ESPNHS Softball

Casey Stangel is a junior pitcher at Lake City High School (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) who also plays for the SoCal Explosion. Her high school team won the Class 5A state softball championship last season and she has committed to play college softball at the University of Missouri. She will blog for ESPNHS throughout the 2012 season.

I take a Ted Williams approach to softball. What I means is, when Ted Williams played baseball he always had one thought in his head. He said “A man has to have goals, for a day, for a lifetime; and mine was for people to say, ‘There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.’ ” My motivation is that I want to be successful, and I want people to say, “There goes Casey Stangel, the greatest softball player who ever lived.” Crazy goal to shoot for? Definitely. That being said, I know all the things I have to do to make it possible. I have chosen the lifestyle to get there and I put in the work to do it; so what is so crazy about that?

Motivation comes in different ways to every athlete; it’s a personal thing. There are two main types of motivation for me, internal and external.

Internal motivation

When practice is over and everyone is leaving, there is a voice inside my head that says, “I could do more today.” I know that the work that is put in when nobody else is watching is what separates the good players from the great players. Self motivation, or internal motivation, is something that is really hard to teach, because it is something that’s in your DNA. I believe internal motivation comes from those who pursue greatness, rather than fear failure. It means that you want to be the best, so with every decision I make, I ask myself, “Does this benefit my dream or not?” When self motivated, you don’t have to have people tell you to go do it. I want to go practice, I want to go for a run, and I want to do those extra five sprints. The important thing is that you absolutely love what you are doing -- that is truly where self motivation comes from. Loving every second of the game, and wanting to do everything and anything that will make you the best is what it’s all about.

External motivation

External motivation is something that really fires me up. My perfect example is football. The football coach at my high school is an outstanding model of a great motivator. As is typical in the sport, before every game our football players get the inspirational speech that gets them jacked, and then they go out and battle. One thing I love about football is throughout every part of the sport, the coaches are pushing players to go harder and give it everything they have. That is just one of the reasons why I respect our high school football coach -- because he motivates not only football players but any student in our school to give it everything they’ve got. External motivation can come from anywhere. It is a simple reminder outside of yourself to keep pushing and fighting because you’re getting closer and closer to your dream with every move. There is a video I downloaded from YouTube onto my phone that I watch every single night before bed. It is called “Quiet Confidence” made by the TCU baseball coach. It is an external motivator to remind me about the will to win, and what it takes to be the best. I remember the coach’s words when I am in a game, “Sharpen your focus, grasp the urgency of now and win this pitch.”

Motivation can be a YouTube video, a coach that you truly admire, or it can be a fire within yourself that drives you to your goal. It can be numerous things, but for everyone it is different. When you can’t find motivation, remember why you play. Always, always remember why you love what you do, because that is motivation enough to keep on pursuing your dreams.

Read the previous installment of Casey's blog – on playing by the book – here.

(After games of Tuesday, May 22)

Here are this week’s high school softball players of the week. One player is chosen from each region of the country. The only other criteria is that no player will be chosen more than once during a season.

EAST

Steph Thomas, Immaculate Heart (Washington Township, N.J.)
The sophomore pitcher has led the unbeaten Eagles to the state No. 1 ranking with three victories while allowing no earned runs in the last week. Included were three perfect innings with six strikeouts in a key victory over Passaic (N.J.). On the season, she is 20-0 with 15 shutouts and a 0.51 ERA while allowing only one extra-base hit in 123 innings.

SOUTHEAST

Courtney Roberts, Hillcrest (Simpsonville, S.C.)
With a two-hitter that included eight strikeouts and no walks, Roberts concluded an inspirational ride in the South Carolina AAAA state playoffs. Her last pitching performance came in a 6-0 win over Carolina Forest (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) that gave Hillcrest a second straight win after the team lost the opening game of the state title series. Roberts also drove in the first run of the game with a double. Earlier in the postseason, Roberts pitched a perfect game against Mauldin (S.C.) and had a two-hit shutout over Boiling Springs (S.C.). She did all this in the aftermath of the sudden death of her father, Paul, who suffered a heart attack on April 9. Paul Roberts, 49, also was a well-known Greenville-area mentor to many other softball players.

