Results tagged ‘ Monica Abbott ’
Two elite lefties in the diamond
Since the New York Mets are not playing today vs the Astros, I’ll talk about two pitchers that have been making headlines this year and last year.
The first lefty is David Price
The second lefty is Monica Abbott
What do these players have in common?
1. They are both six feet tall, Monica is 6’3” while David is 6’6”
2. They were both named Southeastern Confrence players of the year, David went to Vanderbilt while Monica went to University of Tennessee at Knoxville, in 2007.
3. They are both good fastball pitchers.
Now what makes them so interesting to watch them?
David Price was a member USA national Baseball team in 2005.
David made his MLB debut around September of 2008. He gave up his first home run to Derek Jeter, while pitching in relief. He did make his MLB start against the Baltimore Orioles. David Price won his first career MLB game during Game 2 of the American League Championship series against the Boston Red Sox. He earned his first career save against the same team in Game 7 of the series, which sent the Rays to the 2008 World Series. Price also earned another save in Game 2 of the World Series against the Rays securing the win for James Shields. In 2009, Price began the year in the minors, but was later called up. Currently David has a record of 3-4 with a 4.86 ERA. Not great, but he’s a young pitcher and I expect that this pitcher is going to master his pitches, his slider, fastball, and changeup.
Monica Abbott on the other hand posseses a rising fastball, changeup, and screwball. She is known for having a bent stance right before she pitches. Her fastballs often reach 74 MPH which is equal to being 100 MPH in a baseball field. Monica Abbott was a pitcher for the Washington Glory from 2007 in the National Pro Fastpitch and lead the Glory to win the 2007 championship over the Rockford Thunder. Monica took 2008 off to play with the USA Olympic softball team, which won the silver medal. In 2009, she began her year pitching in the Japan Softball Association pitching for Toyota Motor softball. She returned to the states to play with the USSSA Pride (Florida) of the National Pro Fastpitch League, compiling a record of 1-5 and a ERA of 2.33. Not saying that Monica is a bad pitcher according to the record, but her team is 7-13 right now. Monica also pitched in two international torunaments helping Team USA win both the Canada Cup and the World Cup in Oklahoma City. In the World Cup championship game against Australia, she pitched 5.1 innings earning the win.
David Price and Monica Abbott in their college days. We’ll be hearing from these two for years to come.
Team USA wins World Cup in OKC vs Australia
Team USA finally wins the World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City versus Team Australia by a final score of 3-1.
Monica Abbott was selected to pitch for Team USA versus Justine Smethurst of Team Australia.
Here are the scoring plays of the game.
Lauren Lappin set the tone with a solo home run in the game in the third inning. Ashley Hansen doubled.
Natasha Watley lined out for the first out.
Caitlin Lowe grounded out, moving Hansen to third base.
Alyssa Haber singles to bring home Hansen. Haber steals second base.
Kaitlin Cochran was intentionally walked. Andrea Duran singles, and Alyssa Haber scores, Cochran attempts to score at home as well but was tagged out.
The USA scores all three runs, and that’s all what they needed.
In the top of the fourth inning, Stacey Porter hits a solo home run off Monica Abbott, with one out.
That’s all the scoring Team Australia would have. Team USA would not allow any more scoring.
Cat Osterman comes in the sixth inning and saves the game. She pitches 1 and two-thirds innings with three strikeouts and one walk, to earn the save.
Monica Abbott pitches 5 and one-third innings giving up four hits, one earned run (on a Stacey Porter home run) and 11 strikeouts.Justine Smethurst settles for the loss pitching only three innings, charged with three runs, and gave up the home run to Lauren Lappin. She gave up five hits and struck out three.
Game time was 1:57, meaning 1 hour and 57 minutes long, game temperature was at 91 degrees.
Here’s the box score.
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 R H E
Australia 0 0 0
1 0 0 0 1 4 0
United States 0 0 3 0 0 0 x 3 7 1
USA finishes in first place undefeated while Australia finishes in second place.
This was taken from a game tracker courtesy of CBS College Sports.
Here’s the link
http://www.cstv.com/gametracker/launch/gt_wsoftbl.html?event=805870&school=usasb&sport=wsoftbl&camefrom=&startschool=&
If you watched the game, I hope you enjoyed it.
And these are the other scores played earlier in the day, but not on TV
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Italy 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 1 3 1
Netherlands
1 0 1 5 0 1 X 8 9 2
Netherlands wins over Italy 8-1 Netherlands finishes fifth, and Italy finishes sixth.
