Super Regionals/World Series

#601
#601
Vols4life said:
WOW come back here and still see people complaining...geez guys

Jeff and I said at the beginning of the season the team is young...they exceeded expectations which says a lot I did not have them hosting a super at the end of the season...going on a 20 game winning streak...taking series from LSU & A&M on the road...taking the series against bama...and beating FL with their pitching staff...the experience Moss and Arnold got at this point in the season will only help towards next season and they'll be able to pass that knowledge onto Sprang....I'm excited about next season....Can't wait!

PS thank you Megan Geer for giving your all to the LV's!!! Good luck in the NPF
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Yeah this young team lead the superregional one game to nothing and led the entire game two. Not the players fault, if you know what I mean
 
#604
#604
We choked this series away, there's no question about it, and it wasn't because we were "young." Moss is a veteran pitcher, with two full seasons under her belt: She had a chance to secure the game two win and couldn't get it done. Obviously, Ralph should have never pulled Arnold in the first place. Geer, a senior, well, the less said the better. Ugly. Hate to see her good career end on such a terrible note. How many rallies did she kill in this series and in the last four weeks of the season? We pretty much had runners on base EVERY time she came up in this series and in most every at bat she's had for a month, and she was pretty much an automatic out. Had she had even a mediocre series, we win it. It's not like she was a mediocre player--she is supposed to be one of our best hitters. The coaches gave her the benefit of the doubt by keeping her in the 5 hole game after game after game, and that proved to be a mistake. The "young" excuse is just that: EVERY team is playing freshmen---all of them. Certainly, not having one more experienced pitcher certainly hurt--but most of our field players were experienced. The only two who were weren't Holcomb and Seggern, played well this year. Again, we are hardly the only team playing freshmen--every team does, every year. Tough way to go out.
 
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#605
#605
armchair said:
We choked this series away, there's no question about it, and it wasn't because we were "young." Moss is a veteran pitcher, with two full seasons under her belt: She had a chance to secure the game two win and couldn't get it done. Obviously, Ralph should have never pulled Arnold in the first place. Geer, a senior, well, the less said the better. Ugly. Hate to see her good career end on such a terrible note. How many rallies did she kill in this series and in the last four weeks of the season? We pretty much had runners on base EVERY time she came up in this series and in most every at bat she's had for a month, and she was pretty much an automatic out. Had she had even a mediocre series, we win it. It's not like she was a mediocre player--she is supposed to be one of our best hitters. The coaches gave her the benefit of the doubt by keeping her in the 5 hole game after game after game, and that proved to be a mistake. The "young" excuse is just that: EVERY team is playing freshmen---all of them. Certainly, not having one more experienced pitcher certainly hurt--but most of our field players were experienced. The only two who were weren't Holcomb and Seggern, played well this year. Again, we are hardly the only team playing freshmen--every team does, every year. Tough way to go out.
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Moss just finished her 2nd season Armchair...Next year she will be a junior and will have 2 years experience....only Geer, Gregg, McSwain, and McClain are they only ones who had Supers experience prior to this season...next year the team will be ready
 
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#607
#607
I'm so sorry for causing us to choke the game away. I left my chair with the LV up 3 - 0 to go enjoy some pool time with Wifey . Came back in to catch the score and A&M was celebrating their 3 run homer. It's all my fault. :(
 
#609
#609
JohnnyBall said:
Yeah this young team lead the superregional one game to nothing and led the entire game two. Not the players fault, if you know what I mean
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Yes, but look at the good side, we had a young team that was suppose to finish no higher than 6th in the SEC. They certainly were not rated in the top 10 teams in the country at the beginning. In essence they overachieved over what was expected of them. Though we are disappointed, the Lady Vol softball team had a heck of a year. Next year they will have the number one incoming softball recruits, expections will be high. With what the ladies have coming it, super regional like what happened today, or failure to make it that far, may justify some coaching questions. However, the ladies and the coaches deserve a pat on the back for making a liar out of the forecasters.
 
