What Is Needed to Be Successful in SEC Softball

[Hspoprn 199]

On 7/17/2019 at 7:47 AM, AU64 said:

Nobody mentioned hitting.....seems that alone could make a big difference...….hitting last year was abismal.....and should be easy to improve on that....JMO

" You can't teach someone how to hit. It's a gift."

What you can do is improve their mechanics (maybe), and teach them to recognize a rise vs a curve vs a change-up, and use the strengths that they have at the plate.

[80Tiger 899]

So what I got from this is that you need to be a good hitting team and a good pitching team to be successful. Shocking.

[EagleEye67 1,937]

12 minutes ago, Hspoprn said:

" You can't teach someone how to hit. It's a gift."

 

Somewhere in the world, Tom Emanski is crying right now.

[ellitor 33,062]

3 hours ago, 80Tiger said:

So what I got from this is that you need to be a good hitting team and a good pitching team to be successful. Shocking.

Sorry if the thread title was poorly worded. Wasn't sure what title would be better when the OP was split from the recruiting thread.

[4WDE 89]

On 7/17/2019 at 11:04 AM, EagleEye67 said:

Yet Stuedeman is out on the street, and Evans still has a job.   Go figure.

This was not solely based on wins and losses or data. The timing would be a pretty good indicator.

[slot canyon 1,328]

21 hours ago, 80Tiger said:

So what I got from this is that you need to be a good hitting team and a good pitching team to be successful. Shocking.

Makes sense but not always the case when you look at how teams are ranked based on statistics.  See Florida in the OP.  At season end, their pitching went a long way in overcoming their poor hitting and they were playing well during that part of the season.  Not telling anyone anything they don't know but playing well at critical times in the season and having timely hitting is often a deal maker that leads to success.  

In 2016 (SEC game stats) Florida finished 20 - 4.  ERA #1, BA #6, Fielding #1.  Toward seasons end and coming off 5 straight wins, they lost to AU in SEC Tournament (they beat us 2 out of 3 in AU earlier in season).  They won their regional  but lost the super regional (ranked #1 at that time) at their place to Georgia who ended up 12-12 in SEC and ranked ERA #5 and BA #1.  Eventually Georgia was  knocked out of WCWS by AU and LSU.  As stated, Georgia had #1 BA.  They had 205 hits which resulted in 118 runs.  So by my calculation they scored a run 58% of the time they got a hit.  Auburn on the other hand had 179 hits and 150 runs amounting to 84%.  Seems like a big difference and may reflect timely hitting although AU had more BB 109 vs 67 and more HR 30 to 22 as well as slightly better Slg% .477 vs .463.

Auburn that year (2016) finished 16-7 in SEC  with #7 ERA and #4 BA. They won the SEC tournament after going 1 win and 4 losses in their last 2 SEC series (mercifully our 3rd game with the Vols was called due to weather....they had dominated us).  From there we won the SEC tournament with 3 straight wins.  Likewise our regional with 3 straight wins and then beat Arizona in our super regional 2 out of 3 after dropping game 1.  At the WCWS we won 3 straight over UCLA, Georgia and Florida State prior to our eventual loss to Oklahoma in the championship.  Seemed we were playing well at the critical time of the year.

 Although I sometimes enjoy looking at some of these statistics, they do not always equate to how you finish the season.  I agree you do need to be good at hitting and pitching but maybe not  great.  Playing well at the right time of the season and timely hitting are factors as are a favorable schedule and avoiding injuries to name just a few.

 

 

[auburnphan 6,050]

19 hours ago, Mikey said:

Most anything negative that happened in his last year could be blamed, rightly or not, on the situation that brought the end of the Myers Era at Auburn. I can see a team that's upset and has factions not taking coaching and not paying attention to detail as well as they would otherwise.

Losing Howard, Carosone’s .390 and .399 average and Rhodes bat was the  biggest factor.  Cooper hit .422 being protected by those bats.  Not many other girls on the team got opportunities that year game experience wise.  Teams pitched around Cooper.  We just lost some of the best that have worn an Auburn uniform.  Full season batting average went from .317 to .277.   Lots of young players getting their first taste of SEC pitching.  Draper and Wallace both raised their average, but moving up in the order and having Cooper behind them helped.  Rivera batted .370s that yr in front of Cooper most of the year I believe.

[GwillMac6 20,607]

Pretty simple solution honestly. We did it when we hired Myers. Go hire one of the elite coaches in the sport and the results will follow. /thread lol. But seriously go do that. If we move on from Dean in the next couple of years just go throw a bunch of money (for softball) at the best coaches in the game until one of them says yes.

[slot canyon 1,328]

On 7/18/2019 at 3:40 PM, 4WDE said:

This was not solely based on wins and losses or data. The timing would be a pretty good indicator.

Also noticed six players had put their names in the transfer portal well prior to her departure date  ( five have already found new teams as of this date).  Just recently, Jamie Gregg from Hoover, Alabama also put her name in the portal.  Total of seven.  

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Surely part of Steudemann's problem was named Smith.  A formerly moribund Ole Miss softball program has made the supers two of the past three years, and won the SEC tournament.  MSU hasn't come close to that.  Don't know offhand the head-to-head results between the two schools.