Sand Dollar Softball

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Just for fun I checked on the 4 players from the 2017 class that left.  Schiele has appeared in two of UW's games, with one AB.  Bilodeau has not seen the circle in FSU's first four games.  Olszewski has started all 4 games for UAB, hitting .273, no homers yet.  Mackenzie Nutt has started all 10 games for UAH (they are 6-4) and is hitting .370 with two homers and a team-leading 12 RBI, slugging percentage .852.  Bear in mind they are playing teams we've never heard of, like St. Leo's, Eckerd, Southern Indiana, Shorter, West Liberty.

Savana Sikes, who was an Auburn commit until Myers resigned, flipped to UGA.  She starts at second for them and is 2 for 6 with a homer after 4 games.  Again, have to charge her against Myers.

[AU64 10,122]

9 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Just for fun I checked on the 4 players from the 2017 class that left.  Schiele has appeared in two of UW's games, with one AB.  Bilodeau has not seen the circle in FSU's first four games.  Olszewski has started all 4 games for UAB, hitting .273, no homers yet.  Mackenzie Nutt has started all 10 games for UAH (they are 6-4) and is hitting .370 with two homers and a team-leading 12 RBI, slugging percentage .852.  Bear in mind they are playing teams we've never heard of, like St. Leo's, Eckerd, Southern Indiana, Shorter, West Liberty.

Savana Sikes, who was an Auburn commit until Myers resigned, flipped to UGA.  She starts at second for them and is 2 for 6 with a homer after 4 games.  Again, have to charge her against Myers.

JMO but the key to AU's success with Clint was Carlee Wallace....she came with Clint from the west coast  and made an impact as a freshman....and left when he left.    A big gain....and a big loss when she left with a season yet to play. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Auburn leads FAMU 7-2 going to bot 4.  AU playing as visitor, Harris pitching.  Crack and Tannon homered in top 4.

TaySnow with a 2 RBI single in top 5.  9-2 Auburn.

[around4ever 4,139]

9-2 B5.  Taylon with a 2 out double to plate 2 runs. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Perry homers to push the lead to 10-2.  We leave two on.

[steeleagle 2,945]

I wonder how our offense looked last year in the early OOC games? I'm afraid to enjoy the offense so far, if the results are typical of early games..

[around4ever 4,139]

 

Final 10-2.  Handley comes in to close it out.  After struggling with the strike zone earlier in the weekend she gets her first 2 Ks as a Tiger. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

2 hours ago, steeleagle said:

I wonder how our offense looked last year in the early OOC games? I'm afraid to enjoy the offense so far, if the results are typical of early games..

Here's a link to last year's results, via secsports.  The PTB at Auburn are working hard to make the sports pages on the Auburn site as fan-unfriendly as possible.  Becoming difficult to find anything useful.

Link:  http://www.secsports.com/schedule/softball/auburn-tigers/_/year/2018

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Wanted to add that I do believe there is improvement in the hitting overall..  Eleven homers in 5 games compared to 43 in 58 games last year.  Of course, the rate will drop significantly in conference play; but I'm still thinking there is real improvement.  We scored between 2 and 4 runs in each of the first 4 games last year, against similar competition.

[AUBwins 10,074]

How many HR has my girl Crack had so far? Seems to hit at least 1 per game so far.  Glad to see Perry back in there. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Crack has 4, Veach 3, one each by Rivera, Perry, TanSnow, Fornis

[slot canyon 1,333]

My brain is in a bit of a blur after the near 5 hour drive back from Gulf Shores but just a few thoughts.  Our bunt attempts were pathetic.  I know several attempts were just plain misses and a couple were pop ups that were caught.  The closest we had to a sacrifice bunt was a ball Nillen attempted to hit and ended up "topping" it such that it ended up about a foot in front of home plate.  She was throw out but advanced the runner.  Speaking of Nillen (not intended to pile on just some things that come to mind).  She came in during Tennessee State game to catch for Handley.  Hanley had control issues but Nillen also seemed to be at fault on at least one passed ball.  They got pulled after about 2 batters.  Nillen does look fairly comfortable at the plate and tonight got her first hit; a single I think to left field.  She and Handley had a good inning together in the FAMU game so credit where credit due. I think the FAMU players were taken back seeing that fast ball after 5 innings of the slower movement stuff from Chardonnay.   Also, Godwin got to bat.  She is from Daphne and her grandparents were a couple of rows behind us.  It was fun hearing their excitement and everyone gave a cheer when she walked and later scored.  She still has some sort of brace on her leg.  

