2022 Softball Season

Wow! I count 24 now on the roster with the addition of Hailey Dolcini, Bella Dayton and now Lou Gilbert! Getting much playing time will be hard to come by for quite a few.

Yep seems like we need a center fielder that was ready to play right away and went after them. Seems she will be a grad transfer too so should be eligible.
 
There are 21 on the fall roster. The 3 incoming transfers make 24. That's 5 pitchers and 19 position players. The school still hasn't announced the Arizona transfer and the article leaves the impression that Gilbert's eligibility for 2022 is up in the air. I
would think that any current Texas players moving to the portal would have been
revealed by now. I guess we won't get clarity until next month.
 
Adding two experienced OF to the lineup who had decent batting averages. Makes me think of who would be displaced in the outfield.

Burke - no. Clutch hitter
Whitaker - maybe. She's a bit slow in the OF
Popelka - maybe. But, the fastest baserunner on the team. Has that been affected by the injury?
Day - maybe. Not considered a pitcher anymore. OF not her natural position. Hitting has gone down
Ashton Maloney - maybe. Possible her fall injury is not going to let her be 100% when the season starts. Didn't get a chance to see here at all in Fall ball

Now that I look at this list, yeah it makes sense to add more OF. We had 5 OF options, but now we have 7 OF options. If one gets into a hitting slump we can substitute.
 
Adding two experienced OF to the lineup who had decent batting averages. Makes me think of who would be displaced in the outfield.

Burke - no. Clutch hitter
Whitaker - maybe. She's a bit slow in the OF
Popelka - maybe. But, the fastest baserunner on the team. Has that been affected by the injury?
Day - maybe. Not considered a pitcher anymore. OF not her natural position. Hitting has gone down
Ashton Maloney - maybe. Possible her fall injury is not going to let her be 100% when the season starts. Didn't get a chance to see here at all in Fall ball

Now that I look at this list, yeah it makes sense to add more OF. We had 5 OF options, but now we have 7 OF options. If one gets into a hitting slump we can substitute.

CF was the biggest hole in the fall, even Cantu got a start there. The biggest down fall for Popelka is she is a slapper only, which is gradually fading in the game with the out of box rule. I think Gilbert brings speed with the ability to swing away too. We are for sure going to be a stolen base, extra base hit team with fewer bombs. I do think that type of team suits our home field best.
 
Adding two experienced OF to the lineup who had decent batting averages. Makes me think of who would be displaced in the outfield.

Burke - no. Clutch hitter
Whitaker - maybe. She's a bit slow in the OF
Popelka - maybe. But, the fastest baserunner on the team. Has that been affected by the injury?
Day - maybe. Not considered a pitcher anymore. OF not her natural position. Hitting has gone down
Ashton Maloney - maybe. Possible her fall injury is not going to let her be 100% when the season starts. Didn't get a chance to see here at all in Fall ball

Now that I look at this list, yeah it makes sense to add more OF. We had 5 OF options, but now we have 7 OF options. If one gets into a hitting slump we can substitute.
Nice analysis Racer. I believe you missed Mya Holmes and maybe Vanessa Quiroga who we really don’t know much about since they are freshman and we only saw them in fall ball. At the end of the day probably going to be some hurt feeling about playing time.
 
So, from the link I had provided on Dayton:

Dayton entered her collegiate career as the 26th overall recruit in the country and appeared in 20 games during her true freshman season in 2020. She led the program with a perfect 10-10 showing in stolen bases.

In 2021, Dayton appeared in 44 games, starting 22 of them between left and right field. She batted .221 on the year with a home run, seven RBIs, and three stolen bases to her credit.

Sounds like she has great speed and ability to steal bases; at worst, could be a super pinch runner. Wondering why her stolen base count went down from 10 in 2020 to 3 in 2021 (despite playing in twice as many games).
 
So, from the link I had provided on Gilbert:

While at Baylor, she led the Bears’ team last season with a .336 batting average and 50 hits. She led all Big 12 hitters with fourteen doubles last season, and added two triples and five home runs. A three-year starter during her tenure at Baylor, Gilbert played center field as a true freshman, third base during the 2020 season, and moved to left field for her true junior season in 2021.

Following the 2021 season, Gilbert earned All-Big 12 Second-Team honors and also earned a mention on the All-Region Third-Team.


Love that she led the conference in doubles; those will drive in runs.
 
Announcing the addition of Lou Gilbert & Bella Dayton. Both eligible for the upcoming season.
Softball adds transfers Lou Gilbert & Isabella Dayton to the program - University of Texas Athletics
"Both Lou Gilbert and Bella Dayton will elevate the athleticism of our team," White said. "They possess excellent speed and defensive capabilities, plus provide our offense with two left-handed hitters that will create problems for opposing defenses. Our 2022 squad will be the strongest and deepest team we have fielded during my tenure at UT, and we are excited for the upcoming season."

