MARCH 19 SISTERS GAMES

Players "laced up" to fight childhood cancer 
Saturday's games draw
sisters, friends for softball

The Wesley Wolverines and Keystone Giants will go GOLD at this Saturday's (March 19's) 12:00 and 2:00 PM doubleheader on Dupont Field, 500 Mary Street, Dover, DE.

GOLDEN SHOELACES

Both teams will wear gold shoelaces, the color for pediatric cancer awareness. It's part of a national fight against childhood cancer, the number one disease killer of kids.
 

Fighting childhood cancer

This follows the Wolverines visit as a team just last week to Florida Hospital for Children, Orlando, FL.

Head Coach Juli Greep has said about the hospital visit: "It's been our mission all year to focus on giving time and support to children with illnesses and less-fortunate situations.” Click here for the full story about the Wolverines and the Florida hospital.

SISTER GAMES?

The focus on pediatric cancer will be up front and center, remaining the most important special motif of the day. 

But there will be another theme on and off the field that will just naturally be getting a lot of attention. We might call it the “SISTERS” games.

The sisters on Saturday are entangled every which way, mostly as siblings, but a few as softball friends and/or past competitors and/or old teammates, too

Please read carefully; it gets complicated. There's also a good chance everyone mentioned in this post will be at the weekend twin bill.

HARTMAN SISTERS

It starts when Wesley Wolverine senior #6 MI Breanna Hartman (Red Bank, NJ) takes the field for the first inning of play.

Breanna and Kaylee Hartman at our earlier 2015
Wolverine fall-softball games. Kaylee came to see
Bre play. Yes, both are wearing red contact lenses.
Click here for a blog post about the Hartman family.

If Bre glances across to the Keystone's visitors dugout, which all bets are on that she does, Bre will find a familiar face giving her a nod back.

That would be younger sister Keystone Giants sophomore #22 C/2B Kaylee Hartman (Red Bank, NJ). This is Kaylee's first time facing the Wolverines.

But Bre has done this before. Three years ago, the Keystone Giants met the Wesley Wolverines in a Myrtle Beach tournament when older sister Giants #19 C Samatha Hartman (Red Bank, NJ) was finishing her senior year at Keystone College.

That game also had close acquaintances for Wolverine Head Coach Juli Greep, who previously, before coming to Wesley, was Keystone's head softball coach during Samantha’s freshman and sophomore years.

Meanwhile, Keystone's current Head Coach Renee Barrows coached our own Wolverine junior #18 C Nina Marcano (Middletown, DE) two summers ago at the prestigious Beach League, Myrtle Beach, SC, where top college teams from across the nation sent 40+ key players for a month of training and games.
 
So, camaraderie should reign amongst the competition this weekend, but be assured these two teams, just because of the relationships, arrive very determined to win!

FROMAL SISTERS

There are two other sister athletes tied to Wolverine softball who have played together at Wesley College. It just hasn't been with a bat and ball. 

Kayla and Kelsey Fromal celebrating at Senor Frog's,
Orlando, FL, last Friday night with the Wolverine softball
team at The Spring Games collegiate softball tournament.

For the past two years, dual sport field hockey/ softball senior #32 INF Kayla Fromal (Middletown, DE) has joined her Wesley field hockey sister #31 F Kelsey Fromal (Middletown, DE) with a stick on the “hockey pitch” at Scott D. Miller Stadium.

Kelsey is a frequent visitor to the softball games and didn't miss a single contest to cheer on her sister at last week's Clermont, Florida games.

BOTSCH SISTERS

Then there's Wolverine freshman #21 P Sydney Botsch (Smyrna, DE). Her sister – who can be easily heard shouting encouragement for Sydney from the stands -- has made quite a softball name for herself, especially among Delaware fastpitch fans.

Sydney and Chelsea Botsch two weeks ago
at the last Wolverine home game.

Now a college graduate preparing for law school, last season's Wilmington Wildcat #3 P Chelsea Botsch finished her softball career as an All-American Honorable Mention.

Sister Chelsea even has more connections to the Wolverine team than just family.

Before college, Chelsea pitched for Smyrna High, where she was caught by senior #22 C/INF Morgan Seymour (Smyrna, DE) and twice battled junior #9 P/OF Lily Engel (Dover, DE) as high school opponents in downstate Delaware's Henlopen Conference.

SMALL WORLD

Just to tie this report back to the very beginning of these sisterly connections... Chelsea also has coached both Sydney and Lily through a single travel-ball season, which included a tightly contested game against the NJ Fury (Eatontown, NJ).

Well, who do you think made her presence felt for the Fury in that game? She will be in Dover on Saturday, where Wolverine Bre will undoubtedly eye her as Bre takes the field. 

Yes, of course, that would be, once again, Bre's sister Keystone Giants sophomore #22 C/2B Kaylee Hartman (Red Bank, NJ)!!