Manager Ruben Felix put the 36-member squad through a brisk three-hour practice in the morning. All position players took part in a 60-meter dash and then worked on hitting in the batting cages and defense with a traditional in-and-out practice on the main field. The pitching staff went through conditioning drills and got some work done in the bullpen.
"Today was a more get to know you, you get to know us day," said Felix. "It was good, especially having a lot of young, new players from last year's roster to this year's roster. There are not a lot of players coming back which is a good thing for USA Baseball because we brought in better athletes. For us it was a good day to show the coaches that haven't seen these kids here what they could do at the plate, on the mound and on defense."
The afternoon session was highlighted by the first Red-Blue scrimmage that was won by the Blue team, 15-3. It jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back en route to the victory.
The first inning was highlighted by a two-run single by Donna Williams that opened the scoring. Alexa Maldonado doubled to make it a 3-0 game and a double off the bat of Samantha Cobb capped the scoring in the frame.
The Red squad scratched across a run in the bottom of the inning to make it a 4-1 contest. With the bases loaded, Malaika Underwood raced home on a wild pitch from Ashley Sujkowski.
Another big inning for Blue saw it stretch its lead to six, 7-1, after two frames. Again it was Williams who delivered as she singled home two more runs then scored on a Veronica Alvarez double.
Blue kept on scoring, pushing across six runs in the middle frames to open up a 13-1 lead. Highlighting the scoring outburst for the Blue squad was an RBI double from Michelle Snyder and an RBI triple off the bat of Williams, who finished the night 3-for-3 with five RBIs.
Ashley Langoni provided the first RBI single for the Red team as she drove in Anna Kimbrell with a base hit to center field.
Two more runs crossed the plate for the Blue team in the eighth inning to account for its final run count. Snyder collected her third RBI of the evening with a double to center and scored on an error to make it 15-2.
The Red team tallied its third run of the game in the eighth inning. Makenzie Vandergeest reached on a two-out base hit to left field. Daniella Ibarra followed with a run-scoring double to account for the final score.
On the mound, the coaching staff got a look at 10 different pitchers. Ashley Sujkowski started for the Blue team and struck out two in her two innings of work. Bessie Noll pitched two scoreless frames, while Kayla Bufardeci retired all six batters she faced. Trina Moquette struck out two in 1 2/3 innings. Loren Smith pitched the entire ninth inning, taking the mound for both the Red and Blue teams.
For the Red team, Brooke Meyer started and was touched for four runs on four hits. She was followed by Ibarra who allowed three unearned runs in her two innings of work. Susanne Boden and Tawny Smith pitched the middle four innings and Smith closed out the game.
"I think things went well," commented Felix after the Red-Blue scrimmage. "I believe we got the first day jitters out after the morning session and in the afternoon, I thought the kids got a lot looser. They looked like they wanted to win themselves a spot on the 20-man roster."
The second day of trials will follow the same schedule as day one. A three-hour morning practice on Monday will be followed by a 10-inning Red-Blue scrimmage in the afternoon. Practice is slated to begin at 11 a.m. (EST) with the scrimmage set for a 7 p.m. (EST) start. Both the practice and the scrimmage will be held at the baseball practice field on the University of Utah campus.
