Championship Eve

All of today's activities centered around official championship functions and it was an early morning for the softball team as they took the short trip from the Fairfield LaQuinta to Montclair State for their official practice time. Each team is given an hour on the game field and an hour on the practice field, and the Patriots drew the first slot so their time began at 8 a.m. The girls looked good during practice, especially batting. There seems to be an air of quiet confidence about them.

The MSU Softball Stadium is very nice and features a turf outfield. It is tucked in the western part of the campus between a hockey arena, a major rail line and on-campus train station, and the Abbott and Costello Center...we have yet to determine what that is. Many of the tournament activities, including today's team barbeque (at least a New Jersey attempt at barbeque) are taking place at the Yogi Berra Museum which is part of the baseball complex here.

A little sports information update...in the pressbox we tested the broadcast equipment again because we confirmed today that all of our games will be on ESPN 1490AM in Tyler as well as our regular streaming broadcast on the web site. We are excited to offer the radio broadcast for the fans back home - thanks to David Smoak and Jamie Lent for their help with this.

As part of the championship activities, the softball team headed over to a local elementary school where they read to some of the youngsters and after that, it was back to the hotel to get ready for the evening's championship banquet.

At the banquet, the teams got to know eachother by sharing a few anecdotes about their seasons, but the highlight of the night was the announcement of the All-America teams which included Whitney and Roo - Whitney on the first team and Roo on the second team.

There was an "incident" after the banquet as a bus driver for one of the other teams stepped on our bus, announced he was a Houston native, and loudly proclaimed "Gig 'Em Aggies." For this he was jeered off the bus. Luckily, no one was hurt.

An eventful Thursday, but now it's time to rest before the big day. A lot of parents and fans have made the trip which is AWESOME and they'll head over with us in the morning. Check back tomorrow and be sure to listen online or on air beginning about 9:50 a.m. CDT. The countdown has begun...