Lady Vols Softball

[Rickster]

Man, that SC shortstop has a cannon for an arm.

 

[Rickster]

Yep, lots of feathers. 11-0 now

 

[Rickster]

Game over. Callie pitched a gem of a game, a 1 hit shutout

 

[MagnoliaVol]

Great bounce back! Callie twirled a gem. #GB️

 

[kregman]

That was an excellent response to last night. Much better at bats. As long as Callie can stay in the game and we play defense behind her she can win us a lot of games.

 

[kregman]

Callie would pitch that game last year and we would boot it around and lose. Foxx is playing good d at second. Ivy has really locked down the infield d. SC is not a great team but that was a beautifully played game.

 

[kregman]

Hope SC sees the real Ashley tommorrow. She never really hit her stride last night. Oh and thanks ESPN for not letting me see most of the early scoring.

 

[volman128]

Haha disgruntled parents gotta love them...and lack of development? Please you can only push players as hard as they want to be pushed.....coaches should not be holding hands of players to bring them along

"Disgruntled parents"? What the hell are you talking about? None of the people I'm talking about are parents of players that have come here. They are travel ball coaches.

As to the last statement, I'm not sure that, at least in the past, trying to completely change players' swings and wanting players to learn positions they have never played at anytime in their lives fall into the category of what you're talking about. Neither is Karen being a total micromanaging hard ass to the point the players walk on egg shells around her and she won't let the pitching coach do their job and call pitches (which finally isn't the case, at least as of this season). It's basically like being an employee with a crappy boss. Some people will stick it out longer than others, some will leave amicably, and some will give the finger as they exit. But our transfer rate for years was much higher than basically any other top 15-20 school and there was a reason for that. On top of that they've been known to give conditional releases in the past. Most of it stemmed from how they were treated and others left because of lack of playing time, which mainly stemmed from the staff overrecruiting -- something they've been known to do for a while. Not everyone is willing to be a career pinch runner or pinch hitter. I've heard many other things about the staff over the last 15 years or so, going back to my days attending UT and beforehand, but I'll leave it at that.

 

[DeerPark12]

A HC change is badly needed or the program will stay at the level its at now. Have a winning season, due to playing a lot of cupcake OoC games, go to regionals, make super regional every 3 yrs and season over. Rinse and repeat next season. Just seams obvious to me but of course saying this just makes me a negavol.

Make a Super Regional every three years? Do you actually follow this team? They've made Supers the last three years that there was a postseason and only missed Supers once since 2011. Made the WCWS three times in that span.

I agree that making it to OKC is the goal, and that's eluded them since 2015, but let's not act like this is a program getting bounced in regionals most years because that just isn't accurate. It's literally only happened once in the last decade.

 

[DeerPark12]

She thinks she’s the arbiter of this forum. The bottom line is the Weekly’s are lame duck coaches going into next year. Ralph is to old to get another contract, so the question remains will Karen be given a contract by herself? My opinion is she does not have the right personality for the recruiting wars and seems that the players live in fear of making a mistake instead of playing loose. It will be interesting to see which route the new AD goes?

You're welcome to say whatever you want on here but this "lame duck" stuff you keep saying is just incorrect. When Ralph retires, Karen will be the head coach. She's been primarily running the show the last three years anyway. So Danny White would have to fire her when Ralph retires for her to not "take over" the job she's doing anyway.

You're acting like years on a contract means something in college athletics and that's just not reality.

 

[Majors]

You're welcome to say whatever you want on here but this "lame duck" stuff you keep saying is just incorrect. When Ralph retires, Karen will be the head coach. She's been primarily running the show the last three years anyway. So Danny White would have to fire her when Ralph retires for her to not "take over" the job she's doing anyway.

You're acting like years on a contract means something in college athletics and that's just not reality.

The when is after this season. It will give her a year until her contract is up, after that there are two options - small extension or retire herself.

 

[Tennessee12]

How is Kentucky softball ranked so high....

 

[Volfaninfl2]

Just win, that’s supposed to be enough to silence critics, but no. Here, after an 11-0 stomping of a conference foe, some of our negative/miserable posters are ignoring the win to complain about our Coaches. In the case of the Weekly’s, many years they’ve fielded one of the most competitive teams of all the teams at Tennessee that year. Some always want “change” for change sake, and there’s always going to be something to complain about. There’s at least one here spewing their negative comments against our Lady Vol basketball Coaches as well. Even Pat Summit only won eight National Championships in her 38 years of Coaching. That’s 30 years of not winning the National Championship, but being “in the hunt.” I would guess these same critics would be here saying she can’t win the big one anymore.

So, great win yesterday, Lady Vol softball team, keep winning!!!

 

[OrangeBeachVol]

OK Kudos to Deer Park for calling me out for making an over-reacting comment and not doing my research on specifics, much to several posters delight. Shame on me, but doesn't change my opinion that younger HC's are needed going forward.

