bschoolprof

great thoughts. I do like that we are rotating Stewart at catcher, if for no other reason to take some wear off Atwood. It's tough . . . she's got a great arm and can hose runners with it, so she's not a bad defensive catcher at all. She's just not a great blocker IMO. Her bat is something else though - she's a beast. I did notice that Mitchell's footwork at 1B needs work. I actually like her better at third as well, which is weird because it's a much harder position than 1st. One note on Mitchell and Stewart: they are both surprisingly fast for big hitters. Stewie in particular is a big chick, but she can scoot. What an athlete. Mia's a tough one. She has the athleticism to play 3B, but she Roger Dorn's too many instead of squaring up and working through the ball. I would also consider some rotation at RF with Maloney (Henry, Mia, Hunter?). Ashton gets on base, which is great for the 9 hole, but her short game/slapping tends to get shut down against good pitching/defenses. Mike has some tough choices to make, but it's great to have so much talent to make the choices tough.

The poor blocking technique by Atwood on the previous play to even allow the runner to third was just as bad. So was the bunt that Scott put out there the previous inning and the leaving early by Bella. It was a true team effort to fuck things up there at the end. I wouldn't put it all on Atwood's drop. That was a dime by Henry though . . . what a shame. I'm a catcher dad so excuse my obsession with blocking. I noticed that Atwood's technique was not the best last year as a freshman, but you live with it because of her incredible bat. The frustrating thing is, unlike hitting, almost anyone can be a better blocker - it's just technique and grit.

It's good to play tough close games like this early in the season. It's a long tough road to OKC. A few thoughts: -- we're never gonna be a buttoned-up defense under White; he values hitting over fielding (I can't blame him). So we are gonna have some adventurous games. This one seemed especially bad on the defensive side. -- I thought our pitching was great - we gave up one earned run all night. -- We had some big hits in key moments, but I didn't really like our approach at the plate all night. Canady's elite, so it's gonna be a battle. But we were way too aggressive at anything middle up all night, and that played right into her strength as a riseball pitcher. We have to spit on that early in counts and make her throw strikes up in the zone. Her change is devastating - can't let her get to two strikes easily or it's over. I hope we learn from that for later in the season. --Harping on the above again, we even fucked this up with our bunts. Late in the game, we tried to sac bunt Bella over to third with no outs. The whole stadium knows we are likely bunting, so we have to know Stanford's gonna go up in the zone to try to get us to pop up a bunt. That's just what we did. Mia absolutely has to lay off anything that looks middle up there. She did the #1 thing you absolutely cannot do in that spot. Was she coached at all on that? --I didn't know leaving early was now reviewable. That's gonna be quite interesting as the season goes on. --Hunter needs to play more. --Atwood is a fucking monster at the plate. Just unreal. She's not a great blocker, but see my first point. --Even though we lost, it was a great game to watch. Pretty nerve racking.

We have fucked around so much in this game. Seems like we are setting ourselves up for the finding out part.

Atwood’s blocking has always been her weakness imo. The drop was just a random mistake. She has to work on her blocking tho. It’s not great.

Our shitty fielding may come back to bite us in this one. Need the bats to bail us out in the 7th.

This feels like a playoff game.

And grand slam!!!!

5-0. 2 out, bases juiced. Atwood up.

I know it's early, but this is clearly the most talented roster, top to bottom, that White has had here, and that includes the 2020 campaign that was cut short. It's certainly the deepest and most talented roster in the last decade. Last year I bitched that we needed a true swing and miss pitcher and more power in the lineup. The incoming class addressed those issues and then some. I'm pumped about the potential of this team.

I did some digging and she has never played middle IF, and we are stacked at corner IF right now. Maybe she could get some looks at corner OF. She can get some more pt when Mitchell graduates next year.

She’s listed as an infielder. Can she play it decently? Cause she’s put together and fucking rakes. It’s gonna be hard to keep her out of the lineup.

Kavan goes the distance. Ho-hum 5-0 win.

Agree on the above, but this is the interesting one to me. If Goode returns to her 1st half freshman season form at the plate, then 100% agree. But she seemed to struggle at the end of last year and coming off her injury this year doesn't help. She just looks really shaky at the plate right now. We will see. She's a legit in the infield though.

Great night at the ballpark. Nice to see everyone got to play.

Heading over to the game tonight. First home game! Expecting an outcome like baseball last night. At least softball has a run rule.

sounds to me like he got hoffa'd.

I've seen a few tv spots for Sylestine . . . emphasizes "tough on crime"

Never underestimate the naiveté of the average Austin voter.

Also, this is correct. Different director - actually directors - for this episode. I agree it was pretty evident.

I agree - the two leads are really the only thing I don't like about this show. It's probably not the characters either . . . just the actors, or the way they are playing them.

Great wins tonight. I love the pop on this team.

we'll be fine. we got the bats.

You know I like big girls.