We should pay no attention whatsoever to Cat Osterman's recent performances in the KFC World Cup and the Pan Am games. What matters is how she does against real competition: the NPF. Cat has lost twice this season in the NPF, in just 5 starts. Her losses were at the Chicago Bandits on June 16th, and at the Akron Racers on June 21st. Neither of these is a good hitting team (overall). Sure, Akron gave us a tough time, at their place (while we took 3 of 4 from them here). But they only have 2 players in the top twenty in batting average. Chicago isn't a good team, although they also have 2 in the top twenty (#17 and #20). The Glory have 5 players in the top twenty. (As of today: Amber, Oli, Nichole Thompson, Nicole Barber, Catalina Morris.) This means that over half of our lineup is a top-20 batter.

Let's continue on this stat path, and compare Glory vs Rockford. We'll start with run production (which is how games are won, after all). The top 3 in the league are all us: Amber, Oli, and Sara Larquier. Nichole Thompson is tied for fifth. These 4 have combined for 108 runs. Rockford's top 4? Just 53 runs batted in, less than half of our total.

What about power? Glad you asked, 'cause we're pretty good here too. Oh look, we're the top 3 again (same 3: Amber, Oli, Sara). Finally a Thunder player shows up, tied for fifth (Mackenzie Vandergeest). To find their second best power hitter, you have to pass two more Glory ladies (Thompson and Jessica Moore) before you finally reach Serena Settlemier, who is tied with yet two more of ours (Catalina Morris and Stephanie Best).

We'll probably face Cat twice this weekend, and she might just beat us once (perhaps the first time we see her). But Cat just ain't seen nothing like us before, so I think we're gonna shock her.

We've already proven we can score off of their other pitchers (Settlemier: 5 runs in 16 innings, Freed: 3 runs in 5 innings, and Sims: 4 runs in 4 innings). So if we just play the way we've been playing, along with tight D and smart baserunning/coaching, I predict we'll win at least 3 games this weekend. Go Glory.