Case closed as champs win qualifier - overambitious

Kristen Thompson took one for the team yesterday, and the sacrifice wound up taking her team to the Zone 4 fastpitch championship tournament. Thomson hit a solid single to right field in the fourth inning of yesterday’s 4-1 win over Winkler’s Garden Valley Collegiate Zodiacs in a zone tourney qualifier at Republic of Manitobah Park in Portage la Prairie.But when the throw from right field to first base came in, it caught the Saints’ third baseman just below the shoulder and she went down instantly, forcing her to leave the game with the score tied 1-1.Kayla Case came in to pinch run for the injured slugger, and two batters later, slid home with the eventual winning run after Bobbi Yaremchuk’s RBI single.The game was the first Zone 4 action Case saw this season and the unsung hero could not imagine a better time to make her debut -- even though the circumstances were less than ideal. “It’s been a while since I’ve played and it was (a pressure situation). But you’ve gotta love it,” laughed Case, whose Saints now join first-place finishers Sanford Sabres (North) and Morden Thunder (South) and Portage Collegiate Institute Pats, who defeated Altona’s W.C. Miller Aces in yesterday’s other playoff game, at tomorrow’s zone tournament at Republic Park.The Saints will face Morden, whom AMHS beat in the zone final and the provincial final last year, in their opening playoff game tomorrow at 9 a.m.The double-knockout event will wrap up with the final between the A and B side winners at 3:30 p.m., with a second game, if necessary, at 5:30 p.m.A second-inning RBI by Andrea Boehm scored Kendra Dubois and put AMHS up 1-0 yesterday afternoon.But the Zodiacs countered in the fourth. With a runner on second, Saints catcher Andrea Wiens could not squeeze a third strike and Yaremchuk could not hold on to Wiens’ ensuing throw to first.The would-be strikeout victim got aboard, while the runner scored from second on Yaremchuk’s error. The Thompson-Case-Yaremchuk combination gave AMHS the 2-1 lead in the bottom of the frame, but several base running errors cost the defending zone and provincial champions a larger lead.It was only strong defence which kept the Saints in the game until their big bats kicked in. With Jamal Houle and Adrianna Boychuk aboard in the fifth, AMHS hurler Deanna Mitchell cranked a shot to deep left field for a two-run triple, although she became overambitious and was thrown out trying to score on the play.It was still enough for the win and enough to settle the Saints coach, who was noticeably anxious during the outing. “We knew we had to win and I think they were sort of relaxed, which stressed me out a bit,” said AMHS bench boss Shauna Thomson.“They know we have to go into (tomorrow) completely firing and fired up. It’s do or die from here on in. (Yesterday), we hit well. Not real well, but good enough. We ran ourselves out of some runs, but we were good enough. That’s about all I can say.”Mitchell threw a solid seven innings, allowing only three hits while striking out nine and surrendering one walk. But Thomson knows the Saints will have to play cleaner ball to get far in the zone tournament and tried to instill that notion into her celebrating squad following yesterday’s win. “I told the girls they’re going to have to be sharper, especially when they play Morden. There won’t be umpteen dozen times to score, you’ll have your one or two and that will be it,” said Thomson.“It will be a pitching duel. It’s going to be a tough one.”



Ref:

http://www.portagedailygraphic.com/story.php?id=233370

COLUMN: A year full of tangible achievments - overambitious

(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)MEDFORD, Mass., Jun 01, 2006 (Tufts Daily, U-WIRE via COMTEX) --Fellow Jumbos, I wanted to take the opportunity to give you a brief and hopefully mildly entertaining year in review of things the Senate has accomplished since September.

After being on Senate for all four years at Tufts, I would like to emphasize the enormous amount of respect that our student government receives from administrators, allowing us to bring significant and positive changes to campus.A year ago I ran for Tufts Community Union (TCU) President on the platform of "Making JUMBO Changes" (ah, the fun of acronyms). While I laid out many different ideas that to some might have seemed overambitious, I insisted that this would be a year in which the Senate would have tangible accomplishments to present to the student body by the year's end.Granted, not every idea panned out, but here is a rundown of what the Senate (not just myself) has accomplished throughout the year:Jobs: We created an Internship Stipend Fund that provided 25 $3,500 stipends for students with internships in the public sector. We are currently working on ways to improve alumni relations by hooking up recent alums with the student organizations of which they were a part. Finally, we collaborated with the Junior Class Council and Kaplan to offer free diagnostic tests to students interested in graduate, medical, and business school.Unite Campus Communities: We established the Community Connections Campaign to bridge the gap between students and neighbors. This included creating a campus calendar, planning a welcome-back BBQ for students and neighbors next fall and lobbying in Somerville to respond to the tragedy earlier this semester by increasing pedestrian safety.We also presented this plan to the Medford City Council and local Somerville politicians.Additionally, we organized some great programs: Fall Ball, Halloween on the Hill, Culture Festival, Scavenger Hunt, Nighttime Quad Reception and the First Annual Intercultural Semiformal. We are currently working with the Committee on Fraternities and Sororities to implement a plan of action in response to the Jelke Report evaluating the Greek System.Finally, we separated Homecoming Weekend and Parent's Weekend for future years so that students will not have to choose between spending time with friends and family.Money: We increased the Student Life Fund, which was actually created last year, to the largest amount to date to serve as a central pool of co-sponsorship from the administration to support student programming. We also budgeted over $1 million to over 130 student organizations for the fiscal year 2007.Better Campus Housing: We implemented a Reciprocity Housing Lottery System to help predictability and fairness in choosing on-campus housing; sophomore and senior year lottery numbers are now reciprocals of each other, so if you get the bottom number sophomore year, you will have the top number your senior year.Additionally, we instituted a rollout of lottery numbers so students will get all three numbers during their freshman year.Open-Up Technology: Online Add-Drop will be ready by next fall - no more running around to track down professors or forging your advisor's signature. Wireless Internet has also officially been extended to the Academic and Residential Quads and the President's Lawn, and is now fully functional.We are currently planning the full implementation of a Joey GPS system - test trials have been positive, so stay tuned. Finally, we built a database for off-campus housing reviews on tuftsreviews.com in addition to adding semester-end course review data to the Web site for more concrete information.Other highlights: Buses galore - Turkey, Spring Break and Boston Bus Shuttles. We welcomed Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, for the 2005 Light on the Hill Award and honored Professor Gary McKissick with the 2005 Professor of the Year Award.We also lengthened hours of the Library and Tower Caf? during finals period and lengthened Dining Hall hours until 9 p.m. - got the munchies?In the future, the Senate should continue making headway on previous projects focused on improving community relations and Greek life, as well as starting new ones. Additionally, significant changes need to be made to the advising system to better acclimate new students to Tufts.However, starting some new, exciting projects that we don't talk about year after year will be important to get the student body buzzing.After several productive years, I hope that next year's Senate will seek out the student body as much as possible to receive feedback on projects, hear what students would like improved and show how the Senate is representing all Jumbos.On a personal note, being involved in Senate - and, specifically, serving as TCU president - has been the most amazing part of my college career. Granted, I learned a lot about leadership, communication skills, negotiating and what it means to give back to the community. But above all, this was so special because of the people I got to meet and work with over the past four years.So Tufts, thank you for instilling your confidence in me to serve as TCU president and improve this school as best I could - and, more importantly, thank you for making my college experience so unforgettable. Best of luck to the Class of 2006 in all your future endeavors!



Source:

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-column-year-full-tangible-achievments-/2006/06/01/1666958.htm