OlderWhiskey

1 hour ago, Mikey said:

It's nice that Maddie has set all sorts of AU records, but we'd be a lot better off as a team if Dean had used some of those early season games against lesser competition to develop a third pitcher. Now we don't even have enough pitching to get through a four-team tournament.

It might even help the offense, if they got into more situations where it was " Hit the ball, or lose to SW Dimwit St.".

12 hours ago, Big Fat Barner said:

Bri Ellis transferring to Arkansas and then getting eliminated before Auburn is objectively, f*****g hilarious

Also note Clemson is eliminated.  

I'm not sure we want to save Lowe for anything.  Her last two outings have been disastrous.  Normally, with Penta in the circle and a 4-run lead, we're 98% to win.   

Well, we can't go 1-2 with both losses to FSU. If we win over UCF and lose to FSU, then we have to play the winner of the UCF-'Nooga game before FSU again.

Wife and I noticed this also.  Didn't see the team at any time.  When they showed the 4-way screen for all the teams in Tallahassee, they simply showed an icon for Auburn.  Didn't know this happened last year as well.  I do suspect it's something that's happening on Auburn's end of things; either a techno-glitch or Auburn's choosing not to participate in this particular ritual.  

Mizzou has eliminated Arkansas, and Gators now spanking Georgia 6-2 in bot 5.

I wasn't that excited when KK transferred from UT, based on her numbers up there. She has changed my mind with her performance, and I am now highly excited she is coming back.

Is the tournament in a rain delay now?  I only see one partial score on ESPN, and it's for the 10 AM game.

I think that she has just been beaten out for the catcher position by Wohlers and Elkins.  Her bat was never strong, and she also had that problem throwing the ball back to the pitcher.

Why was Widra playing halfway up the line for the leadoff batter in the bottom of the 14th?  With normal positioning, that ball is an easy out.

On 5/5/2024 at 10:21 AM, Mikey said:

Pat Dye, Bruce Pearl, Butch Thompson, Shug Jordan, Tommy Tuberville. I could go on and on. Every successful coach at AU could have gone elsewhere at some point in their career. They didn't.

Head basketball coach Joel Eaves left to become AD at Georgia, 1963 I believe.  I may be the only one old enough to remember that.  He supplanted the infamous Wally Butts, the subject (along with Bear Bryant) of a Saturday Evening Post article concerning the "fixing" of the 1962 Alabama-Georgia football game.

Couldn't find an article.  Does one need to be a subscriber, or has it been removed?

10 hours ago, Mikey said:

Point was I think Widra should have had more pitching opportunities, particularly in the early non-conference games. Having a trusted 3rd pitcher would have been great this last third of the season.

After reviewing the pitching stats, I think your point is well taken.  I didn't watch nearly all the games, and my impression of Widra's results was skewed.  She entered yesterday's game with an ERA of 3.59, compared to 1.82 for Penta and 2.59 for Lowe.  Her most impressive stat:  35 Ks and 3 walks, almost 12:1 ratio.  Way better than either Penta or Lowe.  My counterpoint was that she hadn't displayed pitching like yesterday until yesterday.  I still agree she should have had more innings.  Good talk. 

8 hours ago, Mikey said:

Widra, while not a power pitcher, appears to be very effective. She was recruited partly as a pitcher. Why did we wear Penta out. It was worse while Lowe was injured.

I'm probably misunderstanding your point, but today was far and away the best outing that Widra has had.  She has pretty much been the #3 pitcher the past two years, but hasn't produced a result like today previously.  Really glad her hair was on fire today. 

1 hour ago, TD1 said:

At one point in the game, they mentioned that we left 9 or 10 players on base. 

We wound up with 13 and Ole Miss with 14.  We did have 10 hits in this game.  Tresvik and McCrary had 6 of those. 

Widra with a 2-out, bases loaded single in top 4 to score two; then she and Elkins worked the double steal for a run.  Nice effort by the Tigers.  Lowe looked like the 2021 Lowe.

We upset LSU in Baton Rouge.  Scratched out 3 runs in 3d, 6th, and 7th with small ball.  Wohlers had a couple doubles.  Lowe gave up a 2-run HR to put LSU up 2-1, but we kept getting runners on base, and Milanowski beat out an infield hit to score the tying run.  Then LSU infield botched one to let us score the go-ahead in the 7th.  Lowe pitched 4 1/3, Widra 2/3, and Penta the last two.  Dean had inserted Milanowski at first after we got a 1-0 lead; I figured for defense, but she turned out to be important at the plate.  Fun to watch.  Happy for the girls to get that satisfying W.  Miss. St. run-ruled UT in Starkville.

Nice comeback win for the girls after shaky 1st inning by Penta.  Encouraging to see the continued development of the younger Penta.

Here are some other names I picked up from Ultimate College Softball; I don't even know who they all are.  Ashley Waters, Kristi Bredbenner, Clarissa Crowell (Penn St.), Kirin Kumar.  The betting favorite still seems to be D'Amour. 

This is an opportunity for Auburn softball to move forward again. We were glad to get Dean back in the fall of 2017 when Myers resigned. He had, at least, taken James Madison to a Super Regional. And to be fair, he has done a decent job recruiting. However, I've never had much regard for his softball acumen since his second SEC game, when he pitched to LSU's best hitter with their fastest player on second in bot 7 of a tied game, with first base open.

Arkansas is a little better than we are on paper.  They're hitting .308 as a team, with OPS of .903 and 29 homers (Ellis has 8).  Our comparable numbers are .275, .839, and 20.  Of course, they haven't batted against Maddie Penta yet.  They did, however, bat against Wishnowski of Northern Iowa in their last game.  She pitched a 7-inning game against us in their 4-2 win, gave up 6 hits.  Arkansas touched her for 7 hits and 7 runs in 2 innings.  Arky won 9-0 in 6.

We can beat Arkansas, but we need the kind of hitting we showed in the 3d game against Mizzou.  

Lech's second homer was waaay up the road.  Glad to see Abbey Smith get the start.  She went 2 for 3 and scored the first run.

Auburn leading Virginia 2-1 going to the 5th.  Myers on the hill for us.  We strung together some singles and walks to harvest a run in the 4th, sending their SP to the showers.  Had bases loaded with 2 out, but grounded into a force play.

Virginia tied it in the 5th.  Armstrong relieved Myers, now Herberholz has relieved him.  In top 6, Cavs have a runner on 2d with one out.

Virginia got another run in T6 and now lead 3-2 going to T7, as we did nothing in B6. 

It's now 4-3 the wrong way going to T8.  Bauman replacing Herberholz.  I have to go make dinner.  Go Tigers! 

 

Penta had a no-no, but faced 23 batters.  Earlier baserunner got on via a Peralta error.  11Ks for Penta, 10 for the UNI pitchers.  The pitcher who started today (Heyer) is not the pitcher from yesterday (Wishnowski).  Damn, they have some good pitching.  Auburn had two hits on the day (Tresvik and Packer).

Following through Sidearm Stats.  Click on the bar graph.

Going to top 6, still 1-0.  Tresvik, Wohlers, and Lech will be due up in our half.

McDermott came in to pitch for UNI.  She walked two, but struck out Packer and Peralta.  Going to top 7.  Smith playing left as of top 6.  3 outs needed.