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#610
#610
teacherdean said:
Yes, but look at the good side, we had a young team that was suppose to finish no higher than 6th in the SEC. They certainly were not rated in the top 10 teams in the country at the beginning. In essence they overachieved over what was expected of them. Though we are disappointed, the Lady Vol softball team had a heck of a year. Next year they will have the number one incoming softball recruits, expections will be high. With what the ladies have coming it, super regional like what happened today, or failure to make it that far, may justify some coaching questions. However, the ladies and the coaches deserve a pat on the back for making a liar out of the forecasters.
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Not next year. The 2017 class is ranked 12th. But apparently, the 2018 and 2019 classes are both ranked number 1, as of right now
 
#611
#611
armchair said:
We choked this series away, there's no question about it, and it wasn't because we were "young." Moss is a veteran pitcher, with two full seasons under her belt: She had a chance to secure the game two win and couldn't get it done. Obviously, Ralph should have never pulled Arnold in the first place. Geer, a senior, well, the less said the better. Ugly. Hate to see her good career end on such a terrible note. How many rallies did she kill in this series and in the last four weeks of the season? We pretty much had runners on base EVERY time she came up in this series and in most every at bat she's had for a month, and she was pretty much an automatic out. Had she had even a mediocre series, we win it. It's not like she was a mediocre player--she is supposed to be one of our best hitters. The coaches gave her the benefit of the doubt by keeping her in the 5 hole game after game after game, and that proved to be a mistake. The "young" excuse is just that: EVERY team is playing freshmen---all of them. Certainly, not having one more experienced pitcher certainly hurt--but most of our field players were experienced. The only two who were weren't Holcomb and Seggern, played well this year. Again, we are hardly the only team playing freshmen--every team does, every year. Tough way to go out.
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I would respectfully disagree. There IS a question of whether they choked or not. We can't be in their heads. It's just as likely that our limitations caught up with us. The bottom of the order wasn't just bad in the post season, they've been bad a long time. Geer, Seggern, McSwain and Lockman combined to hit about .200 since the SEC schedule started. Have they been choking since the middle of March? You are half right about Seggern. She played great defense. She hit poorly. From the beginning of conference play thru the end of the year she hit below .180. What she did against TSU and Bumfuzzle State don't mean a thing. But I'm sure she will work hard to improve.

As far as Moss being a veteran pitcher, so what? This perception that simply returning for another year makes you better isn't always true. The number of years you've been on the Earth don't make your ball move more or hit its spots more. These 2 teams have seen each other a lot the last few weeks. There are no secrets now. You finally just have to be better than the other team. Maybe she choked, or maybe her stuff just isn't good enough to face a team that many innings in that short a span. Did Abbott choke against Arizona? Or did they see her over and over and over those 3 games until they finally adjusted enough to score a few runs? JMO
 
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#612
#612
larjoranj said:
I would respectfully disagree. There IS a question of whether they choked or not. We can't be in their heads. It's just as likely that our limitations caught up with us. The bottom of the order wasn't just bad in the post season, they've been bad a long time. Geer, Seggern, McSwain and Lockman combined to hit about .200 since the SEC schedule started. Have they been choking since the middle of March? You are half right about Seggern. She played great defense. She hit poorly. From the beginning of conference play thru the end of the year she hit below .180. What she did against TSU and Bumfuzzle State don't mean a thing. But I'm sure she will work hard to improve.

As far as Moss being a veteran pitcher, so what? This perception that simply returning for another year makes you better isn't always true. The number of years you've been on the Earth don't make your ball move more or hit its spots more. These 2 teams have seen each other a lot the last few weeks. There are no secrets now. You finally just have to be better than the other team. Maybe she choked, or maybe her stuff just isn't good enough to face a team that many innings in that short a span. Did Abbott choke against Arizona? Or did they see her over and over and over those 3 games until they finally adjusted enough to score a few runs? JMO
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I'll add that Seggren played about 5 varsity sports in high school....never really fully a softball player until this year...and it showed in the defense she played...her hitting will only improve next season along with everyone else
 
#614
#614
larjoranj said:
I would respectfully disagree. There IS a question of whether they choked or not. We can't be in their heads. It's just as likely that our limitations caught up with us. The bottom of the order wasn't just bad in the post season, they've been bad a long time. Geer, Seggern, McSwain and Lockman combined to hit about .200 since the SEC schedule started. Have they been choking since the middle of March? You are half right about Seggern. She played great defense. She hit poorly. From the beginning of conference play thru the end of the year she hit below .180. What she did against TSU and Bumfuzzle State don't mean a thing. But I'm sure she will work hard to improve.