MIDWEST

Kendra Marshall, Warsaw (Warsaw, Ind.)
The senior was a perfect 5 for 5 at the plate in a win over Tippecanoe Valley (Akron, Ind.) with three doubles and two home runs. On the week, she also belted four homers and six doubles with nine runs scored and 14 RBIs. In addition, Marshall batted .750 for the week to boost her season average to .517 with 40 RBIs.

MIDLANDS

Kelsee Selman, Hudson (Lufkin, Texas)
A junior who has committed to LSU, Selman led the Lady Hornets past Hargrave (Huffman, Texas) in last week’s Class 3A regional semifinals. In the first game of a best-of-three series, Selman pitched a five-hitter with 11 strikeouts and went 2 for 3 with a home run, double and four RBIs. Hudson won the series with an 8-6 win in eight innings in the second game. Selman hit a two-run homer to tie the score in the seventh inning and gave up one earned run in eight innings of pitching with eight strikeouts. She has 405 strikeouts on the season and is batting .358 with seven homers and 32 RBIs.

WEST

Cheridan Hawkins, Anderson (Calif.)
For the second year in a row, Hawkins and her ability to strike out batters has lifted Anderson to the CIF Northern Section Division IV title. The University of Oregon recruit struck out 14 in the Cubs’ 3-1 win against Wheatland (Calif.) in last weekend’s championship game. Earlier in the week, she had a no-hitter with 16 Ks as Anderson defeated Lassen (Susanville, Calif.). Hawkins ended the season with 440 strikeouts after collecting 510 as a junior and had nearly 1,300 for her career.

While the order for this week's POWERADE FAB 50 was finalized earlier on Tuesday, it was hard to ignore that the top three teams in the nation were all playing later in the evening and that all three could have lost.

Those results won't be reflected in the rankings until next week, but the big news was that No. 3 Alexander Central (Taylorsville, N.C.) lost 1-0 in its showdown with unbeaten No. 7 Porter Ridge (Indian Trail, N.C.) in the fourth round of the Class 4A state playoffs.

Auburn-bound Lexi Davis of Porter Ridge outdueled Georgia-bound Chelsea Wilkinson of Alexander Central, although Wilkinson had a perfect game going with 17 strikeouts until the seventh inning. Porter Ridge got two hits in that inning, including a two-out RBI single by Kayleigh Jones. Davis then set down Alexander Central in the bottom of the inning.

The top two teams in the FAB 50 -- No. 1 Norco (Calif.) and No. 2 Pacifica (Garden Grove, Calif.) -- both won in CIF Southern Section Division I playoff games. Norco topped Etiwanda (Calif.) 2-0 while Pacifica blanked No. 23 Royal (Simi Valley, Calif.) 2-0. The two could meet in the title game on either June 1 or June 2.

Click here for the complete Week 12 rankings.

(After games of Tuesday, May 15)

Here are this week’s high school softball players of the week. One player is chosen from each region of the country. The only other criteria is that no player will be chosen more than once during a season.

EAST

Natalya Smarra, Sto-Rox (McKees Rocks, Pa.)
The senior right-handed pitcher hurled a five-inning perfect game and batted in four runs as the Vikings (18-0) blanked Avella (Pa.) 14-0 in the first round of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League Class A tournament. The four-year starter, who was a catcher/shortstop as a freshman before taking over the main pitching role as a sophomore, improved to 16-0 this season with a 1.09 ERA. She also has a .522 batting average and plans to play in college.

SOUTHEAST

Cristina Sacramento, Pembroke Pines Charter (Fla.)
If Niceville (Fla.) had won the Class 6A state title, it would have finished as Florida’s No. 1-ranked team for the season and would have been no worse than No. 7 in the final POWERADE FAB 50 national rankings. But Sacramento and her teammates had other ideas as her one-hitter helped pin a 1-0 loss on Niceville’s aspirations. Sacramento ended with 18 strikeouts and just one walk. In the semifinals, the senior standout also shined with a five-hit shutout in a 4-0 win against Lakewood Ranch (Bradenton, Fla.). In that game, she also went 2 for 4 and drove in the first run. It was Pembroke Pines Charter’s first state title after three runner-up finishes. One of those state title losses prevented the Jaguars (who are now No. 33 in the FAB 50) from being the mythical national champion.

