Softball vs. uat game 1

[Hspoprn 199]

No excuses.

Against LSU, we faced good pitching, made too many defensive errors, and had no offense. Chalk it up to SEC opening nerves.

Tonight, we showed what I hope are not our true colors. Osario was off the plate all night. A well coached, disciplined team would have taken the walks, which would have won the game.The entire game I was pleading with our batters, "Let Osario walk you tonight, and she will."

Carlson pitched well enough to win (again). 

I am very concerned that Coach Dean is in over his head. It appears that he has turned AU softball into a mid-level D1 team. Thank you, Jay Jacobs.

 Please prove me wrong, Coach Dean !

WDE

[around4ever 4,139]

5 minutes ago, Hspoprn said:

No excuses.

Against LSU, we faced good pitching, made too many defensive errors, and had no offense. Chalk it up to SEC opening nerves.

Tonight, we showed what I hope are not our true colors. Osario was off the plate all night. A well coached, disciplined team would have taken the walks, which would have won the game.The entire game I was pleading with our batters, "Let Osario walk you tonight, and she will."

Carlson pitched well enough to win (again). 

I am very concerned that Coach Dean is in over his head. It appears that he has turned AU softball into a mid-level D1 team. Thank you, Jay Jacobs.

 Please prove me wrong, Coach Dean !

WDE

I'm not Coach Dean but I'll try.  He made a lower mid major team a tournament team at JMU.  We lost three of our top hitters and it shows.  We worked with a good hitting coach, Gerry Glasco, all fall.  Then he left to take the LALa HC job.  I'm not sure Coach Kettlehut is exactly what Coach Dean was looking for as a replacement but in January you don't have many options.  Coach K changed a few things that apparently have not sunk in yet or won't work against this level of pitching.  Don't expect the same offensive success this season as in previous years.  We will get better though. 

[SumterAubie 3,031]

15 minutes ago, Hspoprn said:

No excuses.

Against LSU, we faced good pitching, made too many defensive errors, and had no offense. Chalk it up to SEC opening nerves.

Tonight, we showed what I hope are not our true colors. Osario was off the plate all night. A well coached, disciplined team would have taken the walks, which would have won the game.The entire game I was pleading with our batters, "Let Osario walk you tonight, and she will."

Carlson pitched well enough to win (again). 

I am very concerned that Coach Dean is in over his head. It appears that he has turned AU softball into a mid-level D1 team. Thank you, Jay Jacobs.

 Please prove me wrong, Coach Dean !

WDE

This is what you bring with your first post?

[around4ever 4,139]

3 minutes ago, around4ever said:

I'm not Coach Dean but I'll try.  He made a lower mid major team a tournament team at JMU.  We lost three of our top hitters and it shows.  We worked with a good hitting coach, Gerry Glasco, all fall.  Then he left to take the LALa HC job.  I'm not sure Coach Kettlehut is exactly what Coach Dean was looking for as a replacement but in January you don't have many options.  Coach K changed a few things that apparently have not sunk in yet or won't work against this level of pitching.  Don't expect the same offensive success this season as in previous years.  We will get better though. 

Also, we are young.  Two seniors starters and two junior starters. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

I'm confident we'll win big with Dean, but probably not this year. We were a poor hitting team last year, then lost our three best hitters (Cooper,Wallace, Fagan). OK, we didn't lose Rivera, but so far she doesn't have an SEC hit. This team will get better, but I don't expect us to be in the SEC elite this year, like we were the last 3 years. Auburn broke onto the national scene in 2015 with offense - hitting .339 as a team for the season, with 99 homers. All the players that did that hitting, except Fagan and Wallace, were recruited by Tina Deese. We need some hitters. Georgia beat Florida today. They are gunning to be in the SEC elite again. I don't understand why they are so much better this year than last, but they are ripping it. Our good fortune we don't play either team.

[wildling 35]

Poor batter awareness by our fielders this game, KM doesn’t try to turn 2 with Hardy at bat, and then Alyssa Rivera doesn’t gun to first on a Hardy LD.

Rivera looked bad again at the plate (swung at a ton of balls in all her ABs, then took a 50/50 pitch for her walk, and took strike 3 previously). MD looked bad starting Podany for no reason, putting in a lefty slapper with a woman on first base in Podany's first AB.

Realistically we knew this wasn't going to be a great year offensively (and then we got fooled by a weak pre-SEC schedule), but MD seems to be a negative factor imo (way fewer walks, non-sensical lineup decisions, not inspiring the team).

[Mikey 16,575]

In the most amazing coaching feat I've ever witnessed, Coach Clint Meyers turned a sow's ear into a silk purse in one year. It appears that, being handed the silk purse, Coach Dean is hell-bent on turning it back into a sow's ear.

I hate to be down on a new coach this soon into his term, but some things simply aren't right out there. It's poor choices during the games, for all to see. The problem is not personnel, check our recruiting for the past three years. The talent is there.

[around4ever 4,139]

CMD does not seem to be a motivator.  I do think he is a good coach. But, I agree with the previous posts, some of the decisions he has made don't make sense.  Maybe he is still trying to learn the personnel and how they react in different situations.  All of that should have been learned in early games, not conference play.  I do think our pitchers are better under him but all other aspects have gone the other way.  

