Feb. 28, 2006

Freshman outfielder Mollie Schrank kept a journal during the Flyers first road trip of the year, to Charleston, South Carolina for the College of Charleston Cougar Classic.

Thursday, February 23
My first road trip and tournament with the team; Charleston, South Carolina. We left Dayton this morning at 10 a.m. Lucky us, we got to fly! Personally, I love airports, and I think I can speak for almost the whole team when I say we all felt pretty important walking through the airport in our matching Dayton softball warm-ups.

Our first flight went from Dayton to Charlotte, NC. I sat by AB (assistant coach Ali Brian), who is terrified of flying and heights. No offense AB, but it was kind of funny when Chrissy [Schneider] kept talking about a flight she was on that landed on one wheel! The flight was good though, AB taught Shay [Adams], Chrissy, and I some card tricks. Our second flight went from Charlotte to Charleston. I loved walking off the plane into the 60 degree weather compared to the 20 degrees back in Dayton.

We got to the hotel around 4:30, very nice Hampton Inn Suites. Of course I had some awesome roommates, shout-out to Tami [Roudebush], Muffin [Laura Matthews], Katie Jordan, and Lacey [Severins]! Anyways, Coach told us to meet down stairs by five to "go to Subway." Well, Coach lied and we went to this really good Italian restaurant called Benitos. This team can eat for sure! Ellie [Malchow] and I alone ate a salad each, split a basket of their bread, and split a large pizza. Of course we got ice cream later, too. After dinner Coach took us to downtown Charleston and we went on a ghost tour. Charleston is absolutely gorgeous and I want to move here! The ghost tour was really cool though. We walked around downtown and got to learn some of the history and ghost tales of the town. We will probably all have bad dreams tonight. We got back to the hotel around 9:30 and did a team bonding event. Curfew was 11:00 p.m., but we were all pretty beat and anxious to play tomorrow. First game of the year....GO DAYTON!

Friday, February 24
Friday morning began at 8:45 a.m. with breakfast. We didn't have to be anywhere or do anything until noon when we had to meet in Coach's room for lunch and a meeting. The girls all used their mornings differently. Some walked over to the mall, some played cards, some hung out with their parents, and some of us attempted to do a little bit of homework.

The classic moment of the morning though was definitely when Katie Jordan and Tami realized our toilet wasn't working right so they flushed it causing it to overflow all over the bathroom. Luckily it was clean water but still kind of gross! Very funny though.

For lunch we had Subway for real this time and then left at 1:00 p.m. for the fields. The softball complex was beautiful just like the 65 degree and sunny day. Our first game was against the College of Charleston. Unfortunately, we lost. They were a good team, but we could have played a lot better than we did. Our next game wasn't until eight so we just hung out at the ballpark and ate some snacks that Mrs. Schneider brought. Ellie continued trying to give me dance lessons! I'll let you know if I ever get good.

Our second game was against North Florida. Let me tell you it gets a lot cooler when the sun goes down. We won, though, 7-6. We were hitting really well which is GOOD! After the game we went to Applebee's and finally back to crash at the hotel around 11:30.

Saturday, February 25
Saturday morning we finally dragged ourselves out of bed at 9:45 just in time for breakfast. After breakfast a few of us orphans (the girls whose parents weren't there) walked over to the mall. Muffin and I only bought a pair of earrings to split and bandanas to make bracelets out of for our links (it's a team thing maybe I'll explain later). I'm just not a good shopper like Chelsea [Grozenski] and trainer Katie [Foucht]

We got back to the hotel just before the rain came. Dang rain! Our two games for the day were canceled. I used some of my afternoon to do a little reading and then some of us went and saw Matchpoint....it was weird but I can only speak for myself. It continued to pour all day... but it was still warmer than Ohio! After the movie we went to T.G.I. Fridays. I love getting my meals paid for! It is awesome and if you work your budget right there is always enough money for dessert! I sat with T [Tamsyn Kellough], Tami, and Sheena [Rothwell]. Ask T how she used to pronounce her name, and Sheena to try and lick her elbow...it was pretty funny.

Anyways though, at 10:00 p.m. we all met in Coach's room for a team event. She previously had us fill out one of those random e-mail surveys and she split us into three teams and read different people's surveys to us and we had to figure out who she was talking about. The girls on this team crack me up. They are the rare group of people that you can sit in a room with doing absolutely nothing and just laugh the whole time.

After the team event though was curfew. Tomorrow we play East Carolina at noon and then fly back to Dayton.

Sunday, February 26
We had one game today at noon. We got up and packed all our stuff and headed to the fields. We were a little early so Coach drove us past this big army boat and then in circles for a little bit, literally.

Our game was a frustrating one. We lost 1-0 but definitely should have won! We left so many runners on base. We ended our weekend 1-2, which isn't horrible for our first tournament and probably only our third time outside! Coach said we showed a lot of improvement in just one weekend, which is encouraging.

After the game we ate at Chili's and then headed for the airport. Alisha [Burnstein] and I contemplated "accidentally" missing our flight so we could stay down here. Of course we didn't though because I'm sitting on the plane right now writing this. We're supposed to land in Dayton a little after 11:00 p.m. Then it's back to the real world of lots of tests this week. Back at it next weekend though at Eastern Kentucky! It's closer than Charleston, so you should come!!