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Japan 0 0
0 1 0 0 0 1 4 1
Canada 0 0 3 0 0 1 X 4 10 1
Canada beats Japan 4-1, Canada finishes 3rd, Japan finishes 4th
USA Softball goes 5-0 in World Cup in OKC, await opponent in Final game (Australia)
Team USA softball is 5 wins and no losses in the tournament, in which at least two of them ended early due to a mercy rule set up. The game ends in 3 innings with a lead of 20 runs or more, 15 runs or more after 4 innings, and 7 runs or more after 5 innings. This is done to avoid “running the score” I believe the same thing was used in the World Baseball classic earlier in the year.
Team USA uses this pitching rotation
1. Stacey Nelson.
2. Katie Burkhart
3. Monica Abbott
4. Cat Osterman
5. Jennie Finch.
Here are the records, taken from the World Cup of Softball site
USA is 5-0
Australia is 3-2
Canada is 3-2
Japan 3-2
Italy is 1-5
Netherlands is 0-5
The other teams the USA are facing are
Italy
Japan (the US lost to them in the gold medal game in the Olympics last year)
Australia
Canada
Netherlands
The United States won each of the five games in a round-robin tournament. (one team faces each of the other teams just once)
USA 7, NED 2
USA 12, ITA 0
USA 14, CAN 0 (four innings)
USA 6, Japan 1
USA 8, AUS 0 (five innings)
USA hit two grand slams in this tournament.
Here are the box scores taken from usasoftball.com.
United States 7, Netherlands 2 (Jul 16, 2009 at Oklahoma City, OK)
———————————————————————-
Netherlands……… 002 000 0 - 2 2 0 (1-1)
United States……. 203 011 X - 7 13 2 (1-0)
———————————————————————-
Pitchers: Netherlands – Van Dusschoten,Femke; Soumeru, Rebecca(3) and . United States – Nelson;
Finch(4) and .
Win-Finch(1-0) Loss-Van Dusschoten,Femke(0-1) T-2:01
HR USANT – Leles.
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 83, Winds:ENE14
United States 15, Canada 0 (Jul 18, 2009 at Oklahoma City, OK)
———————————————————————-
Canada………….. 000 0 - 0 2 1 (2-1)
United States……. 509 1 – 15 12 0 (3-0)
———————————————————————-
Pitchers: Canada – MacIntosh, Leah; Litster, Marissa(3) and Cumpstone, Erin; Dolan, Charlotte.
United States – Abbott and Lappin.
Win-Abbott(1-0) Loss-MacIntosh, Leah(0-1) T-1:22 A-0
HR USANT – Watley*; Leles; Duran.
Weather: Sunny, 82, Winds: SSE7
Litster faced 2 batters in the 4th.
*Natasha Watley hit a grand slam in the game.
United States 6, Japan 1 (Jul 18, 2009 at Oklahoma City, OK)
———————————————————————-
Japan…………… 000 010 0 - 1 4 0 (1-2)
United States……. 000 132 X - 6 12 2 (4-0)
———————————————————————-
Pitchers: Japan – Someya, Mika; Fujiwara, Makiko(3); Emoto, Naho(5); Yamane, Sayuri(5) and
Tanigawa, Maki; Ito. United States – Osterman and Lappin.
Win-Osterman(1-0) Loss-Emoto, Naho(0-2) T-2:17 A-6196
HR USANT – Haber; Duran.
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 85, Winds:ENE3
Game notes:
Lighting delay began at 8:50 p.m. CT. Play resumed at 9:43 p.m. CT. Second
base umpire Rob Veldkamp left the game at the beginning of the weather
delay due to injury.
United States 8, Australia 0 (Jul 19, 2009 at Oklahoma City, OK)
———————————————————————-
United States……. 106 01 - 8 8 0 (5-0)
Australia……….. 000 00 - 0 2 1 (2-2)
———————————————————————-
Pitchers: United States – Finch and . Australia – Murch, Aimee; Parnaby, Kaia(3);
McCallum, Jocelyn(5) and .
Win-Finch(2-0) Loss-Murch, Aimee(1-2) T-1:40
HR USANT – Haber; Hansen*.
Weather: Sunny, 85, Winds:WNW4
Game notes:
United States secures #1 seed for Monday night’s championship game (8 p.m.
CT, ESPN2).
*Ashley Hansen hit a grand slam in the game.
