OlderWhiskey

8 hours ago, AUSRB said:

I hope Brie hits 30 home runs for Arkansas however I hope Arkansas loses every game they play.

Careful!  Are they playing Alabama?

1 hour ago, warladytigers said:

As a reminder - if not for the COVID year they would be gone unless they had a red shirt.  Aspyn would not have been here this year.

Exactly why some of the girls may take the "I'm playing with house money" approach.  Like finding a $20 bill in your winter coat that was left in there last winter - what am I going to spend this on?

Reasonable thoughts.  Ellis has a sister at Houston, also.  Garcia is from S. Florida, a long run to Auburn.  She could catch on with S. or Central Florida, Florida Atlantic, et. al., and be much closer to family.  McCondichie the same with UAB or Samford.

On 5/23/2023 at 9:40 AM, AU1947 said:

Pitching, Fielding, Hitting! Look at were our hitting landed us in the SEC..

Just a quick comparison:  Myers' 2017 team had a team BA of .277.  Also drew 328 walks compared to 238 walks for the 2023 team.  That's an extra 1.5 base runners per game.  They won 49 games compared to 43 for the 2023 team, went 17-7 in the SEC, and hosted a SR.  Of course, we had the recent history of two trips to OKC.  There was controversy over whether AU or OU should get the 8 seed.  It went to us, but OU came over and beat us two straight.  Oh, and the 2017 team had 51 homers compared to 64 for this year's team.  Make of all this what you will, merely presenting some points of interest.

South Carolina was pitiful to start the season (got swept by Miss. St.), but have improved a lot recently.  Gobourne is a formidable pitcher.  During the tournament, it's who's playing hot right now, rather than the overall record.  Ole Miss was playing hot, hence that difficult game yesterday.  Expect more of the same from USC.

I don't pull for 'Bama, but really hated to see Montana Fouts suffer that injury to her left foot/ankle last night.  I don't think we'll see her again in this tournament.  She was having a great game last night.  Perhaps overuse contributed to the injury.

Very happy for the girls that they were able to fight through this one and pull it out; however, we had three baserunners thrown out.  This has been a recurrent theme all season; we must lead the conference in it, if one could find such a stat.  Can't make third from second on a grounder to short.  My Little League team knew that.  Rant over.  Now let's pluck the Gamecocks!

We won 8-7.

The Lee girl for Ole Miss pitched every game the year they won the tournament - 2017 or 18?

Well, there has indeed been a weather delay.  USC and aTm scheduled to re-start at 8:10, top 8, USC leading 1-0.  Mizzou and Alabama to play after that.  UK-Florida postponed until tomorrow, time not given.  If they play first game, that will push us out until about 1.  I'm thinking we need to start Lowe, or start Penta and bring in Lowe after 3 innings.  We will need Penta to beat Georgia, if we get that far.

We went to Tucson in 2019.  Beat Colorado State twice, but couldn't handle Arizona.

Well, actually we went to Clemson last year.  I really don't see us catching FSU; they're ranked #4.  Their 2 seed should be in the high 20s, assuming it's done like basketball.  Note there are 4 SEC teams between 12 and 16, the lone exception being Baylor.  They're a little far away, given the NCAA's proclivity to minimize travel.  We might draw Arkansas, but the PTB try to avoid same conference matchups as well.  It has been done, though, and we didn't play Arkansas this year.  Clemson and Duke are two other possibilities at 6 and 9.  All this discussion based on the assumption that we don't host.  Hosting is based largely based on RPI, where we are currently #19.  

Bama is 14th in RPI.  They have wins over Duke, Texas, and FSU, all Top 10 teams.  Our failure to play a tougher schedule  is coming back to roost.  Bama also has some losses that are hurting them, such as Lehigh, Liberty, and Kennesaw State.  They have LSU at home and Ole Miss on the road left on their schedule.  Their home run and RBI leader, Ashley Prange, was injured against us.  It looked minor, but they took her out of the game.  If she can't go, their chances are diminished.

bottom line, we need to win 5 of the last 6 to have a chance to host (IMO).