As far as Moss being a veteran pitcher, so what? This perception that simply returning for another year makes you better isn't always true. The number of years you've been on the Earth don't make your ball move more or hit its spots more. These 2 teams have seen each other a lot the last few weeks. There are no secrets now. You finally just have to be better than the other team. Maybe she choked, or maybe her stuff just isn't good enough to face a team that many innings in that short a span. Did Abbott choke against Arizona? Or did they see her over and over and over those 3 games until they finally adjusted enough to score a few runs? JMO
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against Arizona--our hitters choked. We had a 1 game lead in the best of three, and had /multiple/ chances to win game two with runners on second and could never get a clutch hit. Eventually, Arizona DID score, and we lost that key game and then lost the next won and blew our best ever chance at a title.

When you've got not one but two 3-run leads going into the middle innings of a 7-inning sport, I think "choke" is a fair word. Harsh, maybe, but true. We didn't get clutch hits and didn't get clutch pitching. When you don't perform repeatedly in the clutch, that, to me, is choking. We didn't score after the 2nd inning today. Karen Weekly keeps raving about what a great lineup a&m has. They had 4 hits today. We outhit them both days--but didn't get the clutch hits, and they did.

Our 6-8 hitters were bad this year--but they got some hits yesterday and today. If we had gotten anything out of Geer, we would have won this series. Her poor hitting was pretty much the difference in the series. A LOT of teams don't get much hitting out of their 7/8 spots--that's why they're in the 7/8 holes. But your 5? You need your 5 to hit--and Geer did not. At all. Not one. And what really made it a problem is that there were almost ALWAYS runners on base when she came to the plate. Our 1-4 hitters all had terrific OBP--good grief, Leach and Gregg were stupendous at getting on base; Holcomb and Vines were good, too. RBI opportunities, game after game...and nothing. And the coaches pretty much did nothing to change the dynamic with her until today, when they dropped her down one spot in the order. They needed to be more proactive there and they weren't. We'd have been MUCH better off hitting Weimer in the 5 hole and dropping Geer to 8 or somesuch. Yea, the player has to perform, but coaches are paid to improve or fix things--or at least to try. The funny thing is, Ralph probably makes more lineup changes than anybody--and yet neither he nor KW did a thing when it came to Geer. Yes, you have to respect the career she's had; you don't doing anything one week into a slump, or two weeks. But four weeks? Five weeks? You gotta do something different. I think RW and KW are two of the best coaches in the business, but that was a coaching failure.

The one thing I find curious about our coaching staff is that they don't seem able to really get production out of pitchers who struggle early for one reason or another. It was obvious to me at the start of the season, and I said so, that the team really needed to get Morrison into a position to contribute meaningfully this year--meaning pitch some--1 inning, 3 innings, whatever, in meaningful games. Didn't happen. If a pitcher comes in and shows out right away....splendid, she pitches. But if a pitcher comes to the program and struggles early for whatever reason, she will not be developed or turned around. She might has well transfer to the University of Siberia. Morrison wasn't developed, didn't help us. She pitched well in one non-conference game, then had some sort of difficulties in her next-non-conference outing--and get yanked in the first inning. It seemed kind of a silly thing do given that we won the game by run-rule--it wasn't like we were going to lose the game. Let Morrison pitch through her difficulties. But, no, she got yanked and that was effectively the last we saw of her all year, except for a couple of innings late in the season, LSU game?--when we were behind. Oh, well.
 