That’s it for now
Here are some game photos taken from the Associated Press. This was the game the USA defeated Australia 8-0.
Natasha Watley scores against Australia.
Lauren Lappin attempts a tag against Australia’s Chelsea Forkin, but she is safe.
Here are some extras outside the game.
Here’s Jennie Finch warming up.
Monica Abbott on her windup.
courtesy of zimbio.com
Here’s Katie Burkhart.
taken from Seattletimes.newsource.com
Here’ are my tips as of how the USA can beat Australia
1. Keep on hitting and running, get on base early and put pressure on the defense.
2. Whoever is pitching, pitch well, and don’t get behind the batters in the counts.
3. Continue on playing stellar defense.
4. The other pitchers must be ready when called upon in certain situations.
5. Remain focused and don’t let any distractions bother you.
That is all.
World Cup of Softball is coming
The World Cup of Softball is coming up in a few days from July 16-20th. The games will take place in Oklahoma City, OK, in the Hall of Fame Stadium. Finally, some softball on TV
(by the way, the games can be seen on ESPN), as an alternative to Major League Baseball games. This is the first international softball competition to be televised since the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
As of right now, Team USA is currently playing in the Canada Cup, which they can’t be seen on television at all, just live stats are available. I’ll give the link to the Canada Cup.
http://www.canadacup.com/
In case you are curious as of who is on the roster representing Team USA, I’ll give you a list here.
Player name – Hometown
Monica Abbott – Salinas, Calif.
Chelsea Bramlett – Cordova, Tenn.
Katie Burkhart – San Luis Obispo, Calif.
Ashley Charters – Beaverton, Ore.
Kaitlin Cochran – Yorba Linda, Calif.
Andrea Duran – Selma,
Calif.
Jennie Finch – La
Mirada, Calif.
Vicky Galindo – Union City, Calif.
Alissa Haber – Newark, Calif.
Ashley Hansen – Chandler, Az.
Ashley Holcombe – Fayetteville, Ga.
Lauren Lappin – Anaheim, Calif.
Jenae Leles – Fair Oaks, Calif.
Caitlin Lowe – Tustin, Calif.
Stacey Nelson – Los Alamitos, Calif.
Cat Osterman – Houston, Texas
Brittany Rogers – Dacula, Ga.
Natasha Watley – Irvine, Calif.
This was taken from
http://www.usasoftball.com/news.asp?uid=4837
Now about the players that are on this roster.
Jennie Finch is probably the most popular softball player out there, she even participated in a TV special on E! True Hollywood Story: Baseball Wives. Jennie possesses a rising fastball that most batters don’t really have an easy time hitting. She won a NCAA softball title in 2001. She is currently pitching for the Chicago Bandits of the National Pro Fastpitch League. Usually during her days when she is not playing softball, she gives lessons on pitching with her teammates helping her teaching other aspects of the game, (hitting, fielding, baserunning, etc.)
Monica Abbott is a left-handed pitcher who also has that signature fastball that goes as fast as 74MPH, which can explain all those strikeouts. She was an absolute stud when she pitched for the University of Tennessee. Monica pitched for four years with at least 40 wins per year including two 50 win seasons. She is the all-time leader in wins and strikeouts in Division 1 softball. Monica is currently pitching for the USSSA Pride of the NPF. 
Natasha Watley is a shortstop who is well known for her defense. She is a good “slapper” (I believe slapping has the same effect as dropping a bunt in baseball) Her speed in the base paths causes pressure on the defense. She played softball for UCLA and won the NCAA softball title in 2003. She is also a winner of the Honda-Broderick Cup, a top award for female athletes. She briefly played in the NPF with the New York Juggernauts in 2005 and the Philadelphia Force in 2006, but her commitments with Team USA limited her time in that league.
Caitlin Lowe is another speedster in this roster. She currently plays in the outfield. Her good defensive play and her ability to catch fly balls that are far away from where she stands makes her a valuable part of the team. She is playing with the USSSA Pride of the NPF. In 2007 while she was playing for University of Arizona, she leaped to catch a fly ball and slammed her face against the wall, failing to make the catch. She won the Women’s College World Series in 2007, 
This is Caitlin at bat.
I only talked about four players in this list, As time goes on, I should talk more about the others in this list, as I learn more about these players. This looks like it’s going to be an exciting team to watch. The players mentioned were members of the 2008 US Softball team that took the silver medal because Team Japan beat them 3-1 in the Gold Medal game.
mlblogsmatt7
Recent Comments