MIDWEST

Abbie Voas, Chanhassen (Minn.)
The junior infielder recorded a productive offensive week to lead her 13-4 team to six victories. She went 10 for 19 at the plate with five home runs, three doubles, 12 RBIs and 10 runs scored for the Division 1 team. Voas also set a school record during the week by belting three home runs in a 9-1 victory over New Prague (Minn.).

MIDLANDS

Abby Donnell, Rider (Wichita Falls, Texas)
A leadoff-hitting phenom who has committed to Texas A&M, Donnell did it all in leading Rider past Canyon (Randall, Texas) 9-0 in a Class 4A regional quarterfinal. Still just a junior, Donnell went 3 for 5 with three runs scored and also pitched a one-hitter with nine strikeouts. In Rider’s earlier 6-2 playoff win over Andress (El Paso, Texas), Donnell went 3 for 3 with two runs scored and pitched a three-hitter with 13 strikeouts. For the season, as 29-5-1 Rider gets ready to play Midway (Waco, Texas) in this week’s regional semifinals, Donnell is batting .594 with 57 hits, including 10 triples.

WEST

Heather Morales, Indio (Calif.)
In a 7-3 victory over Coachella Valley (Thermal, Calif.), Morales closed her regular season by smashing two home runs to give her 20 for the season. The junior first base/pitcher has moved to No. 2 on the state's all-time single-season home run list, but may not be able to move up to No. 1 since the record is 27. She also could slip a few spots as several other girls in California are putting up monster home run totals, including Sierra Romero of Vista Murrieta (Murrieta, Calif.) with 19. Still, it’s been a breakthrough season for Morales. She had two homers, two doubles and 10 RBIs in a game last month against Cathedral City (Calif.) and hit three home runs in a game twice. She also pitches (7-5, 0.69 ERA, 117 strikeouts) and has committed to play at Hawaii.

If the upcoming CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs and the North Carolina Class 4A state playoffs turn out like the state playoffs in Arizona and Florida, then it's anybody's guess which team will end up No. 1 in the final POWERADE FAB 50 national rankings.

In Arizona on Monday night, while FAB 50-ranked Red Mountain (Mesa, Ariz.) held form and won its third straight state title in Division I, FAB 50-ranked Sunrise Mountain (Peoria) and Ironwood Ridge (Tucson) were beaten by longtime nemesis Canyon del Oro (Tucson) in Division II. Previously unbeaten Estrella Foothills (Goodyear) did not even win in Division III.

In Florida, which at one time had the No. 1 team, Palm Beach Gardens, state titles were won last Saturday by numerous teams that avenged losses and beat higher-ranked opponents. After analyzing all the game-by-game results of all the champions, Chamberlain (Tampa, Fla.) has the strongest resume and went from unranked to No. 17 in this week's rankings.

If either FAB 50 No. 1 Norco (Calif.) or No. 2 Pacifica (Garden Grove, Calif.) wins the CIF Southern Section Division I title, then that team will end up No. 1 in the FAB 50. This scenario still holds even though Pacifica was handed its second loss of the season last week. Both teams have played schedules that are hard to beat and either one could still finish 31-2 with the nation's toughest championship in its pocket.

Click here for the complete Week 11 rankings.

The idea came to Savannah Dorsey faster than the spinning wheel in her ceramics class at Central Crossing (Grove City, Ohio). What better way to make the most out of her art project than to create a Mother's Day gift?

Savannah dug in, quickly throwing the clay on the wheel and spinning a bowl that she would later paint horses on, symbolizing the love she and her mother share for the animal.

Savannah, a senior pitcher at Central Crossing and one of the best pitchers in the entire state of Ohio, will present her mom and high school coach, Rona Dorsey, with the bowl on Sunday for Mother's Day. But it was a move Savannah made last November that may be her mom's favorite gift.

Coming off the first-team All-State accolades she earned during her junior season, Savannah decided to commit to play softball for Ohio University, the same institution her mother played for back when softball didn't get anywhere near the national attention it receives now.

"As I was going through the recruiting process she acted like I could go wherever I wanted," Savannah said. "But when I finally decided to go to OU, I could see how excited she was."

Rona is a softball legend at OU, and still turns heads and awakens storytellers every time she sets foot on campus. But she has always let her three daughters find their own path, and was especially careful when she discovered her girls had taken strongly to the sport that she excelled at on the collegiate level.

