Luna not starting?

majorwhiteapples

majorwhiteapples

5,000+ Posts
Somebody with more women's softball knowledge then me has to explain how Luna does not get the ball to start this series?

She is the leader of your team, is she hurt, disciplinary, is Bruins that much better?

Someone has to explain this to me, I just don't get it......

The attitiude between the two teams last night was as different as could be, not happy with the Longhorn effort last night.
 
I've been following the team all year long and I'm at a loss as to why in a three-game series that is split into four days, you don't start your best pitcher for Game 1 and Game 3. Luna should have started last night and then could have also started on Sunday.

For some inexplicable reason, Clark has started Bruins in the biggest games of the season. Luna is not hurt -- she was throwing in the pen as soon as Bruins got in trouble (2nd inning). Whereas Luna has had some issues the past couple years toward the end of the year (the whole team has), she is clearly the ace of the staff and this team will go as far as she can take them. For the past couple years, that has been pretty much nowhere.

Even the ESPN2 crew was questioning the move, but then didn't bother to ask Clark why she started Bruins during the in-game interview.

I love Bruins' competitive fire but she clearly can't compete against the teams Clark has thrown her in there against. Her season ERA after last night's debacle is pushing 3.00, which is not good in softball.

After last night, quite possibly the worst game in program history, the Horns usual late-season slide is in full effect. They are 5-6 in their last 11 games and have been shut out 2 of the last 3. It's hard not to see another regional flameout on the horizon on their home field.

I believe a change is needed at the head coaching position. There have been tons of coaching blunders this season and it is trending toward another disappointing end.

If soccer, women's hoops and women's swimming can all replace their coaches, there's no reason that Clark can't be replaced if the program is not performing up to expectations.
 
If you are going to lose, lose with your best players. I don't understand the thnking here by Clark. I could get behind starting Fox, but Bruins?
 
Somebody with more women's softball knowledge then me has to explain how Luna does not get the ball to start this series?
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It is the same puzzling thought process that insists on having your top home run hitter bat first and foregoing a bunch of RBI by doing so. Clark is probably a nice person, but not an elite coach.
 
Hip:

I probably would not have thought about it as much if Fox had started, but Bruins, that is a great point.

Still Luna is your team leader, she needs to start the series.
The only thing I can think of is the day off and the wear and tear on a pitcher is tougher the second day then the first day, that is all I can think of.......If that is the case then we will see Luna Saturday and Sunday with Fox as the first choice of relief.

Murph, while I agree with you, softball lineups are different then baseball. You want the other team to pitch to Taylor and if there is an open base they will put her on, and she is second on the team in steals. This is a tough one, because you don't want 1st base open with Taylor up. The lineup one is a tough one.....We were also missing one of our best hitters last night......

I hope we are all wrong and we come back and win the next two.
 
If we see Luna both Saturday and Sunday, we are in a heap of trouble.

Clark = bad coach who rode Cat's coattails to a few more years of underachieving.
 
I have a possible explaination. Luna has had some tough outings recemtly when she starts and seems to tire.

However, when she relieves, it it a completely different story. She is nails for less than a full game.

Anybody else notice this.
 
The fact is, when you start the #3 pitcher in a bitter rivalry game and get run ruled because of it, people are going to question that strategy and rightfully so. Luna is your ace, Fox is undefeated, yet Bruins starts. Its like Clark conceded the game before it even started. Luckily, we won the next 2 games, but if you are a top 10 team & you are getting run ruled this late in the season, it doesn;'t look good. All the pitchers should have been well rested. Like I said before, if are going to lose, lose with your best players.
 
You might want to check your softball history stats.

While I am not officially on the team for a new coach bandwagon, the collapses the past couple three years is a bit disturbing. I believe this is by far Clark's most well rounded team since the inception of the program. This team needs to finish strong. If you haven't noticed that Polnsky has been clearing house of medicore coaches or finishes.

W. Basketball
W. Soccer
W. Swimming

Again, not saying I am on the bandwagon, but I would recommend that Clark finishes strong this year.
 
I always want and hope for Texas to finish strong, and whether or not the team does that - or has done that - can always be discussed. But that has nothing to do with the comments I was addressing, and others along the same lines that have appeared in prior threads.

I do agree we have one of the most balanced teams we've seen in a long time, and that was true last year as well. And obviously we didn't finish very well last season, although we all know Bennett's injury played a big role in that. Whether or not we should have still done better, or advanced further even with her out for the season is open for debate, and people are certainly entitled to their opinions about that. But no one can argue she wasn't one of the top players in the country when she was injured, and at one point was leading the Big 12 in something like 5 or 6 different categories. She had clearly been key to our success for most of the season, but whatever your opinion about how last year ended, she's healthy now and the team has much of the same lineup in place. I would certainly expect and hope for us to do better in post-season play this year, although it does seem Luna has struggled a bit as of late. I found the comment from another poster about her doing better in closing situations interesting; of course I don't know if it's accurate, but at least it was a meaningful contribution to the conversation (and, dare I say it, the subject of this thread). The same certainly can't be said of the comment alluded to in my initial post.
 
