Softball

We were passive offensively against Oregon and lost. We were passive against Washington and lost. Since then we have just barely scraped by on the back of Paige Parker who carried this team today. Alo is the only one making a good showing. Never saw a team watch so many strikes go over the plate without any response.
 
Sooner81 said:
Man Paige Parker is a WARRIOR!!!!!! And then they interview her and she has this calm sweet little voice LOL. We know what’s burning inside her!

Don’t know if we can get 2 tomorrow but I will be watching and we need some BATS and Paige Lowery!!!
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I think it was Erin Miller who said Paige is super competitive in the circle, but at home she likes to read and bake cookies.
 
Best team won. Great season disappointing WCWS. Great pitching tht was adequate enough to win all three games. Defense and mental mistakes cost a couple runs total in the two losses but made some great plays to keep us in the game. The offense was a complete no show except for Alo and Mendes.

OU went 4-4 against Pac-12 teams this year and were shutout 4 times. Last year the Sooners were 3-2 against the Pac-12 and were shutout once. Pac-12 pitching shutout the Sooners 5 times in 13 games. I think not seeing enough quality pitching hurt this year's team but don't what Patty can do to fix the problem other than hope Texas and OSU get better pitchers and that is less than ideal.

Great season disappointing WCWS. Also you have to have some good luck to win it all and the breaks did not go our way the entire series except for a couple of K's that bounced off the back wall back to Wodach for outs at first.
 
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I don't think it was quality pitching during the year that was the problem. This is the same team that has **** the best in the game in the CWS and NCAA playoffs for two years. This year, they just didn't get the big hit at the right time. Romero was slumping, which is unusual. Throughout much of the year, it seemed like Aviu, Clifton, and Mendes were slumping. Arnold became a liability at the plate that couldn't even move runners over. We struggled for runs against teams like Iowa State, OSU, and Texas. Don't know what the difference was.
 
sybarite said:
I don't think it was quality pitching during the year that was the problem. This is the same team that has **** the best in the game in the CWS and NCAA playoffs for two years. This year, they just didn't get the big hit at the right time. Romero was slumping, which is unusual. Throughout much of the year, it seemed like Aviu, Clifton, and Mendes were slumping. Arnold became a liability at the plate that couldn't even move runners over. We struggled for runs against teams like Iowa State, OSU, and Texas. Don't know what the difference was.
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Texas 4 games scored 28 runs (6, 7, 5 and 10 runs).
ISU 4 games scored 34 runs (9, 9, 7 and 9 runs).
OSU 3 games scored 18 runs (8, 3 and 7 runs).
WCWS 4 games scored 4 runs (0, 2, 2 and 0 runs).
 
How do softball teams practice hitting? Is it against your own staff of pitchers going full speed? Or against a pitching machine? If they use a pitching machine, can it replicate the spin that real pitchers use?
 
We scored a lot of those runs due to their mistakes rather than our hitting..
 
Earned runs allowed:

ISU 25 or 6.25/g
Texas 18 or 4.5/g
OSU 16 or 5.33/g.

Total 59 or 5.36/g on 8.63 h/g. It should be noted that Texas did have virtually the same number of hits in their 4 games (OU 28 and Texas 26).

Opponents errors and and mistakes generate unearned rules that are usually made by putting the ball into play generally with hard hit balls. That is averaging more earned runs per game againt the 3 B-12 teams than we scored total in 4 games in the WCWS. Sometimes one's perspective and the facts do not align.
 
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Let's see. Was it my perspective that said that Aviu, Clifton, Mendes, and Arnold were not hitting like last year? Did you notice the decline in Shay's power numbers?

You can also get earned runs when the other team simply misplays the ball because they are not good defensively, or they make the wrong decisions. You can get into scoring position because they fall for a double steal every time.

Go take a look at Aviu's career numbers, or Clifton's. How did this year compare. Clifton has been an on-base sensation. This year, she was so ineffective that we are hitting her sixth or seventh.

We have had great difficulties trying to bunt runners over. We get a runner to second with nobody out, and they never score.

We had better personnel than we demonstrated all year. At least, Romero had her best year, until the NCAAs.
 
We had an excellent team. Washington had some fortunate plays against us. That happens - and it impacts outcomes of games.

In the CWS we did not get key hits with people on base. That also was an issue at times in the regular season.

By the way, what have we learned about the seeding and RPI ratings? How many SEC teams were supposed to be among the very best? And how many made even the semifinal round? When you just play each other - who have inflated RPI ratings - that distorts your RPI. And misleads those who are not mathematically skilled enough to properly evaluate things.
 
sybarite said:
Let's see. Was it my perspective that said that Aviu, Clifton, Mendes, and Arnold were not hitting like last year? Did you notice the decline in Shay's power numbers?

You can also get earned runs when the other team simply misplays the ball because they are not good defensively, or they make the wrong decisions. You can get into scoring position because they fall for a double steal every time.

Go take a look at Aviu's career numbers, or Clifton's. How did this year compare. Clifton has been an on-base sensation. This year, she was so ineffective that we are hitting her sixth or seventh.