A Division I scholarship and potential offer from Ohio University became a strong possibility during Savannah's sophomore and junior years, as she led Central Crossing (a school that has only been in existence for eight years) to its first district championship in any sport. Last season, Savannah posted a 0.66 ERA and fanned 295 batters from the circle (in 115 innings), all while hitting .506 at the plate with four home runs and 22 RBIs.

"I was trying not to put any pressure on her to attend one university over another," Rona said. "I wanted to give her the room to make the decision but at the same time still be supportive of OU because they have a great program. It was really hard to walk that line because regardless of how much I like the program, it's going to be Savannah's four years, not mine."

But Savannah's decision to continue the Dorsey legacy on campus in Athens, Ohio, might have been cultivated from the growing bond she has developed with her mother. The two have always been very close, both in and out of softball.

"We've always had a great relationship," Savannah said. "We have a lot more to talk about than just softball. Not only is she a great mom, we share the same interests. We like hiking and running and going to the beach together."

So when Savannah and her mother were sitting in Buffalo Wild Wings on a visit to Ohio University, Savannah couldn't help but think about the time when, as a fifth grader, she tried on her mom's OU letter jacket for the first time. Or all those hours in the family barn, where together they cared for their horses on one side and took batting practice on the other. Or all their hikes together, when Rona would often tell her not about the fun times but about all of the hard work that goes in to being a Division I softball player. After all, it was all of those conversations with her mother that convinced her to put her fork down, place her napkin on the table and commit to Ohio University.

"I'm so close with my family and OU is so close to home," Savannah said. "When I was trying to decide where to play, I wrote down a list of pros and cons and I would write on the pros list that my mom played there. They think she's a legend there, and I think that's so cool."

No disrespect to the ceramics project, but a daughter's choice to embrace her mom's youth and pursue her own talents on the same softball diamond her mom shined on years ago is a pretty special gift.

And the nice thing for Rona is that this gift will extend far beyond Mother's Day.

Casey Stangel is a junior pitcher at Lake City High School (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) who also plays for the SoCal Explosion. Her high school team won the Class 5A state softball championship last season and she has committed to play college softball at the University of Missouri. She will blog for ESPNHS throughout the 2012 season.

I take pride in not only being a player of the game, but also a student of the game. I love to learn from players and coaches everywhere. I believe you can take away bits of information from any experience and apply it to your game.

My favorite source of information is University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido. Coach Garrido is a highly respected coach, and has extreme passion and knowledge for the game. He is the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history, and is one of my favorite coaches of all time. He wrote a book called “Life is Yours to Win,” and I highly encourage players and coaches of any sport, at any level, to sit down and read it. Though this book has a considerable amount of insightful points, there are a couple that mean a lot to me.

“When you are driven by fear, you may win but you have no peace. When you pursue your passions, you find fulfillment in every moment, every day, every swing of the bat, every pitch thrown.”

I have found myself in places where I have been playing out of fear. Fear of failure, fear of letting down my team, fear of not being the best. Like Coach Garrido says, you must find fulfillment in every moment. I play softball for a reason, and that is because I love it; I get a rush every time I get on the field. I can’t focus on trying not to fail and fear not succeeding, because then I’m not enjoying playing and am in a state of worry. Remember why you do what you love, because in the end you will find success, and you will enjoy every second leading up to that.

“The problem is that as long as you buy into the expectations of others and base your performance on rewards, you are dealing with things you can’t control. You can’t control things around you but you can control your response to them.”

My high school softball team went 26-0 last year and won the 5A state championship. Going into this year, there was a feeling throughout the team that we had expectations to repeat an undefeated season. People put a lot of external pressure on us to be perfect, and we have to work really hard to shield all of their expectations. Realize that you cannot control the outcome of a game. You can control your attitude, and your effort, but that is all. Don’t buy into the hype of all the things outsiders will say, because you can’t play with that on your mind. Play to win, stay hungry, humble and hard-working because that is what you can control and that is what will lead you to success.

“Focusing on solutions rather than problems is critical. When all you do is obsess over what went wrong, you’re like a guy trying to drive a car forward by looking in the rearview mirror.”

Keep a short-term memory when you play. If you miss a ground ball or strike out looking, forget it; learn from it so you know how to succeed the next time, but forget everything else. When you dwell on mistakes, it takes away from the rest of the game and you ruin your chance to make up for it. When you take the information and then apply it, you will make that next play and hit that next pitch.

