2023 Softball Season
- Thread starter Ellis21d
- Start date
Why does this game require a passcode to view live stats, and is only available to credentialed media? That's crap.
xdxmmxchxxl
250+ Posts
Due to time constraints game is called a tie and ends in the 8th. We were down 3 runs and had one strike left. We deserved to lose with how we played but I’ll take it. We end the tournament 2-1-1.
I'm troubled by the coaching staff's stubbornness in not changing to small ball. Especially frustrating when it was so obvious that the wind was holding up the ball for the outfielders. Blowing yet another comfortable lead in the second half of the game.
xdxmmxchxxl
250+ Posts
I don’t understand the pitching decisions. Mac Morgan has an 8 run lead Friday and he pulls her, which I’m fine with, but he puts in Czech, our #2, for two innings and then starts freshman Gutierrez against #8 team Northwestern. Then he leaves her in way too long allowing them to start a comeback.
Why wouldnt you put Gutierrez in relief of game 1 if you’re going to pull Morgan, and then start Czech game 2?
Then he leaves Mac Morgan in for 8 innings today when they had her figured out after the 5th.
Why wouldnt you put Gutierrez in relief of game 1 if you’re going to pull Morgan, and then start Czech game 2?
Then he leaves Mac Morgan in for 8 innings today when they had her figured out after the 5th.
They softball purist are furious about Mike White going for the tie:
We Play to TIE The Game? Texas vs. Kentucky Softball - Fastpitch Softball News, College Softball, Club Softball
One of them kept using the phrase "bush league".
My thought at the time and now: Tie doesn't help us in rankings and makes it a various obvious reminder of what Mike did in order to secure the tie. While this won't help us in the eventual playoffs, it might hurt us when it comes to tournament seeding.
We Play to TIE The Game? Texas vs. Kentucky Softball - Fastpitch Softball News, College Softball, Club Softball
One of them kept using the phrase "bush league".
My thought at the time and now: Tie doesn't help us in rankings and makes it a various obvious reminder of what Mike did in order to secure the tie. While this won't help us in the eventual playoffs, it might hurt us when it comes to tournament seeding.
One game on opening weekend might hurt us in the NCAA seedings? Right
HornsUp4Life
25+ Posts
I for one was quite embarrassed for the coaches. Guess you can call me a "purist". Take the loss, if that happens!!! Who da heck knows, maybe Cimuz bombs one over the fence and earns the tie or even better if he doesn't start all the stalling early on maybe we retake the lead and win the game!! Just hard to imagine telling my players I slow played because I didn't think we would come back and win. Always believe you project absolute confidence in your players even if it isn't really there internally. I wouldn't call the 10U travel ball moves a lack of class but definitely beneath a program of our stature or a coach of his.
Jacob Johnson
2,500+ Posts
Kentucky wasn’t innocent either. If we’re talking about gamesmanship Kentucky knew the rule and they intentionally ran their 3rd base runner off the bag early so that 3rd out would be called and Texas could bat. Mike White returned the favor for what they did and if I was him and they did that to me I would’ve 100% did the exact same thing.
A few points:
1. After the game, I watched while Mike and the Kentucky coach were having a friendly, collegial conversation at the mound. Didn't seem there were any hurt feelings out there. More like, "Hey, I got you to start your inning sooner" and "Well then I decided to start killing time with my runners"
2. Kentucky is the one that listed the drop dead time. Yet, they were just meandering around after the game. Not like hustling to get on to the bus.
3. The guys on the podcast and website were really anti-Mike for this game. One thing they mentioned, but I didn't know as Mike's "unpopularity"(?) within the NFCA. It went something along the lines of, "And the irony is that this happened at the NFCA tournament where Mike isn't the most popular of coaches around herre"
I have a question about seating at the softball stadium that I’m hoping someone will know the answer to. I have only been to one scrimmage, and we sat up high in the bleacher seats. We all had to sit at an angle because there was NO leg room. Are there chairback/reserved seats in that stadium with more leg room? If so, what section should I be looking for? Thanks I’m advance!
