Delaney Elling is a 2016 Hot 100 first baseman/catcher from Washington, Pa., who has committed to Penn State where she plans on majoring in Bio-Medical Engineering.

The senior-to-be is a standout in the classroom and on the field. Academically she has a weighted GPA of 4.75 and is 1^st in her class of 265.

In uniform, she’s playing for the Wagner’s 3n2 team this summer after earning 2^nd Team FloSoftball All-American honors as well as being named 1^st Team All-State as a catcher.

Delaney is blogging for FloSoftball this week about her experiences at the USA Softball JO Cup and today recaps her team’s two games during the first day of bracket play.

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Instead of an alarm or my father waking me up this morning, I got to sleep in since our first game was not until 1 pm.

Although our game was not until later, the team met up at the batting cages once again to get some swings in before the elimination game.

Once again we showed up at the fields with a half hour until game time. And even though we put the work in earlier in the day, our balls didn’t seem to fall on offense and it felt like everything fell in a gap on defense.

We knew from the beginning that it would be a battle, and although we did not stop fighting, we found ourselves losing the war.

Wrapping up our final game and tournament as a team was difficult for everyone. It was very hard to say goodbye to the seniors who I’ve spent so many days of my summer with.

I wish nothing but good luck to the two seniors on my team and I know that they will have great success at their respective colleges!

Although our summer of softball ended with the final out of that game, my team decided to celebrate at our last team dinner together.

We celebrated the great times we had this past summer and also celebrated our coach’s birthday!

At dinner, we made sure to embarrass our coach to the fullest extent by blowing noise makers, wearing party hats, hanging up a ‘Happy Birthday’ banner, and of course singing to him while he ate his piece of cake.

Back at the hotel, no one wanted to say goodbye to one another just yet.

While our parents headed off to bed, all the girls gathered in one of the hotel rooms and reminisced on our good memories from the season!

Since I have another day here in California, a few of the girls and I, along with our families, have decided to venture to the surf competition in Huntington Beach tomorrow.

Who knows, maybe I will go back to Pennsylvania with a little bit of a tan! Or maybe I’ll catch just enough sun to get rid of my horrible softball tan tines!