Welcome to the 2010 Monmouth University Softball Blog, an up-close look at the Hawks as told by the players on the team. Each week, one of the student-athletes will give their insight into the season and provide commentary and candor into the events that make up the year. 

Fifth Entry - May 3, 2010: Jessica Nicola, senior catcher

Hey fans, Senior Jess here bringing you the update for the week.  This past week started off really interesting, we took a trip to play Manhattan and ended up splitting. However, their field was something fun to experience; they had one all-turf complex for all the sports with all different color lines. On Thursday, Rider came to us and the first game didn't go as planned but we turned it on in game two and ended up taking it in five innings. 

We were off from playing on Saturday and we had practice early in the morning and after having a great practice a bunch of us went out to the beach and enjoyed the sunshine. After burning for a couple of hours we went and got some ice cream and went to watch our baseball boys play. After the baseball game we completed our day with a little bit of Surf Taco and shopping.  

Then came Sunday, our Senior Day. For Lex and I, it was our very last game at our field. After warm-ups, the Senior Presentations went on. There were no tears, instead the time was filled with laughter and a lot of love. Our teammates surprised us with pre-game recordings of how they felt about us on and off the field, it was a great surprise. Coach Louie also framed our "beautiful" old jerseys and pictures and they came out great! Our teammates made photo collages and baskets of goodies for us, too. I really just want to thank everyone and my teammates and coaches for making it a great day. I'm really going to miss them all, but we still have a lot of games ahead as we continue our mission to get the NEC Title.  Oh yea, the games weren't the prettiest, but we won both!! 

Fourth Entry - April 26, 2010: Kayla Weiser, freshman first base fielder

Hello bleacher creatures, Kayla here to tell you what happened this week here with the Hawks. We started off the week on Tuesday winning both games against Saint Peters. Then, Rutgers came to play us on Wednesday, but the game was postponed one day due to rain. That night we had a recruit and showed her what we like to do with our spare time here at Monmouth. We went to one of our
favorite spots, where we all enjoyed some large slurpies and then we made a trip to teammate Lauren Sulick's favorite fast food place where she enjoyed her favorite cheeseburger. Rutgers came back on Thursday and unfortunately we came up short with a close loss.

This past weekend we traveled to Connecticut where we took on the CCSU and swept them to improve our league record. After our wins we hopped back on the bus and headed to Rhode Island, but Sunday morning the rains came and it never stopped. We did improve our hacky sack skills and dance moves in the outfield as we waited for our games to be canceled. We ended our week with a four-hour bus ride back to New Jersey.

Third Entry - April 19, 2010: Colleen Kelly, sophomore infielder

Hi fans, Colleen here to give you my perspective of this past week with the Monmouth softball team. After a great weekend at home versus Long Island and Wagner, we headed into this week feeling pretty confident. On Wednesday, we faced off against Lehigh. Every time we play Lehigh, the games are competitive; however, this year we had extra incentive to win. Lehigh beat Coach Jami at Regionals her sophomore year at Texas A&M. I am happy to report that we made Coach Jami proud and won both games. 

Due to the weather this week, all of us had some intimate, one-on-one time with our lovely tarp. Nothing makes the day more exciting than tarping, untarping and then re-tarping. This about sums up how our time was spent outside of games this week.

On Friday, we had a special opportunity to participate in a build for Habitat for Humanity. Monmouth was sponsoring a build for two houses in Asbury Park. Our responsibility was the walls of the house. After we got Coach Louie into "build mode" with a large fry from McDonalds, the hammers and nails started flying, literally flying. I can't count the number of nails I saw flying towards my teammates faces, most of which came from Lauren Sulick's hammerin' hands. Luckily, everyone survived and no one was blinded by a rogue nail.

On Saturday we played Quinnipiac. The first game was a high-scoring, intense battle, which we came out on the losing side. The second game was a bitter fight for runs. It went into extra innings and the Bobcats edged us out for the win.

We woke up Sunday determined to get two "W's". We won the first game against Sacred Heart in extra innings, but we just couldn't pull out a win in the second game. 

This week, we have a busy schedule with two mid-week doubleheaders and conference road games on Saturday and Sunday.

Second Entry - April 12, 2010: Melissa Mehrer, junior pitcher

Hey fans, its Melissa, and thank you for checking out the latest edition of this year's softball blog. After another strong week for the Hawks, I want to give you an update on the season. On Wednesday, we traveled to Seton Hall for a nonconference doubleheader. It was a good pair of wins for us beating a BIG EAST team in preparation for our conference games last weekend. It was an overall great team effort, everyone contributed to the sweep. 

This weekend's menu consisted of a first place showdown between rival LIU and Wagner's Seahawks.  Saturday's games proved to be two exciting contests as we swept the Blackbirds for the first time since 1999. Overall, the team's execution on offense and solid defense gave us the winning edge.

However, Sunday's games weren't so fulfilling, as we walked away with only one win against Wagner. We came back in the sixth inning of the first game to tie the game and pulled off the win in the seventh. We came out of the weekend 8-1 in conference play and take on Lehigh in nonconference play on Wednesday, prior to conference games versus Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart at home this weekend. We are looking to continue our goal of being number one in the NEC and to regain ownership of The Hawks' Nest. See you this week!!

First Entry - April 5, 2010: Alexa Ferrara, senior second base fielder

Hey Hawks fans, Lex here. Just wanted to catch you all up on what's been happening so far in our season. After sweeping Saint Francis, we were only able to play one game against Robert Morris due to the rain.

Even though the rain continued and cancelled four more games last week, we finished where we left off at FDU over the weekend by getting two wins, making us 5-0 in conference.

On Wednesday we travel to a BIG EAST school to play under the lights at Seton Hall, which is our only game this week and is being used as preparation for us to return to our own field to continue conference play this weekend. We play Wagner and our rival Long Island at home this weekend. We're excited to open up our home conference schedule this weekend and look forward to seeing you out there. Go Hawks!