On 4/23/2023 at 5:36 PM, AUBwins said:

Last win at Tusc was 2017. We also won 2018 series in Auburn

May not seem like it, but we have won 3 of the last 4 series against Alabama, including the last two in Tuscaloosa.  We were scheduled to play them there in 2020, but Covid cancelled the season.  They then swept us in 2021 in Auburn.  I'm wondering if the league changed the way the schedule is set up around 2014-15;  by today's sequencing, we should have played them there in 2014 but didn't, according to the results I found.  Anyone know?

Absolutely great!  I had thought we were better than bama, and had a chance to win this series.  I've been on the road a lot lately due to a family illness, and haven't had much chance to comment.  The sequence in the first inning of Game 2 was priceless.   So happy for Penta that she could get this win.  We're now tied for third in the conference, I think, and in line for a 1st round bye in the SEC tournament.  We're also sneaking up on regional host territory.  South Carolina will be tough at their place; they've had some good wins recently.  Another road series win would have us hosting, I think, unless we mess it up vs. MSU.

There have been numerous negative and pessimistic comments regarding the hitting performance of this year's softball team.  I have made some of them.  Today I took a quick look at how we're hitting with 4 SEC series to go, compared to last year's full season numbers.  The team batting average right now is .290, compared to .299 at the end of last year.  The same three players - McCondichie, Packer, and Peralta - top both lists.  Last year, they hit .325 as a group.  Right now, they're at .336, in a slightly different order.  Bri Ellis hit .302 for the season last year; she's at .302 right now.  One notable difference is that last year, Sydney Cox was the 4th leading hitter at .310; since Bryant took over third and relegated Cox to the bench, Cox is way down the list.  Bryant is hitting .317.

Home run production is definitely lower this year.  Last year we hit 1.51 homers per game; this year we're at 1.20.  Blaine and Ellis hit 29 homers combined last year; this year they've hit 12.  Overall, considering that averages are likely to drop further as we complete our SEC schedule, it seems that team hitting performance is down overall, but a group of players is pretty much maintaining what they did last year.  One side note:  Peralta's fielding percentage has improved from .868 to .957.  All this infornation may be found at auburntigers.com softball page.  

Thanks to Tim Walton for deciding to pitch Bender against us.  She had appeared in 9 games, but today was her first start.  The insult penalty was 4 runs.  Ellis' homer was the first she'd given up.  For good measure, Lisenby busted their national champion sign.  So, what did everyone think about the catch(?) by Falby on the ball hit by Garcia?  Didn't really matter - we wind up with a runner on first and an out either way - but I thought it hit the ground.  Falby played it like she thought it hit the ground.  Umps ruled it a catch.

We got 3 hits off Bender, then none off Delbrey for 6 innings.  Still can't hit much, but we are 5th in the conference at 7-5, and ahead of both Florida and Alabama.  We don't play Kentucky, UT, or Arkansas, so that improves our prospects.  Georgia is leading the league, and we were redbug close to winning our series with them.  We get LSU next weekend;  they are 6-6 in the conference.  They were swept by UT, and lost single games to USC, Ole Miss, and Mizzou.  They're hitting .323 as a team, with 30 homers.   Pleasants and Clark have 17 of those.  They have 6 pitchers, with an overall ERA of 1.98.  Ali Kilponen is probably the ace, has been there a long time.  And they have a Tuesday game vs. Oklahoma in Baton Rouge. 

Edit:  We are now tied for 4th in the conference, with UK's loss (9-3) at Ole Miss today.  UK gets UT (who leads the SEC at 10-2) this next weekend.

 

I also feel badly for Lowe; I'm sure she expected three more years like 2021.  Instead, whatever treatment she received seems to have made things worse, not better.

Just a note:  Missouri run ruled Alabama 11-3 in their Sunday game (at Mizzou).

Great stuff!  Thanks for the memories.  I recall watching that game on TV.  Remembered the homer by Rhodes, but had forgotten the catch by Jordan, who is on my all-time favorites list.  Noticed some subs near the end - Anna Gibbs, Jenna Abbott, Bree Fornis.  Got to feeling sorry for Samford, though.  That team was a hungry beast.

