slot canyon

Thanks for catching that Whiskey....I cleaned it up. Maybe that is why I let my wife balance the checkbook.

Sorry in advance but I was not able to get the link to work.....Oregon released terms of contract with new coach Melyssa Lombardi. 5 year deal starting salary $325K with $10K increase each year plus performance incentives -ie $25K if win PAC 12. Usual medical and life insurance and retirement plan as well as car and country club membership. Thie is nearly $100K more than they were paying Coach White but clearly less than his current base by about $175K I believe. Still makes me wonder if they had reasons they did not want to negotiate with Coach White or they could not compete with the offer from Texas. It will be interesting to see how this plays out regarding the 3 schools impacted...Texas, Oregon and OU.

Whiskey, the 5/17/18 news article on the AU Athletic site indicated that Emily would be there for 2 years to include 2019 as volunteer assistant. I had forgotten what a good article that was about her coaching aspirations and her love of softball. She says she considers herself a player with average skills. If that is true I would like to have a team full of players with her level of "average skills" not to mention her infectious smile.

Good point 4WDE. Also let's hope Greenwood comes off her shoulder surgery in good form, having to sit last year during recovery. I feel it will be important to keep Crocker "infield ready" as we seem to only have 4 middle infielders. Taylon Snow - SS Dowell - 2nd, SS & 3rd KK Crocker - 2nd, LF McCrackin - 2nd, SS (I believe she has played 3rd sparingly) At this point, if McCrackin got injured then Crocker might replace her leaving Snow and Dowell in place. If Crocker in outfield things might get interesting. Now if Tannon Snow were able to increase her participation and play one of the corner infield positions that would free up Dowell (who has played well in my opinion) Another moving part would be wheat happens at the catcher position. Will Veach take over, Tissier, a freshman???Will Perry settle in at 1st and free up Veach for 3rd or catcher. Looking forward to some fall ball to get a hint about where some of these players stand position wise. Maybe we will have some players transfer in who might help with some of the depth rotation issues. Also, should not overlook Maresette and Fornis, since both could compete for playing time in the outfield.

Wonder if she felt that she would never get the OU job. Last year she got a raise to $185K. Seems the ducks would need to offer her more than what White was making to get her to make the move. Good for her. She was another coach I would have been OK with to take the AU last year.

This does not have direct connection to AU softball but may have higher visibility for folks who follow softball and might not check the "Non-AU sports" forum. Mods will move it as they see fit. The big news is that HC Mike White has left Oregon for Texas. From what I can extract he had a salary about $237.500 last year but also earned a "performance bonus of $90,000. He has 3 years remaining on his Oregon contract which Texas will have to buy so that is a fair size commitment right there. It sounds like Coach White tried to negotiate a new contract at Oregon but in the end he was quoted.."opportunity to provide his family with financial security…". Recall as posted that one of the Oregon assistants, Jimmy Kolaitis, recently departed to be HC at UAB. One name mentioned for the vacated Oregon HC position is Rachael Lawson currently at Kentucky. She currently makes about $230K. I was frankly surprised that Coach White was not compensated at a higher level considering the success and visibility of the Oregon program. He as a overall winning record of about 79.5% since starting there. He is now in Big 12 with the likes of Baylor and Oklahoma so this shakes up that league a bit. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in terms of new coach for Oregon, assistants, salaries and potential player transfers. I believe Texas has committed to facilities upgrades.

Recent interview on AL.com sports section (6/22) with Vandy AD indicates no plans to institute a softball program in spite of success of the 13 other sister SEC schools. Major obstacle is that land and parking largely controlled by medical center so significant expense to purchase a site as well as build a facility. They would likely field a volleyball team before a softball team since they could use existing facilities for games/practice. I have often wondered why they did not have a team but can sympathize with their situation. Softball currently enjoys a lot of visibility and increased popularity in the SEC and nationally (my opinion). A number of SEC schools are doing upgrades on facilities. I can appreciate that it would be difficult to commit the necessary financial resources to a new program at this point in time and go through a long period of "catch up".

GBAU83 That was in part my reasoning for the original post. Like yourself, I hope Coach Dean can get the program moving in a winning direction but we should keep our eyes on coach K. I doubt he is making this move with thoughts of it being his long term job but rather a demonstration of what he can do as a HC.....clearly just an opinion on my part. I did not realize that UAB Mary Bowers Field (2016) now has approximately 1000 seats. (100 "premium seats" located behind home plate with chair back). Last game I attended there prior to the upgrade I don't believe they had more than 300-400 seats. I have not checked today, but as of yesterday, I did not see anything about the hire in the B;ham paper...…….from my perspective this is a big hire for them so surprised at lack of coverage in local rag. Hope to find out more about his staff and terms of his contract. Since I live in the area, may attend some games.

