Wednesday, May 23: As we trickled down to breakfast this morning, we took over the waffle line as our meal of choice to sustain us for our mid-day practice.

Many of us are still recovering from our escapades yesterday that took us from one end of the United States to the other. But at least we are recovering in comfortable beds without the music of jackhammers waking us up before our alarms.

After breakfast many of us, including myself, found ourselves back in our beds trying to squeeze in two hours of extra sleep before our practice.

When the time came to practice we packed into our array of SUVs and mini-vans, and headed for Maryville College to have our first practice in Tennessee.

The weather is very much like home, except the air is stale, like months-old bread.

There was no need for us to wear under armor like we grew to rely on in L.A.

Today was our first full practice since being in Fresno. To help us prepare for competition this weekend, our coach threw us batting practice to simulate the pitching we will be facing. He threw us risers from 38 feet to emulate that of Monica Abbott, who is a hard-throwing lefty hurling at speeds up to 70 mph that we will have to overcome to be victorious this weekend.

After practice we came back to the hotel to change and get ready for dinner at the Olive Garden.

My roommate, Kaulana, and I are responsible for two of our brand new bats sent to us by Easton. We didn't realize it until we got back from dinner, but we had each placed the bats nicely on our bed. That is how nice we treat our bats, so they had better be working for us this weekend. Coach's rules: they are never allowed to stay in the car over-night.

Me and my bat are going to try and go to bed early tonight so we can get a good night's sleep and be able to make it through the day tomorrow without sneaking in a nap after breakfast. My bat says goodnight.