And BTW, If they get all their injured back soon and Turner can become an effective pitcher they have a chance to actually win a Super this year. Hows that for being positive. I really am a longtime LV's fan of both sports, just a frustrated one.

 

[Majors]

Just win, that’s supposed to be enough to silence critics, but no. Here, after an 11-0 stomping of a conference foe, some of our negative/miserable posters are ignoring the win to complain about our Coaches. In the case of the Weekly’s, many years they’ve fielded one of the most competitive teams of all the teams at Tennessee that year. Some always want “change” for change sake, and there’s always going to be something to complain about. There’s at least one here spewing their negative comments against our Lady Vol basketball Coaches as well. Even Pat Summit only won eight National Championships in her 38 years of Coaching. That’s 30 years of not winning the National Championship, but being “in the hunt.” I would guess these same critics would be here saying she can’t win the big one anymore.

So, great win yesterday, Lady Vol softball team, keep winning!!!

I believe majority are in the corner for the Weekly's. This issue for many is not this year, it is how we got here - missed talent, recruiting rankings and not needs, losing out on in-state kids for out of state kids, transfers, getting complacent in recruiting while the emergence of other programs, change of the game, coaching philosophy to name a few . While we see the rise of other programs after our mountain top years, we've seen a slow descent with nothing to show in recent years. Personally I want to see them retire on top, realistically I don't feel time is on their side to make that happen.

 

[kregman]

How is Kentucky softball ranked so high....

That is a mystery to me too.

 

[kregman]

Danny White is not going to "fire" Karen. It can be debated they should have done more at times over the years (yes no doubt we should have won a NC with Monica and sadly the year we were really good we run up against an all time great Oklahoma team) but in a wasteland of sports failure at UT they have been consistent winners. It is not the UT way anyway. What does need to happen is for Ralph to retire (he is beyond his real coaching days and it would be best for Karen and the team long term) and hire a younger coach with strong recruiting ties (Megan was nice start). Ralph deserves some title that he can hang around off the field. Karen deserves a chance to run the team. It will become clear soon enough it she can do it at a level we will like. At the moment we are all just living in Oklahoma and UCLA's world anyway but as we have seen that can change.

 

[Defaultuser]

Just win, that’s supposed to be enough to silence critics, but no. Here, after an 11-0 stomping of a conference foe, some of our negative/miserable posters are ignoring the win to complain about our Coaches. In the case of the Weekly’s, many years they’ve fielded one of the most competitive teams of all the teams at Tennessee that year. Some always want “change” for change sake, and there’s always going to be something to complain about. There’s at least one here spewing their negative comments against our Lady Vol basketball Coaches as well. Even Pat Summit only won eight National Championships in her 38 years of Coaching. That’s 30 years of not winning the National Championship, but being “in the hunt.” I would guess these same critics would be here saying she can’t win the big one anymore.

So, great win yesterday, Lady Vol softball team, keep winning!!!

USC has 2 conference wins obviously one is courtesy of UT. Keep that bar low.

 

[WVU05UT09]

How is Kentucky softball ranked so high....

Puff up your resume on sh*t teams before the conference season and it looks like that will do the trick for you. The only thing that keeps me from completely discounting them is they did take the series from Alabama at home. But I think that was more of a case of Montana Fouts crapping the bed on the mound in game 3 in front of the "home" folks (shes from Grayson, KY--between Lexington and Huntington, WV on I-64) than anything Kentucky did.

 

[Volfan2012]

Nice game by Turner she usually pitches well when the defense plays well behind her and she has the control over her pitches that she had yesterday. She is not a strikeout pitcher so throwing between 61 and 63 is not a problem when she has her movement and can stay in the strike zone. Was finally glad to see the bats come alive and score some runs. No reason for us to hit the way we did in game one against their pitching. Today we have to come out and score some runs again. It doesn't have to be 11 feel safe if we can get five or better. We have to get the entire team back West and Ayala are very key players for us offensively.

 

[Vols4life]

"Disgruntled parents"? What the hell are you talking about? None of the people I'm talking about are parents of players that have come here. They are travel ball coaches.

As to the last statement, I'm not sure that, at least in the past, trying to completely change players' swings and wanting players to learn positions they have never played at anytime in their lives fall into the category of what you're talking about. Neither is Karen being a total micromanaging hard ass to the point the players walk on egg shells around her and she won't let the pitching coach do their job and call pitches (which finally isn't the case, at least as of this season). It's basically like being an employee with a crappy boss. Some people will stick it out longer than others, some will leave amicably, and some will give the finger as they exit. But our transfer rate for years was much higher than basically any other top 15-20 school and there was a reason for that. On top of that they've been known to give conditional releases in the past. Most of it stemmed from how they were treated and others left because of lack of playing time, which mainly stemmed from the staff overrecruiting -- something they've been known to do for a while. Not everyone is willing to be a career pinch runner or pinch hitter. I've heard many other things about the staff over the last 15 years or so, going back to my days attending UT and beforehand, but I'll leave it at that.

