Softball Play Friday 6 March?

#1
DrDave

DrDave

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
352
Likes
54
#1
What is the schedule today? When does the game start? I know the scheduled time, I need the real start time as near as possible.
 
#4
#4
Lady Vols coming up 0 to 0 bottom of second. Gabriel has given up three hits but no runs.
 
#6
#6
On to bottom of the third Lady Vols 2 Northern Iowa 0. Gabriel has given up four hits and a walk left them all stranded.
 
#8
#8
Gabriel two more hits gives up a run. Gaffin on strikes out three. Lady Vols 4 Northern Iowa 1 bottom of fourth.
 
#9
#9
Gaffin gives up two hits and a walk only one run. Lady Vols 4 Northern Iowa 2 bottom of fifth.
 
#11
#11
Gaffin gives up a double but no runs. Northern Iowa has outhit the Lady Vols 9 to 3 but trail going to bottom sixth 4 to 2.
 
#13
#13
Northern Iowa scores two in the seventh ties game up 4 to 4. Gabriel came on for Gaffin to get out of jam. Lady Vols up need a run to win. So far today only 3 hits by Lady Vols. Northern Iowa has 12 hits.
 
#15
#15
Three homers today by Lady Vol two by Meghan Gregg. Lady Vols turn four hits into five runs to open this home stand with a win.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#16
#16
Gotta knock off the rust this team hasn't played in about 2 weeks...glad the weather will finally allow them to play and see some live action!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 person
#17
#17
I doubt that softball field in Northern Iowa has allowed much realistic practice too. Or in Illinois, or Indiana, or North Dakota. Good thing is the wind is down, and you have sunshine...finally. Scary part is Auburn and Florida are going against top teams in California getting a lot of good playing time.


Vols4life said:
Gotta knock off the rust this team hasn't played in about 2 weeks...glad the weather will finally allow them to play and see some live action!
Click to expand...
 
#18
#18
Somebody pointed this board out to me and said I should post since I follow softball. It took a while to get my credentials or this would have been posted 10 days ago.

I saw all the softball games at the Mary Nutter tournament in California and can give a report about Tennessee.

General conclusions:

The team is very young and is very much a work-in-progress. The team is starting two freshman: Scarlet McSwain at third or DH, and Meghan Gregg at shortstop; four sophomores: Annie Aldrete at catcher, Taylor Koenig at first, Megan Geer at second, and Shaliyah Geathers in left; two juniors: Rainey Gaffin in right or pitching, and Lexi Overstreet at third or right; one senior: Tory Lewis in center. Pitching is three juniors: Gretchen Aucoin, Erin Gabriel, and Rainey Gaffin. There are only two seniors on the squad - Tory Lewis starting in center and she did not play last year, and Cheyanne Tarango who has a thumb/hand/wrist injury and is not playing so far this year.

Pitching, fielding, and hitting - in that order IMO - all need a lot of work.

Pitching:
Aucoin - Gretchen has fantastic velocity. She has more speed than any UT softball pitcher since Monica Abbott IMO. Unfortunately, she did not show at this tournament that she can vary her speeds (no off-speed pitch that worked that I could identify) nor was her control all that good. She was pulled from the Notre Dame game after four walks on 16 pitches (not in a row, not 4 walks in a row but 4 walks each on 4 pitches to each batter) and consistently being unable to find the plate. This improved in her later outings but IMO this needs work. The off-speed pitch is a matter of constant work and practice. The inability to find the plate is disturbing. IMO control is more an innate ability than a learned ability. Again, my opinion. If she can improve either and keep her velocity, she could potentially be very tough.

Gabriel - Erin is slowly overcoming her hip injury and surgery. She doesn't have the velocity Aucoin has but her control and pitch variation are better. Her stamina has improved greatly since the end of last season - she pitched a complete game against FSU and I don't recall any complete games from her last season. It is possible that Aucoin/Gabriel could be a mini-version of the Renfroe sisters - with Aucoin bringing the speed and Gabriel the movement. At this point however, that possibility is just that - a possibility, not a reality.

Gaffin - Rainey is the most consistent of the pitchers. She has decent velocity and movement and can immediately find the plate upon entering the game, something both Aucoin and Gabriel didn't do as well. The problem is Gaffin's long term durability as a pitcher and the possible effect on her bat and fielding. Rainey is a multi-dimensional player and her bat and glove are both needed. Being the number one pitcher may be more than she can do without it negatively affecting the aforementioned.

At this point in the season, pitching is by committee. Whoever is successful will stay in the circle. But in this tournament all three pitchers had major breakdowns at one time or another.

