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2019 Texas Softball - Connie's overboard, Anchors Aweigh!


TrashMaster G

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1 hour ago, Cairn Horn88 said:

3-0 Bama.  We only had 3 hits, and only 1 runner got to 2nd base.  Not gonna win games with those stats.  Fonts is a dominating pitcher.  Will have to hope for better showing.  Bama is pretty close to OU.   We are not there yet.

I didn't see as strong of pitching from Bama as blOU. Elish was not sharp tonight, but Texas managed to stay in the ballgame.  A couple of timely hits and Texas might have been able to win tonight.

Fonts hurt Texas #5 and #6 hitters by using her rise pitch when the hitters had 2 strikes.  More patience and squaring up a couple more mistake pitches thrown by Fonts and the Horns can win the next time they face her.  Burke and Mary also really need to have better results at the plate.

Bama is just slightly better than Texas, but the Horns have enough talent to win the series...

Edited by LTtxfan
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I mentioned earlier in this thread that this super regional would come down to the Horns ability to score runs. I feel Elish will keep us in games, but the Horns have got to find a way to get runners on base and put pressure on the Bama defense. We may see Mike White employ the old school "get em on, get em over, get em in" offensive scheme, as Fouts has only given up 3-4 long balls all season. For this team to have a chance in game two, the top two hitters in the lineup have got to find their way on base.

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4 minutes ago, FloridaHorn said:

I mentioned earlier in this thread that this super regional would come down to the Horns ability to score runs. I feel Elish will keep us in games, but the Horns have got to find a way to get runners on base and put pressure on the Bama defense. We may see Mike White employ the old school "get em on, get em over, get em in" offensive scheme, as Fouts has only given up 3-4 long balls all season. For this team to have a chance in game two, the top two hitters in the lineup have got to find their way on base.

And that needs to be this strategy until the hitters have become comfortable with Shaw's instruction for power and his recruits have replaced the offensive crud holes in the lineup. 

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Schedule for today:

2:00pm
#16 NW @ #1 OU ESPN2

4:00pm
#10 LSU @ #7 Minnesota - ESPN2

6:00pm
#13 OSU @ #4 FSU - ESPN (OSU leads 1-0)
#12 Tennessee @ #5 Florida - ESPN2
#11 Ole Miss @ #6 Arizona - ESPNU

8:00pm
#9 Texas @ #8 Alabama - ESPN (Alabama leads 1-0)
James Madison @ #2 UCLA - ESPNU
#14 Kentucky @ #3 Washington - ESPN2


 

Edited by Js1
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Quotes from the game.  

Though Tedder is a better defender,   she is hitting .217.    Would like to see Alcozer (,282) in the lineup.   Bekah is prone to K's,  but can also be a power boost to the lineup.  Need a spark.  We finished 4th in hitting in conference play (.255) behind OU, OKSt, and Tech.

Alabama is loaded with pitching.   Probably will see Goodman or Cornell tonight.

 

The biggest of Thursday’s seven hits came from the bottom of Alabama’s batting order. Crimson Tide coach Patrick Murphy says he likes “to leave a surprise in the nine spot” and that surprise against the Longhorns was senior Merris Schroder. With one out and a runner on third base in the third inning, Schroder hammered a pitch from Elish over the fence in right field at Rhoads Stadium.

Schroder entered the game with 11 homers, third-most on the team. She hadn’t batted ninth this season before the regional-clinching win over Arizona State, but both times she’s homered out of the spot in the lineup.

“By the time it gets around to me at the bottom, I’ve seen a lot of at-bats,” said Schroder, a Houston native who said her father was once a drum major at Texas. “I kind of got a better idea of what they’re going to throw me and what she’s looking like and stuff like that.”

The homer was the 10th surrendered by Elish this season. But she hadn’t seen one of her pitches leave a park since Oklahoma’s Jocelyn Alo went deep on her in the fifth inning of a game at McCombs Field on April 20. Elish’s stretch of not giving up a home run covered 62 1/3 innings and 923 pitches.

