Tennessee Softball

#4,251
#4,251
sccshortstop said:
Rixxx I will give an opinion and that is all! You are right you would think if we host we should win the early game and winning the regional is a crap shoot. By reverting back to some of our early success and quit watching strikes go by. Our pitching which is average at best should give us the advantage but our offense and dumbness on the bases as well as conservative coaching will doom us again if we let it. If you cripple your hitters to the point they cannot drive the ball somewhere they lose confidence and I think that has happened to us. Got a weak regional and then draw a SEC team super is what I expect to happen. Got to win it to get there however.
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We are probably going to be seeded between 13 & 16 which, if we win the regional, would put us against a top 4 seed in the Super. Alabama, perhaps?
 
#4,253
#4,253
Is it the emphasis on having a long at bat, which is like saying, don’t get your hit/hr at the beginning of your at bat, but at the end? Of course, that causes the batter to “wait” for the pitch she wants, rather than hitting that beautiful strike thrown right down the middle which was thrown early. Same in basketball, when emphasis was made on taking the “good” shot, which made the players hesitate, because they’re worried whether they’re taking a good shot, and then are unable to shoot with confidence.
 
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#4,254
#4,254
LA Vol said:
Another year watching the team steadily regress throughout the season and bellyflop in the postseason. It has become a pattern. Karen talks about our players hitting the mental wall midway through the SEC grind. Wish she would explain why other teams playing similar schedules don't seem to hit a mental wall. Quite a few-- like UK, UGA, UF and Ole Miss-- actually get better as the season goes on. Some, like the team near the bottom of the SEC that just beat us for the third time this year show up for big games. I'd be curious to know why our women's programs and players continue to regress year after year and wilt like hothouse flowers in the postseason.
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In no way are we near basketball slippage but it feels like the program has slipped a notch or two the last couple of years. It’s been a while since I’ve felt like we’ve had a team we could bank on heading to WCWS. I would really like to see them get rid of one of the assistants and bring in a hitting coach. Someone to bring new ideas/mindset. Hard to teach an old dog new tricks tho. Ask Holly
 
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#4,256
#4,256
volman128 said:
The thing is that we had a very favorable schedule this SEC season, which is the main factor in us finishing so high. We didn't play any of the other top 4 seeds in the regular season (Bama, LSU, Kentucky). We could've easily won the conference with our schedule, but we managed to crap the bed in 3 straight series that we should've won (Georgia, Auburn and Ole Miss). Plus dropped a couple of really winnable games that should've resulted in sweeps, especially at home against Arkansas and A&M. If we had played Bama or LSU our seeding and standing would've plummeted because we likely would've been swept. I see people talking on Twitter about our standing but fact is we benefited from a favorable schedule and teams like Ole Miss and LSU not winning games at the end of the season, despite our efforts to crap away our seeding by dropping the series to Ole Miss and losing a game to a bad A&M team. I'm still stunned we finished so high given that we have basically sucked for large stretches ever since we beat Florida and squandered opportunity after opportunity to win the conference.

Sad that we're in our longest WCWS drought since we started going in 2005, and it's about to get a year longer. Despite hauling in elite recruiting classes every year, we aren't getting to the WCWS. I can't help but think the program is starting to slip, TBH. Even a program like Bama, who had a couple down years recently, manages to rebound and win the SEC, and look like they're a lock for the WCWS and likely to challenge for the NC. They look every bit as good as OU and UCLA, to me.
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Absolutely. UF should have been our toughest series, and after we took that, we should have coasted to the SEC championship. That's why this season's performance, given the talent on this team, indicates a problematic pattern-- something we've seen before with Tennessee teams. Chemistry seems good. The team has JR and SR leadership. Is it motivation? Drive? Conditioning? Training? Coaching? Effort? It's not like they weren't hitting early in the season against better teams than they're whiffing against now. It's not like other teams don't have tough schedules or have to endure the grind. Other teams are tired and still play hard, get better and win.

The LVs showed very poorly against the 10 seed in the SECT. Almost any SEC team would have beaten them tonight. They'll hang on to host the regionals, but unless the team has a revelation, they're looking at another season that falls short. It's a disappointing ending for SRs like Leach and Moss, who should have gotten to play in the WCWS several times in their careers.
 
