Softball vs Arkansas

[wde2021 16]

Auburn faces Arkansas tonight at 5 p.m. to start off the series. If I had to guess I'd say Lowe gets the start tonight and Penta will start tomorrow. Wonder if Dean will keep mixing up the lineup or go with the one that got us the first SEC win on Sunday. Mary Haff, the Arkansas ace, is already 17-2 on the year and has 117 innings! She's been great so far this year so it'll be interesting to see if our hitters can get on base and find a way to score. I like a lineup of :

1. Sydney Cox - 2nd

2. McKenna Dowell - SS

3. Tyler King - LF

4. Alyssa Rivera - RF

5. Aspyn Godwin - C

6. Justus Perry - 1st 

7. Lindsey Garcia - 3rd 

8. Mckayla Packer - Center 

9. Kaylee Horton - DP

[slot canyon 1,333]

2 hours ago, wde2021 said:

Auburn faces Arkansas tonight at 5 p.m. to start off the series. If I had to guess I'd say Lowe gets the start tonight and Penta will start tomorrow. Wonder if Dean will keep mixing up the lineup or go with the one that got us the first SEC win on Sunday. Mary Haff, the Arkansas ace, is already 17-2 on the year and has 117 innings! She's been great so far this year so it'll be interesting to see if our hitters can get on base and find a way to score. I like a lineup of :

1. Sydney Cox - 2nd

2. McKenna Dowell - SS

3. Tyler King - LF

4. Alyssa Rivera - RF

5. Aspyn Godwin - C

6. Justus Perry - 1st 

7. Lindsey Garcia - 3rd 

8. Mckayla Packer - Center 

9. Kaylee Horton - DP

 

May be Koepke at 3rd.

[wde2021 16]

47 minutes ago, slot canyon said:

May be Koepke at 3rd.

Possibly. I was impressed with her defense at third this weekend but still not sure about her bat. Garcia didn't do well at the plate this weekend either but I think she has a lot of upside and could be a power threat as well once she gets more SEC innings at the plate. 

[wde2021 16]

https://twitter.com/AuburnSoftball/status/1377736854317854720?s=19

Penta gets the start. 

[AU1947 157]

We cannot hit, pitching is struggling. Why not start Lowe?

[blakem 296]

6 minutes ago, AU1947 said:

We cannot hit, pitching is struggling. Why not start Lowe?

I didn’t understand that. Why throw a power pitcher against a power offense when you have a spinny pitcher you could throw.

[all4AU 379]

Maybe he didn’t want Shelby to get in a pitching duel with Mary Haff? Let’s start Shelby Friday and then see how she does and if she feels well enough for Saturday. 

[AU1947 157]

I got to go to the game tonight and they looked dead. No life and no energy. Arkansas was quite the opposite though.  Very frustrating 😕 we had 1 hit until the bottom of 7!!!

[steeleagle 2,945]

13 hours ago, all4AU said:

Maybe he didn’t want Shelby to get in a pitching duel with Mary Haff? Let’s start Shelby Friday and then see how she does and if she feels well enough for Saturday. 

If his goal is to try to guarantee 1 win w/ Shelby pitching today, and then still having her available to start Sat or at least come in quickly if Penta or whoever he starts Saturday, then that may work. If he didn't want to throw our best against their best in 2 games(Thurs/Sat), then that was another reason she didn't start. 

If he doesn't use SHelby in at least 2 games, then that was horrible coaching. So let's see how it plays out...

[all4AU 379]

15 hours ago, AU1947 said:

I got to go to the game tonight and they looked dead. No life and no energy. Arkansas was quite the opposite though.  Very frustrating 😕 we had 1 hit until the bottom of 7!!!

Thursday, the crowd seemed slimmer than normal. The girls looked like they didn't want to be there, which is sad. Maybe we will be fired up today like we were on Sunday at Mizzou. 

[saminbama 740]

18 hours ago, AU1947 said:

I got to go to the game tonight and they looked dead. No life and no energy. Arkansas was quite the opposite though.  Very frustrating 😕 we had 1 hit until the bottom of 7!!!

Isn't this week Spring Break?  Nothing like being stuck on campus when everyone else is gone.

[AUBwins 10,074]

Welp pitch to the SEC leader and she produces all 3 runs.  That's pretty much how it works.  Shelby pitched great, with another 11k outing.  I thought Lowe might get the slugger to strikeout in the 7th, but being the veteran, found another gap for the 3rd run. Really depressing to see ground ball after ground ball for easy outs in the infield.  Especially from our veterans.  Perry was up with 2 on and down 2 runs. Pathetic ground out.  Alyssa hit another weak grounder in the 7th.

These two are not young hitters.  They have proven to hit the ball over the fence against seasoned pitchers.  What is wrong with these two at the plate? Horton as well is not a regular in the lineup anymore.  I thought those 3 players would be the most consistent on this team coming in. 

[wde2021 16]

22 minutes ago, AUBwins said:

Welp pitch to the SEC leader and she produces all 3 runs.  That's pretty much how it works.  Shelby pitched great, with another 11k outing.  I thought Lowe might get the slugger to strikeout in the 7th, but being the veteran, found another gap for the 3rd run. Really depressing to see ground ball after ground ball for easy outs in the infield.  Especially from our veterans.  Perry was up with 2 on and down 2 runs. Pathetic ground out.  Alyssa hit another weak grounder in the 7th.

These two are not young hitters.  They have proven to hit the ball over the fence against seasoned pitchers.  What is wrong with these two at the plate? Horton as well is not a regular in the lineup anymore.  I thought those 3 players would be the most consistent on this team coming in. 

It's pretty disappointing. We don't have a true power hitter to rely on either anywhere in the lineup. It's like they just go up to the plate with the same plan batter after batter. There are no adjustments being made. We could have played another 7 innings today & probably wouldn't have scored a run. It's just sad... 