“The players who succeed are those who feel they truly belong at the top, whether it’s in the major leagues, the business world, or their community. It’s all about confidence. Once again, self-perception determines who you are and where you go.”

When you play, bring some swag! Get in the box and own that thing, same goes for when you’re on the field. It should not matter who you are playing, you have to believe in your preparation and in your skills and go at your opponent full-speed. When you believe you are a great player, and you play every inning that way, you have the best chance to be successful.

I could go on and on about my respect level for Coach Garrido, and how much I value learning from his words. He is such an amazing teacher of the game, and on every page of his book there is something to be learned. These are just four points among so many that Coach Garrido addresses that have truly inspired me when I play. I encourage everyone to take a look at Coach Garrido’s book, “Life is Yours to Win,” because I truly connected with it, and I hope you will, too.

Read the previous installment of Casey's blog – on getting mentally prepared – here.

(After games of Tuesday, May 8)

Here are this week’s high school softball players of the week. One player is chosen from each region of the country. The only other criteria is that no player will be chosen more than once during a season.

EAST

Dominique Chamberlain, Nazareth (Pa.)
The junior outfielder had a career game in a 15-0, four-inning rout of Easton (Pa.). The part-time starter knocked in six runs with a grand slam plus two doubles in three at-bats during the mercy-rule shortened game. Chamberlain, a left-handed batter, now has three homers on the season as the Blue Eagles improved to 11-6.

SOUTHEAST

Whitney Gillespie, Pelham (Ala.)
She may not have the gaudy strikeout totals of other pitchers in Alabama, but considering the schedule that Pelham has played and what she has done at the plate, there aren’t many players in the state quite like her. In Pelham’s 3-0 triumph last week over Oak Mountain (Birmingham, Ala.) that gave Pelham a Class 6A area title, Gillespie hit a two-run homer and pitched a three-hitter. She went 2 for 3 with a run scored in the team’s previous state playoff game. For the season entering this week’s next round of the state playoffs, Gillespie has a 19-4 pitching record with a 0.91 ERA. She also had 48 RBIs and a .434 batting average.

MIDWEST

Cassie Gillespie, Notre Dame Academy (Toledo, Ohio)
The sophomore pitcher helped the Eagles avenge two regular-season losses to Clay (Oregon, Ohio) and capture a Division 1 sectional title with a 4-0 win. Gillespie hurled a complete-game, four-hit shutout and helped her own cause with a two-out, three-run home run in the fourth inning. The win advances the Eagles into the regional tournament semifinals this week against Central Catholic (Toledo, Ohio).

MIDLANDS

Katie Doerre, Tomball (Texas)
The offensive sparkplug for the No. 22 team in this week’s POWERADE FAB 50, Doerre came through with two hits and a homer when Tomball defeated Round Rock (Texas) 10-3 in the deciding game of a best-of-three Class 5A playoff series. Doerre also extended her latest hitting streak to 17 games. During the streak, she’s had one 4-for-4 and two 3-for-3 outings. Bound for Texas State University, Doerre heads into this week’s playoffs batting .563 for the season with 27 runs scored and 25 RBIs.

WEST

Shelby Abeyta, Copper Hills (West Jordan, Utah)
Two weeks ago in the title game of the Swing for Life tourney, Abeyta doubled and was the winning pitcher when Copper Hills beat Juab (Utah) 6-5. That accomplishment was entirely appropriate because just two years ago Abeyta herself survived a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. She’s now one of the team leaders at Copper Hills and had a four-hitter last week in a win over Jordan (Utah). Already this week, Abeyta struck out nine in a 3-1 win over Brighton (Salt Lake City). In addition to her outstanding play and courage in the face of adversity, Abeyta also is a member of Utah’s academic all-state team.

By the time next week's POWERADE FAB 50 rankings are released, there could be as many as one-third of the slots for the final rankings of the season sewn up.

Florida's state championships will be decided this weekend, and then all the trophies in Arizona will be hoisted by Tuesday.

Red Mountain (Mesa, Ariz.) is the highest-ranked team from either state heading into this week, and if the Mountain Lions win a third straight state title, this time in Division I, they have an outside shot of finishing No. 1. For that to happen, though, at least three top teams in California, plus Alexander Central (Taylorsville, N.C.), would have to lose.