The stadium seating is all the same EXCEPT the front row of every section. If you need leg room, you need to sit in the front row seats next to the steel mesh safety fencing.
However, those are usually reserved seats. General admission is typically above those seats. Also, last year they created stands behind the outfield. Last year the temporary bleachers were on the towards the first base-foul line. They added a second set of bleachers out there that now runs between mid-field and the first set of bleachers. I haven't sat there so I don't know the leg room situation.
xdxmmxchxxl
250+ Posts
I understand that in games like these you need to give your “bench” players more playing time. But it frustrates me when he pulls Cimusz, Day amd Washington after the 3rd inning for Quiroga, Holmes, and Corona. Corona commits an error, Quiroga who is catching has allowed 3PB and 2 runs to score, and dropped 2 third strikes. We were up 10-0 before the subs, it’s now 10-4.
I really like Camille Corona so I don’t mine her error or popped up bunt.
Estelle has a great outing 5IP, 7K, 0ER.
Leighanne Goode goes 3-3 w/ a double so far.
…and then as I’m typing this Quiroga goes yard!
the offense has been great so far this season
I really like Camille Corona so I don’t mine her error or popped up bunt.
Estelle has a great outing 5IP, 7K, 0ER.
Leighanne Goode goes 3-3 w/ a double so far.
…and then as I’m typing this Quiroga goes yard!
the offense has been great so far this season
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I agree need to start the weekend STRONG not the time to bring in backups that for a Sunday after a good weekend of play. HOOKEM
So the pattern for this team looks to be set:
1. Average pitching
2. Poor fielding
3. Superior scoring
We'll get up by a big margin, tired pitchers and mind-boggling errors will let the opponent catch up. Then, it's a coin flip if we can find enough pitchers to finish the game and score just one more run than the opponent we thought we were going to run rule until infield brain farts squander away the lead.
Gonna be a long season.
1. Average pitching
2. Poor fielding
3. Superior scoring
We'll get up by a big margin, tired pitchers and mind-boggling errors will let the opponent catch up. Then, it's a coin flip if we can find enough pitchers to finish the game and score just one more run than the opponent we thought we were going to run rule until infield brain farts squander away the lead.
Gonna be a long season.
Malcom
1,000+ Posts
Sound exactly like last year without the few close wins we have this year, so far. At this point I'm really buying into our freshmen.3 things I think we have been missing for some time is a true centerfielder to control the gaps and a real power hitter or hitters. The errors will rid themselves in time, I hope.
Consistency in the circle is a must. Maybe better coaching base running decisions...I hate losing baserunners, especially in front of hot hitters. I know I'm a true homer at heart but I like this team so far.
xdxmmxchxxl
250+ Posts
I love aggressive baserunning and stolen bases but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me when twice yesterday MW didn’t steal second with runners on 1st & 3rd(one of the time is was Popelka at 1st who MW has said is our fastest player) and then for our last AB in Gm 1 he puts Brandon in to pinch hit then has Bella Dayton steal and get thrown out to end the inning and not give Brandon an AB. We have a lot of talent and I’m glad to see the bench players get opportunities but the amount of not only physical but mental errors everyone is committing is concerning.
We knew that our pitching would be a bit of an issue, but I think MW needs to have a shorter leash with Mac Morgan, once we are out of tournaments and pitchers are more fresh hopefully we will see him do that. We can get by with decent pitching with our offense on most nights but if we commit 3-4 errors a game against good teams we will not be successful this season.
I think Estelle Czech will emerge as our ace and we need Sophia to be more consistent because she is good enough to beat a lot of teams if she can throw strikes.
We have a chance to be really special, we just need to lock in and make some better situational decisions rotation/lineup wise.
Hook ‘em
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I've been thinking about Mike White's tenure so far and trends I've seen.
Pitching: He seems to always attract a transfer pitcher with great confidence. One that makes them the lead dog ace on the staff. Then the rest are supporting pitchers. Examples: Elish, Jacobson, Dolcini.
But, with "home grown" pitchers, those who came specifically for Mike White's pitching prowess, they've not done so well. Examples: O'Leary, Grace Green, Riley White, and maybe(?) Sophia Simpson.