And, they are both lefties!
 
Are we assuming that based on Coach White's quotes (that they will add so much to the 2022 roster)? Or did it literally say (somewhere) that they would both be eligible immediately?
By Coach White stating “plus provide our offense with two left-handed hitters that will create problems” I would assume they are eligible immediately?
 
Back in Fall 2018 (after the transfer portal was created) Iakopo and Rhoades announced they were transferring mid-year, and they were immediately eligible for the 2019 season.

But, the new one-time transfer rule which was implemented at the end of this past Spring stated that you must submit your name into the transfer portal by July 1, 2021 in order to be eligible immediately for the upcoming 2021-22 season; that was for all sports. After that, you'd have to submit a waiver in order to request immediate eligibility. For some basketball transfers across the country who had to submit waiver requests, they didn't get their approvals until like mid-November (2 months after having begun their Fall semesters at their new schools).

Dolcini is not a first-time transfer. Even a grad-transfer who transferred once before as an undergraduate would need to submit a waiver request. Not sure if we have heard for sure. I mean, she's not even enrolled at Texas (yet) as she just graduated from Fresno State a few days ago; she did not participate in Fall ball at Fresno. Not sure when the waiver request can be officially submitted. I would have thought that Dolcini's reasoning would be that the prior head coach at Fresno was terminated for being verbally abusive to her players.

Gilbert is a first-time transfer, and a grad-transfer. She's also an intra-conference Big 12 conference transfer (which I don't think is an issue any longer). Her reasoning would not be the same as Dolcini's as there was no coaching change at Baylor.

Dayton is a first-time transfer, but not a grad-transfer. There was an offseason head coaching change at Arizona due to Candrea's retirement.
 
Grad transfer is different from the portal transfer and is immediate play. The only real hurdle for grad transfers (other than having at least one tear if eligibility remaining) is the school you graduated from does not have the graduate-level program the player wants to pursue and the school transfer to does.
 
Grad transfer is different from the portal transfer and is immediate play. The only real hurdle for grad transfers (other than having at least one tear if eligibility remaining) is the school you graduated from does not have the graduate-level program the player wants to pursue and the school transfer to does.
See Q12

OneTime_Transfer.pdf (ncaa.org)

Postgraduate Transfer Eligibility
Q12: What criteria does a student-athlete who has graduated with their baccalaureate degree need to meet to be eligible as postgraduate student at another Division I school?

A12: A student-athlete who graduates with remaining athletics eligibility may be eligible as a full-time postgraduate student at another Division I school provided they meet the one-time exception criteria, including providing a written request to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal to their current school by July 1, 2021
 
Back in Fall 2018 (after the transfer portal was created) Iakopo and Rhoades announced they were transferring mid-year, and they were immediately eligible for the 2019 season.



Dolcini is not a first-time transfer. Even a grad-transfer who transferred once before as an undergraduate would need to submit a waiver request. Not sure if we have heard for sure. I mean, she's not even enrolled at Texas (yet) as she just graduated from Fresno State a few days ago; she did not participate in Fall ball at Fresno. Not sure when the waiver request can be officially submitted. I would have thought that Dolcini's reasoning would be that the prior head coach at Fresno was terminated for being verbally abusive to her players.

Dayton is a first-time transfer, but not a grad-transfer. There was an offseason head coaching change at Arizona due to Candrea's retirement.
Kinda matches Miranda Elish, except no coaching change. Can probably use COVID as a reason.
 
Nice analysis Racer. I believe you missed Mya Holmes and maybe Vanessa Quiroga who we really don’t know much about since they are freshman and we only saw them in fall ball. At the end of the day probably going to be some hurt feeling about playing time.
I thought of those two. But they seemed destined to be IF.
 
including providing a written request to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal to their current school by July 1, 2021
Moooooo,

Graduate Transfers were in place before the Portal so the insertion of the "NCAA Transfer Portal" is not applicable unless there is a corresponding Section making all previous rules null and void.

No way a Spring Sports Senior knows on 01 July before their first semester as a Senior that they will graduate much less still be able/want to play.

The two should be good to go assuming they actually graduated.
 

nothing to do with the upcoming season but, Janae Jefferson was selected to the women’s national team! She beat out some very special players so she must’ve showed up and showed out. I can tell she’s about to have a strong last season:hookem:
 
We are gonna be a lot better this season than last I think. A LOT better.
This will be the best team Mike White has had since he came to Texas. Pitching, hitting, defense, and not just the amount of depth we have but the quality of depth. Our backups can start and produce runs and our freshman are absolute studs! I was excited years prior but, this is the team I’m most excited about since Mike white took over. We can make serious noise and possibly win it all.
 

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