2020 Softball season

[slot canyon 1,333]

Article plus link to YouTube video Mark Murphy interview.

https://247sports.com/college/auburn/Article/Softball-Tigers-will-have-a-busy-opening-week-to-2020-season-143234321/

[auburnfan247 27]

Are the Auburn games in Clearwater going to be on any Tv stations? Or radio?

[OlderWhiskey 953]

There are no indications of TV or radio on the entire schedule, except for the Nutter, which begins Feb. 20, and is on FloSoftball ($).  This is a departure from recent years, and may be due to the change in Director of Operations.  Have to think there's going to be some TV coverage of the opening tournament, as well as most of our games, but it isn't showing up. 

[slot canyon 1,333]

Softball TV Broadcast schedule:

 

https://auburntigers.com/news/2020/2/4/untitled-story.aspx

[OlderWhiskey 953]

I'm gonna miss this first weekend due to a birding trip, but hope to catch most of the action after that.

[slot canyon 1,333]

From what I can tell from softball twitter page the team departed for Atlanta Airport around 6 am this morning.  Hard to believe tomorrow will be game day.

[slot canyon 1,333]

On 2/3/2020 at 7:55 AM, auburnfan247 said:

Are the Auburn games in Clearwater going to be on any Tv stations? Or radio?

If you missed it see my post under NFCA Leadoff Classic.  

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

Uh. Ouch.

Baylor 8

AU 0 

To open the season.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

Well, at least the coaches should have their attention after that.  Seriously, Rodoni is a top-drawer pitcher.  She missed the season last year due to injury, and Baylor's record suffered badly.    We evened the record in the second game, and should get at least two of the next 3.   Kinda surprised that Handley only struck out 1 in 5 innings.

[ellitor 33,092]

Not sure if anyone wants to start threads on the two games today but I can’t do it because I’ll be working the LSU basketball game. Just wanted to give y’all a heads up.

[EagleEye67 1,939]

Are today's game being broadcast?   Can't find them so far...

[BJCrawford 1,568]

I followed on the stat line. AU defeated Liberty 5-3

[OlderWhiskey 953]

2 hours ago, BJCrawford said:

I followed on the stat line. AU defeated Liberty 5-3

Liberty had a 3-run double in the first.  Koepke evened it up with a 3-run homer in the 4th, followed by an IP homer for Perry.  Auburn got its 5th run on a wild pitch.

Leading Texas State 2-1 after 5, AU has 6 hits to their 2.  Yarbrough pitching, I think.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

We wound up beating Texas State 3-1.  Last game of the series vs. Illinois tomorrow at 11.  I think they have improved from a couple years ago when we beat them easily.  I've learned at least two things from the four games thus far:  1.  Koepke starts at second because she can hit.  2.  Yarbrough was a good get from USA.  Pitched six scoreless innings against Texas State.

[AU1947 157]

I found the games on the NFCA Leadoff Classic's website. Pitchers did well today. Excited about the season. Can't wait to see them at home next week.

[steeleagle 2,945]

14 hours ago, OlderWhiskey said:

We wound up beating Texas State 3-1.  Last game of the series vs. Illinois tomorrow at 11.  I think they have improved from a couple years ago when we beat them easily.  I've learned at least two things from the four games thus far:  1.  Koepke starts at second because she can hit.  2.  Yarbrough was a good get from USA.  Pitched six scoreless innings against Texas State.

Is the hitting a problem again? Not many runs in any of these games, and not sure the level of our competition.

It will be nice if Yarborough can effectively pitch some in the SEC. I think Lexie and especially Swindle will at times struggle against SEC competition so we will need that third arm, if she has strikeout capability...

[OlderWhiskey 953]

As further commentary, I noticed that Baylor lost to Mizzou 9-1, and also lost to Missouri State.  So the team that drubbed us isn't exactly a powerhouse.  OTOH, both Florida and Alabama got run-ruled yesterday, by Michigan and FSU respectively.  I guess the message is, you can't form too many conclusions from these early tournament games.

[ArgoEagle 1,786]

I'm beginning to question either Dean's ability to recruit hitting talent, or his ability to develop it. We need to be stepping it up quick in the hitting dept., or get ready to watch the L's accumulate.

