The Sixth Annual Demarini Invitational features the best travel teams from 14s to 18s and is as my favorite tournament. This is my second year playing in it. The top teams in three age groups play against each other on six fields right next to each other. Any place you stand, you will be surrounded by college coaches all watching fields full of talented ball players.

Last year, I was the youngest one at the tournament. I know what it’s like to be in awe of the atmosphere. I also remember what it is like to be underestimated when older teams found out they were playing the youngest team in the tournament. I loved that because we were given the chance to prove them wrong in a big setting. I was recently talking to our Bandit Premier 14U team last night, who lost one of their games. I told them you are expected to lose, this is supposed to be a learning experience for you. Go out there, and shock everyone because last year when my team sent home 18U teams in the run to play on Sunday, it was the greatest feeling. Play fearlessly!




This year I am experiencing this tournament in with a completely new set of cleats. Being on the No. 2 ranked 16U team in the country, every team we play brings their “A” game. We have a target on our back, we know that, and we embrace it.

Summer Season is a grind, we went from Crown Point, Indiana for three days home for one, flew out to Colorado for the IDT, spent a week there, back for two days until we hit the road for 12 more days. Most teams experience a Colorado hangover but not my team. We play every game as if it’s the most important, giving it our absolute all.

Today starts bracket-single elimination, we are in a great position coming out with the No. 1 Seed in our pool. We came out ready to make a statement from Wednesday night going 6-0 in all of our pool games, outscoring our opponents 57-4. Between our strong pitching from Meghan Beaubien, Kenna Wilkey, and myself, along with our solid defense behind us, mixed in with our hot bats, I couldn’t be more excited to head back to the field in a few hours to start what I think will be a great run for the tournament!

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