[AU64 10,122]

12 minutes ago, Mikey said:

In the most amazing coaching feat I've ever witnessed, Coach Clint Meyers turned a sow's ear into a silk purse in one year. It appears that, being handed the silk purse, Coach Dean is hell-bent on turning it back into a sow's ear.

I hate to be down on a new coach this soon into his term, but some things simply aren't right out there. It's poor choices during the games, for all to see. The problem is not personnel, check our recruiting for the past three years. The talent is there.

JMO but he is over-managing the situation, maybe trying to make sure this is his program and not CM 2.0.    He had great success at JM but did not have to face nationally ranked teams like LSU and Bama game after game.  The opposition is top rate and pressure and expectations are high.....hoping MD can get things together. 

And bad thing about softball, you can often count on seeing their ace pitcher 2 or 3 times in a weekend unlike baseball where it is one and done for a team's ace.    For a good part of the game our players were patient with the bama pitcher....maybe learned some things for the next time they see her. 

[around4ever 4,139]

My suggestions for today's game.  Sit Rivera and Podany until they find their bats.  Put Crocker in LF and Olszewski in RF.  DP is Tannon Snow.  If Osorio is pitching, be very patient. We have to ID the rise ball early. That is her go to pitch and gets most of her Ks on it. 

[GBAU83 212]

To me the stat of the game was: 1-hit with 9 LOB!  How do you only have 1 hit but still get 9 players on base - poor pitching/fielding (bama only had 2 errors).  But if you are getting them on base by bad pitching, why don't you let them score by bad pitching.  Just seems like we tried to hard to hit the ball when we got them into scoring position, but could not hit the ball.  Other than the 1-hit, I don't think we had the ball leave the infield.  Not a huge number of strikeouts by bama, so plenty of easy ground balls in the infield.

To me, that is on hitting.  I don't remember which one of the Myers boys was the hitting coach, but we sure could use a coach like that again.  And be patient when the pitching is off and take the walk.

[AU64 10,122]

5 minutes ago, GBAU83 said:

To me the stat of the game was: 1-hit with 9 LOB!  How do you only have 1 hit but still get 9 players on base - poor pitching/fielding (bama only had 2 errors).  But if you are getting them on base by bad pitching, why don't you let them score by bad pitching.  Just seems like we tried to hard to hit the ball when we got them into scoring position, but could not hit the ball.  Other than the 1-hit, I don't think we had the ball leave the infield.  Not a huge number of strikeouts by bama, so plenty of easy ground balls in the infield.

To me, that is on hitting.  I don't remember which one of the Myers boys was the hitting coach, but we sure could use a coach like that again.  And be patient when the pitching is off and take the walk.

Osorio will give up plenty of walks if the batters lay off the rise ball.  Most batters against her strike themselves out on balls that are high in the zone and unhittable.

 We seemed to take the walks early but once runners were on base, the batters lost their patience and helped the pitcher by swinging at the rise ball which they could not square up on. 

Live and learn....today is another day and there is plenty to learn from last night.  

[around4ever 4,139]

34 minutes ago, GBAU83 said:

To me the stat of the game was: 1-hit with 9 LOB!  How do you only have 1 hit but still get 9 players on base - poor pitching/fielding (bama only had 2 errors).  But if you are getting them on base by bad pitching, why don't you let them score by bad pitching.  Just seems like we tried to hard to hit the ball when we got them into scoring position, but could not hit the ball.  Other than the 1-hit, I don't think we had the ball leave the infield.  Not a huge number of strikeouts by bama, so plenty of easy ground balls in the infield.

To me, that is on hitting.  I don't remember which one of the Myers boys was the hitting coach, but we sure could use a coach like that again.  And be patient when the pitching is off and take the walk.

Casey Myers was the hitting coach, and a good one.  We had another good one in Gerry Glasco until he left for the HC job at Louisiana - Lafayette.  I'm not sure Coach Kettlehut is ready for this level of pitching.  

[all4AU 379]

In terms of Coach Dean, we all know the man can coach. The 2017 offense was weaker compared to the two previous seasons, but losing Cooper, Fagan, and Wallace has left us with a very young 2018 offense. Also, to open SEC play with Bama and LSU, we drew matchups against Hoover, Walljasper, and Osorio who are ELITE senior pitchers so this is not exactly easing a young offense into SEC play. 

 

To me, what is concerning is how it took us 7 innings to score off of LSU’s #3 pitcher in Gorsuch. If Osorio doesn’t start game 2 for Bama, we really need to score early off of Preston or Gettins and put the pressure on Bama. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

It was Myers' second year that we had the big success, although signs of it were there in 2014. In 2013, Auburn went 7-17 in the conference and 30-23 overall. We hit only 32 homers against 41 for our opponents. In Myers' first year, we went 42-19 overall, with a 11-13 conference slate. We hit 83 homers against 64 for the opposition. We made the regional in Minneapolis. After losing the first game to ND State, we fought back to reach the final against Minnesota. We won the first game against them, and narrowly lost the second. The stat that jumps out is the increase in homers from 32 to 83. Sounds like the hitting coach may have been important. I'm trying to discipline myself to be patient with Coach Dean. It didn't all come overnight with Myers, either. And I don't see that Dean was handed a silk purse. As I've said previously, last year's team couldn't hit much, then we lost three of the best hitters from that. Dean's main challenge is to rebuild the offense.

