Softball 2018

The UT Softball staff rocking Burnt Orange Friday! I see Coach White, Chelsea Spencer, and Shanna Diller. Missing Kailee Cuico and Coach Kerry Shaw. I believe these remaining are all Softball staff members.

 
Coach Mike White steals a 2019 recruit from Oregon! Grace Green is a local girl from Birdville HS. I assume he and his staff had gotten her commitment to Oregon and now she is coming home to Texas!! Getting some of these top recruits to stay home is how he will have to build the Horns. She is listed as a Left hand Pitcher 5'4" 120lbs.
It's funny that Oklahoma softball has a Grace Green from California that will be a freshman this year???
 
Ellis21d said:
Coach Mike White steals a 2019 recruit from Oregon! Grace Green is a local girl from Birdville HS. I assume he and his staff had gotten her commitment to Oregon and now she is coming home to Texas!! Getting some of these top recruits to stay home is how he will have to build the Horns. She is listed as a Left hand Pitcher 5'4" 120lbs.
It's funny that Oklahoma softball has a Grace Green from California that will be a freshman this year???
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This is the exact thing that Connie Clark would never have done. I'm excited because A&M and OU have been nabbing these high end pitchers and we've settled for mystery transfers (although the last two worked out very good, but not championship-good)
 
This was interesting to read about. I wondered what happened to Jennifer...it's also so odd that the KU coach left suddenly. She was soaring high on soft teams until they ran into us at McCombs last year.

 
Ten Longhorns with a Lil'Talent: A guide to the top 10 Texas athletes to watch in 2018-19 | Hookem.com
Kaitlyn Washington, softball
Del Conte’s other major hire this summer was new softball coach Mike White from Oregon. The Ducks were 435-111-1 over the last nine years as White guided them to five Pac-12 titles in the last six seasons. “Why not Texas?,” White asked upon his arrival.

If White can’t fix the offense, this program will continue to struggle. Texas hit .268 last season, the second-lowest total in the Big 12. When things did go well, it was usually because of Washington. She led the Longhorns in slugging percentage (.513 and was second in average (.359).

She made the all-freshman team in 2016 and then was a second-team All-Big 12 pick last season. The natural progression is up the ladder, assuming the Horns motor around the bases.
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Let's get this started! Janae Jefferson and Ki'Audra Hayter in a big hug and Taylor Ellsworth being funny. Brooke Bolinger on the mound with Coach White behind the plate coaching up the pitchers.
 
I tweeted them asking to publish the pictures of the new freshmen. Other than being an obsessive softball player stalker, which I'm not, I can't tell who is who.
 
Anybody know what happened to Ciera Schick? She is the transfer from Arizona State who joined the team last fall. She was on the 2018 fall roster a week or so ago, but at some point between then and now, she was removed.
 
HornFinc said:
Anybody know what happened to Ciera Schick? She is the transfer from Arizona State who joined the team last fall. She was on the 2018 fall roster a week or so ago, but at some point between then and now, she was removed.
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She's listed as a senior under the UT official (public) directory. I assume that she and the new coaching staff have parted ways and she's going to finish up her education at UT.
 
Another interesting find is the Fall Ball schedule:
2018 Fall Softball Schedule - Texas Athletics
It looks like they added 3 more games to the schedule:
1) St. Edwards - not a surprise but wasn't in the original schedule
2) Alumni game!
3) Texas State - not a surprise but wasn't in the original schedule

And a bonus, 4 of the 8 will be televised on LHN.
 
I was confused by this tweet:

And then jumped onto the UT page and saw this in more detail:
Softball to add transfers Elish and Burke - Texas Athletics
and
Four months after leaving Oregon, Mike White adds two ex-Ducks to his softball roster at Texas | Hookem.com

I'm shocked that this is happening right now. I guess this is literally a player following their coach to a new school.

I was leery of Connie having 5 pitchers and now we'll be back up to 5!

Elish was 25-2 last year as a sophmore. Wowza.
 
racerx5908 said:
I was confused by this tweet:

And then jumped onto the UT page and saw this in more detail:
Softball to add transfers Elish and Burke - Texas Athletics
and
Four months after leaving Oregon, Mike White adds two ex-Ducks to his softball roster at Texas | Hookem.com

I'm shocked that this is happening right now. I guess this is literally a player following their coach to a new school.

I was leery of Connie having 5 pitchers and now we'll be back up to 5!

