SEC Time

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Well, the preliminaries are done, and it's time to play some SEC softball, beginning Friday in Baton Rouge.  CMD said he would pick his starting team by the start of SEC play; I believe he has done that.  I think the team we saw this weekend will be the players we go with the rest of the way.  I'm told that Dean Likes to choose a starting team and stick with it.  And folks, I like this team.  Pitching is great, and the relief pitchers have gotten a lot of reps.  We're a better hitting team than last year.  Draper is hitting .550 right now, in case you were wondering.  I'm impressed with how Shea and Podany, in particular, have improved their offensive game.  Taylon Snow has lived up to the high expectations of her.  I like how the Crocker-MCrackin-Shea -Veach rotation works.  I realize we haven't played much of anybody yet, so I'm trying to compare to last year at the same time.

LSU will be a challenge in their ballpark.  They are 19-2; their only two losses have been to UCLA and Oregon, top 5 teams.  Those two teams are the only ones to score more than 2 runs on LSU.  Like us, they have two excellent upperclass pitchers.  I do believe we are a better hitting team than they are.  I think we can win two from them, so let's go find out!

[saminbama 740]

With the pitchers on both sides, I think runs will be a premium.  I can see some 1-0 and 2-1 games.  The key will be defensive mistakes and base running.  I think we'll see some old fashioned softball.  I know it's cliche', but the team making the fewest mistakes will win. 

[AUBwins 10,074]

This could be a series that we could run ourselves out of an inning and it hurt us. I like us being aggressive but I hope we are smart about it. 

[AU64 10,122]

38 minutes ago, AUBwins said:

This could be a series that we could run ourselves out of an inning and it hurt us. I like us being aggressive but I hope we are smart about it. 

That's a tough issue....you can run yourself out of an inning ...or you can let baserunners get stranded because coaches are too cautious and make scoring dependent of getting successive hits.    

I'd rather see us fail for being overly aggressive than fail because we were timid at a time when we should be pushing the opponent to make perfect plays to keep us from scoring.

Mostly I worry about errors giving the opposition to many extra chances.

[saminbama 740]

16 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Mostly I worry about errors giving the opposition to many extra chances.

Yep.  We have a veteran team in most areas, but a lot of youth at critical positions.  I hope they can handle the pressure.  The SEC can be brutal.   We've handled Hoover in the past, but now she's the veteran.  She will be very tough.

[warladytigers 172]

Hoover - era 0.65, Walljasper - era 0.93 - both will be tough to hit.  Will be an interesting 3 games....

 

 

[GBAU83 212]

22 hours ago, warladytigers said:

Hoover - era 0.65, Walljasper - era 0.93 - both will be tough to hit.  Will be an interesting 3 games....

 

 

What is the era on our two starters?  I realize the level of competition may be different as well.  Would be nice to compare our era in games against quality opponents vs LSU era in games against quality opponents.

[slot canyon 1,333]

 

1 hour ago, GBAU83 said:

What is the era on our two starters?  I realize the level of competition may be different as well.  Would be nice to compare our era in games against quality opponents vs LSU era in games against quality opponents.

year to date

Carlson era 0.60 with 69.2 innings pitched

Martin era 1.23 with 57 innings pitched

Harris era 0.38 with 18.1 innings pitched

[GBAU83 212]

22 hours ago, slot canyon said:

 

year to date

Carlson era 0.60 with 69.2 innings pitched

Martin era 1.23 with 57 innings pitched

Harris era 0.38 with 18.1 innings pitched

Thanks Slot.  I did not realize Martin was over 1.0 for era.

My guess at this data is that LSU has overall lower era and has played more quality opponents than we have played.  So will be a tough contest and just depends on how well each pitcher is on for that game.

[slot canyon 1,333]

Sometimes Martin appears to get in a bit of a funk and get frustrated. Overall I really like her pitching. When she is on she is really good. I think our #3 pitcher is better than their #3 if that happens to factor into the equation. I think we are overall a bit better hitting team than LSU. This series should tell us a lot about where both teams stand at this point in the season. I agree, they have played a couple of quality opponents beyond what we have faced.

[AUBwins 10,074]

I think we should take 2 of 3, but could easily get swept. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

LSU is hitting .282 as a team,compared to our .334, and they have 10 homers compared to 19 for us. Their most dangerous hitter is Amanda Doyle. Aliyah Andrews is their Draper-type player, with 19 stolen bases in 20 attempts. As previously stated, their two losses came to UCLA (9-1) and Oregon (4-0). They average a smidgen under 5 runs a game. The only common opponent is Oregon State; they beat the Beavers 3-2 and 1-0 in Baton Rouge.

[AU64 10,122]

Well, after that heartbreaking afternoon of basketball let's see if our baseball and softball teams can give us something to smile about. 

Both games start at 6PM CT so will have to set up the computer for some streaming back and forth.  

[AUBwins 10,074]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Well, after that heartbreaking afternoon of basketball let's see if our baseball and softball teams can give us something to smile about. 

Both games start at 6PM CT so will have to set up the computer for some streaming back and forth.  

I was coming to post the same thing.  Been a disappointing day all the way around for me at work and with the basketball game.  Looking for some good vibes from the diamond tonight.