(SB) Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

Stanford and UDub showing you can get to OKC with a dominant FR pitcher. Can't win it though with these weak sauce offenses.

 

These are the types of pitchers our softball needs. No walks, no runs, and 1 hit even with her defense having 3 errors.

 

Stanford wins the pitchers duel. 1-0. They have a date with Oklahoma tomorrow.

 

If they had any type of offense, they could beat Oklahoma.

 

That ball was literally 2 inches from being caught.

 

According to someone who is part of "ON3.com" They said a former player will join the staff next season. Announcement coming soon. I tried to find out more information from the website only to find out I need to pay to access the "premium content" I'm keeping my eyes opened for the announcement.

 

I heard it was someone who was a catcher. I don't know if this is factual or not.

Aubree would be the only one I would choose, but I do not think that is happening.

 

CTW continues his inexplicable devotion to Sarah Longley??

 

Kristina Hilberth? She has been one of those individual or private coaches who has worked with catchers. Next season is the year where the NCAA is allowing for a 3rd paid asst coach.

 

0-8 against three of the semifinalists....0-2- FSU; 0-2- Stanford; 0-4 Tennessee.

 

My goodness, Stanford had at least 3 different chances to beat Oklahoma.

 

I like seeing OU being tested a little bit during supers and the WCWS. Except for game 1 of super regionals and the game vs Tennessee OU really had to battle. I hope it continues to be that way. Competitiveness is what makes the sport so much fun.

 

I think anyone's best chance to beat OU was Canady today. She was unhitable today until she wasn't. She reminds me a LOT of Kelly Barnhill, and I hope she ... I don't know. Kelly had an awesome career, even if she didn't get a title as the primary. But everything about Canady reminds me of Kelly, and she's a lot of fun to watch pitch.

But my daughter goes to OU, so I'd hate for her team to lose, and now that it looks like it's going to be FSU, I think we can all cosign to that.

 

In watching many of the games during the supers and WCWS, I don't think I have ever seen the TV personalities insult the umpiring on balls/strikes as much as this year. TV often used replay to show just how bad some ball/strike calls were. Plus, in the game tonight there were four illegal pitches called in one inning on a pitcher who only had one called all year and a "too much time" ball awarded which all seems a bit ticky/tacky for the WCWS (but the calls were all against FSU, so no problem). Usually TV protects Blue or is at least silent. Wonder why the change?

 

As important as it is to have a dominant pitching staff, it can still be mitigated by an umpire not being consistent with the strike zone. I’ve watched a number of games where the strike zone wasn’t consistently applied, and it certainly changes the game, producing walks and easy hits. There is plenty of good umpires that do a good job, but there are some bad ones as well. CTW had his experience in the Regionals with a an Ump that seemed to have a consistency issue. I’ve stated in the past how much I abhor the illegal pitch call, and still to this day I believe it precipitated Kelly’s slide at the end of her UF career. Let the pitchers deliver how they’ve pitched all season, which is going to be dictated by muscle memory from hours practice and play. You can’t expect a pitcher to be able to alter their pitch motion after hundreds of hours of practice and play in the middle of a crucial game. It becomes a cruel strategy to be used in post season to alter the effectiveness of a pitcher. Adopt the Olympic/Intl rules on pitching and be done with this NCAA illegal pitch.

 

Keagan throws another in a long string of no-hitters to send Roncalli to the state championship again.

 

Keagan: IHSAA softball: Roncalli advances behind Keagan Rothrock no-hitter

 

Some very good points made here about pitching in general. But, that said, the problem with UF's pitching the past 4-5 years hasn't been the umps.