Czech is still an unknown. She's gotten better since she's been here, but she seems to peak at about 4 innings of throwing. Morgan has the confidence in her throws, so maybe she's the next lead ace for this group.
Hitting: The trajectory of hitting can be tied to the players that transferred in with Mike's hiring and got a big boost with the hiring of Steve Singleton. You can see in between innings Singleton still giving hitting advice to his players. And this year, an emphasis on some slap hitting that we haven't seen ever.
Fielding: But just hitting has gone up, fielding has gone down. I don't understand how they're just getting worse on some physical plays as well as mental actions. Three players trying to get the same bunt ball? Players trying to pick up balls with their gloves? Dropping balls simply tossed to gloves? Many of these errors in just these last 3 games led to runs. And Steve Singleton is in charge of infield defense! All coaches are stat junkies and seeing the fielding getting worse has not made Mike switch primary coaches for defense, even after Megan left.
Teams like OU have all three of these parts of a softball team high and staying there year after year. I just wish we could have at least 2 out of the 3.
Okay, my griping for now.
Pitching: He seems to always attract a transfer pitcher with great confidence. One that makes them the lead dog ace on the staff. Then the rest are supporting pitchers. Examples: Elish, Jacobson, Dolcini.
But, with "home grown" pitchers, those who came specifically for Mike White's pitching prowess, they've not done so well. Examples: O'Leary, Grace Green, Riley White, and maybe(?) Sophia Simpson.
Czech is still an unknown. She's gotten better since she's been here, but she seems to peak at about 4 innings of throwing. Morgan has the confidence in her throws, so maybe she's the next lead ace for this group.
Hitting: The trajectory of hitting can be tied to the players that transferred in with Mike's hiring and got a big boost with the hiring of Steve Singleton. You can see in between innings Singleton still giving hitting advice to his players. And this year, an emphasis on some slap hitting that we haven't seen ever.
Fielding: But just hitting has gone up, fielding has gone down. I don't understand how they're just getting worse on some physical plays as well as mental actions. Three players trying to get the same bunt ball? Players trying to pick up balls with their gloves? Dropping balls simply tossed to gloves? Many of these errors in just these last 3 games led to runs. And Steve Singleton is in charge of infield defense! All coaches are stat junkies and seeing the fielding getting worse has not made Mike switch primary coaches for defense, even after Megan left.
Teams like OU have all three of these parts of a softball team high and staying there year after year. I just wish we could have at least 2 out of the 3.
Okay, my griping for now.
I think a major issue is he tries to make them all be versatile instead of learning and mastering a single position then have a secondary.
First game of the day that started at 10:00 is still going on as of 1:10 pm. So, the first Texas game that starts at 3:00 is probably going to be pushed back to 4:00 or 4:30 start time.
Both games won today are both frustrating and spot-on my view of the team. Against Omaha, I didn't think they could run-rule them with the lack of offense the first few innings.
Against Loyola, it shows Simpson still doesn't have control of her pitches. Kinda a requirement to be a pitcher! Again, barely winning against an inferior opponent.
When Mike has to shift Mia to the outfield? Oh, boy.
Against Loyola, it shows Simpson still doesn't have control of her pitches. Kinda a requirement to be a pitcher! Again, barely winning against an inferior opponent.
When Mike has to shift Mia to the outfield? Oh, boy.
11texasfight
First Time Poster
TEXAS will not small ball the Power 5 schools.
Not a fan of MW switching players mid-game when 1 Sophie needs some good defense behind her getting her confidence back. 2 these are not seasoned players they are young players with alot of pressure on them to compete last thing they need is being moved around to new positions too make things worse . KEEP working ladies .
I agree, that was an odd time to make the switch. But thinking of all the errors (including those not officially credited as errors by the scorekeeper) that Scott had been making at 3rd, I could see why.
Also, did you notice the wide smile that Scott had during her time in the outfield after she caught a couple of fly balls? Don't see that often when she's at 3rd. It seemed a relief(?) to her to be out of that hot position. But maybe I'm reading to much into it.
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