[steeleagle 2,945]

35 minutes ago, wde2021 said:

It's pretty disappointing. We don't have a true power hitter to rely on either anywhere in the lineup. It's like they just go up to the plate with the same plan batter after batter. There are no adjustments being made. We could have played another 7 innings today & probably wouldn't have scored a run. It's just sad... 

But even if you don't have a power hitter, certainly these girls, who were very good hitters in HS, and some of the veterans, are simply not hitting well at all this year. Even with no power, they should be able to hit gaps, and holes, to have the chance to score runs...

But I guess when you have 8 SEC teams in the top 25 you are going to get very good pitching to hit against. But as you said, are they adjusting well enough in their at bats? 

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, AUBwins said:

Welp pitch to the SEC leader and she produces all 3 runs.  That's pretty much how it works.  Shelby pitched great, with another 11k outing.  I thought Lowe might get the slugger to strikeout in the 7th, but being the veteran, found another gap for the 3rd run. Really depressing to see ground ball after ground ball for easy outs in the infield.  Especially from our veterans.  Perry was up with 2 on and down 2 runs. Pathetic ground out.  Alyssa hit another weak grounder in the 7th.

These two are not young hitters.  They have proven to hit the ball over the fence against seasoned pitchers.  What is wrong with these two at the plate? Horton as well is not a regular in the lineup anymore.  I thought those 3 players would be the most consistent on this team coming in. 

At one time these 3 vets were either pushed to the bottom of the lineup or taken out, bc they simply were not hitting well at all. Dean began using the younger ones, but they were no match at the begiinning of SEC play for SEC pitchers, and I noticed Dean started playing and starting the vets again. It looked like they might be showing signs of life, but now they are back to not hitting again. 

Don't know if it's the hitting coach or simply the players are simply having bad years. I'd have to see how other teams are hitting against the pitchers we have faced so far...

[Hspoprn 199]

Dean seems to be grasping at straws by shuffling the line-up, trying to find any player(s) that can hit consistently. Doesn't seem to be working.

[steeleagle 2,945]

Also, we are next to last in hitting and last in RBIs.

Counting only teams that have played the same or less number games we have, we have 91 rbis and are 42 runs behind the next lowest SEC team, and they have even played 2 more games than we have as of April 1...

Hitting is still a problem....as of now under these coaches. Hopefully they catch fire soon....

[all4AU 379]

I’ll add.... we aren’t hitting as well as the talent of our roster suggests. We have talented players. I’m putting blame on coaching. I know Dean and the staff are trying, but they are currently failing mightily. 

[AU1947 157]

On 4/1/2021 at 7:29 PM, all4AU said:

Maybe he didn’t want Shelby to get in a pitching duel with Mary Haff? Let’s start Shelby Friday and then see how she does and if she feels well enough for Saturday. 

We CANNOT hit the ball!!! 

[around4ever 4,139]

17 hours ago, saminbama said:

Isn't this week Spring Break?  Nothing like being stuck on campus when everyone else is gone.

These girls have played high school ball and college ball for several years.  Most played travel ball during the summers for years.  They are used to not getting away on spring break, not getting a normal vacation and understand that is part of the choice they made to play softball. 

[around4ever 4,139]

14 hours ago, all4AU said:

I’ll add.... we aren’t hitting as well as the talent of our roster suggests. We have talented players. I’m putting blame on coaching. I know Dean and the staff are trying, but they are currently failing mightily. 

Our hitting dropped off immediately when Dean took over.  It has not gotten any better in this his 5th year, OK 4th, we won’t count last year.  I know the talent is there.  Who is to blame, the coaches, the players?  Whoever is to blame, the motivation seems to be lacking.  

 

[Mikey 16,576]

1 hour ago, around4ever said:

Our hitting dropped off immediately when Dean took over.  It has not gotten any better in this his 5th year, OK 4th, we won’t count last year.  I know the talent is there.  Who is to blame, the coaches, the players?  Whoever is to blame, the motivation seems to be lacking.  

 

Something isn't right. I'm no softball expert, but I was involved in baseball for over 30 years and I know kids. When a kid walks up to the plate, he/she wants to HIT! The players will be motivated to hit, no worries there. Something is wrong somewhere else. Clint & Co. could coach average hitters into being great hitters. Some coaches can coach average hitters into being poor hitters. It's looking like we have the latter.

[AUBwins 10,074]

I'd be interested to hear from Carosone about the difference in the hitting approach with this staff compared to when she played under Clint and Deese. 

[AUSRB 25]

3 hours ago, around4ever said:

Our hitting dropped off immediately when Dean took over.  It has not gotten any better in this his 5th year, OK 4th, we won’t count last year.  I know the talent is there.  Who is to blame, the coaches, the players?  Whoever is to blame, the motivation seems to be lacking.  

 

Actually the hitting started dropping off before Myers left.  2016 Overall .317 SEC .289.  2017 Overall .277 SEC .228.

That kind of happens when you lose Rhodes Howard and Carosone out of the lineup in 2017 then add the loss of Cooper, Wallace and Draper for Deans first year in 2018 and there you go.  The loss of six of some of the best hitters in the history of Auburn softball you are bound to have a drop off particularly if you haven’t recruited to replace those players.  Clint by his own admission said the 2018 (Deans first year)class was his first class full of SEC quality players.  The problem with that is after Clint left in shame all of that class with the exception of Dowell is no longer in Auburn.  I’m not posting this to defend Dean he certainly could do a better job than what I’ve seen but there was just not many SEC quality hitters to work with once Dean took over.  

[wde2021 16]

Auburn loses 2-0. Falls to 1-8 in SEC play.