OlderWhiskey

Spot on.  I haven't gotten the feeling that winning is important to the team.  It's like a sleepover with uniforms.

He doesn't seem to make players better.  In 2017, Rivera hit .345 in conference play as a freshman.  As a 5th year senior, she hit .271.  Second best on the team behind Koepke, but 70 points below her freshman year.  Koepke is the only player who seemed to improve her hitting as the season progressed, and she is transferring.

Slightly stunned by VT doing that to the mighty Uclans. Guess I could look it up, but did UCLA pitch Garcia? And 5 errors? WTH?

Also just noticed that Georgia shut out Florida on 3 hits.  Didn't know Georgia had that good a pitcher.

Just saw confirmation on College Softball forum that Koepke is in the transfer portal.  Entered within the past 2 days.

3 hours ago, LetsGo said:

Looks like Koepke has hung up her cleats. Not certain of the reason but she announced she will no longer be playing softball.

Source?

A player who can't be bothered to keep up with how many outs there are doesn't deserve to be in the lineup.

Hope the girls can find some hits and make some noise in this regional.  It does look like a challenging regional.  I'm not overly impressed with FSU's pitching.  Melanie Bennett for KSU shut us out, however.  Their third baseman, Taylor Cates, hit three homers in 2 games against us.  Two were off Lowe in the game we lost. 

I believe elsewhere on this website it states that we have the 6th toughest schedule in the nation.

One for Rivera also - plus a notice that Shelby Lowe is one of 30 finalists for Freshman of the Year (nationwide).

2 hours ago, blakem said:

I’ve also wondered these things. Who all did we interview or reach out to for the job? Did the AD care enough to deeply look into who he was hiring? My next questions that I feel need to be asked now is why are so many players and coaches leaving our softball program? 

We hired Dean in September 2017 after Myers suddenly resigned, after his son was barred from campus.  Fall practice was scheduled to begin in 2-3 weeks.  The national view of Auburn was a place where the players were getting hit on and messed with by the coaches.  We didn't know if we could get any decent coach to come here at that time, and were pretty much overjoyed when we were able to hire Dean, who had had great success at James Madison, barely missing OKC one year.  I think Jay Jacobs was still the AD at that time.

He made a great start by hiring Gerry Glasco as hitting coach, but Glasco was quickly hired away by Louisiana.  Since then, I have become disenchanted with what I have seen from him and his methods.  The facts are, though, that he has brought in two highly rated recruiting classes in a row.  He will almost certainly be retained at least one more year to work with those classes.  And why not?  We just won a series from the #12 team in the country, and our RPI is 11.  If we go .500 the rest of the year, we'll probably host a regional, which would be an improvement over last year.

Will some players leave the program?  Very likely.  The transfer portal has become a way of life, and players transfer for a variety of reasons, the coach being only one.  

She played a little 2B earlier in the year, but had only one hit in 12 ABs, and got replaced with Cox.

Packer is now our leading hitter in conference games at .304. Cox is at .278 and King .263. Cox with the highest OPS at .777. Rivera hitting .235. We have hit 3 homers in conference play, compared to 10 for out opponents.

This is one of those instances when I wish I had the stats program I had at work as an engineer.  Thanks for the research.  As for Georgia, the period when they were #1 coincides with the presence on their roster of the two sister outfielders  who were both slappers, fast as lightning, and hit about .420 each.  (don't trust that number)  Tennessee proves you can't do it all with hitting; they've not had a dominant pitcher since I've been following (2015).  One thing to note about Auburn; in 2017, we were #12 in hitting and Clint Myers was the coach.  

We get Kentucky at Jane B. Moore this weekend.  They have some experienced pitchers (same two they had when we played them last) and some great hitters.  Baalman and Humes (pitchers) are both seniors.  Humes is the one who pitched that 12-inning battle vs. Carlson that Tannon Snow finally won with a homer.  The catcher (Kowalik) and shortstop (Coffel) are particularly dangerous at the plate.  Kowalik is hitting .500 with 8 homers, and Coffel has 15 homers.  The team has 54 homers.

Despite all their weapons, the Wildcats have won only one of their 4 series, that over Alabama at Lexington.  They lost to Georgia at home and to Florida and Tennessee on the road, winning one game in each of those.  They are typically scoring 15-20 runs in each series.  We are #11 in RPI and Kentucky is #21, due to their light preseason schedule.  

Arkansas has swept all 3 opponents so far this season - leading the league at 9-0.  Don't know their schedule, whether they play Alabama or Florida, but they're in a good spot with 'bama having two losses to Kentucky.

They won 2 of 3 from Arizona, split two with Florida and two with Missouri, but lost 2 of 3 to Virginia Tech.  One of their pitchers is Caylan Arnold, who transferred there from Tennessee.  They still have Sydney Sherrill, Anna Shelnut, and Elizabeth Mason.  Kara Bilodeau transferred somewhere last year, I think.

Lindsey Garcia had herself quite the inning in Game 1.  With SELa leading 2-0, she led off the home half of the 4th with a solo homer that opened the floodgates.  She came around again and stroked a 2-run double as the Tigers put up 7 in the inning.  Justus Perry also had her first homer of the season an inning later.   Garcia also had two hits in the second game, making her 4 for 6 with 5 RBI on the day.  Denver Bryant stroked her first homer of the year in the second game, as Dismukes and Yarbrough held the opposition to one run.  

Can't overlook Maddie's 17 strikeouts.  That gives her the gold points.  Shelby was super also.

Does anyone know the status of Ryan Bliss?  A friend mentioned he may have been injured late in Game 3 vs. Presbyterian.  I have found no confirming information on this, but he didn't start today's A&M game.

Well, drat.  I could've followed today.  On the road Sat. and Sun.  War Eagle!  

Megan Kleist is the pitcher from Oregon that I had reference to earlier.  Checking the records, she did pitch for the Cajuns during the 2020 season, compiling a 7-5 record with a 2.31 ERA.  When she transferred, she talked about losing some of her love for the game during the player exodus from Oregon in 2019.  So I'm guessing she played out her eligibility in 2020 and chose not to return for the extra year.  ULL still has an All-American pitcher in Summer Ellyson.

On 11/9/2020 at 10:12 AM, steeleagle said:

Louisiana-Lafayette? Are they a softball powerhouse? 

Great to see us 2nd. Now the 2021 class is not signed yet, right? These are just rankings of commits...?

This link should give you an idea.  https://ragincajuns.com/news/2020/9/17/louisiana-softball-ranked-no-16-on-d1softball-list-of-top-college-programs.aspx

In addition to the #1 recruiting class, Glasco just got transfers Justice Milz and Ciara Bryan from Georgia.  They were both starters there, I think.  I have not, however, found mention of the pitcher from Oregon that I mentioned earlier.  The middle infielders are transfers from Oklahoma (Alyssa Dalton) and aTm (Caitlyn Alderink).  They have 6-8 D1 transfers.  Don't know how he's doing it, but Glasco isn't kidding around.

ULL, or just Louisiana as their alumni like, or ULaLa as LSU fans call them, was a softball power before Glasco got there.  They played us in the Super Regional at Auburn in 2015.  Known for their rabid fans in Lafayette.  The historical knock on them is their schedule not being strong enough.  Glasco and his staff have pulled in some high-profile transfers, notably a pitcher from Oregon, whose name escapes me at the moment.

Didn't Jaylin Calvert recently enter the transfer portal? Is Kendal her sister? If so, I'd say she's iffy on this list.

1 hour ago, saminbama said:

1 pitcher and 3 catchers.  Interesting.  Thanks for the info, OW.

Thanks go to Slot Canyon, he posted the information.