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Sparks Invitational Exposure Tournament Diary

Posted by Cynthia Seltzer at Jul 19, 2008 5:00PM PDT ( 0 Comments )

Wednesday, July 16th
Several families traveled to Elgin today. We got there safely and are awaiting the arrival of the rest of the team!

Thursday, July 17th
Played our first game at 2:00 pm today. We lost to the Bombers (MI) team 2 - 5. We did not have our best game, but the Bombers were a good team. We then had a short break before we played a good Quad City Heat team team at 6:30 pm. It was a well pitched game by both teams and we ended up winning 3 - 1. Go, Cats!!!

Friday, July 18th
Played at 12:30 pm today! We beat a Twisters team from Indiana 5 - 1. The second game was against an Iowa BNGSA Angels team. We won 5 - 4! We pretty much dominated the whole game but made it close at the end with a couple of miscues. But the Cats managed to hang in and pull it out when it counted.

Some of the team went to the Rainforest Cafe in Schaumberg and some of the team went to the Pro Game at Judson College to watch the Chicago Bandits play the Philadelphia Force. It was a good game and the pros signed autographs. There was a nice fireworks show after the game.

Saturday, July 19th
The rain on Friday night gave us an unexpected day off. We ended up 2nd in our pool by calculating the 4 games played so we will advance to the elimination round tomorrow.

Most of the team rounded up and headed to downtown Chicago for shopping and sightseeing. We took the train to Union Station and walked, and walked, and walked! The magnificent mile felt like several miles by the time we got everyone there. We ate and shopped and some made it to the Navy Pier. The race back to the train was fun!

Sunday, July 21st
Bracket Play Starts! There was rain again Saturday night and game times did not start until 10 am. Our first game was moved back to 1 pm but did not actually start until 1:45 pm against DTA Mustangs. We came back and beat them 7 - 5 in tie-breaker innings. We then advanced through the single elimination bracket to play the Quad City Thunder. Another game that went to tie-breaker and we pulled it out 5 - 4. We immediately played the Minnesota Blizzard, and after going ahead 3 - 0, we ran out of gas and let them back in it. We lost our final game of the tournament 3 - 5. We ended a very good tourament 5th place out of 56 teams, and lost to the eventual 2nd place team. Not a bad 4 days of softball! We finished playing at 7:15 pm and had a LONG drive ahead of us. Most of us pulled into St. Louis around 2:00 am. It was a great weekend and we are proud of our girls!

Cats Win Chesterfield League Championship!

Posted by Cynthia Seltzer at Jul 10, 2008 5:00PM PDT ( 0 Comments )

Diamond Cats 18U won the Chesterfield League Championship for the 2nd year in a row! Great job, Cats! Great games with the Wicked, Classics, Fierce & Heat. Way to win your entry fee for Nationals. Now we aim for Chicago and Nationals and our season will be complete!

Colorado Sparkler Diary

Posted by Cynthia Seltzer at Jul 1, 2008 5:00PM PDT ( 0 Comments )

Monday, June 30th
Coach Neil got us officially registered at the Sparkler! The team is almost all here at the "team hotel". We are staying at the Ramada Plaza in Northglenn, CO. Really close to the different ballfields, shopping and tons of restaurants, etc. Good location, and you can see the mountains from here!

We found a really nice school and had a long practice to try to get used to the elevation and shake the rust off from the LONG time in the cars! Coach Neil and Coach Tony headed over to the Manager's meeting, and we met back at the hotel and the girls went to one restaurant and the parents went to another! No one stayed out too late because games start tomorrow at 8:00 am! Check back here tomorrow to see how we did!

Tuesday, July 1st
Played our first game at 8:00 am today. We beat the Baytown Blue Thunder (TX) team 7 - 1. We then had a short break before we played a good Wilmington Sun Devils (NC) team team at 11:30 am. We had a scoreless 1st inning for both teams when we managed to put 4 runs on the board and end up winning 8 - 1. 16 hits by the Cats!!!

Tomorrow we have a games against a team from California and a team from Arizona. Almost the whole team and parents attended the Rockies game at Coors Field. The Rockies won, but we have an early game tomorrow!!