I did find myself questioning Coach Clark's decision to start Bruins in College Station last Thursday instead of Luna. It reminded of the time several years ago when she decided to start Megan Denny instead of Cat Osterman, as most had expected. Aggies scored early; Osterman came on in relief; but, the bats couldn't produce for us. I believe Clark cited the rationale for that decision was to get Denny big-game experience for the future.

Now, for last Thursday's decision, I wonder if the decision to start Bruins was due to Luna's lack of confidence recently (which had been stated by Clark).

Regarldess, if our pitching down the road is not dominant, the hitters have to produce. Everyone is going to have do their part for this team to have success in the post-season.
 
You're right, Moooooo. If any particular facet of the team isn't at its' best, another will have to make up for it. But hopefully Luna will be back to her old self by the time post-season play rolls around. A lot of players go through brief periods where they struggle a bit, but as the saying goes, better now than later.
 
We will see what happens this postseason. Getting beat the past 2-3 years by teams with players that couldn't even make the UT roster is getting really old.

Bennett's injury was a factor but the softball teams have lacked mental focus when it comes to crunch time (they have openly admitted this). A lot of that, as unfair as it may seem, falls on the coach.

When you coach at Texas, the expectations are going to be through the roof. To me, not appearing in OKC since 06 is seriously underachieving and cause for concern.
 
Luna is obviously fatigued but is left in the game. A 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 6th is now 2-2 after two solo homers. Sigh.
 
overseasbbfan1, I hope you are watching this game. There's no way you can defend calling a double steal in a tie game in the top of the 7th with two outs and runners on first and second. Smith was out by 10 feet at third base. Please, please, explain that to me. It's just RIDICULOUS.
 
So Connie's an idiot for not starting her "ace", and she's an idiot for asking her "ace" to finish a game.
 
Get real. It depends on the situation. If Luna is indeed the #1 starter and there's a three-game series spread out over four days, you start her on Thursday and Sunday. Can you honestly tell me you believe it was a good decision to start Bruins in College Station?
rolleyes.gif


If you watched the game tonight (which I did), Luna gave up two homers in the bottom of the 6th and Stevie Wonder could see she was getting tired. This is the time to bring in a reliever, especially after a single and four-pitch walk to start the bottom of the 8th. Yet there's no action and we all know how it turned out.

It amazes me how blindly loyal some fans are no matter how many terrible decisions the coach makes (does tonight's inexplicable double steal attempt ring a bell, or how about starting your #3 pitcher vs. #1 Florida earlier this season?) I hope we aren't heading for another regional flameout, considering they are 8-7 in their last 15 after starting 32-2.

I bleed burnt orange and I hope these girls win it all. But seeing is believing, and I've seen way too much underachieving the past few years.
 
When your "ace" appears to be unable to pitch in May, you have problems. It's happened the last 2 years, and it happened sooner this year. The Coaches' Handbook doesn't have a chapter on what to do when #1 pitcher can't finish at the end of the season. I'm pretty sure that if, say, Rickets had the last several weeks that Luna had (with the team that she has), you'd see Gasso doing all sorts of seemingly crazy things to try to keep the team going.

There are very good reasons in a 3 game series not to show a pitcher (particularly a backup) on Friday, and Luna was evidently able to get through the 7th without problems. And I'll say - if your junior pre-season all-everything pitcher can't avoid a three run HR on an 0-2 pitch, well, there's not a lot you can do.

Personally, I think the way the anm series was handled was correct - Luna got shelled when she did start on Saturday, and the team had to have some pretty amazing hitting to win. But there was obviously a sense that Luna looked good on Sunday and closing during the week at Baylor, so go with your "ace" and hope her head is right. A junior shouldn't get tired in that situation, period.
 
Ok, that's fine, but can anyone explain the double-steal call? Tying run on second, two out, and a girl at the plate who previously had one of the few hits off Ricketts. She completely took the bat out of Ogle's hands and to me, that's just bad coaching.
 
Give Clark credit for recruiting good players to Texas (including Cat), but she is a terrible terrible coach. She has to go.
 
So, this thread was started because not starting Luna in game one of the ag series was seen as a mistake (or the worst, most inexplicable decision ever based on the tone of some posts), and we end up taking the series two games to one. And Luna did start the ou series and the sooners take it 2-1. The reality is either series could have gone either way; the team ranked just ahead of us got the better of us and we did the same with the squad just behind us in the rankings. And in between we won against the bears. Seven games vs ranked opponents and we finish 4-3. And even though the sooners edged us in the series we out hit them 33 - 17 for the three games combined. I feel for Luna as she is clearly struggling a bit, but hopefully she'll get her confidence back before long. Let's go Horns, finish strong!
 
This post was started because I didn't know if Luna was hurt or if Bruins was considered to be better than I had read.

Hindsight after that first Aggie game is huge, I just didn't understand it and as I asked somebody with more knowlege please explain it to me.

After the AM and OU series, I am not sure who our number 1 pitcher is.......
 
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