Texas Tech University Athletics
Softball Player Journal - Erin Crawford & Meagan Stewart
March 08, 2004 | Softball
March 8, 2004
Erin Crawford is a sophomore pitcher from Leander, Texas. Crawford was 1-0 with a 1.62 ERA during the Holiday Inn-Select Tulsa Festival. She took some time this week to share some of her experiences from this weekend.
This past weekend in Tulsa was great. It was a little colder than it had been at Arizona, but since we practice in the cold all the time, it was like normal. We split on Friday and Saturday, but on Saturday we played great. It was awesome to play that well and even better to win.
When we got there on Thursday we checked in and it took us forever to find our rooms because the layout of the hotel was really weird. The buildings weren't connected in some spots, they were in others, you couldn't just go through and make turns. It was just different and it took us forever to even find the right building.
One of the best parts of the weekend was that there were a lot of parents that were able to come. Julie's mom even brought everyone snacks. The snacks weren't just little goody bags or anything though. There were three or four huge baskets of all kinds of food and Gatorade. It was great. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Tulsa police officers for allowing us to take over their lodge for Sunday afternoon. We had arrived at the field at 10:00 that morning and were scheduled to play at noon. As soon as we got done warming up hitting, it started to rain and it didn't stop. Thankfully, Amanda's dad is a Tulsa police officer and he invited us to spend the day there. They had pool and ping-pong tables, a big screen t.v., a place to study, a place to nap. It was great. We hung out there until it was time to go to the airport.
This trip was fun and it was good to be able to play even though it would've been better if we could've played on Sunday. It'll be good to play at home though. We've missed it.
Meagan Stewart is a freshman outfielder from Dripping Springs, Texas. Stewart drew her first collegiate start against Drake over the weekend and went 2 for 4 with an RBI in the 8-2 win. She took some time this week to share some of her experiences from this weekend.
Can you remember playing in a game where there was so much noise that you couldn't even hear yourself yelling? That's what our 8-2 victory against Drake University was like. Our team was charged, the "hey's" and "wee's" were being chanted incessantly, and we were all in the zone. Mentally, we were there for all seven innings, and emotionally, well, it went on for even longer after the game was finished. It was the kind of game that makes playing enjoyable, gets the crowd going, makes you as an athlete want to dig deep, and seems to make the coaches enjoy their jobs.
We talked about a word that could best describe that game, and Coach Tate said, "execution." And execute we did. At every opportunity, one of us stepped up and produced big. It all started in the circle with our pitching. Craw threw a flawless game, and didn't allow any runners on her bases who didn't earn the right to get on base. She must have put a little "sumthin, sumthin" on her pitches, because Drake manufactured only two runs the entire game. It didn't stop there either. Along with great pitching, we had great defense.
If there is a recipe for a winning softball game, I think zero errors on defense would definitely have to be in the recipe. There wasn't anything that Drake threw at us that we couldn't handle. Whether it was a routine grounder, or a shot to the outfield that turned into a tag at the plate, we made the plays necessary to win. Our defense kept us in the game until our offense could win it. We rallied together for a total of fourteen hits, and scored six unanswered runs in the sixth inning. The sixth was when we came to life. We batted all the way through the lineup and were able to string many hits together. We are a very talented team, and this game was one where we showed it. We dropped bunts to get runners into scoring position, and then ripped hits to bring them in.
Coach Reeves remarked how there were a lot of firsts during this game. It was my first complete game, and I've got to tell you-I liked it. It was just a wonderful experience to be a part of this win. I hope that we have bottled up the energy that we had during this game... because, well, it's the kind of intensity and execution that you wish you could bring to every game, every inning, and every play. We really showed our potential during that game, in the ways that we stepped up and played to win!