Click here for the complete Week 10 rankings.

Casey Stangel is a junior pitcher at Lake City High School (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) who also plays for the SoCal Explosion. Her high school team won the Class 5A state softball championship last season and she has committed to play college softball at the University of Missouri. She will blog for ESPNHS throughout the 2012 season.

When I put on my uniform, it’s like putting on a shield; it blocks out anything and everything unrelated to that game. I am no longer worried about my friends, my school work or my weekend plans. I switch into my game mode, and that is a focus that cannot be broken.

Before a game, my mind zones in and mentally prepares to beat that day’s opponent. I build up my confidence and focus on winning a ballgame. Pregame mental preparation is absolutely crucial for me to play at my best. Keys to this preparation are visualization, listening to music and looking over the other team’s stats.

Visualizing myself striking out batters or seeing contact on a perfect hit is something I do before every single game. If I can see myself doing something in my head, it makes it a reality when I go out on the field. I have to sit down in a quiet place before the game and close my eyes and put the game in my head. I think about what it looks like to strike someone out and then go out on the field and apply it. The same things go for hitting; I see the other team’s pitcher in front of me and imagine finding that perfect pitch and hitting it right back at the defense on a line.

In one of my earlier blogs, I made the statement “Hours before a game, up until the second I put on my cleats, you can find me with my headphones in, mentally preparing.” Music is something that I have found is huge to my mental preparation. It puts me in a different world, away from people, relaxed and focused on the game. Music also is something that just fires me up. I am pumped for the day. It loosens me up because I am jammin’ out to my iPod with some good pregame vibes flowin’. I stay in my separate world; my mind ready and psyched to ball. People know that when the headphones go in, I am in game mode and I’m not coming out.

Last, but most definitely not least, is going over stats. My high school pitching coach has tracked every single pitch I have thrown since my freshman year, making me well-educated on every team we play. We know every hitter and what they have done so that we are prepared and have a game plan going into every at-bat. My goal is to win every pitch, and beat out my opponent every time, and reviewing the stats gives me a great advantage in that fight.

Preparation is the key to success in everything, whether it is a game, a test, a speech, anything. Softball games are a huge deal to me no matter who I am playing; each game is my test. To be at my best I have to prepare for any eventuality, and focusing my head is a huge asset in preparation.

Read the previous installment of Casey's blog – on her approach to high school season – here.

(After games of Tuesday, May 1)

Here are this week’s high school softball players of the week. One player is chosen from each region of the country. The only other criteria is that no player will be chosen more than once during a season.

EAST
Olivia Tatara, Stone Bridge (Ashburn, Va.)
The junior catcher had a day to remember at the Battle of Ashburn Round Robin Softball Tournament. In three consecutive at-bats over two games against her school's two intra-city rivals, she belted three towering home runs. She also beat out a throw with a walk-off infield single to give her team a 6-5 win over Broad Run in the most dramatic of the contests. Earlier, her first two homers came late in a loss to Briar Woods. She then helped her team take a 4-0 first-inning lead with a homer in the next game vs. Broad Run, which was decided by her walk-off single.

SOUTHEAST
Katie Brignac, John Curtis Christian (River Ridge, La.)
The younger sister of Ashley Brignac, who won the 2011 Capital One Academic All-American of the Year award at Louisiana-Lafayette, led the Patriots to the Class 2A state title last weekend and a 31-0 final record. She scattered five hits when Curtis topped Evangel Christian (Shreveport, La.) 2-0 in the Class 2A state final and had a two-hitter in the semifinals. The sophomore standout also had a no-hitter and came within one walk of throwing a perfect game earlier in the playoffs.

MIDWEST
Lilly Fecho, Glenbard North (Carol Stream, Ill.)
The senior left-handed pitcher and Purdue recruit has led the Panthers to a 20-0 record, the No. 1 ranking in the Chicago metro area, and the No. 25 FAB 50 ranking. Last week, after allowing only one earned run in five wins the previous week, she led Glenbard North to a 9-1 win over Naperville Central (Naperville, Ill.) to snap the Redhawks' 12-game winning streak. She had 11 strikeouts and allowed four hits. Later in the week, she fanned 11 in a three-hit 3-1 win over Wheaton Warrenville South (Wheaton, Ill.). She is 14-0 on the season.

