Softball 2018

At the first game, against WCC, there were three women sitting in the row in front of us, which was close to the safety netting. Twice as she was walking towards first base, the assistant coach Chelsea Spencer came by to have a short (15 sec) chat that I couldn't hear. Later, another gentlemen leaned over the railings and was saying "Hook'em" to them and one of the "moms" was struggling to make the hook'em sign with her hands and eventually got to it. She said, "Yeah, I'm still learning how to do this". Mmmmmm. And then later amongst themselves they said, "Who is Red and Charline McCombs".

Mmmmmm.

Moms of new players to Texas? My wife that that one of the moms was Slack's mom but I pointed out to her that Slack was a junior and that by now, she would have gotten the hook'em sign down pat and known who the McCombs were.

Almost tempted to tap them on the shoulder and ask who they were, but decided to leave them be.
 
Did anyone else attend the recent games? We only attended the first of the double-headers as we had to head over to the Texas-OU volleyball game. And unfortunately, that double-header as well as the Halloween make-up double-header won't be broadcast on LHN and I'll be missing them for the Texas-TCU game.

My opinions on the one game I saw in person verses WCC:

1) New coach smell. I seem to view everything in a new light since we have new players and new coaches. So any opinions have to be taken with a grain of salt and "new coach smell" factored in.
2) base running seems to be smarter. Of course, the last couple of years the base running logic had me gobsmacked
3) noticed all the players on base were using the same type of footing on the bags. One foot half-on and half-off the bag and the knew bent to spring forward and the other foot behind the bag. Every player had that stance. It was obvious it was being drilled into them.
4) players actually calling "Mine!" for pop ups
5) decent fielding, except I wonder if MK has lost her 3rd base job because of the multiple errors she had in the game against McClellan?
6) aggressive hitting, which leads to pop-ups in the first 2-3 innings and then they seem to settle down and start scoring after they go through the lineup
7) still taking a while to match faces of newcomers to their names
8) no walkup songs for the players, yet
9) Jenae Jefferson still the best player on the team

Any of you seen them play in person and have opinions?
 
Did anyone else attend the recent games? We only attended the first of the double-headers as we had to head over to the Texas-OU volleyball game. And unfortunately, that double-header as well as the Halloween make-up double-header won't be broadcast on LHN and I'll be missing them for the Texas-TCU game.

My opinions on the one game I saw in person verses WCC:

1) New coach smell. I seem to view everything in a new light since we have new players and new coaches. So any opinions have to be taken with a grain of salt and "new coach smell" factored in.
2) base running seems to be smarter. Of course, the last couple of years the base running logic had me gobsmacked
3) noticed all the players on base were using the same type of footing on the bags. One foot half-on and half-off the bag and the knew bent to spring forward and the other foot behind the bag. Every player had that stance. It was obvious it was being drilled into them.
4) players actually calling "Mine!" for pop ups
5) decent fielding, except I wonder if MK has lost her 3rd base job because of the multiple errors she had in the game against McClellan?
6) aggressive hitting, which leads to pop-ups in the first 2-3 innings and then they seem to settle down and start scoring after they go through the lineup
7) still taking a while to match faces of newcomers to their names
8) no walkup songs for the players, yet
9) Jenae Jefferson still the best player on the team

Any of you seen them play in person and have opinions?
Anybody know if/when the Oregon transfers play? Not on the texassports.com roster
 
I think what I find interesting about this tweet, originally made by the mother of Hailey Hudson, is the official re-tweet by the softball media team. Never saw public acknowledgement of recruiting activities. I LIKE it!
 
Bit and pieces of softball news as it relates to us and our competitors:
1) Oregon losing players

I get that new coaches want to put their mark on their new school, but wow, having 6 players leave after you arrive.
2) OU gets stronger, sorta

I looked up their records she would come in has the hot pitcher as the other two were so-so.
3) Texas is #37 in recruiting for 2019, behind: OU, OK-State, Texas Tech (!)

But if you apply logic, there is a flaw or just plain wrong data to this list. They state that OU got the #1 player. But elsewhere on the site, they say that the #1 player switched her commitment from Auburn to Washington recently (and signed). So how can that be? Flawed data.

But....Mike White is pulling a pitcher that when 26-2 her first 2 years at Oregon. So, we got that going for us.
 
Bit and pieces of softball news as it relates to us and our competitors:
1) Oregon losing players

I get that new coaches want to put their mark on their new school, but wow, having 6 players leave after you arrive.
2) OU gets stronger, sorta

I looked up their records she would come in has the hot pitcher as the other two were so-so.
3) Texas is #37 in recruiting for 2019, behind: OU, OK-State, Texas Tech (!)

But if you apply logic, there is a flaw or just plain wrong data to this list. They state that OU got the #1 player. But elsewhere on the site, they say that the #1 player switched her commitment from Auburn to Washington recently (and signed). So how can that be? Flawed data.