We have had great difficulties trying to bunt runners over. We get a runner to second with nobody out, and they never score.

We had better personnel than we demonstrated all year. At least, Romero had her best year, until the NCAAs.
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Did not dispute anything that you said regarding Aviu, Clifton, Knighten, Mendes or Arnold. I agree with our inability to sac punts and in an earlier post I commented on OU going 1-18 with RISP for the WCWS. I was only concerned and only commented on runs scored both earned and unearned by OU against Texas, ISU and OSU countering your suggestion that we had scoring difficulties against them similar to what we experienced in the just concluded WCWS. Nothing more.

We might disagree on whether Patty is forcing Mendes to slap hit or Nicole is doing that on her on. I strongly agree that Patty wants slap hitting as big part of Mendes' game but it appears to me that frequently Mendes does not know what she wants to do and even changes her mind during the pitch thereby making half effort swings or slaps. But that is something neither of us will ever know. Although I am inclined to think it is more on Mendes than Patty.
 
I have been know to disagree with Patty. She is usually right. But, I would rather that she let the player do what the player is comfortable with once the player establishes competence. Sometimes, the desire to inject some enthusiasm can backfire. If I am in a firefight, I [refer to use the guns that can actually shoot.
 
The fact that there are still criticisms despite being one of the final four teams is impressive. Says a lot about the state of the program.

To those more knowledgeable about our program than myself, how does the pitching look for next year?
 
Great year, can’t win every year. For those throwing criticism QUIT lol. Patty is THE best coach in the country and is continuing to bring in the best and sold out all the home games this year and they will expand the stadium next year with another 1500 seats and I’m sure seed those out. She can’t plan for the bats going cold and Paige did all she could - just doesn’t happen every year. OU and Florida had won all 5 of the last national titles and OU bounced them before losing today. Just sit back and enjoy and be thankful having Patty and knowing the program is in PERFECT shape.
 
Going in to the wcws we were #1 in runs scored per game, ERA and fielding percentage. We totally fell off the wagon in defense and scoring. 4 runs in 4 games is really bad, I don't care how good the pitching is. Look what florida state is doing to the player of the year, the ucla pitcher.
We got very few hits period let along timely and our attempts to bunt were horrible.
And the officials hurt us. I can allow that the "catch" in game one was really a catch. But someone needs to convince me about today. The glove is on top of the ball, how that is not called a trap is beyond me.
Great season except for the last 3 days.
 
sybarite said:
I have been know to disagree with Patty. She is usually right. But, I would rather that she let the player do what the player is comfortable with once the player establishes competence. Sometimes, the desire to inject some enthusiasm can backfire. If I am in a firefight, I [refer to use the guns that can actually shoot.
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I too would rather see Mendes swinging away too. I think that is her strength but I am just a fan with an opinion and not all of the info available to Patty and Mendes. What we don't know with regard to the slap hitting is how much of that is Patty and how much is Nicole. Because of Patty's affinity for slap hitters that call on any at bat is complicated.
 
bob the nailer said:
Going in to the wcws we were #1 in runs scored per game, ERA and fielding percentage. We totally fell off the wagon in defense and scoring. 4 runs in 4 games is really bad, I don't care how good the pitching is. Look what florida state is doing to the player of the year, the ucla pitcher.
We got very few hits period let along timely and our attempts to bunt were horrible.
And the officials hurt us. I can allow that the "catch" in game one was really a catch. But someone needs to convince me about today. The glove is on top of the ball, how that is not called a trap is beyond me.
Great season except for the last 3 days.
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I think the rules require that the umpire be able to state clearly that the ball was caught. We've seen line drive catches waved off (Romero, e.g.) because the umpire just didn't see the catch. There is no way that an umpire could certify that a ball was caught when it wasn't visible throughout the catch. You can't call it based on what you think might have happened. The ball was surrounded on three sides by glove. But, that fourth side was grass, which means no catch.
 
Today's was definitely questionable (at best) and I'll never buy Friday's as a catch.

Give us one of those calls and it could have been a very different tourney; give us both and the sky's the limit.

And the woman doing color today, bless her, praised the UW right-fielder for sliding her fingers under the ball today. The problem was, she did it well after the ball hit the ground, if it did (and I believe it did).
 
The rule for what is a catch is the same for MLB and it is for the National Softball Association and the NCAA. The rule is as follows and it would appear that the umpires rulings were consistent with the rules (not necessarily correct) if they deemed on Thursday that the RF if the fielder had complete control of the ball and his/her release of the ball is voluntary and intentional. If a player drops the ball while in the act of throwing, it is a valid catch.

I personally do not think that the RF ever had complete control nor did she voluntarily and intentionally release the ball. However by rule today's catch to me seems a valid catch. I think she caught the ball and had complete control. There is no reference to the ball touching the ground while in a glove. The only reference to touching the ground is while it is in flight.

The rules are in the attached links look under catch for the rule, section and page.

Of course what we think matters not they were both outs.

https://www.baseball-softball.de/wp-content/uploads/Softball-Rules-2014-2017-English.pdf

https://www.playnsa.com/docs/rule-book/2017/2017-nsa-rulebook.pdf
 
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