Senior Salute

It is the week before finals so this is going to be a shortened version. First, lets get all of the statistics out of the way.

This weekend, just about everyone was in action. Cleveland State clinched the #1 seed and the honor of hosting the tournament. So, see everyone in Cleveland next week!

Congratulations to Ashley Hewett from UIC for earning Horizon League Pitcher of the Week and Sara Strickland from Valpo for claiming Horizon League Batter or the Week.

For everyone in the League, this is our last weekend of regular season play. For us seniors, it is bittersweet. Now comes the fun part of the season, but it also means that our careers are coming to an end too fast. It does not seem like four years have already gone by.

For some of us, we have been playing summer ball against each other since we were 10 years old. The seniors on our team have been playing against and with a few of the seniors from Wright State for possibly even longer. We have seen each other grow as players and as people. But, this entire Horizon League senior softball class has left its mark on each school's record books. To say that this is a strong class would be an understatement.

As we come to the end of our softball careers, there are a million things going through our heads that we are going to miss. The countless hours spent on a bus watching movies and sleeping uncomfortably, playing pranks on each other in the hotels, and the excitement and nervousness you feel the first day of practice in the fall. We are going to miss the rush you get before taking the field for each game and the bloody knees, elbows, hands and noses. These are memories that we have made, and will carry with us for the rest of our lives.

Any softball player has seen the movie "A League of Their Own" at least five times in their life. At the very end of the movie, the song "Now and Forever" by Carole King is playing. There is a lyric in the middle of the song that I think sums up our experiences as college athletes.

"We are the lucky ones. Some people never get to do, all we got to do. Now and forever, I will always think of you."

Good Luck to everyone this weekend and play your hearts out. It might be the last time you take the field, so leave your mark.