2024 Softball Season

I'm always curious about history. So this mention that the last time Texas beat OU in a series was 2009 had me digging back. Let's go on a trip to yesteryear.

I go onto NCAA stats web site and they list the schedule for teams, but not the box scores like they do today. On their site, you click on the score and it goes to the box score.

Oh, in 2009, the Big 12 only played 2 game series. So we beat OU: 15-6 and 9-7.

So then I go onto Texassports.com and oddly, they list 2008 twice (spring and fall) and skip 2009 and then begin again in 2010. What?

Then I got to OU's web site and they show the results and the box score from 2009's double-loss to Texas.

My questions were who was pitching and how were we hitting and how was our defense?

Game 1, 3/28/2009. OU is 27-9 and Texas is 25-11.
Texas:
Pitcher - Brittany Barnhill
Hitters - Amy Hooks (2/4), Loryn Johnson (2/2), Nadia Taylor (1/2), Courtney Craig (2/3), Crystal Saenz (3/3),
Defense - no errors

OU:
Pitchers - DJ Mathis, Kirsten Allen, Samantha Bachman
Hitters - yeah, I don't care enough to document
Defense - 1 error

Attendance: 806

Game 2, 3/29/2009
Texas:
Pitchers - Torrey Schroeder, Desiree Williams, Brittany Barnhill, Erin Tresselt
Hitters - Hooks, Taylor, Saenz
Defense - 1 error

OU
Pitchers - Allee Allen, Kirsten Allen
Hitters - meh
Defense - no errors

Attendance: 964

I guess that was our day. OU ended up 41-16 for the season and didn't get out of Regionals. Losing to North Dakota State and Tulsa.

Texas didn't get out of Regionals losing to Alabama twice.

 

About zero.

 

Here's to hoping TXST or Aggie play well enough to host so neither have to come to Austin has the 2 seed, they can go to each others.

 

Longer version

 

Link to Patty Gasso press conference after second game loss.

 

Did anyone notice Coach White pitching for a new stadium during today's presser?

 

I was surprised he threw that in there. CDC mentioned doing some improvements to McCombs, but sadly he could have meant creating a secondary beer/snack area just outside the main gates.

CDC loves to build. But his priorities are:
1. Indoor football practice facilities
2. Mini-moody for volleyball
2a. Outdoor beach volleyball courts/stands
3. Investigating a new women's NCAA sport (catchup on Title IX)

 

Racer, what would a mini-Moody be used for? I thought they had a new training facility? I think going into the SEC next year will create quite a few (maybe all home series) environments like this past weekend. And maybe the pressure of visiting some very nice stadiums within league could greese those wheels...lol

 

Jerritt Elliot first referenced "mini-moody" a few months ago in an interview, which was a surprise to us.

The mini-moody would be a replacement for Gregory Gym for indoor volleyball. Texas Sports (volleyball) has always had to rent Gregory from Texas Rec. Because of that, they can't make any permanent changes to the gym because it's used for other things like yoga, basketball, etc....

Along with it being bigger, with better sight lines, and bigger screens for replay and box scores, they would then be allowed to sell alcohol. And, it would make sense to put the beach courts somewhere permanent next door to the indoor building. Current beach has to play at the UT intramural fields.

I've been pestering CDC about a new softball stadium for years now. The last interaction he responded, "Hey, if you've got the money to donate, we can start thinking about it" When other teams from the SEC or those who play the SEC regularly have come to play at McCombs, I ask them to be truthful and tell us how we will compare to the SEC's various stadiums. I'm asking the young interns/grad students who are assigned to log pitches of both teams with a pad or laptop and sits right behind home plate next to us. They've tried to be very, very gentle and have said things like, "Well....uhhh, yeah, this isn't as new as the other stadiums. Ummmm, yeah, it's kinda odd that we have to walk from the practice facility around the backstop to get to our dugout. But hey, we know it was really great when it first opened!"

Some have said that McCombs would rank in the bottom 1/3 of the SEC.

 

Some have said right.

 

I totally agree with you. Look no further than college station...that stadium is amazing. I bet the first time we are there for a weekend series will shine a bright light on our facility. I would love to see a top 10 list of stadiums in the country to see if there are some I don't know about.

 

WARNING: This might induce vomiting, but here it is:

 

You know, whenever Patty talks about us, especially after a loss, she's pretty fair and honorable. I was talking to my ref friend at the game and I was talking about "Patty Gasso rules" and likening it to "Kim Mulkey rules" and then I said something like at least Patty isn't a monster about it. And then he said, "Oh no! My wife works in [some area I couldn't hear] and she knows Patty well and she HATES her." This is a woman who's a grandma and super sweet.

My ump friend (middle school and high school) also said for sure the Friday night ump was intimidated by Patty. He said umping a #1 team, with multiple NC's with a Hall of Fame coach who has hundreds of wins....this ump didn't want to end up on Patty's sh*t list and be put on the excluded list (which means he's not allowed to work any future games).

 

Sounds about right. OK-State did shut us down pretty hard

 

Podcast talking about the weekend OU game, worth a listen:
Eclipsing Expectations
Afterwards, they spend a lot of time talking about: replay, leaving the base early rule, and the interference review at the end of game 2.

 

While watching the third game, when our more boisterous neighbor would shout at the ump "You're doing an awful job!" (she's a bit over the top) a guy behind me would chirp, "You're doing great! Keep going"

After while I turned to him because he was obviously an OU fan, but not a nutso one like the Texas fan next to us.

