2023 Softball Season

I have to mention this but Alabama went 1 and 3 in the tournament. I listened the the Alabama/Wisconsin game on the Alabama radio station and Boy are they full of themselves! Highlights from the broadcast.
1. Alabama was ahead 6-5 going into the 6th When Fouts comes in to close out the game and the announcers say " here come everyone's favorite Queen!" OMG
2. When they brought in Fouts Wisconsin had one on base. The second Wisconsin batter hits a home run off of Fouts. The announcers proclaim "that batter just stuck her bat out there".
3. They talked about the 3 other pitchers on the team and they referred to them as "Earth, Wind and Fire" Really!!
4. They referred several times that Arkansas would be watching what was going on in Austin because they play them next weekend.
5. And lastly they referred to their only win over Texas as an "Epic win" for the team. Maybe I agree?

As I mentioned before Bama has a hard road ahead. Ride Fouts until she passes out like we did Dolcini last year!
 
racerx5908 said:
So very frustrated with Mike White and the players. Yes, they rallied from 0-3 to tie it up 3-0 and then went into a defensive shell after that. It was like they were hoping for some miracle double off the wall or HR to put the winning points on the board.

Mac pitched her guts out, but no support from her hitters.

When Patrick Murphy for the second time purposely walks Vivi Martinez to get to Katie Cimusz because he knows she's an easy out, you would think that Mike would put in a pinch hitter. But no, he thinks that even though Katie has gone 0-4, she'll somehow finally get a hit.

And the pop bunts near the end? Want to scream!

Vivi Martinez is both the future of SS and also it's biggest liability. Her throws tend to be on the high side. In Friday's two games, she was credited with 2 errors and I thought she caused a third one, but they put the blame on Day. In each case, she threw so high or off center that first base was pulled off the bag.

Tonight, she pulled Cimusz off the bag, but pulled her towards home plate so Katie caught the ball and tagged the runner and not the base. The second time Vivi threw off, she pulled Katie off the bag and the runner was safe.

Because she caused 3 errors on Friday, she got switched with Goode....who promptly showed them that SS was not her best position and they had to swap her and Scott back again.
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Ellis21d said:
I have to mention this but Alabama went 1 and 3 in the tournament. I listened the the Alabama/Wisconsin game on the Alabama radio station and Boy are they full of themselves! Highlights from the broadcast.
1. Alabama was ahead 6-5 going into the 6th When Fouts comes in to close out the game and the announcers say " here come everyone's favorite Queen!" OMG
2. When they brought in Fouts Wisconsin had one on base. The second Wisconsin batter hits a home run off of Fouts. The announcers proclaim "that batter just stuck her bat out there".
3. They talked about the 3 other pitchers on the team and they referred to them as "Earth, Wind and Fire" Really!!
4. They referred several times that Arkansas would be watching what was going on in Austin because they play them next weekend.
5. And lastly they referred to their only win over Texas as an "Epic win" for the team. Maybe I agree?

As I mentioned before Bama has a hard road ahead. Ride Fouts until she passes out like we did Dolcini last year!
Click to expand...
Ellis totally agree with all you said and just wanna add we are doing this with 5 freshmen playing alot. I thought Coach sticking with Katie says alot about what we are not getting on the practice field from our older players. I too am excited about what this team and coaching staff will look like in May. I'm so glad we didn't have to get 162 pitches from any one of our pitchers too.
 
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Another game where Mike leaves in pitchers, plural, one inning too long. He had Mac and Czech warming up for a long time. They were ready to go anytime.
 
Leaving the pitchers in too long wouldn't have mattered if our experienced batter would just put a ball right down the middle with 2 strikes in play with a runner on 3rd and 1 out. Then again trying to take 2nd when it wasn't necessary with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs. But instead that run doesn't score on Vivi's grounder because trying to take 2nd gave Texas 2 outs. That was the game right there.
 
There's a lot of coulda-woulda-shoulda when it comes to pitching. IF the pitcher doesn't hit the batter, then that batter wouldn't have been the run that came in with 2 outs to give the other team the lead, etc.....

I know most, all(?) of you can't attend the games in person. So an interesting feature is that the scoreboard added a new feature that shows what each batter did the previous times they were up to bat.

For Cimusz one game it said:

2nd Struck out looking
4th Struck out looking
6th Struck out looking

Having that on the board just makes it so obvious that she was frozen in indecision. And then of course she finally got a hit.