Wednesday, July 2nd
Played again at 8:00 am today! We beat a Bay Area Bears team from California 12 - 2. The second game was immediately after our 1st game against a very good Arizona Ice team. We lost in the last inning 4 - 5! Tough loss but we battled the whole game. We won 2nd in our pool and have the whole day off tomorrow.

The girls went to a great place to ride go karts and play lazer tag, etc. Dinner with the team and then the mountains tomorrow! A whole day off in beautiful Colorado! We play Friday morning at - yes, you guessed it, 8:00 am! Check back to see how we did!

Thursday, July 3rd
Most of the team rounded up and headed to Vail for sightseeing and shopping. We spent a few hours hitting the shops and ate lunch there before heading to Copper Mountain. We took the ski lift to the top of one of the mountains, tried out the quad jump trampoline, and then some of the group headed back to the hotel while others went to Silverthorne for some power shopping at their outlet mall. Another small group went to Red Rock to check out the ampitheater. It was dark, so it was hard to see, but the red rocks were impressive! Back to the hotel to get some sleep for tomorrow!

Friday, July 4th
Bracket Play Starts! Our first game was against Inland Empire Ice from Riverside California. We managed a 9 inning win by the score of 2 - 1 in tie-breaker. Immediately after that game, we played a very good El Paso Rams team, and whether it was tired from the previous nine innings or the heat, we were a bit flat and lost 6 - 1. At 3 pm we played our 3rd and last bracket game as we lost to a good Cincy Storm team 5 - 9. Our tournament was over, but we had some very good games. The team battled and were in every game. We headed back to the hotel and rested up, ate dinner and watched a nice fireworks show from the parking lot. Everyone was tired and ready to head back to St. Louis in the morning!

Saturday, July 5th
Almost everyone packed up and headed out this morning. The Grahams and Saunders groups stayed an extra day and hit the Red Rock again and went to Estes Park and drove up a mountain. They will head home Sunday. The rest of the group headed across Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri to reach home sweet home! What a trip!

Sunday, July 6th
Everyone reaches home safely!!!! Now we get to prepare for the Chesterfield League Championships Wed/Thur this week.

Diamond Cat Tournament Canceled!

Posted by Cynthia Seltzer at May 9, 2008 5:00PM PDT ( 0 Comments )

Unfortunately, we are going to have to cancel the Diamond Cats' Tournament. The fields are so saturated that we would not be able to get them up for play until around 3:00 or 4:00 this afternoon. If you check the hourly forecast for St. Ann, MO, they call for rain to start again this afternoon around 3 or 4 pm! These fields will not hold anymore water.

If you look visually at the fields, they don't look horrible. There is not a lot of STANDING WATER, but they are wet very deep into the ground. If you try to walk on them, you just slip and slide. Running on them safely would be impossible. Neil has been at the fields since very early this morning trying to work out with the field crew how to get this tournament played. The weather is beautiful at this time, but in the best interest of the players, we just cannot take the chance with their safety. And, if you add to current field conditions the gloomy forecast for the rest of the weekend, it just seems crazy to make everyone gather at the fields only to send everyone home.

Believe me when I tell you that we want to play this thing as badly as anyone, but would prefer to err on the side of caution. I will be issuing refund checks as soon as possible. I need to finish the accounting for the non-refundable costs and figure out what the administrative fee will actually be. It should be somewhere between $25 - $50 as stated in the tournament rules.

Thanks so much for your patience, and for your support of our tournament. Let's hope that at sometime in the near future we will see you all at the ballfields!!!!

5th Annual Diamond Cat Mother's Day Tribute

Posted by Cynthia Seltzer at May 9, 2008 5:00PM PDT ( 0 Comments )

Come and play in one of the spring's most competitive tournaments!

We are an ASA sanctioned event that is a fundraiser for the St. Louis Diamond Cat 12U Fastpitch Softball Team. This is our 5th annual Mother's Day tournament! All funds earned will go towards our goal of playing in approximately 80 games this season. Your contributions will help our 100% volunteer organization provide excellent facilities, equipment, training and participation in competitive local, state, and national tournaments. We thank you for our support!

For detailed information, please call Neil at 314-412-2201 or email cseltzer @charter.net. Or you can go to http://www.eteamz.com/stldiamondcats/news/index.cfm?cat=281929 for teams entered and past winners.