Jimmy Kolaitis was one of my "dark horses" for the AU job last year. He has been hired as HC of softball at UAB (uabsports.com/news). I feel he is someone to watch for the future. He has spent last 5 seasons as assistant at Oregon. Has worked with Scrap Yard Dogs and Chicago Bandits. Worked as recruiting coordinator and assistant coach at South Alabama2008-2013. I had seen face book interaction between he and Cooper in the past. He is said to be a very personable and should have recruiting connections on west coast as well as in the south. This may be interesting to follow.

Looked at Extra Inning softball verbal database published April 17 , 2018 (free). I focused on 2019 players who should sign this year. Not totally up to date because they had Macy Simmons listed (a highly regarded catcher/hitter) who changed to ASU earlier this spring. Other players include: Jaylin Calvert, outfielder, Beverly Bandits. Maddie Majors, OF, Thunderbolts, Carlee McCondichie, MIF/OF, Thunderbolts. Kelley Lynche, RHP, East Cobb Bullets (Georgia) . Madison Koepke, MIF, also East Cobb Bullets. Currently this list shows 5 players and we would have 5 seniors, four of whom have played a lot and likely starters next year. I am hoping Tissier and/or one of the gals in this years signed class can shore up the catcher position. I will add that when I attended a couple of practices that Abby Tissier was very attentive at practice and seemed to "eat up" any instruction/comments that Courtney Shea provided. Appeared very eager to learn. The Extra Innings Softball site list goes through 2022 I believe.

From other articles I have read, Corey was banned from ASU because of Nepotism issues and not for involvement with players. My reference is a ESPNW article Oct. 6, 2017, Paula Lavigne and Tom Junod. If that is the case then should we point fingers at Jacobs regarding due diligence.? I do think there was eagerness to hire Myers and accommodations were made that allowed him to include family members on his staff. Seems we have allowed the same in men's BB in order to get the services of another "high profile" coach.

I know that taking the pitch on a 3-0 count is the common practice but I have often wondered about swinging in that situation especially when it is one of your better hitters. Seems there is at least a 80+% probability it will be a strike pretty much down the middle of the plate (I have no statistics to back that statement; just observation opinion) and probably the best pitch you will see during that at bat. . Additionally, if you started taking a hack at the pitch in that situation then it would seem to force the pitcher to have to be more careful with the pitch and more likely to throw something well off the plate for ball four. I think I would be in favor of giving some batters the green light in that situation. Could be that's why I am not a softball coach?

Whiskey, I remember that game with LSU and recall thinking the same thing. In fact I made the bold prognostication aloud to my wife....."No way we pitch to Doyle" Regarding Harris, I know she has a history of chronic back problems and that may be the issue. Some have mentioned the arm strength of Taylon Snow. When I say her at practice early in the season she threw with much more force and straight trajectory. She did injure her right shoulder and still had some sort of wrap/brace on it during the regionals.

No secret we had decline in batting last year which continued into this year (all games). Looking at conference stats we ranked last in BA just barely below Ole Miss. Alabama ranked 2nd. In ERA we had great pitching (no secret there) and were 2nd in conference ERA. Alabama was 7th. In fielding % we ranked 5th while Bama was last. Three teams from the SEC who qualified for super regionals; Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee finished below AU in Fielding % as well ERA but finished 1, 2, and 4 respectively in batting average. All this to wonder if we have recruited with emphasis on pitching and fielding (mainly fielding since pitchers don't typically bat) at the expense of hitting. Maybe you can tolerate more errors in exchange for better hitting? Earlier this year I felt the AU players looked "athletic" and some teams had some "large" players who at best could turn a Rivera double into a lumbering single. Now I see that some are not there for fielding skills but rather in the hopes that they blast a ball through the infield, hit a sac fly or a HR. If they get on first put in a sub base runner. I am not saying we need players with Paul Anderson physiques, but maybe more emphasis on hitting abilities rather than fielding abilities. I am not convinced we need a new hitting coach....maybe we need to recruit hitters.

You are correct; our conference batting was very poor with top 5 batters average of .250. As I stated, my stats are based on the season stats.