Well, it didn't turn out to be that close, with Penta pitching for us.  She struck out 8, and Garcia had 5 RBI with a double and a dinger.  The double barely made it over the LF and should possibly have been caught, but it was a hard shot.  Their CF made a nice play on a ball hit by Packer, and McCondichie had a nice catch of a pop behind second base.  Samford fielding contributed muchly to the 10-0 score.  The Tigers chased starter Newcomb in the 4th (she may have been on a pitch count) and continued the assault on Partain, who walked the first 4 batters she faced.  

Fun game to watch, wondering if Slot made it to the game.

 

Good comments.  I just watched on replay, skipped about 3 innings in the middle.  Noticed McNemar wasn't dressed, arm in a sling.  Great clutch hits by Ellis and Bryant in the 7th.  We are in a pretty good position in the conference, considering our schedule.  We don't play either UT,  Kentucky or Arkansas.  UT and UK are on top of the conference.  Alabama and Florida seem to be having down years.  We are two games head of Alabama in the conference right now.  Ole Miss next at the Jane.

I watched the 2-1 game on replay last night.  Fairly interesting to watch despite the low score.  Some interesting plays and about a half dozen reviews by the umps.  Packer saved a run in the first on a ball hit by Connold.  It was over the fence, but Packer got it in her glove and brought it back in, only to lose it when her elbow hit the top of the fence coming back in.  Held her to a double, and she didn't score.  Packer figured in another unusual play later in the game.  She was on first when someone hit a healthy drive to left.  The left fielder went back for it, it hit her glove and bounced up, and she wheeled around and recaught it.  Packer had rounded second by this time, and was doubled up at first.  Mizzou also turned a nice 4-6-3 DP in the game.   Oh, and Dean actually gave Connold two intentional passes.  I still remember his first SEC game vs. LSU.  it went extras, and LSU had their fastest player (Andrews) on second, and their best hitter up with two outs.  She played first, can't recall the name right now.  First was open, so it was a no-brainer to put her on.  But no!  Dean pitched to her, she looped a hit into left, and Andrews scored the winner.  But to give Dean some credit, he inserted Roach to run for McCrary after the latter singled in the 7th.  Roach wound up scoring the inner on a fairly close play.  Would McCrary have made it?

On 3/21/2023 at 9:29 PM, TD1 said:

During the game on Sunday, one of the announcers mentioned that he has seen the growth in one of the OU players. 

Have you all noticed any growth/improvements in any of our players other than Maddie? 

To be fair, I think Garcia and McCondichie have progressed a lot.  Engelkes has slowly gotten better to the point where she can contribute, but it's about too late for her.  I don't know how much they are affected by coaching, and how much is just their own determination.

Our upcoming opponent Missouri beat Northwestern 6-1 back in February, also beat Pitt twice.  Two wins over Illinois (3-2 and 7-0), and they also beat UCF.  In the SEC, they were swept at home and held scoreless by Kentucky ( 5-0, 5-0, and 6-0).  This weekend, they took the first game at Florida by hitting 3 homers, but that was followed by two 1-run losses.

4 hours ago, AUBwins said:

I imagine we will come with Penta today in first game.  If we win this game, Dean may use other pitchers to start game 2. 

Leading with Lowe again today.  Looks like same lineup all around.

Well pleased with the effort tonight.  Superb play by Packer to end the game; close call at second.  I assume the ump had a better view; Georgia didn't complain, so it must have looked closer to me than it really was. Really proud of Lisenby for that 2-run double. Ellis' home run a monster, came down at least 75 feet past the fence. Ellis last AB may have been the most important. She fouled off 3 pitches after the count went full, and finally drew the 2-out walk that provided the final margin when Garcia homered.

To answer a question above, Tresvik played lf the last 3 innings. McCrary made the last out after Garcia's homer, so Icess never came to the plate. Seemed like a defensive substitution. Will be interesting to see what the pitching plan is for tomorrow.