[EagleEye67 1,939]

36 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

I'm beginning to question either Dean's ability to recruit hitting talent, or his ability to develop it. We need to be stepping it up quick in the hitting dept., or get ready to watch the L's accumulate.

I think we are really, really, really going to miss MMartin this year.

[ArgoEagle 1,786]

23 minutes ago, EagleEye67 said:

I think we are really, really, really going to miss MMartin this year.

Most definitely. But, we got run-ruled and shut out in 2 of our first 3 games, so I'm a little more concerned with offense being our biggest concern right now, and also we haven't exactly played world beaters these first few games either.

[ellitor 33,092]

1 hour ago, ArgoEagle said:

I'm beginning to question either Dean's ability to recruit hitting talent, or his ability to develop it. We need to be stepping it up quick in the hitting dept., or get ready to watch the L's accumulate.

Got some good ones coming in. Just not much talent there now in that area as part of the staff transition.

[ArgoEagle 1,786]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

Got some good ones coming in. Just not much talent there now in that area as part of the staff transition.

But isn't this Dean's third year? Should we not see some type of measurable improvement by now? If we start improving by mid season or so, I'll give him a pass I guess.

[ellitor 33,092]

3 hours ago, ArgoEagle said:

But isn't this Dean's third year? Should we not see some type of measurable improvement by now?

Not necessarily. This has been discussed extensively in various softball threads. Until a year or 2 ago softball coaches could visit, recruit, & accept a commitment as early as they wanted. Many teams had girls all the way down to 7th & 8th grades committed to them. This includes AU with Myers. When he left a good number of our highest rated recruits decommitted over the course of a few classes. The rules are better now in that schools can't see any recruits til their Jr season & I think that includes taking a commitment til then as well. But it still created a vacuum in the transition of his 1st few years because softball is not like football recruiting for the most part in that when a recruit commits they shut down their recruitment & other teams don't press for them barring head coaching changes like we had. For the 1st 2 or 3 years he didn't have the full pool of talent to choose from. The 2020 class he just signed are basically from his 1st full pool & is ranked 4th in the nation. They will not be here as freshmen til next season. I could be wrong but I don't think this current team is very talented & will get a big talent upgrade next season. As long as the effort is there I can see Dean getting a mulligan this season if it goes bad because of the talent he has coming in.

[OlderWhiskey 953]

I've mentally likened this year to the 1981 football season - laying the foundation for the next year.  I don't expect to finish in the top half of the SEC this year - indeed, we are picked to finish 11th. I think Dean has done what he could to try to bolster this team, with late gets and transfers.  I'm with Ellitor on the mulligan.

[steeleagle 2,945]

17 hours ago, ellitor said:

Not necessarily. This has been discussed extensively in various softball threads. Until a year or 2 ago softball coaches could visit, recruit, & accept a commitment as early as they wanted. Many teams had girls all the way down to 7th & 8th grades committed to them. This includes AU with Myers. When he left a good number of our highest rated recruits decommitted over the course of a few classes. The rules are better now in that schools can't see any recruits til their Jr season & I think that includes taking a commitment til then as well. But it still created a vacuum in the transition of his 1st few years because softball is not like football recruiting for the most part in that when a recruit commits they shut down their recruitment & other teams don't press for them barring head coaching changes like we had. For the 1st 2 or 3 years he didn't have the full pool of talent to choose from. The 2020 class he just signed are basically from his 1st full pool & is ranked 4th in the nation. They will not be here as freshmen til next season. I could be wrong but I don't think this current team is very talented & will get a big talent upgrade next season. As long as the effort is there I can see Dean getting a mulligan this season if it goes bad because of the talent he has coming in.

good detailed analogy. I hadn't thought about all the circumstances. Add that he has brought in a whole different set of coaches to handle hitting and how Dean's teams will be developing. 

This year is just going to be that perfect storm. Our weakest pitching in the last 6 years, and possibly weak power team. Could be a long season...

I also think some of the softball fans were spoiled when Meyers came in here and made us a softball power by his 2nd year...