Inside Pitch: Rhode Island Thunder’s Hannah Greer… “My Summer Softball Travels So Far Include Championships, Camps, College & “Fangirling!”

Hannah Greer is one of the fast-rising 2023 prospects in the Northeast and recently was honored as a selection in the Top 40 of the 2023 Extra Elite 100

The Rhode Island Thunder 16U National team star comes from a long line of softball standouts as she wrote about in a blog regarding her New Yorker’s family history and ties to Rhode Island… you can read about it HERE.

Today, Hannah recaps her busy summer to date with its ups and downs in softball and eventful happenings off the field…

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It has been a crazy couple of weeks that’s for sure. However, I wouldn’t rather have it any other way!

To get my summer started, my mom and I headed to Raleigh, North Carolina for a two-day camp at North Carolina State. The camp was great and I even hit a couple home runs!

Then we headed to Columbia, Missouri for a single day camp at Mizzou. It was my first time in Missouri and quite different from where I live in New York!

After that camp my mom and I flew to our connecting flight in Chicago, Illinois (this is where things get interesting). However, our flight from Missouri was delayed quite a bit so when we landed in Chicago, we had to run through the airport (which is massive by the way) to our gate and made the flight by one minute.

I’m not kidding, the flight attendant actually told me we had 40 seconds to board, or they would leave without us!

Thankfully, we made it and headed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for our first tournament of the summer, Pennsbury. It was so exciting to see all my teammates again and get rolling!!!

After the tournament we had a couple rest days at home, then we drove to New Jersey for the Team NJ tournament.

We played hard and ultimately ended up winning it all which included my teammate Maddie (Burrows, a Villanova commit) and me both hitting grand slams in the first inning of the championship game!  We finished up the tournament 9-1 and hit 15 home runs as a team.

Less than 24 hours later, my mom and I flew to Denver, Colorado for the IDT tournament. It was our first time in Colorado and we got to explore!

Personally, and as a team, that tournament was a rough one.

A lot of the time on social media we only post our lives “highlights,” but I felt like this part definitely needed mentioning: the struggle is a part of our game, we fail more than we succeed, we face adversity, and we are mentally challenged every single pitch.

I was definitely put to this test that week. No matter how good or how “bad” you play, there’s always something you can learn from it because, without failing, success wouldn’t be as rewarding! Just know that if you’re struggling, you’re not alone and you will come out better than before.

To clear my mind before our next tournament in Illinois, me and one of my best friends and teammate Mackenzie (Waghorn) checked out some of the mountains in Colorado. We had such a fun time!

Last weekend we were in Illinois at the DeMarini Invitational tournament where my Dad and I checked out Northwestern University and I “fangirled “a bit and checked out the spots where two of my favorite shows were filmed: Chicago PD and Shameless.

So far this summer we have hit 30-plus home runs, (check out more about it in my last blog) to which our team is donating money to the For Kids Sake Foundation for a young softball player named Malia Jusczyk and other children with neuroblastoma.

Next up: the Duke Camp, a Nationals warmup in Pennsylvania and then PGF Nationals in California!

— Hannah Greer, Rhode Island Thunder