2023 Softball Season

racerx5908 said:
At yesterday's game, behind me sat two travel ball coaches. Since one of the coaches also coached his daughter, who sat next to him, I would say that the age group they coach would be about 4th grade? Anyway, the two coaches are in the same general club and good friends and they spent a lot of time ribbing each other about their coaching.

But overhearing them, they were gossiping about a few of our players. i.e. their reputations in high school and club before coming to Texas. I won't say what they were saying, but they were a bit negative. Again, just gossip amongst travel ball coaches.

Then they turned to Texas and their use of players. They were grumbling about Mike White saying, "Ummm, I don't know what it is about Mike and freshmen. Look at Corona. She played a lot as a freshman and did pretty good. Then for the last two years, nothing out of her. I mean, he's recruiting players over her....and maybe he doesn't develop them?"

They're talking about this from the perspective of a coach who eventually sends their players to college programs. They want to know that they'll be coached up in college and not just left to their own. One of them is a Longhorn fan, so it wasn't just dumping on the program.

I almost turned around and talked to them about how our freshmen pitchers flame out and quit or transfer and how we seem to do best with experienced grad school transfers. But, I stayed out of it.

I guess their perspective is if Mike is going to keep recruiting over older players with freshmen, then are the older players not getting much improvement from the coaches and thus needing the freshmen to play? Or do the coaches decide that the new freshmen are better than the sophmores or juniors and don't bother working on their development?
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The big thing is this freshman class and the in coming classes are the first ones where Mike White had a full recruiting cycle. A lot of the elite players in the sophmore class were already committed before the August 1st junior year contact rule. We were able to flip Mia Scott from A&M so that was the biggest recruit we could get from that class.
 
Montana Greg said:
Could Longhorn network hire a temporary announcer that actually cares for the Horns? Spent the two games she broadcast praising the attributes of OSU, especially Maxwell!
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No kidding! I don't care for homer announcers, either, but she was fawning all over and pretty much actively rooting for OSU during that second game.
 
Haven’t thought or heard much about Big 12 Freshman of the years honors for this season. Reese Atwood? Maybe? Wouldn’t this be Great! Article from D1softball.com.
Oklahoma is still cruising, but the Sooners’ grip on one title is slipping. Which is another way of saying Big 12 Freshman of the Year is one heck of a difficult vote. Clearly, Reese Atwood has the best campaign motto—whatever it was that she exclaimed right after the ball left her bat on Saturday’s walk-off home run against Oklahoma State. But seriously, who is the favorite for freshman honors in the Big 12? Like everything else in college softball, Oklahoma has claimed this prize for itself in recent years. Sooners have won the past six awards outright, and Paige Parker shared it with Kansas’ Danielle Chavez the year before that streak began.

  • It looked early this season that Jocelyn Erickson might make it seven in a row without much difficulty. And if we’re talking overall season value, she still has a case. But Oklahoma’s depth has limited her time in conference play.
  • Leighann Goode, Viviana Martinez and Atwood have been instrumental in Texas’ success, but even putting aside a dip in numbers in Big 12 games, which one do you vote for? If we’re talking conference performance, Atwood’s amazing run of walk-off hits notwithstanding, Citlaly Gutierrez (3-1, 2.31 ERA) may yet win the Austin primary.
  • How about an outsider? Texas Tech hasn’t produced an award winner since transfer Kim Martinez won the short-lived Newcomer of the Year Award in 1997. But from start to finish, whether you want to talk season-long or conference play, Kailey Wyckoff has given fans in Lubbock a reason to buy what Craig Snider is selling about the future. Even after a slow start in the Kansas series that concludes Monday, Wyckoff is slashing .375/.479/.750 in Big 12 games and .430/.490/.815 overall.
 
Last Thursday, Texas had an RPI rank of #11. Then over the weekend, the stat changed to #12, probably due to some teams we beat that lost, like Alabama. Then on Monday, the RPI rose up again to #10. OSU, slipped from #3 to #4, which....ugh doesn't make sense since they are on a 5 game losing streak.

It's been a long time since I cared or thought we had a chance of hosting Super Regionals. I guess just be happy we're in the top 16 for now.
 
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Last edited:
Ellis21d said:
Haven’t thought or heard much about Big 12 Freshman of the years honors for this season. Reese Atwood? Maybe? Wouldn’t this be Great! Article from D1softball.com.
Oklahoma is still cruising, but the Sooners’ grip on one title is slipping.
  • Leighann Goode, Viviana Martinez and Atwood have been instrumental in Texas’ success, but even putting aside a dip in numbers in Big 12 games, which one do you vote for? If we’re talking conference performance, Atwood’s amazing run of walk-off hits notwithstanding, Citlaly Gutierrez (3-1, 2.31 ERA) may yet win the Austin primary.
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That looked way wrong. 3-1?