He graduated from OU in 1975 and has been a softball fan, as well obviously an OU fan. He even attended the Stanford game earlier this year. We were talking about our iffy defense and he said, "Yeah...there was that pop fly out in deep center field and the player....uhhh, just dropped it"

I said that my opinion is that we're doing so well because we have 3.5 good pitchers. By that I mean we have Tegan, Laly, and Mac as the 3 and then 0.5 would be Estelle OR we sometimes have Tegan, Laly and Estelle as the 3 and Mac would be the 0.5 (don't hate, my opinion).

I then told him OU had 1.5 good pitchers. The one good would be Maxwell and the 0.5 would be May. He was good natured about it and said in his opinion their 0.5 was Kierston. Sometimes good, sometimes not.

Then we talked about the hypocrisy of Kenny G at OK-State being mad that Maxwell went to OU. And then he said that he's worried because 10-11 girls will run out of eligibility next year and Patty hadn't recruited any pitchers in the next class. I said Patty's learned just to pluck the good pitchers from the transfer portal and it's not an absolute need to get a freshman pitcher. He said that Patty tends to zero in on pitchers that have given OU a hard time when she faced them on the other side. Maxwell obviously was an example as well as Trautwein from two years ago.

He said that he wasn't sure if this year's OU team would be a champion again. And that for sure, next year when they go to the SEC with all the new faces, they would be worse.

I told him my gut feel is Patty wants to win 1 or 2 more championships in the SEC to prove she can and then retire and hand the reins over to her son. He said that he believed she wouldn't be coaching in in 5 years. He said that the one thing that keeps her going is trying to be the all time wins leader, but that is with the ex-Michigan coach and he didn't think she had enough years to really catch her.

Anyway, nice guy and not one of those obnoxious fans with Horns Down.

 

I went through the OU roster Saturday when we were proving we had cut the gap between our talent pools and games soon would be closer all the time. She is going to have to hit the portal hard, good news is it won't be as easy without a guarantee championship anymore. Plus the only dominant pitcher that could make a huge difference with eligibility left are Canady, Meylan, and Pickens. I jsut don't see any of them leaving.

 

That #1 ranking from ESPN kinda caught me by surprise. But I can say I'm not a fan of Duke being ranked #1.

 

Very nice to see Estelle getting some well deserved praise. She was great this weekend against OU.

 

The best part of playing TxState today was the scare they put into the team coming off the emotions of beating OU and looking ahead to Baylor. And, batting against a starting pitcher with the third lowest ERA in the country

 

2-1 series win vs ou was VERY sweet and important. It will give the team added confidence for the remainder of the season and postseason.

Plus it is always good to beat ou in any sport, anytime, any place!

 

It's 12:21.

 

AND ou STILL SUCKS!!!

 

I went to the game yesterday. It was a really good crowd with lots of Texas State fans on the first base side of the field. First time I can remember Coach Singleton calling time out and going out and talking to the team at the circle. That happened right after TS hit the slow roller between first and the pitcher and no one covered first. Washington should had been there and Goode went in for her the next inning. Singleton seemed to have snapped them out of the funk after he talked to them.
This team has a lot of confidence and grit! You could feel they were not going to let this game get out of control! They finally wore Mullins down and you could see the air go out of Texas State! They just seemed to crumble.
How we do in the Baylor and Kansas series coming up will be pivotal for how we finish the season!! We need to sweep both, especially Baylor! Only 4 more weeks left in the regular season! Come on ladies and make us proud!!!

 

Pitching staff records to date 2024:
Citlaly Gutierrez 7-0
Estelle Czech 6-3
Mac Morgan 8-1
Teagan Kavan 11-2
Sophia Simpson 0-0
Total Team 32-6
What struck me to look at this was yesterday was when the announcer said that Mullins for Texas State was 21-5 for the season. I thought wow they are riding that horse pretty hard! I often wonder if you can wear a pitcher down with too much pitching? I know it's not like baseball at all where the boys needs so many days of rest or their arm. But still there seems to be some limits.
In 2022 when we went to the finals of the WCWS our final pitching records were:
Hayley Dolcini 24-12
Estelle Czech 13-2
Sophia Simpson 8-4
Shea O'Leary 1-4
Logan Hulon 1-0
Total Team 47-22
Our Pitching performances are very balanced this year and No particular pitcher is carrying us. Hard to believe we played 69 games in 2022. With 38 games played to date we are only about 55% of the way to the finals of the WCWS. Hope this staff carries us all the way again!!!

 

Not sure how many got to read the game summary article posted in TexasSports.com site about the Texas State game:
Very profound and mature quote from Estell Czech about the game and just about this team:
FROM SENIOR PITCHER ESTELLE CZECH
"We really just wanted to stay calm tonight (after the emotional weekend against OU). I know everyone is looking at you on the mound and I know my teammates feed off of my energy, so if I'm down or if I'm too high, that can also alter how they're feeling. So, staying calm — like an exciting calm — is where I need to be when I'm pitching. If I go too low or two high above that, it's hard to control my performance when that happens."

 

I wish I could read this article, but it's behind a paywall.

 

Thankful for a parade of hits! Feels like Ashton Maloney needs some love. And Viviana Martinez who's overcome a slow start to the year.

We played a nice game. Kavan was rocky in the bottom of the 5th (3 walks and a walked in RBI). I do think the plate ump was calling a much tighter zone for the Bears than us, but maybe that's my bias.