(SB) Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

The SEC Standings:

 

Nailed at least one at 1B too

 

I'd like to see Miller start at Stetson. Might be a good chance to get her back on the horse after Miss State.

Actually, I'd like to see anyone start at Stetson. Will they wait until Wednesday to cancel the game or cancel it Tuesday? .

 

From what I saw of Arkansas last night against UGALY, they are Mississippi State Lite offensively with better pitching. Their record isn't great, but they have had far more away and neutral site games than home games.

Standings - Softball - Southeastern Conference (secsports.com)

Beating the poodles 2 of 3 in Athens was no fluke. The piggies are a really good team.

SEC Coaches Preseason Poll had UF #7 and Miss. St. at #13, last.

Wallace, Falby Selected to Preseason All-SEC Team; Gators Tabbed Seventh in Coaches Poll - Florida Gators

Think this fueled motivation for UF.

 

Arkansas started slow but they are looking better. UGA has slowed down imo. They're the same team they were last year. If they're offense is on they can be the best team. But they're pitching just isn’t shutdown and when their offense is quiet their pitchers arent good enough to win it for them against a good offense. I could see the Tennessee series going either way. I'm not 100% sold on Tennessee. Pickens is good but she was getting all the hype like she is now last year then fell apart. Should be a good series though.

 

Florida 4/2 Softball Poll Rankings:

10. D1 Softball
10. USA Today Coaches
10. Softball America
9. ESPN.com/USA Softball

The two early season losses to now unranked Michigan, 2-1 & 10-2, are still hurting UF in the polls. Losing at home to Oklahoma 3-0 when Rothrock allowed 2 hits while giving up a 3-run homer doesn't help either. The common theme was lack of offense in all 3 losses which has since been correct in a big way, but not yet being recognized in the rankings. Top off with the Gators 7-2 SEC record which is built on teams at .500 and below in conference and it has been hard to go up further in the rankings even though UF has more wins than any other team not named Oklahoma.

Playing teams now valued lower than UF won't be a problem this week. With LSU coming to town for a Saturday - Monday weekend series, the Gators will have the opportunity to beat a higher ranked team that also has an outstanding overall record and is 8-4 in SEC play. Beyond this, I dislike all teams LSU. Go Get'em Gators!

 

Taylor blew them out of the water.

 

How is our pitcher out of south Florida doing? As I recall, she was Gatorade Florida Player of the Year in 2023.

Looks like another outstanding recruiting class coming for the 2024/25 school year.

EDIT:

Softball Inks Five on Signing Day - Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida softball head coach Tim Walton announced the additions of Gabi Comia, Layla Lamar, Katelynn Oxley, Taylor Shumaker and Townsen Thomas to the program during national signing day Wednesday morning.

EDIT 2:

Katelynn Oxley's Stat Leader Rankings (maxpreps.com)

Is Oxley another 2-way player like Ava Brown? He pitching stats are excellent, but so are her offensive stats.

 

OT-Last night was fantastic.

 

Bartow picks up sixth straight win on the road

 

Tuesday

 

Our RPI is 14 and our ELO computer ranking is 9 so we are right around where we should be, it’s not really a perception issue. The soft schedule hurt us more than the losses (we didn’t have any quality wins early outside of UCLA), but it made sense given the team we had this year. Plenty of chances rest of the year to rectify that.
And by the way, Michigan is now a quad 1 loss by ELO, and soon will be a quad one loss by rpi. Michigan has been improving as the season went on.

Florida Softball Schedule Scores & Stats | WarrenNolan.com

 

I'm passing on the following useless information just for the heck of it. WarrenNolan.com is predicting that LSU will sweep the Gators by scores of 5-2, 5-4, & 5-2.

 

UF is #14 RPI and Washington is #18 RPI. Care to explain how the dawgs are ranked ahead of the Gators in all of the polls?

How about Missouri with an RPI of 7 being ranked well outside of the top 10?

JMO, those referenced losses are the reason UF is not higher. We have to beat someone above us to move up.

While I'm at it, I want to mention the 3-0 loss at bama. The plate ump in that game was consistently calling strikes on drop balls that crossed the middle of the plate below the knees. Skylar Wallace hardly ever strikes out struck out multiple times swinging at pitches she needed a gold club to hit. Why? The plate ump forced the swings with the strike zone that turned a good pitcher into a great pitcher for that game. UF should have swept the tide but wasn't allowed to by a very poor ump behind the plate.

 

The polls are just like articles. Biased to media. Article on espn right now talking about Player of the Year watch.... Canady and Coleman from OU. Canady I 100% understand. Coleman not so much.... she's good but Wallace's numbers are better.

 

ya think.. SC(east) went from 0-6 in sec to #25 for sweeping a average at best Ole Miss. sillyness

 

I don't care what the polls say now. I will care at the end of season.

 

I wonder if Destiny is Jeff Driskell's younger sister?

 

Missouri’s ELO is 12 and they are ranked 11th. Washington’s ELO is 10 and they are ranked 9th. All three teams are within one spot of their computer ranking. If you want to turn that incredibly small difference into something, have at it I guess.
None of it matters anyway, all that matters is where we are seeded in a month.