There are no losers in this game

By Barry Byers - Barry Byers

There are winners. There are losers.

But losers is a word that ought to be tossed out of the dictionary because it certainly doesn't paint a true picture of the teams that traveled to Rock Hill this week for the NSA Class B Girls Fastpitch Softball World Series.

The Susquehanna Slam 16-and-under team from the Harrison, Pa., area, went 1-1 in pool play, but lost two straight in the double-elimination round and were sent packing Wednesday morning after being knocked out 5-0 by the North Carolina Lightning.

Photo 1: There are no losers in this game

But the players and coaches didn't plan to pack their bags that night. The Slam had planned on being in town at least through Friday, so the team went to lunch at a local buffet before heading back to their hotel.

"We'll stay at least through Thursday," said Rich Canulli, the Slam's coach. "We still have parents coming in today (Wednesday) who had hoped to come see us play. Basically, we'll do whatever our group decides about the rest of the week.

"It's disappointing to be knocked out. We had hoped to still be playing after today. But this is a young team, our first year together, so this was a good learning experience for our kids."

There are 16 players, but only 12 made the trip. Canulli said when the organization decided to add a 16-and-under team, open tryouts were held to pick the players.

Canulli said the toughest part was telling eight of the 24 candidates they hadn't been picked. The beauty of the team, he said, is the players go to eight different schools and are among the best from his area, and all 16 will be back next year.

The loser moniker certainly doesn't apply to catcher Janelle Britton, who played in Wednesday's final game with the index and middle fingers on her right hand broken. The fingers are on her throwing hand.

Britton broke them Tuesday afternoon after fouling off seven straight pitches. The last struck her hand and caused the breaks.

"I had to come out of the game, but I asked our coaches to let me keep playing," Britton said. "They wouldn't let me, so I had my heart set on playing today.

"When we got back to the hotel, I iced my fingers all night. Before today's game, I had to show our coaches I could make a fist. It hurt, but I did it. We taped them up and I caught the whole game."

"Loser" comes nowhere near describing pitcher Adrian Paskey, the only Slam player with World Series experience. She was in Rock Hill four years ago and played for the 12-and-under York (Pa.) Starz.

Paskey and her family canceled a vacation to Hawaii to come here. But, she added, a health issue played a part in that decision.

"I had a very bad case of pneumonia last March and was in the hospital," she said. "When I got out, I had to slowly work myself back into playing softball, had to get my strength back.

"I'm still having some lung issues. I had to come out today after five innings. I couldn't stay out there any longer."

Loser? Not by a long shot.

Canulli wasn't grabbing for excuses and made a good point when he said the heat here puts his team at a disadvantage.

Teams in Pennsylvania, he said, have around three good months of weather for softball. The Slam took advantage of those months, qualifying for the World Series with a third-place finish at an NSA tournament in Allentown, Pa.

The team is based in Harrisburg, eight minutes from Hershey, Pa., but its name has stuck since the organization was formed years ago.

"The gentleman who started it lived in Susquehanna Township, so that's where it came from," Canulli said. "Where we practice, we can see the Susquehanna River.''

Britton said although the team is finished for the season, it is far from being done. The players know what needs fixing and that's what they will work on over the winter.

The defense and pitching are fine, she said, but the team needs to hit better. In a national tournament, every run put on the scoreboard is big.

"I know we can crush the ball because I've seen us do it," she said. "But we need to do it against better pitchers."

That, Paskey said, was a problem this week.

"We face some good pitching back home, but not as good as we've seen here," she said. "We have pitchers that throw risers and drops, but none as dramatic as the pitchers we faced this week. In this tournament, we hit against pitchers with a wide variety of pitches. It comes down to a matter of us learning how to hit that kind of pitching."

But the experience is one Britton and Paskey said they will cherish. They had a great time and hope next year they make it back to the World Series, which will be played at a different location.

To do so, Paskey said the Slam needs to have more car washes to raise money.

"We played so hard since Monday that our uniforms were falling apart on the field," Paskey said. "I had to use clear tape to hold mine together."

Actually, the pressed-on letters and numbers on the jerseys were peeling off, and most of the players let them fall rather than taping them back.

But that was something to laugh about, an outlet the girls used to keep smiles on their faces.

"I hate we lost, but we learned a valuable lesson," Canulli said. "Our team can go toe-to-toe with any team we play."

• NSA notebook • 4C