2021 Softball Season

Wow! Some really nasty weather in Norman to start this series. Cold and Wet! Well as Coach White said, both teams have to adapt.
Let’s get’em Horns! And as alway. ou Sucks!
:ousucks::ousucksnana:
 
Looks like OU adapted better. I have to give it to them. They are the real deal and can hit from top to bottom. Our errors did us no favors in this game. 6 HBP and crucial errors cost Texas this game. Have to come out with a better mentality tomorrow
 
Well that was about what I was expecting. The okies have some stout bats and the Texas pitchers are pretty light weight. Still hoping for one win but not to optimistic. Still love my Horns!
 
After the second run-ruled loss to OU:
I'm more angry with the mental self-destruction of the UT team on themselves than the excellence of the OU team. Just the sheer, "What are you doing?!" that I saw in this game. Smack My Head, indeed.
 
The Horns looked so intimidated by ou?? The errors again just kill them. Parker's first error hurt us back in the 4 run first. Then her non throw was an error but called a hit. Cantu let it go right between her legs on the hot shot also called a hit. Jefferson off the base, WTH. It wasn't even close. When Jefferson called the pop fly in the 5th and the girl on first was half way to second and she didn't even look! They seem mentally beat when they walk out on the field. Oh well regroup and do it again tomorrow! Saile is definitely a beatable pitcher. Now Juarez is is a different story and tough to beat. Bet she starts tomorrow. Get tough Horns!
 
Gotta admit...I was wrong about this series. Not that Im so surprised we down 0-2 but how we have played getting here.
I remembered in the movie The Natural when Robert Duvall character said about Robert Redford character..."Its as tho whatever he wants to hit he does". OU has been that way in this series. Cant say Ive seen a team hit this well. The bar has been set pretty high in the Big 12.
But as a true Longhorn I still say this season isnt over. We just have much to clean up. If we want to be the best we must beat the best. Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of the season.
 
Texas killed themselves in these games. OU is a hitting machine but they did nothing special. Texas mistakes are just self inflicted. It's been a problem all year long but I hope they fix this before the tournament because they will lose to good teams with these awful errors. Even though they won't face another offensive machine like OU its still frustrating to see
 
It's Texas making OU get in their heads. None of the OU players or coaches have said anything about Texas to try to rattle our players.

It's Texas players telling themselves they have to be perfect, perfect, perfect. And while chanting that to themselves, they decide to try to do something extra like tag a player that was already out on a force out at third, and then that player drops the ball.
 
I was sure hoping we could get ou from living rent free in our head but the intimidation just continued. I sure hope they get out of this funk an don’t let this series define there season as Coach White said! There first 3 runs were unearned on 2 terrible errors. Ugh! The based loaded twice and nothing. But strike outs! I hope to make it to the Texas State game. Come on ladies! Show some grit!
 
OU lives in our softball head as Baylor lives in our women's basketball head. When we lost Elish, the chances of beating OU went down dramatically. But you cannot afford one error in the game. And, you have to get a pitcher who is slow and has movement to face OU. Essentially, a Blair Luna style performance, a pitcher whose next offer was from DePaul. We were so lucky to get her. Coaches tend to discount the changeup junkball pitchers because their stuff is unorthodox. But speed cannot beat that OU team because it produces HRs. Coach White is not the only one to try to beat them with speed, but hopefully he will add the pitcher who might take the circle for those special power teams.
 
Well, after you've been run over by an 18-wheeler and then the rig backs over your body and then takes another run over your body, it can only go up from there. I hope.
 
Unfortunately Zero U is very good, and it showed. Texas may have the second-best team in the conference, but the gap between #1 and #2 is huge. Patience is in order - it will take time to close the gap.
 
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Apparently we are a long way from being able to compete. Probably years away. I am reconsidering my trip to the Softball College World Series. I will be in Omaha whether the Horns get there or not. We are currently playing well enough to do some damage in Omaha, but will need some breaks to make it to the finals. Remember Arlington.
 