Well I apologize for the first part......If a coach sees a better way for a player to get better they're going to change it not sure why that would be a problem. It is college softball not travel or high school ball what worked in the past will not work at this level. Over recruiting? It is called creating competition if a player is not being pushed that is not good at all. Coaches see it all the time in practice who should be playing and who should not...not sure why parents of players or players feel like they should just be given a spot without it being earned on the field

 

[OriginalCoach]

How is Kentucky softball ranked so high....

That answer will probably be found when the answer to why FL takes two from Bama at Bama and falls below the hammers is found.

 

[stllvf]

There are lots of great athletic achievements every day, every week, every year. I will put University of North Texas softball pitcher Hope Trautwein’s performance eight days ago against any achievement in recent sporting times. You may have heard what Trautwein, a right-hander with a 66-mph rising fastball, did on the afternoon of April 11 in Pine Bluff, Ark., against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Trautwein pitched a perfect game: 21 batters up, 21 down. All 21 outs were strikeouts. No batter hit a fair ball. That’s the first time in NCAA softball history that every out in a perfect game was a strikeout. So: a perfect perfect game.
Strikes: 66. Balls: 11. Three-ball counts: 0.

 

[briancrice]

"Disgruntled parents"? What the hell are you talking about? None of the people I'm talking about are parents of players that have come here. They are travel ball coaches.

As to the last statement, I'm not sure that, at least in the past, (1) trying to completely change players' swings and wanting players to learn positions they have never played at anytime in their lives fall into the category of what you're talking about. (2) Neither is Karen being a total micromanaging hard ass to the point the players walk on egg shells around her and she won't let the pitching coach do their job and call pitches (which finally isn't the case, at least as of this season). It's basically like being an employee with a crappy boss. Some people will stick it out longer than others, some will leave amicably, and some will give the finger as they exit. (3) But our transfer rate for years was much higher than basically any other top 15-20 school and there was a reason for that. (4) On top of that they've been known to give conditional releases in the past. Most of it stemmed from how they were treated and others left because of lack of playing time, which mainly stemmed from the staff overrecruiting -- something they've been known to do for a while. (5) Not everyone is willing to be a career pinch runner or pinch hitter. I've heard many other things about the staff over the last 15 years or so, going back to my days attending UT and beforehand, but I'll leave it at that.

To break this down, allow me to add some footnotes to note things that I don't find accurate, based on my first-hand experience with the program.

1. Coaches at virtually every program change players' swings, from time to time. I haven't observed them making wholesale changes but to a few kids over the years, and all of those ended up benefitting from the changes. Not sure who you're referring to on learning new positions, but, again, happens in literally every program, especially when a kid has a bat you want in the lineup, but she's not better defensively than the player in her preferred position.

2. Have not experienced players doing that in the 10+ years I've been around the program.

3. Among players on scholarship, our transfer rate has been similar to other top programs. Players that were walk-ons have left to go to smaller schools that had money for them. And the list of players that left here and had significant success is pretty short. Caylan Arnold, obviously. Jessica Spigner to a lesser extent, but she was asked to leave. Beyond that, you'll have to remind me of someone that was great after departing.

4. Conditional releases aren't a thing in softball.

5. And that's on the player, not the coach. Most successful programs have found players that are excited to thrive in those roles. Tennessee has in recent seasons. Players like Tianna Batts and Treasury Poindexter have done exactly that and have thrived in the PH/PR/defensive replacement roles.

You can think what you want to think, and I don't weigh in very often, but your outside perception based on who you say you talk to is simply not reality, based on what I've seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. And I'm willing to sign my name to that.

 

[Rickster]

To break this down, allow me to add some footnotes to note things that I don't find accurate, based on my first-hand experience with the program.

1. Coaches at virtually every program change players' swings, from time to time. I haven't observed them making wholesale changes but to a few kids over the years, and all of those ended up benefitting from the changes. Not sure who you're referring to on learning new positions, but, again, happens in literally every program, especially when a kid has a bat you want in the lineup, but she's not better defensively than the player in her preferred position.

2. Have not experienced players doing that in the 10+ years I've been around the program.

3. Among players on scholarship, our transfer rate has been similar to other top programs. Players that were walk-ons have left to go to smaller schools that had money for them. And the list of players that left here and had significant success is pretty short. Caylan Arnold, obviously. Jessica Spigner to a lesser extent, but she was asked to leave. Beyond that, you'll have to remind me of someone that was great after departing.

4. Conditional releases aren't a thing in softball.

5. And that's on the player, not the coach. Most successful programs have found players that are excited to thrive in those roles. Tennessee has in recent seasons. Players like Tianna Batts and Treasury Poindexter have done exactly that and have thrived in the PH/PR/defensive replacement roles.

You can think what you want to think, and I don't weigh in very often, but your outside perception based on who you say you talk to is simply not reality, based on what I've seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. And I'm willing to sign my name to that.

Thanks Brian for sharing the insider info.