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#4,257
#4,257
Volfaninfl2 said:
Is it the emphasis on having a long at bat, which is like saying, don’t get your hit/hr at the beginning of your at bat, but at the end? Of course, that causes the batter to “wait” for the pitch she wants, rather than hitting that beautiful strike thrown right down the middle which was thrown early. Same in basketball, when emphasis was made on taking the “good” shot, which made the players hesitate, because they’re worried whether they’re taking a good shot, and then are unable to shoot with confidence.
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I don't think that is at all from listening to Karen talk about being aggressive!
 
#4,258
#4,258
SEC FAN 1111 said:
The problem is they don’t do enough live hitting at practice. The good hitting programs have grad assistants that were good pitchers during there playing days that throw live everyday. For whatever reason the weekly’s don’t get these girls.
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We have co headed coaches our grad assistant is a slapper (I mean no one would believe that if it was a comedy) and our pitching coach really doesn’t work with pitchers anymore and we have to have some young kid follow our coach around to make sure he doesn’t screw up the lineup!
 
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#4,259
#4,259
kregman said:
We have co headed coaches our grad assistant is a slapper (I mean no one would believe that if it was a comedy) and our pitching coach really doesn’t work with pitchers anymore and we have to have some young kid follow our coach around to make sure he doesn’t screw up the lineup!
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And our hitting coach is MIA!
 
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#4,260
#4,260
Guys, this was one butt ugly game again for us...

The time of the slapper has passed, but like many of you have pointed out, we continue to play small ball with the slapper and bunts to try and get on....It's maddening to watch.

Is there not a hitting coach to teach these girls how to knock the hell out of the ball? And I agree, how many pitches right down the middle of the plate did we take?

I long for the day when we have no slappers.....
 
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#4,261
#4,261
Just finished watching. Did we set a record for weak ground balls? I’m so sick of this small ball nonsense even if we were good at it it would not produce enough runs in today’s game but we are bad at it most of the time. You reward someone for terrible base running by putting her in right where she is even worst. Props to Caylan great game by her.
 
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#4,263
#4,263
kregman said:
Just finished watching. Did we set a record for weak ground balls? I’m so sick of this small ball nonsense even if we were good at it it would not produce enough runs in today’s game but we are bad at it most of the time. You reward someone for terrible base running by putting her in right where she is even worst. Props to Caylan great game by her.
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TP looks so confused on the base paths as anyone I have seen. Speed kills especially when it is not properly used. Killed us tonight along with the ill advised sign to have Leach bunt rather than swing the damn bat. Caylan pitched her best game in a long time. Will never win when cannot swing the bat and hit the ball.
 
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#4,264
#4,264
To be really elite again some of the staff is going have to be upgraded. We have a team full of quality human beings but no alpha players. Sometimes you need a player to kick some butt on the bench. We are too happy go lucky our seniors one is analytical and the other is happy to be alive good for life in general but we need an edge and goodness knows only Karen comes close to that.
 
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#4,266
#4,266
sccshortstop said:
TP looks so confused on the base paths as anyone I have seen. Speed kills especially when it is not properly used. Killed us tonight along with the ill advised sign to have Leach bunt rather than swing the damn bat. Caylan pitched her best game in a long time. Will never win when cannot swing the bat and hit the ball.
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Caylan great game should not get lost in the frustration.
 
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#4,268
#4,268
GameTime said:
Guys, this was one butt ugly game again for us...

The time of the slapper has passed, but like many of you have pointed out, we continue to play small ball with the slapper and bunts to try and get on....It's maddening to watch.

Is there not a hitting coach to teach these girls how to knock the hell out of the ball? And I agree, how many pitches right down the middle of the plate did we take?

I long for the day when we have no slappers.....
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We are the only sec team that still uses small ball. Watching this Georgia/Alabama game these girls take hacks and drive the ball! It’s not the 90’s anymore small ball is dead!
 
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#4,270
#4,270
I will wait to see who we get in the regionals ( better pray JMU gets their own regional if in ours goodbye) but as it stands we will not get out of the region without better more aggressive hitting and no speed is not only not the answer it seems to get us in more trouble than it helps.
 
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#4,273
#4,273
kregman said:
I will wait to see who we get in the regionals ( better pray JMU gets their own regional if in ours goodbye) but as it stands we will not get out of the region without better more aggressive hitting and no speed is not only not the answer it seems to get us in more trouble than it helps.
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No doubt JMU will get their own regional and yes darn good thing , it seems like they are in our something every year.
 
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