[all4AU 379]

Good points made here. Also, remember that Dean himself didn’t join until September. It’s amazing to me that we are still nationally ranked after all the change these girls have been through. I really think we will see this team improve as the season progresses. 

[Mikey 16,575]

1 hour ago, OlderWhiskey said:

It was Myers' second year that we had the big success, although signs of it were there in 2014. In 2013, Auburn went 7-17 in the conference and 30-23 overall. We hit only 32 homers against 41 for our opponents. In Myers' first year, we went 42-19 overall, with a 11-13 conference slate. We hit 83 homers against 64 for the opposition. We made the regional in Minneapolis. After losing the first game to ND State, we fought back to reach the final against Minnesota. We won the first game against them, and narrowly lost the second. The stat that jumps out is the increase in homers from 32 to 83. Sounds like the hitting coach may have been important. I'm trying to discipline myself to be patient with Coach Dean. It didn't all come overnight with Myers, either. And I don't see that Dean was handed a silk purse. As I've said previously, last year's team couldn't hit much, then we lost three of the best hitters from that. Dean's main challenge is to rebuild the offense.

That's as dramatic a turnaround as I've ever seen in a team sport when there were not dissension/ outside issues the previous year.

Quote: "And I don't see that Dean was handed a silk purse." Compared  to what Meyers inherited, Dean was handed a silk purse with pearl embellishments.

While there are other instances this season, the one that best exemplifies my point is pitching to LSU's best hitter with the winning run on 2nd, 1st base open and two outs. Even with a lesser hitter at the plate you walk them. Sets up a force at three bases and and the runner you put on 1st is meaningless. But pitching to a .440 hitter with a .243 hitter on deck defies any logic to the point that it indicates a poor grasp of the basics of the game. Someone posted  above "We all know Dean can coach". I'm not so sure about that. Maybe he was an ace recruiter and simply overwhelmed mediocre opponents with superior talent. So far, he's been the worst game day manager I've seen at the college level, baseball or softball.

My concern is that the things he's doing or not doing are basic things that someone should have learned during any term as an assistant coach just about anywhere.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Mikey, I totally agree with your comment about pitching to Doyle.  I can't fathom why he did that.  And we'll just have to agree to disagree about the silk purse.  Myers got a team that had underachieved, but look at who was on it.  Carosone- Cooper - Rhodes - Estell - Melero.  I don't see that kind of consistent hitting power in the 25 girls we have now.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned; we lost three 2019 recruits when Myers resigned.  That doesn't affect this year's team, obviously, but something to remember.

[wildling 35]

On more thing to pile on - he pinch hit a strikeout prone freshman for Tannon Snow who had been on base 2/2 and had our only hit. To her credit Olszewski had a good AB before striking out, but I don't see the logic behind that decision.

[all4AU 379]

2 hours ago, wildling said:

On more thing to pile on - he pinch hit a strikeout prone freshman for Tannon Snow who had been on base 2/2 and had our only hit. To her credit Olszewski had a good AB before striking out, but I don't see the logic behind that decision.

He pinch ran for Tannon after the walk so pinch running after the base hit burned her for the game. At the time, it was a 1-0 game, and he knew he burned her to put speed in her place. Remember, she is playing with Eppilepsy so that probably factored into the decision. 

[wildling 35]

Fair enough. It would have been a decent spot for Podany if MD hadn't started her for reasons unknown, and MP could have finished off the game playing LF.

[4WDE 89]

1 hour ago, all4AU said:

He pinch ran for Tannon after the walk so pinch running after the base hit burned her for the game. At the time, it was a 1-0 game, and he knew he burned her to put speed in her place. Remember, she is playing with Eppilepsy so that probably factored into the decision. 

Actually, a starter has one re-entry into the game.  He ran for Tannon twice, after her hit and then the BB.  At that point, she was burned.  No idea why he started Podany, then immediately went to Crocker.  That limits your roster management with two players with some experience.  Bottom line, Myers came in coaching at a high level, understanding exactly what it took to win a national championship, and how to manage/motivate his roster to maximize their potential.  Dean does not have that experience or expertise yet.  It is obvious he is learning on the fly, because the players can sense when a coach is unsure (practice, games, on/off field).  Myers may have made mistakes, but he made them with a plan to win championships.  Hope Dean is a quick learner.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Just noticed that UGA run-ruled Florida today, 11-1, to take the series.  Good year for the Dawgs to drop off our schedule.

[4WDE 89]

KY beat LSU 4-1 and Hoover gave up 2 - HR's.  

[Hspoprn 199]

20 hours ago, SumterAubie said:

This is what you bring with your first post?

Yep.

Hopefully tonight the Tigers and CMD will prove me wrong. Much better competition in the SEC than CMD faced at JMU.........