But....Mike White is pulling a pitcher that when 26-2 her first 2 years at Oregon. So, we got that going for us.

Excellent post Racer!
 
The transfer situation at Oregon is interesting. (They also lost a catcher that's mentioned in that article.) When Elish and Burke visited, there was another player (a catcher) from the University of Utah with them. Haven't seen anything on that player. I would not be surprised if we're in play for some of these players. Some have Texas roots and obviously have ties to our coach!
 
If I am reading this right this ranking for the Horns at #37 is based on us signing only 2 players? Players ranked #82 and 106? We actually signed 4 but maybe 2 of these players are not ranked? Who are the ranked players?
Yup, it's a crude method. They give points for the higher ranked players. So we've got 2 unranked players that contribute zero to the point total. And if you want to see who is ranked what, you've got to have a subscription to the site. I don't love softball enough for that!

But again, OU is listed with the #1 recruit, when they themselves say that #1 switched from Auburn to Washington.

Hunh?
 
Shannon Rhodes transfers to Texas softball

That's one of the more recent Oregon transfers.

:-D
Wow!
I guess this is just odd to me to see multiple players follow their old softball coach to his new "job". When was the last big name coach who moved from one major program to another?

In a way, this worries me because all these new transfers makes me think some "oldies" will be moving out as they forsee their playing time or opportunities diminish.
 
In a way, this worries me because all these new transfers makes me think some "oldies" will be moving out as they forsee their playing time or opportunities diminish.
If White is as good of a coach as advertised he will keep and play the best regardless if holdovers from the prior regime or not.
 
If White is as good of a coach as advertised he will keep and play the best regardless if holdovers from the prior regime or not.
I don't doubt that at all. Just as fall ball at Oregon confirmed to a few players that the new coach and direction it's going isn't for them....I wonder if Mike White has seen what he's got here and said, "Yup, need to get better players". On one hand, you could say he can't have favorites with the original Connie-squad because he's only played against them once. But on the other hand, I'm sure the THREE incoming ex-Oregon players will have a mental leg up on the old squad because he knows them well and they know him well.

What it comes down to is that I'm sure there are some players who thought that Connie had written them off (as starters) and that they were eager to get a fresh start with Mike.....only to find he's importing "his players" to take their place.

Yeah, I totally agree, the best should start. But you (me) having season tickets you get to know these players and root for them to succeed.
 
"back to her home state of Texas" Always great to see.

I have a feeling their won't be as many players leaving Texas anymore, but it was really easy for other coaches to recruit against CC.
 
Iakopo’s Twitter contains three RTs recently all about Shannon coming to Texas. One is Shannon’s post, another is UT’s post, and the third is FloSoftball.

Hopefully that’s a good omen!

Oh and Tuesday had a dialogue with her on Instagram recently.
 
I was wondering of the new-ish Oregon softball stadium would be the next to transfer to Austin.
Found it.
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Reigning PAC-12 Pitcher of the Year Megan Kleist has elected to leave Oregon and will transfer, sources have confirmed to Justin's World of Softball.

Kleist is a two-time all-American, earning second-team honors in 2017 and being named to the first team in 2018. She was named the PAC-12's Pitcher of the Year in 2018 and was a Top 10 finalist for the USA Softball National Player of the Year award.

A prominent part of the 2018 squad that earned the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, Kleist posted a 59-18 overall record during her first three seasons with the Ducks and posted a 1.67 individual ERA. She collected 475 strikeouts and posted a near-7/1 strikeout/walk ratio.

Kleist is the latest all-star player to leave the Ducks this fall, following a plethora of other players that includes fellow all-American pitcher Miranda Elish. Kleist is the fifth all-American nationwide to transfer to a new school this fall, joining Elish; Giselle Juarez; Katie Prebble; and Kendyl Lindaman.

The Ducks are left with a fraction of their 2018 PAC-12 championship-winning roster that also earned the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
 
Reigning PAC-12 Pitcher of the Year Megan Kleist has elected to leave Oregon and will transfer, sources have confirmed to Justin's World of Softball.

Kleist is a two-time all-American, earning second-team honors in 2017 and being named to the first team in 2018. She was named the PAC-12's Pitcher of the Year in 2018 and was a Top 10 finalist for the USA Softball National Player of the Year award.

A prominent part of the 2018 squad that earned the #1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, Kleist posted a 59-18 overall record during her first three seasons with the Ducks and posted a 1.67 individual ERA. She collected 475 strikeouts and posted a near-7/1 strikeout/walk ratio.

Kleist is the latest all-star player to leave the Ducks this fall, following a plethora of other players that includes fellow all-American pitcher Miranda Elish. Kleist is the fifth all-American nationwide to transfer to a new school this fall, joining Elish; Giselle Juarez; Katie Prebble; and Kendyl Lindaman.

The Ducks are left with a fraction of their 2018 PAC-12 championship-winning roster that also earned the #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Make it happen, Mike!!
 

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