Two games into the World Cup and it was just how I remembered it from last year: amazing fans and great USA softball. It is so exciting to see my teammates come up with such big hits -- like Tairia Flowers GRAND SLAM in the first inning. It was a shot and really started the game off with a bang.
We have also had some really special fans in the form of bat girls. Today we had a bat girl who won the KFC Bat Girl Challenge online (almost 7,000 votes!) -- her name was Reba Williams. She was so much fun to have in the dugout! The two bat girls we had yesterday during our game versus Venezuela inspired us all. They were Katie Winkle from Connecticut and Brittany Whipple (my left field buddy!) from New Jersey. Both of these girls were sent to us from the Make-a-Wish Foundation because their one wish (they both have terminal diseases) was to meet the USA national softball team. They were the absolute best, and to think they could have asked for anything -- but it was us they wanted to meet.
Well, after hearing their stories and hanging out with them before and during the game, it really put life into perspective for all of us and made us feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to meet such strong and inspiring girls. Makes you think twice about how you feel after a strikeout or an error. It makes me feel so lucky to just be in a USA uniform with such talented women and meet such great fans like Katie, Brittany, Reba and all the people we had dinner with tonight at the Ultimate Fan Zone. Looking forward to meeting more amazing people the rest of the tournament and seeing our team come up big like we did tonight!