In the LaTech game in the 6th inning they had a runner on 2nd.  A ball was hit over 3rd base down the line and was called fair. Runner on 2nd scored .   We were sitting exactly in line with home plate and 3rd base line and I thought clearly was a foul ball.   That was a big play as game eventually ended 2-1.  In the Missouri State game Swindle had one bad inning and we lost by 1 run. 

Did not feel our infield play was as sharp as in the past.  Hopefully they will get better as season progresses.  

Perry had a couple of good "stretch " catches at first.  

My wife and I did not stay for the second game with W. KY on Friday.  Temperature was dropping and we surrendered to our growling stomachs.  There are two sets of bleachers for each field with each of them holding aprox 80 fans.  I thought all the games were well attended but especially Saturday games.  Many people standing and sitting around the outfield fence.  The layers and fans from Missouri State and La Tech really erupted when they won, and rightfully so; you could tell it was a really big deal for them.  

 

 

 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Slot, thanks for the scouting report.  I have a particular question.  In the postgame interview Saturday, after the two losses, CMD twice referred to "4 ground balls to the 2d  base side" in conjunction with lack of execution.  It sounded like he was trying to blame McCrackin or Perry, or both, for the 4-run inning that Mo State had.  Can you shed any light on his remarks?  

[EagleEye67 1,939]

Thanks for the report!

[slot canyon 1,333]

12 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Slot, thanks for the scouting report.  I have a particular question.  In the postgame interview Saturday, after the two losses, CMD twice referred to "4 ground balls to the 2d  base side" in conjunction with lack of execution.  It sounded like he was trying to blame McCrackin or Perry, or both, for the 4-run inning that Mo State had.  Can you shed any light on his remarks?  

Whiskey, some of the stuff runs together in my mind but after review of the play by play I do recall that when Missouri State had runners on 1st and second there were three successive balls hit into RF and at least 2 of them went through the right side of the infield.  I believe Crack made a dive at one of them.  Do not recall a misplay and there was no error so I do not know what he talking about.  It was uncanny how there were several well hit balls through the infield in that inning.  

A couple of other things that occurred to me was I felt we had poor execution in attempts to throw out a runner stealing 2nd.  I recall 2 times in the games I saw.  Also, there were at least 3 times we had a runner rounding 3rd and CMD held them there when I thought they had a very good chance to score.  One example, in the Missouri State game 1st inning Taylon was on 1st and Crack hit double to right-center but Taylon was held at 3rd.  The player usually has a good head of steam when they round 3rd and the ball is just reaching a cut off player.  Just from my perspective in the stands I thought players should have had a green light rounding 3rd on several occasions. They were not approaching 3rd when stopped; they had made the turn around 3rd.  Should qualify and say I am just a fan and not a experienced coach but a few years ago I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express.  Seems coach is aggressive on stealing bases but less so on base running with the ball in play.  

There was a play in the FAMU game that was aggravating.  Harris pitching for AU.  FAMU runner had advanced to 2nd on sac bunt.  Runner on 1st.  When Perry threw the ball to Harris it was mishandled and ended up rolling toward 3rd.  Harris trots in that direction, Snow moves to her left to pick up the slow rolling ball and because she is away from 3rd the runner on 2nd advances to 3rd. While the two AU players are standing there looking at each other the runner on first goes to second.  Looked very sloppy.  Does anyone recall hearing that play on radio?  I believe that is how it went down.  

 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Thanks for the reply.  I believe I recall hearing the play you describe, but not the details.  Thankfully, we'll have some TV for the next weekend.  UAB Thursday night.  Incidentally, just read on another site that Bilodeau got her first start at FSU, and combined with Herzog for a no-hitter.  Haven't looked up the details.

[Hspoprn 199]

Thanks for the reports. Anyone know how many AU runners were thrown out attempting to steal a base ?

[AUBwins 10,074]

8 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

Incidentally, just read on another site that Bilodeau got her first start at FSU, and combined with Herzog for a no-hitter.  Haven't looked up the details.

I am really aggravated to see her leave.  I was looking forward to seeing her play this year.  Felt she would have gotten good innings at some point. 