Back to back home runs by Whittaker and JJ Smith! Smith has the best stroke of anyone on the team! What a sweet swing! Boom & Boom!
 
Last night's game, whew! You could tell two obvious things:
1. Mike wanted to score in that first inning. He wanted to give his team some sort of confidence to recover from the OU disaster
2. The players were SO. VERY. concentrated on not making a fielding error. There were several grounders hit to Jenae and she was carefully looking at the ball and making sure her throw to first was sure.

Parker in a (mental) hitting slump. Of all on the team, she's the most vulnerable to mental slumps.

In the 6th inning, Mike had Shea warming up in the bullpen. l was hoping he'd make the right decision and put Shea in at the top of the 7th. But no, Mike is an old pitcher who wants pitchers to get the credit for a full 7 inning game. And the way those infielders held the ball rather than throw and make an error. Again, fear of making an error.

Kansas up next. Hopefully the cure for the OU hangover.
 
racerx5908 said:
Last night's game, whew! You could tell two obvious things:
1. Mike wanted to score in that first inning. He wanted to give his team some sort of confidence to recover from the OU disaster
2. The players were SO. VERY. concentrated on not making a fielding error. There were several grounders hit to Jenae and she was carefully looking at the ball and making sure her throw to first was sure.

Parker in a (mental) hitting slump. Of all on the team, she's the most vulnerable to mental slumps.

In the 6th inning, Mike had Shea warming up in the bullpen. l was hoping he'd make the right decision and put Shea in at the top of the 7th. But no, Mike is an old pitcher who wants pitchers to get the credit for a full 7 inning game. And the way those infielders held the ball rather than throw and make an error. Again, fear of making an error.

Kansas up next. Hopefully the cure for the OU hangover.
Click to expand...
And why did Alyssa Washington stand there and just hold the ball on that grounder to her in the 7th? Looked like she didn’t want to make a mistake and just froze. I saw Coach put in Iakopo at third after that.
Glad we have Kansas coming in this weekend as opposed to okie lite. Great chance to get our confidence back.
 
Ellis21d said:
And why did Alyssa Washington stand there and just hold the ball on that grounder to her in the 7th? Looked like she didn’t want to make a mistake and just froze. I saw Coach put in Iakopo at third after that.
Glad we have Kansas coming in this weekend as opposed to okie lite. Great chance to get our confidence back.
Click to expand...

Exactly. What I found surprising earlier in the game where she took the muffed ball from Courtney and FIRED it to first (I thought the ball was late to the glove). But in the 7th, 3 of those "hits" were players seizing up and not wanting to throw a wild ball to get a player.

What was strange was they called time and Bartlett went to talk to the entire infield (instead of Mike) and Singleton made the unusual move of going to the outfield to address the 3 players who usually don't participate in strategy (but I have seen Singleton make defensive shift calls for the outfield). For a second, I thought Mike White had been ejected for that fair/foul call at first base. But then when he finally brought out Shea to replace Courtney, I figured he hadn't been tossed.
 
Thoughts after the Kansas series:
  1. We're pretty much equal in pitching quality, except we're light years ahead of them in hitting
  2. Looks like JJ Smith has been promoted to catcher while Mary mans the DP job (most days). JJ's been the fastest catcher we've had in a while. I've seen her whip off her mask and catch a popup twice already.
  3. But. Have you noticed how many times she drops a ball that's not a wild pitch? A strike, a ball, it doesn't matter. They seem to slip out of her mitt. A lot!
  4. While they said on the radio that Alysa Washington had non-serious injuries, she had a big boot on her left foot and she was limping a little. Of course, I think she was limping a bit because of this giant boot. It looked almost like a ski boot!
  5. Some balls that hit the outfield fence could have been caught if we had more experienced players or faster or both.
  6. Looks like Parker's got her mental monkey off her back
  7. Ellsworth seems to have disappeared from the coaches minds as a hitter
  8. Adams has completely disappeared. Didn't see her blond hair anywhere today
  9. Cantu and her bunt that turned to be a pop-up. I HATE those type of bunts
  10. Burke = bat control. Wow.
 
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