I spent a lot of my life on a pitching mound. Most of those hours were spent perfecting drills with my father, who sat on a plastic bucket across home plate.

When I earned a spot on the Marshall High School varsity softball team my freshman year, I was hoping for Division I college recruitment in the years to follow. But as graduation neared, it was inevitable that this small town hurler had seen her best years as a Cardinal.

Despite boasting a Capitol Conference MVP award and a WIAA third team all-state selection, I was far from a typical D-I caliber athlete. I silenced my fastpitch aspirations and devoted my energy to receiving a bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin, although I did dabble with adult league play from time to time.

So you can imagine my excitement when last month, I was forwarded a notice that read: "UW-Softball Holding Open Tryouts. The one-time tryout is open to any current University of Wisconsin female student interested in playing softball for the cardinal and white."

UW softball coach Chandelle Schulte was seeking players to complete UW's roster, which had shrunk to 15 athletes due to graduation and attrition. The NCAA permits 12 full scholarships per softball team and most rosters consist of about 20 players. Lots of programs at Wisconsin hold tryouts, but they all seemed more like public relations campaigns. This was the most blatant recruiting effort I had encountered in my four years on campus.

As a fifth-year senior anticipating graduation this December, I had nothing to lose by attending the tryout. The timing wasn't ideal, but it was essentially my last opportunity to play college ball.

On a Wednesday evening, I put on my old stirrup socks and headed to Goodman Diamond expecting to be joined by at least 30 walk-on hopefuls. To my surprise, there were only nine of us.

Among them were Marshall's Courtney Noel, who inherited pitching duties upon my departure, and former Barneveld standout Katie Sutter, who transferred from UW-Platteville, where she had earned first team all-Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honors as a freshman and came to believe she could play at a higher level.

First things first.

"Name and position," inquired assistant coach Roanna Brazier. Ironically, I did not declare myself a pitcher. I thought my chances were better as an infielder. Come to find out, there were a couple pitchers in the bunch who took the same route.

Assistant coach Julie Wright then requested we give our three hardest overhand tosses, which were recorded by digital radar. She silently jotted down results.

We took ground balls off the infield, which was comparable to petrified rock. At least three girls acquired bloody knees from routine sprawls. I also played the role of outfielder, although I wasn't very good at pretending. Lastly, we took batting practice off the left-handed Brazier, who kindly served up meatballs many of us drove to the green. A catcher from New Jersey even hit one out of the park.

After just 35 minutes, we were dismissed and told we would receive an e-mail later that night informing us if we would be invited to an additional tryout on Friday.

I felt confident enough in my performance to be invited back, but there were more gifted infielders than myself -- especially Sutter, who flat-out launched the ball from third base to first. I anxiously awaited Schulte's e-mail, and around 8:30 p.m., I was notified I'd be returning to Goodman.