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#615
#615
armchair said:
against Arizona--our hitters choked. We had a 1 game lead in the best of three, and had /multiple/ chances to win game two with runners on second and could never get a clutch hit. Eventually, Arizona DID score, and we lost that key game and then lost the next won and blew our best ever chance at a title.

When you've got not one but two 3-run leads going into the middle innings of a 7-inning sport, I think "choke" is a fair word. Harsh, maybe, but true. We didn't get clutch hits and didn't get clutch pitching. When you don't perform repeatedly in the clutch, that, to me, is choking. We didn't score after the 2nd inning today. Karen Weekly keeps raving about what a great lineup a&m has. They had 4 hits today. We outhit them both days--but didn't get the clutch hits, and they did.

Our 6-8 hitters were bad this year--but they got some hits yesterday and today. If we had gotten anything out of Geer, we would have won this series. Her poor hitting was pretty much the difference in the series. A LOT of teams don't get much hitting out of their 7/8 spots--that's why they're in the 7/8 holes. But your 5? You need your 5 to hit--and Geer did not. At all. Not one. And what really made it a problem is that there were almost ALWAYS runners on base when she came to the plate. Our 1-4 hitters all had terrific OBP--good grief, Leach and Gregg were stupendous at getting on base; Holcomb and Vines were good, too. RBI opportunities, game after game...and nothing. And the coaches pretty much did nothing to change the dynamic with her until today, when they dropped her down one spot in the order. They needed to be more proactive there and they weren't. We'd have been MUCH better off hitting Weimer in the 5 hole and dropping Geer to 8 or somesuch. Yea, the player has to perform, but coaches are paid to improve or fix things--or at least to try. The funny thing is, Ralph probably makes more lineup changes than anybody--and yet neither he nor KW did a thing when it came to Geer. Yes, you have to respect the career she's had; you don't doing anything one week into a slump, or two weeks. But four weeks? Five weeks? You gotta do something different. I think RW and KW are two of the best coaches in the business, but that was a coaching failure.

The one thing I find curious about our coaching staff is that they don't seem able to really get production out of pitchers who struggle early for one reason or another. It was obvious to me at the start of the season, and I said so, that the team really needed to get Morrison into a position to contribute meaningfully this year--meaning pitch some--1 inning, 3 innings, whatever, in meaningful games. Didn't happen. If a pitcher comes in and shows out right away....splendid, she pitches. But if a pitcher comes to the program and struggles early for whatever reason, she will not be developed or turned around. She might has well transfer to the University of Siberia. Morrison wasn't developed, didn't help us. She pitched well in one non-conference game, then had some sort of difficulties in her next-non-conference outing--and get yanked in the first inning. It seemed kind of a silly thing do given that we won the game by run-rule--it wasn't like we were going to lose the game. Let Morrison pitch through her difficulties. But, no, she got yanked and that was effectively the last we saw of her all year, except for a couple of innings late in the season, LSU game?--when we were behind. Oh, well.
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Nothing against Marty but I've thought we needed a fresh start in pitching for awhile now. Just a fresh set of eyes if you will...

The great pitchers in the game reinvent themselves year after year. They find ways to get crisper, they add new pitches, etc. I struggle to identify a pitcher since Abbott (she was a natural--few of those around) that really added new tools, speed, etc. throughout their career at UT. That's not to say we haven't had great pitchers--we have. But none of them had a breakout season significantly improved since the prior one the way Jackie Trainia did when Bama won it all and Kalani Ricketts between her fresh and soph years at OU.
 
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#616
#616
LA Vol said:
It's frustrating how Arnold has fallen apart when the stakes are high. Other teams have freshmen stepping up big down the stretch and helping their teams make the WCWS. Moss got tired, and our season tanked.
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Arnold fell apart? She didn't allow a hit in her relief appearance today. Not sure how that's "falling apart."
 