Fielding:
The fielding is actually worse than the pitching, but if the pitching can be improved, it will by extension relieve the pressure on the freshman and sophomores in the field. The infielders are not attacking the ground balls, instead awaiting the ball to come to them, I saw Karen on several occasions talking to the infield and this may be one of the subjects she broached. In this tournament, the team committed 8 errors in 5 games, seven infield errors and 1 outfield error. Gregg had a whopping 4 errors, McSwain 2, Geer 1, and Lewis in center had 1 error. Overstreet in her one stint at catcher had continual trouble holding the ball, although she wasn't charged any errors or passed balls that I recall. She had several passed balls when there were no runners on. Aldrete had the same trouble but I eventually noticed it was when Aucoin was pitching and Aucoin's inability to find the plate coupled with her velocity I guess made it hard on Annie. Gregg fielded at least two balls cleanly that she she made no throw to any base - she just stood with the ball in her hand as if wondering what to do. I assume she felt as if the didn't have a play and decided not to risk a throw. There were several throws from the outfield that were wide of the intended target. There was one missed double play opportunity because of slowness to cover second. Geer's one error was when the bases were loaded and she rushed to try and throw the runner out at home and muffed the ball. I also remember Geathers misplaying a fly ball but she was not charged an error. Lewis's error in center was particularly costly as she caught the ball in her glove and then dropped it. She then compounded that error with a poor throw to the infield which resulted in the infielder rushing to make a throw to the plate which sailed over Aldrete's head. Two runs scored on that play including the batter. The 4-3 loss to Utah included two unearned runs for Utah because of errors.

Hitting:
The bats went silent in game three of the tournament and barely came back to life in games four and five. Yet I don't think hitting is a long term problem. The team as a whole can hit the long ball. The problems in this tournament were that they faced very good pitching or were not sitting on the correct pitch. Cal, Utah, and Nebraska all three were setting up UT's hitters with speed pitches and then throwing an off speed junk pitch. I kept screaming for the hitters to swing at the first pitch because it was consistently a speed pitch for a strike. But they never did and would get behind in the count and then have to guess if the strike three pitch was going to be a speed pitch, an off speed pitch, or whether it was even going to be in the strike zone. Gaffin, Aldrete, and Overstreet particularly looked lame with off balanced swings at off speed pitches. Aldrete struck out swinging or looking I would guess 7 or 8 times in this tournament. Finch for Cal was stellar: She had the best change-up and ball placement I've seen in a while. Every team UT faced had a pitcher that could change speeds effectively and some of UT's hitters struggled with that. The three aforementioned in particular IMO. The loss to Cal isn't overly worrisome - Finch was great and Cal is a legitimate top 10 or 12 team IMO. (UT is not right now). The losses to Utah and Nebraska are more worrisome. Utah had a freshman pitcher that also handcuffed UT's hitters and her stuff was good but not great. Utah was also very aggressive with the bat and on the base paths. UT by contrast was passive and seemed back on their heels in the batter's box. Nebraska's pitcher was very hittable yet UT couldn't. I think by the end of the tournament the hitters were mentally fatigued. Their body language was that of a tired team by the end of game five.

Other observations or opinions:
UT's games were all at 10 am or 12:30 pm local time. This makes sense for teams coming from the east, but it meant UT's games were all in the heat of the day. From around 11 am to 4 pm it would get real hot. It's February but those few hours were pretty brutal. If you don't think it gets hot here in February come on out and stand on the sand in the sun from 11 to 4. I may go back and check the records of the teams that played in these time slots and see what their record was vis-a-vis their record in other time slots.

UT had 5 home runs in the tournament: Koenig had 2, and Geer, McSwain, and Gregg had one each. Gregg's home run was a blast. It looked like something Chamberlain from OU would hit. It left the park like a rocket and went high and long. I estimate it went 250 feet maybe farther.

In the Cal game there was a stoppage of play for about 10 minutes. I have no idea what happened but Ralph approached the home plate umpire and then the whole crew got together. The Cal coach got in on the conversation and then an official from the park was called down on the field. Ralph was on his cell phone to somebody. I overheard another fan say that Ralph told the umpire that the Cal pitcher Finch had illegal equipment - she had either over-sized cleats or a non-regulation shoe on her push-off foot. I did not hear this and don't know. Nobody ever checked the Cal pitcher that I saw and I never saw Ralph even look in her direction much less point or anything. After 10 minutes it was all over and play resumed. Strange.


The west coast schools were well represented with fans. There was a smattering of orange but not much.

If you want to see full tournament results, go here:
2015 Results | Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#19
#19
Both softball game on ESPN3 today. First game at 11:15 CST. Second game starts around 1:30 CST
 
#20
#20
Extra innings by North Dakota State and Purdue causing a delay in starting time.
 
#23
#23
Terra said:
I doubt that softball field in Northern Iowa has allowed much realistic practice too. Or in Illinois, or Indiana, or North Dakota. Good thing is the wind is down, and you have sunshine...finally. Scary part is Auburn and Florida are going against top teams in California getting a lot of good playing time.
Click to expand...

Those teams practice in domes....I know UNI does and Illinois has access to one that the Chicago Bandits use
 
New posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

VN Store



Back
Top