96? It’s third in the nation. Of the 300 pitchers that the NCAA tracked who pitched more than 100 innings this season in Division II, only two pitchers recorded lower numbers. For those of you into that kind of metric, it means that she is in the 100th percentile. She is among the creme de la creme. A pitcher nonpareil.

This season, she finished with an 18-10 win-loss record and her team was ranked 10th among all colleges competing in the Western Region.

The thing is, Camille Gaito is only a sophomore. When you’re already at the top, what more is there to strive for? Well, there are some individual honors that have eluded her and there are plenty of team accomplishments that will have to wait for next season.

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Posted in Marin Girls Softball, Softball, SportsDashboards Salutes | 2 Comments »

Novato wins Marin Girls Softball Majors All-Star Tournament

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 by

The Novato All-Stars edged the San Rafael All-Stars 3-2 to earn the Marin Girls Softball Majors All-Stars Tournament championship.

Majors teams consist of girls in the fifth and sixth grades. The all-star teams are formed from the best players within each league.

The level of play in the semifinals and championship game belied the ages of the players involved. These girls definitely got game.

In the championship game, Novato scored single runs in the middle innings to take a 2-0 lead. Starting pitcher Dixie Thompson benefited from her battery mate, catcher Samantha Tong, who threw out two would-be base stealers in the early innings to keep San Rafael in check.

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Posted in Marin Girls Softball, Softball | 4 Comments »

SportsDashboards salutes Marin Girls Softball

Thursday, May 6th, 2010 by

The values of participating in youth sport groups are well known. A non-comprehensive list would include such things as developing cooperative skills through teamwork, dealing with the highs of winning and the lows of losing, learning sportsmanship skills, and experiencing camaraderie with teammates, coaches and family. Oh yeah, having fun comes in there pretty high as well. Some organizations are better at one facet of youth sports than others. But every kid benefits to some degree by participating.

Then there’s that more prominent facet of any sports program: the development of skills in the chosen sport. Some organizations misplace their emphasis, placing it on winning, rather than skills development.

That’s not the case with the teams that comprise the Marin Girls Softball League. Obviously, every team tries to win each time they take the field. But the emphasis is on skills development and the less tangible values of being a part of something special.

Exhibit 1 for this fact was the recent showdown between Marin County Athletic League powerhouses, Redwood and Tamalpais. The two high schools entered the game knowing that the winner would be tied with San Marin atop the MCAL softball standings. That’s enough drama right there.

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SportsDashboards Salutes: Kim Scarsella

Saturday, April 17th, 2010 by

Tamalpais pitching ace Kim Scarsella

As the honors mount, Kim Scarsella is our nominee to be the poster girl for the value of youth sports programs.

Kim is a mound mainstay for the Tamalpais High School Hawks, who sit atop the softball standings in the Marin County Athletic League.

Last week, Kim was cited by the Marin Independent Journal as the girl prep star of the week. It was an honor well deserved. But calling her the “star of the week” is an understatement of the magnitude of calling Mohammed Ali a fairly tough guy. Or saying Lady Gaga has a strange sense of style.

Kim Scarsella is more than a one-week wonder, she dominates a softball game the way the best pitchers do. Statistics never tell the whole story, but here are some numbers that hint at the exceptional season she is having:

During the week for which she was honored by the Marin newspaper, she defeated Terra Linda 6-0 while striking out 17 and then bested Novato 6-2 while chalking up 11 more K’s.

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Posted in Marin Girls Softball, Softball, SportsDashboards Salutes | 1 Comment »

Nor-Cal Smackers Video Tribute

Thursday, January 7th, 2010 by

Marin County, CA, 14U team celebrates a successful 2009 season with a spiffy video tribute.

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Posted in Softball | No Comments »

It looked like that girl’s got game … but

Thursday, January 7th, 2010 by

The ball girl shows up the Triple-A pro with an unbelievable catch! …

We got fooled on this one along with thousands of other people. We wanted to believe the fiction that an ordinary ball girl could make this extraordinary catch. The real game setting, including a reference to real player Jake Wald, added to our willingness to suspend disbelief.

But this was a commercial, using special effects. The whole story is told by Snopes, including the detail that the ball girl was really a stunt woman who had the help of wire rigging when climbing the wall.

It’s the harness and rigging that is puzzling. Anyone who has ever competed against a team of stunt women knows that there are many in their group who could have made this catch without assistance.

It still wouldn’t have been a ball girl, but if they had used a real ball (see Snopes’ explanation) and an unaided stunt woman, we would still be wowed, even if it wasn’t in a game situation.

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Posted in Did You See That?, Fun videos, Softball | 2 Comments »

True sportsmanship

Thursday, January 7th, 2010 by

Girls softball is one of the most fast-paced and interesting spectator sports as well as being exceedingly satisfying to play. This video, of a college game in the Upper Northwest, captures a moment of true sportsmanship. It’s special when fair really is fair.

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Posted in Fun videos, Softball | No Comments »