Elish was 25-2 last year as a sophomore. Wowza.
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Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh!! I wrote a post earlier this year when Mike White was hired that it would take him 3 to 4 years to build the program at Texas into National prominence. I can clearly see now that he had a different idea! Adding these two players alone is going to make Texas Softball relevant this year! One dominant pitcher and solid hitting can put you in the CWS as we have seen Oklahoma do. Plus in all fairness he did inherit some decent talent. Not CWS level but Coachable. And I have a feeling he and his staff will develop some of these kids right in front of our eyes.
This is going to be an amazing and fun year to watch Texas Softball!

Plus He and his staff have also already added 2 new 2019 recruits that had committed to other big name programs! Would be very happy with a few more surprises like this!!
 
Found an article that gives just slightly more information about their transfer:
Oregon Softball: Miranda Elish, Lauren Burke Intend To Transfer For 2019 Season
But the timing makes sense now. There is that new rule that prevents schools from blocking players from receiving financial aid (scholarships) and so they waited until the rule kicked into effect at the beginning of October.

Within this article is an interesting nugget:
Of course, the University of Oregon can deny the one-time transfer. The Ducks have removed both players from their roster and will look to fill a key void at pitcher.

I think IF the Oregon coaches do it, the players have to sit out a year. Connie didn't do that to Jade Gortarez (to Arizona State), but did do that to Rachel Fox (to A&M).

And I found this buried within Elish's tweet comments:
omFAlPM.png

The new coach of the Ducks is the longtime (21 years) assistant from OU, Melyssa Lombardi.

Reading more about Burke, she was raised in Eugene and always dreamed of playing for the Ducks. The new coaching staff and these two must not have jelled. Hard for me to see the new coach chasing away the star pitcher.
 
The good thing is that, instead of one experienced pitcher, All Big 12 Left hander pitcher Brooke, now the Horns have a right hand pitcher who is experienced and may end up as the staff ace.
 
BabHorn said:
The good thing is that, instead of one experienced pitcher, All Big 12 Left hander pitcher Brooke, now the Horns have a right hand pitcher who is experienced and may end up as the staff ace.
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Yeah, I think the order of starters is:
1. Elish
2. Bollinger
3. O'Leary

Since I only see Oregon on TV whenever it's WCWS time, I don't know how White pitched them. But looking only at their stat sheet:
2018 Softball Cumulative Statistics - GoDucks.com - The University of Oregon Official Athletics Web Site
I deduce(?) that Elish was their #2 pitcher with a record of 25-2 (1.2 ERA, 249 Strike/Outs) and their #1 pitcher went 21-7 (1.32, 221 S/O) and #3 was 7-1.

[I based my guesses as their order by the number of starts each had]

By comparison, how would we have ranked last year's pitchers?
1. Von Sprecken 12-11 (1.88, 101 S/O)
2. Bollinger 13-7 (2.20, 123 S/O)

This will be exciting!
 
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In a slight diversion: I was looking through some softball message boards and ran across one that said, "What's wrong with A&M". Well, that caught my attention. Seems they've been having some attrition over the summer. Two players gave up softball, but are still students and finishing up at A&M. One is transferring to LaTech and the other one.....is a senior pitcher Samantha Show...going to OK-State.

The reason I remember her was she pitched against the Horns in the NCAA Regional in 2016 when it was held in College Station. She came in relief in the first game, which we beat them and then started in the third game, knocking us out.

I remember thinking that this young phenom was the type of pitcher that Connie was missing out on in recruiting due to her "style".

Looking over her record, she's pitched fewer games each of her subsequent years, so maybe she saw the writing on the wall and transferred to OSU for more playing time? Anyway, someone we'll be seeing this year for sure.
 
racerx5908 said:
In a slight diversion: I was looking through some softball message boards and ran across one that said, "What's wrong with A&M". Well, that caught my attention. Seems they've been having some attrition over the summer. Two players gave up softball, but are still students and finishing up at A&M. One is transferring to LaTech and the other one.....is a senior pitcher Samantha Show...going to OK-State.

The reason I remember her was she pitched against the Horns in the NCAA Regional in 2016 when it was held in College Station. She came in relief in the first game, which we beat them and then started in the third game, knocking us out.

I remember thinking that this young phenom was the type of pitcher that Connie was missing out on in recruiting due to her "style".

Looking over her record, she's pitched fewer games each of her subsequent years, so maybe she saw the writing on the wall and transferred to OSU for more playing time? Anyway, someone we'll be seeing this year for sure.
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Excellent catch Racer! Always enjoy hearing the Maggies discontent! Texas will be passing them soon in the rankings!
 
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