2024 Softball Season



While exciting, we all know that we're what? 1/3 through the season? Just don't go making a t-shirt over it!!

Has Texas ever been ranked #1 in it's softball history?

1 vs 3 in a week, provided neither fall on their face before then. I don't like the idea of playing in BR, I don't remember them coming to Austin, maybe just forgot about it dunno, but obviously going forward it will alternate.
 
1 vs 3 in a week, provided neither fall on their face before then. I don't like the idea of playing in BR, I don't remember them coming to Austin, maybe just forgot about it dunno, but obviously going forward it will alternate.
LSU came in 2021 for a three game series 3/18-3/19 (double-header). We won all 3.
 
Tomorrow an old friend, Camille Corona, will be back at McCombs with her team UTA.

Looking at her stats:
Batting: 0.429 (first)
Hits: 24 (first)
On base percentage: 0.468 (second)

Looks like she found a place where she could thrive. I think a few years spent with Coach Singleton paid off.

BUT, her team is 8-14. Hits 0.275 and has a 5.30 ERA.
 
I cant believe nobody has mention yet that for the first time in FOREVER Texas is ranked #1 in the country!!

:hookem::hookem::hookem:

1 TEXAS (11) 17-1 611 2
2 Oklahoma (13) 18-1 610 1
3 LSU (1) 19-0 524 5
4 Duke 16-1 515 6
5 Washington 16-2 514 4
6 Georgia 15-3 498 3
7 Oklahoma State 17-2 486 7
8 Stanford 13-4 477 10
9 Tennessee 12-4 432 8
10 Alabama 19-1 375 11
 
I didn't really care about being ranked #1. Kinda liked what one of the guys said about enjoying being the hunter instead of the hunted. I don't want to get ahead of myself but next Weds game against LSU could be special. I think Houston will be tough this weekend. I stand by what I said couple of weeks ago...
If we play our best softball we can win against anyone. :bevo:
 
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I think it's a great reward for the players to be ranked #1 at this time. Doesn't guarantee anything; no one expects us to go undefeated from this point forward.

I do believe the #1 ranking will help even more with recruiting. Coach Mike White might be the only head coach who has ever held the #1 ranking at 2 different schools.
 
Man Sophia looked great tonight. 8 strikeouts in 3 innings is impressive. Mac looks like she has regressed. Teams are barreling up on her lately. It’s crazy how everyone knows Sophia is gonna throw changeups and they still can’t hit it. I also felt like Corona’s triple should have been caught. Good thing that was an unearned run.


Here’s how the pitching staff looks as we go into conference play.

Kavan: 8-0, 1.15 ERA, 42.2 IP, 48 SO, .122 OPP BA, 11 BB/HBP

Gutierrez: 4-0, 0.46 ERA, 30.2 IP, 18 SO, .181 OPP BA, 5 BB/HBP

Morgan: 4-0, 0.94 ERA, 22.1 IP, 10 SO, .202 OPP BA, 3 BB/HBP

Czech: 3-1, 0.00 ERA, 14.1 IP, 10 SO, .157 OPP BA, 1 BB/HBP

Simpson: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 14 IP, 26 SO, .113 OPP BA, 6 BB/HBP
 
As you may know, there's a tradition of fans hanging off the outfield fence to watch the game. My daughter was watching the game online and texted us that she saw Baylea Brandon and Alyssa Popelka watching from out there. She texted sometime in the 4th inning, so I'll have to go online and see if I can find them on replay.
 
NXTLU43.png
 
Tomorrow starts the 3 game visit of Houston. I was reminded that our former 3rd baseman Bree Cantu transferred there two years ago. This is how she's doing:

k4BpTyd.png
 
Tomorrow starts the 3 game visit of Houston. I was reminded that our former 3rd baseman Bree Cantu transferred there two years ago. This is how she's doing:

k4BpTyd.png
Not bad but they've played some pretty weak teams. They were competitive with LSU so I'm sure they will be competitive against Texas playing at Cooger Field. Just hope we don't drop 1 before we play LSU.
 
As you may know, there's a tradition of fans hanging off the outfield fence to watch the game. My daughter was watching the game online and texted us that she saw Baylea Brandon and Alyssa Popelka watching from out there. She texted sometime in the 4th inning, so I'll have to go online and see if I can find them on replay.
The radio guy mentioned them out there too
 
A seatmate of ours at softball was going home to LA to visit family and decided to stop in on the UH game tonight, watch it and spend the night before continuing on Saturday. I asked him to text me any warnings. Said that the game was sold out. They typically average about 450 out of a stadium that holds 1,200. He looked up on Seatgeek and they were offering tickets for $105. Fortunately, two weeks ago I bought GA tickets for $10.

But, parking is about 2 blocks away. I've parked there when I went to see Texas volleyball play in Houston.
 
I happened to turn on Texas Tech @ BYU and Tech beat them bad Thursday and are going to run rule them today. Looking at their game, sad because about 350-400 people showed up (3:00pm game) at their 2100 stadium, I discovered that this was their first home game. People are in coats and players playing in long sleeves. Then I looked up other cold-weather schools and Iowa State and Kansas still haven't played a home game. Sad, but yeah. Weather probably reason Iowa high schools (Kavan) don't play their HS softball games until June!
 
