May 2, 2001
| Ramona Shelburne |  | Year: Senior
Position: OF
Height: 5-2
Hometown: West Hills, CA
High School: El Camino Real
Major: American Studies |
|
Sometimes there really is no explanation.
"What happened to you guys this weekend?" people keep asking me.
I try to come up with something like "well, we just kept hitting the ball right at people" or "we just weren't clicking on all cylinders" but you know what, that's really not what happened out there.
So we got skunked. Three games, no wins. Big stinkin' deal.
I feel pretty bad about the outcome of things but honestly, I don't think we played all that poorly. We just didn't win any of the games.
In the last few weeks I've written a lot about staying positive. How when things aren't quite going the way you want them to, your only option should be to keep plugging away and trying to make adjustments.
Well, I have an addendum to that. When things aren't going the way you want them to, try and figure out what's going wrong but after a while, get over it. Move on to the next day and don't beat yourself up about it.
There are a lot of good things that we can take from this weekend. Tori pitched an awesome game against UCLA on Sunday. Robin came up with a clutch two-out RBI single at Washington on Friday. Kira came back and made some highlight-quality defensive plays after an error on Sunday. Outcome-wise, we just came up on the short end of the stick.
Yes, good teams find a way to win games when they aren't getting the breaks but good teams also know how to put things in perspective and when to stop analyzing things and just go out and play hard the next day.
* A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about how my career here has gone. At first I was being negative with myself, focusing on outcomes and feeling a sense of disappointment that I haven't always been able to sustain a level of play that I feel I'm capable of. Sure I could point to good games or weeks but not a whole month or season.
I was all wrapped up in that negative reverie when Robin came up to me in the LA airport during our stopover on the way home from Arizona.
"Ramona, how many games do we have left this year?" she asked after I told her what I was beating myself up about.
"Eleven I guess, and then Regionals and the World Series."
"Why don't you just have fun for these last eleven games, that's all that really matters now."
"Yeah," I said with an exhale. "You're totally right."
Eleven games and then post-season. That's all I have control over now. The past is the past. Dead weight if you obsess over it. Wasted energy that would be much better spent focusing on tomorrow.
Ever since I let that go two weeks ago, it's just been about having fun and enjoying what's left of this season.
I bring all this up because I really think that not being able to let go of games like this weekend is what has bogged our team down in recent years. We've gone into Regionals carrying around all the negative energy and frustration built up in the Pac-10 season. Granted, Pac-10 games can definitely test your confidence, but at the same time, you can't let it defeat you. Every game you're hitting against an All-American pitcher and every team you face is a top-15 team. You're going to fail more than you'll succeed. But that doesn't mean you can't be positive.
I don't foresee this team going into Regionals like those past teams based on the way we've handled setbacks so far this season, but I still think it's something to be aware of.
So we lost three games this weekend. Big deal. Did we play our best softball? No. But were there good things we can take away from it? Absolutely. Sure there are things we can learn, but sometimes it's really better to just quit trying to explain things and go out and play hard tomorrow.
So on that note, I'll heed my own advice and sign off until next week.
