This past
week I was able to take a really fun trip to watch the Saint Martin’s
University softball team play in the Tournament of Champions hosted by Cal
State Stanislaus in Turlock, California. The reason I was able to go was
because of the connection I have with one particular member of the team; Taviah
Jenkins. Taviah, or Tav as most people call her is my sister, and my parents and I
travelled down to go support her in the warm weather of California.
My trip
started on Wednesday morning around 5:00 AM when my alarm went off in Castle
Rock, Washington; my hometown. It is about an hour’s drive from my house to the
Portland International Airport, however I don’t remember all of it because I
slept for most of the ride. We flew out of Portland on Southwest Airlines with a
direct flight to Sacramento. After receiving our not so cool Mazda 5 (it’s
basically a small mini-van that is ugly), we were off to Marysville, California
where Tav’s 74 year old grandma lived. We stayed at her house for one night to
help her around the house and do some basic maintenance. It was really an
enjoyable experience.
Once we left
there, we drove straight to Modesto, California, which is about two hours south
of Marysville. We stayed the night there and even got to go to In-N-Out for
lunch which was quite good. But, Friday morning it was right to the field to
watch the Saints take on Cal State Dominguez Hills, whom they defeated 8-3. SMU
then took on Cal State University East Bay in a tight game that the Saints won
by a score of 4-2. That night my dad and I had planned to make the hour and
half trip north to Oakland to watch the Seattle Mariner take on the Oakland
Athletics. Thankfully we didn’t go because traffic showed it would take almost
3 hours and the game was ultimately cancelled because of poor field conditions.
Saturday
morning, SMU faced a familiar foe in Humboldt State at 11. The Saints weren’t
able to muster any clutch hits and eventually fell the sixth ranked team in the
nation 2-0. However the girls rebounded and defeated the tournament host, Cal
State Stanislaus 9-3 before falling to Azusa Pacific University 10-3. The
Stanislaus game was my favorite to watch because the Saints really put a whole
game together, both hitting and defense wise. I also enjoyed watching Tav go
3-4 at the plate with a double off the wall.
Sunday was
bracket play for SMU as they got the very early 9:00 AM game against San
Francisco State University. The game went extra innings and was decided when
Dani Wall hit a double over the center fielder’s head that scored Tav. Two
batters later, Mary Dettling did the same thing that scored Wall. Sadly, I
wasn’t able to watch the final game at 2:30 because my family and I had to head
back to the airport to catch our return flight home. In the championship game
of the Bronze Bracket, SMU faced Stanislaus again and narrowly escaped with a
2-0 victory. The Saints scored two runs in the third after Megan Miller scored
because Dani Wall walked and Jackie Schmaeling’s sacrifice fly that scored Sam
Munger.
All in all,
it was a great trip. I really enjoyed spending time with my parents and getting
to meet Tav’s grandma. The Saints getting a few wins was an added bonus, along
with the sun and 70 degree weather, but I don’t want to rub it in. Ok so maybe
I do. Either way, I had a really great time and I hope I get the opportunity to
go back next year.
#HalosUp
