I often get asked, “What is it you look for in a potential blogger?” It’s not where she plays or with whom, it comes down to one primary feature: personality! The great thing about having the voice of the athlete on the site is she can tell you what’s worked—or not worked—in her story and hopefully can help someone else along the way.

I first found Abby Krzywiecki through meeting her father, Keith, at last November’s Diamond9 Class in Orlando, Fla. I did a Recruit Spotlight on her a while ago and was impressed with her energy, passion and ability to communicate—and knew she would be a great blogger for us!

Abby is an incoming junior corner infielder at Mercy High in Farmington Hills, Mich. where she hit .530 with seven homers and 54 RBI on offense and a 19-2 record with a 1.82 ERA in the circle. She was recruited by South Alabama’s Becky Clark since her eighth grade year and says she fell in love with the school on her first unofficial visit.

She plays with the Finesse club program run by Donny Dreher in Michigan and in her introductory blog for Abby tells about how she ended her softball summer last week…

 

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This past week my team, Finesse 16U Black, went to the 16U ASA World Series in Salem, Va.

It was an incredible week, not just because we placed 5th out of the 136 teams that participated, but because everything there was awesome.

Every team in Salem was stacked with solid ball players and some of the nicest individuals and there was some really great softball was played this weekend!

The fields were tended before every game with sprinklers and raked, which never happens up in Michigan. The view was breath-taking: mountains everywhere you looked; it was almost like you were in a bowl of mountains and trees.

The great week started off with the Opening Ceremonies on Sunday. We just received these cool black, blue and grey camo jerseys to show off as a team. We walked into the football stadium to get our food for the cookout and take pictures when we meet a team with literally the exact same jerseys as us!

And I mean, the exact same colors – even the logo color was the same!

They were the Georgia Outlaws and I had heard prior to the tournament that they were a really good softball program.

We took a picture together and the coaches/players were some of the nicest people ever… Hey Outlaws, what up!

After the cookout we went onto a minor league field to be introduced as a team and watch the baseball game. It was a beautiful night for a baseball game and I could not imagine spending the whole day with anyone else but my own fantastic team that has become a family.

Monday comes around and we get up early for our first game and as we start to warm up we realize exactly who we are playing… yep, you guessed it: 5he Georgia Outlaws (the camo thiefs, lol!).

The dugouts on the fields had fans and even a bathroom (I’ve never seen that before)! It was a great game against a great team and they took the win 5-1.

The next couple days we play some great softball and make some great memories, but after our Wednesday game all the coaches had to draw a number in the brackets and whatever number you got is the field and team you would play.

Well, our coach drew and, of course… drum roll please… we played the Georgia Outlaws yet again and I was so ready to take them on again.

We had a night game with them on the main field which was recorded so everyone at home could live stream it on TV. And, yes my dad was at home texting instructions to people at the game to tell me what to do. I can’t ever get a minute’s rest (but that is OK, I know he loves me).

There were so many people in the stands and it was the loudest game. Great plays were made, huge base hits were produced and cheers were screamed across the field.

In the 1st inning the Outlaws hit a home run and then we bounced back, stringing some hits together to make it 1-1. Incidentally, these are the games that make me fall in love with softball: two great teams going head-to-head on a beautiful night… nothing but positive vibes and memories.

A couple more innings went by and we drove in two more runs to make it 3-1. Both teams’ pitchers were on fire and busting corners and getting strikes left and right.

Everyone put her heart into that game—I could tell just by the way everyone was playing. We were the home team and it was the last inning when the Outlaws hit another home run to make it 3-2. They then got two base runners on and their next batter hit a shot out to left field and our little eighth grader dove and caught it saving the runs and winning us the game.

We huddled at the pitcher’s mound and hugged her until she couldn’t breathe… it was so fun! We knocked the Outlaws into the loser’s bracket and they fought all day on Saturday playing six games in one day. Everyone we beat they got next.

Whenever we lost we were going to have to play them again, which was our motivation to keep winning. Taking 5th place is pretty amazing if you ask me. We beat some huge teams and battled hard all weekend.

It was an incredible week of ball and I could not think of anything that could make it better.  If you ever happen to see Finesse playing please stop by, ask for Abby, say hi, and cheer me on. I will do the same for you if you want! Also, check me out on Instagram: abbykrzywiecki

One piece of advice, though: just don’t wear the same camo as us or we will knock you into the loser’s bracket (just kidding)!

— Abby Krzywiecki