Inside Pitch: Softball Great Jessi Warren Shares “My Top 5 Travel Ball Memories!”

Extra Inning Softball correspondent Jessica Warren was a college All-American at Florida State and, in 2018, the third baseman helped the Seminoles win the NCAA D1 National Championship. After college, Jessi was a professional player with the USSSA Pride and competed in the Athletes Unlimited.

Click HERE to read about Jessi’s thoughts about the Noles magical run five years ago…

In today’s “Inside Pitch,” the current travel ball coach looks back to her playing days in club and lists her favorite memories a few summers ago… 

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College softball may be over, but that doesn’t mean softball is not being played.

We are well into travel season and, with myself being a coach of a travel ball team, it brings back a lot of memories when I played with my club team: the Diamond Smashers also known as the Tampa Young Guns.

These are the years to remember—the good, the bad and the ugly!A lot of these years are the ones that shape you as an athlete and without knowing, a lot of these memories impact you as a person, too!

Here, then, are my Top 5 travel ball / club ball memories off the top of my head!

1. The Diamond Smashers 12U

Traveling to North Carolina for the NSA World Series with my 12U team, The Diamond Smashers. We had THE BEST time up there. I can’t remember how well we did or didn’t do but I do remember the long nine-hour car ride in the Wetzel’s van.

The Wetzel’s were basically my second family. I remember my brother riding with my mom, but I wanted to ride with a teammate and the Wetzel’s offered for me to ride with them after the carpool made a pit stop at a gas station.

Did I mention the gas station had a Dairy Queen attached to it and little did the Wetzel’s know, I was lactose intolerant! HAHAHAHA!… Yeah, you can probably guess how that car ride went, let’s just say they never really “invited” me on long car rides again.

2. The Red Diamond Smashers, aka the Tampa Young Guns

The ASA World Series in 2014 in Alabama with The Tampa Young Guns. This tournament will always be special to me, as it was my last ever tournament in the travel world.

We placed 5^th out of A LOT of teams, losing to the Tampa Mustangs in the quarterfinals. I remember being in my first summer semester of college and not knowing if I was going to be able to play with my team.

I communicated with my professors and was able to take my final exam a few days prior to leaving and surprised my team in Alabama to play in this tournament. They were all super excited as I was, and it ended up being one of favorite memories.

3. Pool Party

I can’t remember the year, but we took a weeklong trip to Cocoa Beach where we played in another World Series. I remember spending so much time on the beach and at the pool with the girls.

I remember having a karaoke night and we had a little banquet. I can’t remember how well we did or didn’t do in the tournament, but I do remember all the good times with my teammates that I had! We bought this big floaty that was a baseball glove and took it out to the pool and had a blast.

4. Home Run… or Ground Rule Double?!?

One memory that sticks with me was when I was playing on my travel team, we were super young, 10U or 12U and playing in Zephyrhills, Floria. The field we were playing on was small and a lot of players were just sending home runs over.

I was one of the only ones that could not hit it over the fence—not because I didn’t have the ability to, but more so because I was trying to so hard to fit in with everyone else that I couldn’t hit a homer. So many teams were hitting home runs that they eventually made it a rule that if a home run was hit, it would be considered a ground rule double.

Guess what happened then? I hit a “home run,” aka a ground rule double. I remember we ended up coming in 1^st place, but I was so angry that my hit got called a ground rule double. I was such a brat and looked so miserable in the photo. LOL Such a child… literally!

5. Have Fun & Make Memories!

The last memory that I can remember is honestly not a person, place or thing but more so within myself. I remember being so hard on myself and worried about outcome-oriented things.

Thinking that the outcome of games, the outcome of my at bats, for example, were what people were going to remember me as and, although people do remember great plays you make, at the end of the day—as noted in my previous memories—you realize I didn’t really remember much of how well I played or didn’t play, but more so the memories I made with my teammates and their families.

So with that being said, I encourage you all to HAVE FUN, enjoy your teammates, be a good teammate yourself, and don’t get so caught up in how you do individually but more as a team.

And if your team is improving day by day, then that’s all that matters!

— Jessi Warren, correspondent for Extra Inning Softball

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