Laly is now 11-2, 1.91 ERA....thank you very much.
 
Rankings amongst various outlets:
ESPN/USA Softball: 7 -> 5
D1 Softball: 9 -> 5
USA Today/NFCA Coaches: 7 -> 5
Softball America: 10 -> 8

Sometimes when they team rankings on TV, they show 2 numbers for different polls. I'm not sure which is which. But I'll make a guess that this week we're.......5/5

Added:
OSU drops:
ESPN/USA Softball: 3 -> 7
D1 Softball: 4 -> 8
USA Today/NFCA Coaches: 3 -> 7
Softball America: 4 -> 9
 
The team is at the 49 game mark for the season:
2023: 39-9-1
2022: 33-15-1

Last remaining regular season games:
2023:
UTSA (8-35)
Sam Houston (19-30)
Baylor (34-13)​
2022
Texas Tech
Baylor​
 
Okie lite is really down on themselves. Tech beats them in extra innings! The OSU coach did not pull his pitcher. She had thrown over 120 pitches and was throwing cup cakes to Tech in the 8th. Tech got two hits and I thought that’s it for her. Nope he left her in and the next batter got the single that won the game.
 
Ellis21d said:
Okie lite is really down on themselves. Tech beats them in extra innings! The OSU coach did not pull his pitcher. She had thrown over 120 pitches and was throwing cup cakes to Tech in the 8th. Tech got two hits and I thought that’s it for her. Nope he left her in and the next batter got the single that won the game.
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Kenny G is throwing away his chances to host a super regional!

But to be fair. It looks like they're playing a double-header today. First game, OSU run-ruled them 10-1 in 6. I guess he wants to save that third pitcher for tomorrow.

Box score shows Maxwell pitched 5 in first and had relief come in for 6th. And Kilfoyl pitched all 8 innings like you noted.
 
Iowa State beats Baylor and wins 2 out of 3 this weekend.
Game 1: Baylor 2 ISU 4
Game 2: Baylor 15 ISU 3
Game 3: Baylor 5 ISU 6
Not a good look for a top 25 team!
Maybe they have Horns on their mind? We need to take care of business next weekend!

Also saw Okie Lite beat Tech 8-0 in 5 innings and won the series. Guess Kenny G got them motivated! :popcorn:
 
With the results of other teams playing this weekend, UT's RPI has risen to #7. OSU remains #4, which is a surprise. Baylor slides from 18 to 22.
 
I hope we win out as well. If we lose only 1 & osu wins out (which I SERIOUSLY doubt as they have ou remaining), we hold the tie-breaker by sweeping that series.
 
Happened to come across LHN show where they were featuring Texas players. I had to record the playback off my DVR, so sorry for the quality because Texas doesn't deem this important enough to upload to YT.
 
At the end of the Sam Houston game, as we were walking down the ramps, the announcer said that Friday 6 seniors would be honored for the last home game. It was obvious that Lou Gilbert was one of the seniors. My wife said, "Oh, they must be honoring, like....5 student managers!"

[Cough, cough]

We went through the physical years players have been here. 3 players have played 4 years here:
Courtney Day
Camille Corona
Alyssa Popelka

I wonder....if they've been told there's not a spot for them their 5th year? They're all listed as juniors on the roster.
 
racerx5908 said:
At the end of the Sam Houston game, as we were walking down the ramps, the announcer said that Friday 6 seniors would be honored for the last home game. It was obvious that Lou Gilbert was one of the seniors. My wife said, "Oh, they must be honoring, like....5 student managers!"

[Cough, cough]

We went through the physical years players have been here. 3 players have played 4 years here:
Courtney Day
Camille Corona
Alyssa Popelka

I wonder....if they've been told there's not a spot for them their 5th year? They're all listed as juniors on the roster.
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Bella Dayton would number 5 as she was same class as them, not sure who the 6th is.

Hadn’t considered losing all of them although I figured Courtney Day and maybe Alyssa would move on. I hope we can keep at least Bella and Camille.

I wonder who will grad transfer out.
 
OSU looses a mid-week tuneup game to UNT 1-5. It's good and bad for us. Bad for our RPI. Mmmm, good for us how?
 
Snarky weather comments in box score for SHSU game:
Weather: Allergies are full on attackin

And I'm absolutely suffering
 
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