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#618
#618
#1 Florida (2-1) ADVANCED
#16 Alabama (1-2)

#9 Texas A&M (2-1) ADVANCED
#8 Tennessee (1-2)

#5 UCLA (2-0) ADVANCED
#12 Ole Miss (0-2)

#13 LSU (2-1) ADVANCED
#4 Florida State (1-2)

#3 Oregon (2-0) ADVANCED
#14 Kentucky (0-2)

#11 Utah (1-1)
#6 Washington (1-1)

#7 Auburn (0-2)
#10 Oklahoma (2-0) ADVANCED

#15 Baylor (2-1) ADVANCED
#2 Arizona (1-2)
 
#619
#619
LA Vol said:
I think what has a lot of UT fans so frustrated is that other programs keep passing us by. Upstarts SCAR and Miss St have jetted past us in WBB, Ole Miss softball just won their first SECT on our home field while we were beaten first game and now we just handed aTm their first trip to the WCWS, again on our home field in front of a record crowd of LV fans expecting the 8 seed to win. LVs used to dominate in women's sports. Now we watch other coaches move their programs ahead of ours "this year" while we talk about "next year".
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This is far from A&M's first trip to the World Series. Their program has multiple national championships. This is their seventh trip to the World Series in the NCAA era, they had several others back in the AIAW days.

Sure, it is their first trip since 2008, but don't act like they're some upstart that came out of nowhere. They have a coach that's been there 20 years and has been to four World Series.
 
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#621
#621
DeerPark12 said:
This is far from A&M's first trip to the World Series. Their program has multiple national championships. This is their seventh trip to the World Series in the NCAA era, they had several others back in the AIAW days.

Sure, it is their first trip since 2008, but don't act like they're some upstart that came out of nowhere. They have a coach that's been there 20 years and has been to four World Series.
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Fair points. But today's loss was an upset. The LVs lost a lead for the second day in a row, dropped a winnable series and failed to capitalize on a big opportunity. It happens. We still have a good, well-coached team, and we'll be back to fight another day.

But the central premise remains the same: other SEC schools are leapfrogging UT's athletic programs, which are, at best, standing still or far more frequently, backsliding-- despite the significant resources allocated to these programs. Currie talks about winning championships. Before we can start winning them, we have to start competing for them.
 
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#622
#622
#1 Florida (2-1) ADVANCED
#16 Alabama (1-2)

#9 Texas A&M (2-1) ADVANCED
#8 Tennessee (1-2)

#5 UCLA (2-0) ADVANCED
#12 Ole Miss (0-2)

#13 LSU (2-1) ADVANCED
#4 Florida State (1-2)

#3 Oregon (2-0) ADVANCED
#14 Kentucky (0-2)

#11 Utah (1-2)
#6 Washington (2-1) ADVANCED

#7 Auburn (0-2)
#10 Oklahoma (2-0) ADVANCED

#15 Baylor (2-1) ADVANCED
#2 Arizona (1-2)
 
#623
#623
WCWS field
Bracket 1

#1 Florida
#9 Texas A&M

#5 UCLA
#13 LSU

Bracket 2

#3 Oregon
#6 Washington

#10 Oklahoma
#15 Baylor
 
#624
#624
LA Vol said:
Fair points. But today's loss was an upset. The LVs lost a lead for the second day in a row, dropped a winnable series and failed to capitalize on a big opportunity. It happens. We still have a good, well-coached team, and we'll be back to fight another day.

But the central premise remains the same: other SEC schools are leapfrogging UT's athletic programs, which are, at best, standing still or far more frequently, backsliding-- despite the significant resources allocated to these programs. Currie talks about winning championships. Before we can start winning them, we have to start competing for them.
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My God. We overachieve in a rebuilding year where we're picked to finish in the middle of the SEC and suddenly the softball program is "backsliding?'
 
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#625
#625
DeerPark12 said:
My God. We overachieve in a rebuilding year where we're picked to finish in the middle of the SEC and suddenly the softball program is "backsliding?'
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Read the post. I never said the softball program was backsliding. In fact, I said the opposite. You seem to be looking to start something, so look elsewhere.
 
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