On June 28th, we ran the story of Maddie Elias, a sophomore infielder/outfielder for Mike Mertz’s Virginia Glory 16U team who was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer just a week after Mississippi State softball player Alex Wilcox passed away from the same cancer.

You can read about Maddie and the #TealFor2 movement created in her behalf below…

Coach Mertz subsequently saw Lonni Alemeda, the head coach of the National Champion Florida State Seminoles, at the Atlanta Legacy and told Extra Inning Softball:

“I asked her if the team could put something together. Boy did they deliver… just awesome.”

What Mertz is referring to is a beautiful video done by the Seminole players mixing personal messages of well-wishes with biblical verses of faith and encouragement intermixed with the song “Rise Up” by Andra Day.

Among the many FSU player messages is pitcher Meghan King, who dominated the finals of the Women’s College World Series, appearing with her Puerto Rican National team which is playing this week in the WSBC Women’s Championship and recorded their clip while competing in the Central American Games.

Check out the video here and just try not to have a lump in your throat…

Kudos to Coach Alameda and the Seminole players for taking time from their normal activities and and putting together this wonderful video expression of love.

Moments like this are why we can all be proud to be part of a softball family community which continually rallies around each other in times of distress.

#TealFor2.

*****

Want a Player & Team to Root For? We Have Ours: Maddie Elias of Virginia Glory-Mertz

(Extra Inning Softball article that originally ran June 27, 2018)

There’s been way too much wearing of teal lately, the color that represents Ovarian Cancer.

We lost a great one this week in Alex Wilcox, the Mississippi State player and former Birmingham Thunderbolt standout that once was rated as the #5 player in the Class of 2017, to Ovarian Cancer.

A week ago, Coach Mike Mertz of the Virginia Glory organization announced that Maddie Elias—a 2021 infielder/outfielder on the Glory-Mertz 16U team—has the same cancer and today started her chemo treatments.

“Everything moved very rapidly as far as getting her in for surgery and scheduled for her treatments,” Mertz said yesterday.

“Coach Mike Elias shared with me that they are really impressed with the care and support she is receiving and are facing it head on. As a family, they always deal with what’s right in front of them.”

Maddie, who is 15-years-old, has a CaringBridge page dedicated to her where her progress can be tracked and well-wishes and donations submitted.

As Maddie’s mother, Heather Elias, wrote on the site initially on June 15:

“It’s hard to believe that we are sharing this story when Maddie was still on the softball field last week, playing in the Virginia state quarterfinals (editor’s note: for Loudoun Valley High School in Purcellville, Virginia). Although anyone that knows her could tell that she wasn’t herself in the last few games–unable to run, easily tired, and generally uncomfortable. That’s what prompted the visit to urgent care on the 6th.”

“That visit lead to x-rays, blood tests, a contrast CT scan, more blood tests, and the discovery of a tumor in her pelvis the size of a honeydew melon. (No wonder she couldn’t run, eh?) Today, the oncologist confirmed that Maddie has ovarian cancer. Without diving too deep into the details, it’s a germ cell tumor, and it needs to come out right away.”

“Maddie is scheduled for surgery on Monday morning at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. Once we get through that, she’ll have a 4-6 week recovery as the incision heals. The pathology reports from the surgery will tell us whether she’ll need chemotherapy as well. We don’t know a lot yet, but we do know that we’d love all of the prayers and good vibes that you can spare.”

The schedule for her chemotherapy will be three cycles of treatment with each cycle being three weeks of intravenous chemo medications on an outpatient basis.

One positive: Maddie is cleared to do light workouts based on what she can manage during the chemotherapy and according to her mother: “the prognosis for Maddie is very good, and the cure rate for this kind of cancer is somewhere in the 90% range.”

The support of the softball community, as it always seems to be, has been overwhelmingly positive for the athlete who wears #2 and can be followed at #TealFor2.

Luminaries such as Sue Enquist, the 11-time National Champion player and coach at UCLA, wrote on her twitter:

Maddie!! Thoughts and prayer warriors! @JennieFinch @leah20usa!
Let’s do this!! https://t.co/STRRwoJR4P

— Sue Enquist (@SueEnquist) June 20, 2018

And there was a touching demonstration of concern and love by the Glory’s opening opponent, the Tampa Mustangs 02 team, in the TCS Fireworks/Sparkler tournament in Colorado.

Leading up to the first game, the Mustangs sent out an email to all the players Monday night stating:

“We have prepared a small gift for the girls to present to the Glory for Maddie Elias and (we have) teal ribbons for our girls to wear tomorrow.”

“This is an example of how this game that brings us all together is about more than just the field. This is a great opportunity to support the team of girls in the other dugout.”

The Mustangs gave a “Sock Monkey” with a #2 on its back to the Glory team in a meeting on the field before the field and, after the game, both teams posed and recorded a video saying, “We love you, Maddie!”

In behalf of all of us at Extra Inning Softball, we will be rooting for Maddie and the Glory and our best wishes and prayers go to all involved.

*****

Final note: the Glory suffered another blow a week ago when Anna Deshaies, a 2018 infielder/outfielder, was airlifted after a collision at the Pennsbury tournament for an emergency surgery to have her spleen removed.

The Penn State signee is recovering well, we understand, but let’s make sure to keep #6 in our thoughts, too, as we root for #2 also.