[slot canyon 1,333]

Looking at the stats for each game I calculate we were successful 6 out of 8 attempts.  In the Tennessee State game we had 3 stolen bases and were caught stealing twice so the 5 attempts was the most during the tournament. No attempts with Western Kentucky, and none against La Tech.  We had two SB against Missouri State.  We had 1 SB against FAMU and surprisingly that was Nillen, late in the game.  As I recall, FAMU catcher looked like she had a very good arm when she did the throw during warm ups each inning.  So even though we had a lot of base runners we did not attempt but a single steal in that game.  Maybe CMD felt we could advance runners with our offence against their pitcher rather than via steals.  Their pitcher appeared to have reasonably good control but only moderate speed.  I really admired the way her team kept supporting her during her 6 innings pitched (133 pitches).  She had only 1 strike out and 6 walks but seemed to keep her head up and doing her job to the best of her abilities...…...RESPECT.

[AU64 10,122]

5 minutes ago, slot canyon said:

Looking at the stats for each game I calculate we were successful 6 out of 8 attempts.  In the Tennessee State game we had 3 stolen bases and were caught stealing twice so the 5 attempts was the most during the tournament. No attempts with Western Kentucky, and none against La Tech.  We had two SB against Missouri State.  We had 1 SB against FAMU and surprisingly that was Nillen, late in the game.  As I recall, FAMU catcher looked like she had a very good arm when she did the throw during warm ups each inning.  So even though we had a lot of base runners we did not attempt but a single steal in that game.  Maybe CMD felt we could advance runners with our offence against their pitcher rather than via steals.  Their pitcher appeared to have reasonably good control but only moderate speed.  I really admired the way her team kept supporting her during her 6 innings pitched (133 pitches).  She had only 1 strike out and 6 walks but seemed to keep her head up and doing her job to the best of her abilities...…...RESPECT.

JMO but early in the year I'd rather test the outfielders'  arms by stretching for an extra base.. Did not see the situations over the weekend of course but sounds like DMD could have pushed it a bit there. 

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Slot is correct, we were 6 of 8.  Opponents were 4 of 4.  Some of those "steals" come from first and third situations, where the defense doesn't want to throw.  I feel sure that was the case with the Nillen steal.  Our team batting average stands at .353.

Here's a link to the stat page:  https://auburntigers.com/cumestats.aspx?path=softball

I couldn't find it via the Auburn pages, had to Google for it.

[all4AU 379]

15 minutes ago, slot canyon said:

Looking at the stats for each game I calculate we were successful 6 out of 8 attempts.  In the Tennessee State game we had 3 stolen bases and were caught stealing twice so the 5 attempts was the most during the tournament. No attempts with Western Kentucky, and none against La Tech.  We had two SB against Missouri State.  We had 1 SB against FAMU and surprisingly that was Nillen, late in the game.  As I recall, FAMU catcher looked like she had a very good arm when she did the throw during warm ups each inning.  So even though we had a lot of base runners we did not attempt but a single steal in that game.  Maybe CMD felt we could advance runners with our offence against their pitcher rather than via steals.  Their pitcher appeared to have reasonably good control but only moderate speed.  I really admired the way her team kept supporting her during her 6 innings pitched (133 pitches).  She had only 1 strike out and 6 walks but seemed to keep her head up and doing her job to the best of her abilities...…...RESPECT.

FAMU was the only team that had 2 games on Sunday so they had to save their staff for the 2nd game. Much respect to the FAMU pitcher.

[all4AU 379]

9 hours ago, slot canyon said:

Does anyone recall hearing that play on radio?  I believe that is how it went down.  

 

I don´t think it´s fair for you to ask us to interpret anything from the radio! I do not have anything personal against B.B., but I have to be honest.... he is horrible. I know he began this as a student and continued on as an employee, but Auburn fans deserve so much better. 

When we beat Western Kentucky, he thought another run counted and we won 9-0. He never realized the game is over when it is 8-0 (unless a player hits a home run to make it over 8). I don´t care if the scoreboard did have it wrong. He´s called enough games to understand the rules. 

It goes more than just knowing the game. He fumbles over his words and makes too many careless mistakes. Veach stole 3rd base, and he called it second. He said Carmyn Greenwood missed last year due to a nagging ¨industry.¨ He also said Makayla Martin was #21 even though she has worn #29 at this University for four years.

Rant over! 😤

[Hspoprn 199]

Thx to all for the stolen base stats.

[AUSBFAN 21]

Sorry if this has already been posted, but not a big fan of Auburn’s new stats format. I found one on the SEC site that is much better and has all of the other SEC teams in one place. Lots of data that can be sliced and diced.  This thread may not be the best place for this either so feel free to move 😊. http://a.espncdn.com/sec/softball/2019/confstat.htm