The Women’s Congressional Softball Game is only seven months away and for readers who are closely monitoring pre-season developments, this week’s new Rothenberg Political Report offers some new insight into the athleticism of the member’s team.

For context, female members of Congress play the annual game against female members of the Capitol Hill press corps. Sen.-elect Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., caused a stir earlier this fall when she released a television ad of her slamming and winking her away around a batting cage.

Here is what the reporting from Nathan L. Gonzales reveals about the ad’s shoot:

“Democrats may be most proud of the mid-October batting cage ad where Heitkamp talks about taking on the outside attacks. She hadn’t swung a bat in a long time, but she got the hang of it and after four hours in the cage and hundreds of swings to get shots at multiple angles, it turned into one of the most effective ads.”

Member co-captain Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., has already hinted at efforts to recruit Heitkamp. Heitkamp’s ad appears to have been shot at the Thunder Road batting cages in Fargo, N.D. Which begs the question, is she the savior that the member’s team has been praying to rise for after its loss to the press corps last June?

The game raises money for the Young Survival Coalition, a nonprofit that aims to support young women battling breast cancer.

And because we have to, here is our boilerplate disclosure: the author of this post is a co-captain of the Capitol Hill press corps team, The Bad News Babes.