The United States did not fare well earlier this summer in the men’s soccer World Cup, falling in the early rounds. But that was not the only World Cup the United States competed in this summer.
There was also the World Cup of Softball.
After falling to Japan in the finals of last year’s inaugural Cup, the U.S. softball team met the Japanese again in the finals, this time with better results.
The United States knocked off Japan 5-2 on July 17 to cap off a tournament in which the Americans dominated. In six games the United States outscored its opponents 59-3.
“It’s amazing to see how far ahead the U.S. is than the rest of the world,” junior outfielder Blair Harkey said.
With all six games being televised on ESPN or ESPN2, millions of people had an opportunity to see the United States dominate, something Harkey said is great for the game.
“Definitely softball is getting bigger,” Harkey said. “I even had people from my hometown calling to ask me if I was watching it.”
Senior pitcher Abbie Sims echoed Harkey’s sentiments about the TV coverage.
“It’s great publicity for the sport,” Sims said. “It shows people that softball is a coming-of-age sport in this country.”
But if the popularity of softball is growing throughout the country, it is not reflected by the roster of the team. All but three of the members of Team USA played in college or still play in college either in Arizona or California, places that have ruled college softball.
Senior pitcher Shaina Ervin, who was an All-ACC performer and the MVP of the ACC tournament this past season, said team success has a lot to do with who makes the World Cup team.
“Those girls are tremendous athletes,” Ervin said. “But it matters whether your team overall went pretty far. Most of the players are from nationally known teams. For someone from N.C. State to make a team like the World Cup team, we would have to continue playing well and not just go to regionals, but win regionals.”
Ervin, Sims and Harkey all said that they would like to play on the World Cup team and said they would consider it an honor to be invited, but Harkey said her interest was not as strong as other players she has played with.
“I would love to, but it’s not the biggest thing for me,” Harkey said. “Some girls more than others on our team have goals like that, to play for the World Cup or to be an All-American. It’s not all that big for me.”
Ervin, on the other hand, said playing for a World Cup team was a major goal of hers.
“It would definitely be an ultimate goal of mine,” Ervin said. “But I don’t think about ultimate goals before a season. I think about the little things I can control like decreasing the number of walks I give up and getting ahead of batters. If I can do those things, they will stack up to reach an ultimate goal like that. It’s about doing the process correctly, and you can reach those ultimate goals.”