What isn't shown is that Courtney Day keeps taking the first pitch without swinging and the opposing team knows it and just sends a sweet ball down the middle. We sit very close to the batter's box and we can literally shout at the players and hear the umps sometimes talking to the players. I had to bite my tongue several times from shouting "Don't just take the first pitch Courtney!" But, that would be disruptive to the player and rude. But, then in extra innings she proceeded to take the first pitch for a strike.

In the game against Alabama when we were in a dry spell, I kept ranting (under my breath to my wife), "For God's sake put in a pinch hitter".

Then in the TxState game she was groaning, "Just try someone else".

And of course the TxState fans went nuts with their win. We're their superbowl every year we play each other.
 
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Okay, so I've been a downer on Texas lately because when you're sitting there on the bleachers in extended innings thinking back at multiple times in the regular innings we could have wrapped it up, you start griping.

I've gone back and compared where Texas was in 2022 vs. where they are now at the 26-game mark. Ironically, the 26 mark marks the 10-10 tie with Minnesota.

So yes, we're doing better than last year. The second number shows the relative rank where the team stands to the rest of the NCAA Div I teams. We were #2 in hitting percentage until this last weekend.

HQJXt6a.png
 
Listening to Marist game. Simpson with no control and of course, allowing 1 run in the 1st on a WILD PITCH. Sigh. But in the 2nd inning, Dayton hits an inside the park GRAND SLAM. Up after 2 innings 5-1.
 
Loved MW lineup shifts the game against Marist. Dayton has a rbi single and an inside the park grand slam. Would love to see her lead off next game And Popelka in the 9 spot bench Awash for a game.

Atwood’s bat is really coming along.
 
Our approach to this game offensively is just not good. Both pitchers are the exact same and we still can’t seem to figure it out. They throw balls until it’s 3-0 then throw cupcakes right down the middle.
 
I wish we were more consistant at the plate. I mean we lose the game on a walk off homer to a freshman hitting .176...sigh
 
I know our Ladies are doing their best but I agree something is wrong with our.....something. Racer should post the decline of our batting averages over the last couple of weeks. I bet its not pretty
 
I personally don't blame our freshmen as much as I expect more leadership from everyone else.
 
I think there are two reasons for this sudden decline on the team:

1. The freshmen are hitting the freshman wall. But, so are the sophmores I suppose.
2. We're on streaming so much, there is a lot of tape on our team. More for opposing teams to study us and pitch accordingly.

I may work on the stats when I get a chance. I point to the suddenly downturn starting with the last tournament we hosted when we went dry in the late innings leading to extra innings where we lost.
 
How do you look soooo flat in every aspect of the game ??? Hitting was horrendous if we couldnt hit then small ball should of been implemented. Pitching was average Mac been looking FLAT . How do NOT come out and find a wat to score runs after CZECH shuts them down for 2innings . WE DIDNT DO THE SMALL THINGS ON OFFENSE TO WIN THIS GAME. GOT TO BE BETTER
 
One last thing..We have this huge bench of players, maybe the largest in our history, but we don't get much from them at all. I know I'm all ova the place with my comments but I just want us to be the best we can be. We Are Texas....we are better that this version of us.
 
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I put the rank in batting average compared to the rest of the NCAA Div I programs because if I put up the raw number, you can't tell if it's better or worse than other programs if everyone's having a bad year. We were #1 for one stat period on 2/28/23. This does not include the numbers for Friday's game in which we hit:
Marist: 0.428
South Florida: 0.240
 
Estelle Czech has a no hitter going into the 7th against USF then gives up a home run and a single in the 7th. But a masterful performance by Czech as we win 6-1 and she avenges her loss to them yesterday. We look really good, both hitting and pitching, going into conference play next week!
 


This had me thinking. Now we're 26-5-1, what do you think the rest of the season will be? This is my pure guess:

BJJUvvW.png


Which means we'll be 42-11-1. Again, going with my gut.
 
racerx5908 said:


This had me thinking. Now we're 26-5-1, what do you think the rest of the season will be? This is my pure guess:

BJJUvvW.png


Which means we'll be 42-11-1. Again, going with my gut.
Click to expand...

Oh Racer, ye of little faith. Come on man! We will be the Okies at least one game!
 
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