MIDLANDS
Kelsey Stewart, Maize (Kan.)
A junior who has already committed to Florida, Stewart is smacking deep balls all over the Sunflower State. In an 11-4, 16-2 doubleheader sweep by the Eagles last week over Derby (Kan.), Stewart hammered three home runs in the first game and added a fourth homer for the day in the nightcap. She had a total of nine RBIs for the day. In her first 12 games, Stewart had hit nine homers with 41 RBIs and had a .691 batting average.

WEST
Hannah Cookson, Crescenta Valley (La Crescenta, Calif.)
The sophomore slugger comes from a school that is known for prolific power hitters. She continued to rip shots last week, one week after she tied a reported national record with two grand slams in the same inning during a win against Arcadia (Calif.). Her week included a 3-for-3 outing with three homers and five RBIs in a 16-0 victory over Muir (Pasadena, Calif.); a 3-for-4 performance with two homers and four RBIs in an 8-7 win over Hoover (Glendale, Calif.); and a 2-for-3 outing with one homer and four RBIs in a 15-1 romp past Poly (Pasadena, Calif.). Entering this week, Cookson was hitting .707 with 14 homers and 47 RBIs.

Losing games is all about timing when it comes to the rankings.

A great case in point is what happened to two top-five teams from last week's POWERADE FAB 50.

No. 2 Norco lost 3-2 to Santiago (Corona, Calif.) and didn't drop at all in this week's rankings. No. 5 Palm Beach Gardens (Fla.) lost 4-0 to Jupiter (Fla.) and was sent tumbling down to No. 31 and arguably could have dropped all the way out.

The difference, of course, is that Palm Beach Gardens lost in the state playoffs and its season is over. Norco lost in a league game to a team it beat earlier in the season. Plus, the Cougars still have just two losses on the season overall, still own a win over No. 1 Pacifica (Garden Grove, Calif.) and still have an opportunity to end the season winning the prestigious CIF Southern Section Division I title with just two losses.

In addition to Palm Beach Gardens, which was No. 1 just two weeks ago, previous No. 10 Poland Seminary (Poland, Ohio) also lost last week. That enabled two new teams -- Niceville (Fla.) and The Woodlands (Texas) -- to join this week's top 10.

Click here for the complete Week 9 rankings.

Andrea Hawkins is a senior center fielder for Bay City (Texas) and Texas Impact Gold. She has signed to play at Alabama. She will blog for ESPNHS throughout the 2012 season.

Being versatile is a big plus in softball today. I am a slapper, and my objective is to put the ball in play. I start in the left-handed batter’s box, run toward the pitcher and make contact with the ball moving toward me. My goal is to hit the ball to the left side of the infield, utilize my speed to get on base and to put pressure on the defense.

Being able to read the defense allows me to determine if I am going to slap, bunt or swing away, and that keeps the defense guessing.

When I come up to bat, I usually show bunt the first pitch to see how the second baseman moves. I look to see how fast she gets to first base, or if she breaks early. The shortstop might even break to second base. If I see this, I know I can fake bunt, slap and get on first safely.

If I see the defense playing back close to the bases, I lay down a bunt and beat the throw to first base.

If the field is hard, I slap the ball into the ground to get a high bounce.

If the defense is playing in, I can pop it over the infielders' heads as a blooper shot.

A slapper's goal is to put the ball in play, get on base, then steal a base to get into scoring position and score on the next base hit.

When I come up to bat later in the game, the defense thinks I can't hit a long ball and they will be playing shallow. When you see this, feel free to swing away and drive the ball over their heads. They will not be expecting it. After they see you swing away, they will not know whether to play you shallow or deep.

All of this takes a lot of practice, a lot of discipline at the plate and getting to know how the defense works. But as you can tell, being a triple threat is a tremendous advantage. It keeps the defense guessing and increases your chances of getting on base.

Read the previous installment of Andrea’s blog -- on the importance of swagger -- here.

Andrea Chiaradio zoned in on catcher Julie Royer's signals. The junior pitcher from Stonington (Conn.) was one out away from accomplishing a feat she had never done for her high school team: throw a no-hitter.

But this wasn't your garden variety no-hitter, this was a perfect game. And it wouldn't be just any perfect game, it'd be a perfect perfect game. The first 20 batters had come to the plate and all exited the batter's box via strikeout, and Chiaradio was now on the cusp of striking out every single batter in a full-length, seven-inning high school softball game.