Defensively this was really embarrassing. I knew Houston could hit but man. Gutierrez struggles when teams lay off her drop ball or she isn’t getting the call. She doesn’t have a go to pitch if the drop ball isn’t working. Everytime she tried to bring it up, she got raked. She throws hard but if you have no movement and throw it in the strike zone all the hitters have to do is make contact and it’s out of here. Czech pitched well but she has an uncharacteristically outing where she hit multiple batters in an inning. She’s not a strikeout pitcher so that cost her. Simpson did great. Once again proving she deserves to get more mound time and starts striking batters out and getting weak contact.

I wish white would stop moving up the defense so much. Martinez has been in a hitting slump and it’s not like she’s our only shortstop. Where was Katie Stewart? She’s like 2nd or 3rd on the team in batting average and a good 1st basemen. I’m really rooting for Martinez and Goode to get out of their sophomore slump. This team has so much potential but that loss was so embarrassing. They have already seen 3 of our 5 pitchers. With so much film on Kavan and Mac’s last two starts haven’t been pretty, I’m worried.
 
1. Embarrassing
2. Hubris
3. Brain Fart
4. Unfocused
5. Panicked
6. Desperate
7. Stubborn
8. Unprepared

All the words I can throw out without throwing those words against a couple of players and coach.
 
That was not our best softball. I have always known that game was coming against someone. Our season didn't end but Ladies, GET IT TOGETHER! :bevo:
 
Okay, deep in our hearts we knew we weren't a #1 team. We were just hoping for a longer ride before losing to someone like LSU or FSU. But, Houston was a trap game because they have good hitting. Last year we were on a roll and then we lost one game to Baylor that was a surprise. Then, we got in a funk and lost the next two tossing our chances for hosting playoffs out the window. I hope they right the ship today. I'll be there, fingers crossed.
 
Well, apparently they got the ship righted today - ESPN reporting a 9-2 victory. I've been out of the loop today - we had a power outage at 10:00 this morning, power just came back on at 3:50.
 
i was at the game today. Drove from Austin to the softball stadium, watched the game, and then picked up our son to take home for Spring Break.

First and probably only time at the Cougar softball stadium. Interesting facts:
1. When we were walking in, the users were telling people "All seats are GA. Just sit anywhere you want folks" Wow, okay. So with my GA tickets we sat to the left of home plate between home and the UT dugout wall.

2. This stadium is....ummmm, about as nice as one of the top end HS softball programs. It's amazing how little they've invested and maintained for this stadium. Really makes me appreciate McCombs even more. When I saw this, I said, "Man, this reminds me of some of the HS stadiums at the rich softball fields for schools like Lago Vista, Westlake, or Lake Travis.

FUE8nye.jpg


No protective netting past this chainlink. There is a recording played every few innings warning people to watch out for "items from the field". In other words, watch out for foul balls, but don't sue us because we never mentioned balls explicitly.

3. I was looking out toward center field and squinting and looking and saying to myself...."Is this my condescending imagination or....is their field extremely short?" On Friday, watching the game on ESPN+ I was saying, "OMG, almost all these balls would have bounced off the top of McComb's green wall. No wonder they hit HRs in this place". When I got back to Austin and watched part of the replay, they said "And the center field is 200 feet" Oh.....I get it. McComb's center field wall is 230 feet and has a giant green wall. That's where HR's become doubles.

4. Texas came out smoking at the plate. They must have had a discussion about Friday's performance with Coach Singleton.

5. During the Thursday game, they kept saying that Joley Mitchell "broke" the UT scoreboard. She broke the "H" and someone else broke the "U" weeks earlier
xTgwe4x.jpg


6. Seems Vesely is obsessed with players leaving base early. A couple of challenges Fri/Sat were about our players leaving base early. All wrong, until she was right and our player was caught leaving 2nd early on a steal of third.

7. A-Wash is on FIRE. Six HRs so far this year. The most she's ever had was 5 in 2022.

8. It was a bit concerning to see Kavan seem to lose her confidence in the 3rd inning. But it was more inspiring to see her slowly gain it back and finish strong.

9. Our fielding is going to lose us a few more games.

Mac pitches tomorrow!
 
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I was at the game today. Kavan is LEGIT. She throws really hard. The Houston pitchers were super slow. I noticed that Pattie Ruth kept calling pitches low. Citlaly didn’t get the calls last night for her drop ball so she was forced to bring it up and got hammered. Kavan the same but she has a changeup and a riseball to go to. I feel like Citlaly doesn’t have any other pitch. She does have an off speed curve ball but that’s hard to throw to lefties. I honestly think our two best pitchers are Sophia Simpson and Teagan Kavan. They have the swing and miss stuff we need. I’m so worried about Mac tomorrow. She throws hard but is a contact pitcher and if she misses her spots, the balls will fly out of here. Houston can hit.
 
Very nice turnaround Ladies. We were so much worse last year at this time defensively that I'm not worried, we will be better as the season goes on I believe.
Lets finish strong. :bevo:
 
Does anyone know anyone associated with UH softball? I want to know two things:
1. Why UH didn't install the 30 second pitch clock in their stadium?
2. Why their field specifications don't meet the NCAA recommended minimal distances?

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/rules/softball/Fielddiagram.pdf

It is highly recommended that the playing field be enclosed completely by
sideline fences and a permanent home-run fence in a smooth arc of not more
than 235 feet from home plate. If a 6-foot fence, it is highly recommended
to be a minimum of 190 feet in left and right fields and 220 in center field.
If a 4-foot fence, it is highly recommended to be a minimum of 210 feet in
left and right fields and 230 in center field.
 

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