So with her palms a little sweatier and her heart beating a little faster, Chiaradio dug in.

"You could tell she had more pop to the ball that day," Stonington head coach Ann-Marie Houle said. "Her dropball was really moving and she was hitting spots more than ever."

Chiaradio didn't leave teammates, coaches or fans in suspense long, quickly fanning Norwich Free Academy's (Conn.) 21st and final batter to complete a feat that has only been achieved one other time in the history of Connecticut high school softball.

"The other team was actually very nice," Chiaradio said. "When we shook hands a lot of them were saying ‘good game’ and patting me on the back."

The only other name next to Chiaradio in the Connecticut record book is Rachele Fico, now a junior ace for the nationally ranked LSU softball team.

Fico hurled a staggering 26 perfect games in her high school career, but Chiaradio's perfection is arguably the best performance in state history for two reasons.

First, this is the first "perfect" perfect game since the high school softball rubber has been moved back from 40 to 43 feet, giving hitters a longer reaction time to square up on a pitch.

Second, and perhaps most impressive, Norwich Free Academy plays in a higher division than Chiaradio's Stonington squad. And, even more mind-boggling, NFA had pounded out 27 hits in the game prior to its matchup with Stonington.

"For games against teams a division up, our team tends to really focus and play hard," Chiaradio said. "We want to beat the bigger-division schools, the teams that we aren't necessarily supposed to beat."

The ensuing media frenzy might mark more than just a historic milestone. It might also set off an alarm to college coaches around the country that there's a blossoming hurler in Connecticut who could really bolster their programs.

Chiaradio followed up her perfect game with a five-inning no-hitter against Tourtellotte (Conn.) last Friday, coming within a fourth-inning walk of her second consecutive flawless masterpiece. In that game, Chiaradio was again dangerously close to perfecting perfection, striking out 14 of 15 Tourtellotte hitters, the 15th of which was thrown out trying to bunt her way on.

"Over the winter I did a lot of pitching and working out," said Chiaradio, who continues to train with her pitching coach, Henry Laudone, as well as with her father.

"As a coach, this is why you encourage your players to work hard," Houle said. "To reap the reward."

Casey Stangel is a junior pitcher at Lake City High School (Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) who also plays for the SoCal Explosion. Her high school team won the Class 5A state softball championship last season and she has committed to play college softball at the University of Missouri. She will blog for ESPNHS throughout the 2012 season.

High school softball season is the time to test myself. It’s an opportunity for me to get comfortable with changes I have made over the winter.

For example, this last winter I learned a new pitching style, and this spring I am perfecting my mechanics. I am not playing against “the best of the best,” and I am in a more relaxed environment to just get in there and play.

In contrast, summer season is when it’s go time. Day-in-and-day-out I am competing against the very best players in the country. For me, it’s when I want to peak in my training, and by nationals I should be at my very best. It is my biggest challenge and it shows me what I truly need to improve on because I am playing against the girls I will be facing in college.

What I have found is that high school season can become a goof-off and social time, and for the college-bound athlete, it can be easy to fall into that. So learn to challenge yourself; make your own competition. It’s very easy to lose your mechanics in the high school season if the talent level is not the same as it is in travel ball. Basically, the 15 home runs you hit in high school mean nothing if you get to an exposure tournament and go 0 for 5 against pitchers going to Division I schools.

That brings me back to my point of challenging yourself. High school season doesn’t have to be a time to coast; it can be so much more than that. It is an opportunity to test new things in your mechanics or learn new things about yourself as a player. Take advantage of it.

My challenge this high school season is to develop my rise ball. We are calling it at least twice for every batter, and whether or not it’s a strike every time, we keep throwing it. You have to fail to be able to succeed, and why not fail now? It’s easy for me to throw a fastball right down the middle every time and strike girls out, but that’s not making me better.

Realize that high school season is a huge opportunity for growth and it is something that should be taken advantage of. I would much rather fail a couple times in high school season than fail at Premier Nationals when it truly counts. Take this opportunity to work on your pitches or get some at-bats and see the ball.

You have to be willing to sacrifice some statistics by challenging yourself, but it is so worth it to be at your peak in the summer and eventually gain those stats back against better competition.

Read the previous installment of Casey's blog – on her fire to compete – here.