“She capitalized on one of my mistakes,” Elish said. “I threw a pitch right down the middle and she drove it. I can’t do that when I have a batter with two strikes.”

An all-conference honoree and All-American candidate, Elish was bested by Alabama freshman Montana Fouts. An acquaintance of Elish from travel ball, Fouts allowed three hits and did not issue a walk. Texas, which never got a runner to third base, suffered its fourth shutout loss of the season.

“I felt like she was bringing it a little bit,” UT sophomore Janae Jefferson said. “It wasn’t too overpowering for us. We just have to attack the ball early in the counts and be more of an aggressive-hitting team.”

In defeat, Elish gave up three hits and two earned runs over four innings. She recorded just one strikeout.

Elish was coming off a weekend in which she earned four regional wins with a 429-pitch effort in the span of two days. White said Elish was working with a short leash, but she will likely return to the circle in Friday’s elimination game.

“Sometimes you’ve got to save the bullets,” said White, who had senior Brooke Bolinger throw two innings of scoreless relief.

Around the bases: Texas committed two errors. Alabama scored its third run on UT catcher Mary Iakopo’s throwing error on a successful fourth-inning double steal. … Jefferson’s bunt single in the fourth frame was her 75th hit of the season. That ranks second in UT’s history books, breaking a tie with the 74 hits that she totaled as a freshman. … Thursday’s game drew an announced crowd of 2,887. … Texas and Alabama will meet again at 8 p.m. on Friday. It’ll be carried by ESPN and 105.3.

https://www.hookem.com/story/following-a-loss-to-alabama-in-the-super-regionals-texas-must-rally-again-in-the-ncaa-tournament/

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2 hours ago, torre said:

Alabama is loaded with pitching.   Probably will see Goodman or Cornell tonight.

IMHO, Murphy will try and get 3-4 innings out of Goodman, and then right back to Fouts. Cornell only pitches in a throw away blowout type game. 

 

The facts are hard to swallow for us Horn fans, but this team simply doesn't hit or play very good defense. The two errors given to Iakopo last night are plays you would expect to see on a 12U team. Pretty standard defensive rotations were ignored, and catchers are taught not to throw the ball unless they see the fielder in front of the runner. The talent discrepancy between these two teams is startling. Mike White has tried to piece mill his best 9 hitters into a lineup regardless of defensive capability and unfortunately we are now not hitting or playing good defense. I think we steal one tonight, but I am not sure there is enough firepower for us to win two in a row.

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I agree with that assessment.

The facts aren't that hard to swallow - White has said since the beginning he's putting the best offensive 9 he has out there, defense be damned.  But many of the pieces he was given on offense are marginal P5 talent at best - more the likes of Kansas, Iowa State, Oregon State, Ohio State, etc. would end up with.  They've played above their heads this season and been exposed against top talent or better coaching (LSU, OU, Ok State, Alabama).  Ain't no shame in a first year coach taking his new team to the Supers on the backs of one pitcher going super human for 2 days last weekend - and a team that hadn't advanced out of a regional in 6 years.  Making the Supers was a goal this team could relatively achieve, especially after Shea and Ellsworth got hurt.  

The talent is coming, the coaching is great, the vibe and energy around the program is better than its been in nearly a decade.  Good things ahead. 

Next year, you're looking at:

Elish
Shea
Mike White-recruited Grace Green
3 healthy catchers in Iakopo, Ellsworth and London Marder
Burke
Jefferson
Rhodes
Hathaway as a RS SR
Incoming FR Camille Carona

Ideally, we can keep Burke at first, Parker will be better as a sophomore from the SS position or get pushed to 3rd for Carona, put Rhodes back into the OF (her natural position) along with Hathaway and I like this lineup a lot more.  Iakopo/Ellsworth switch off at DH depending on who is catching and Elish can hit when she's pitching to take someone out of the lineup. 

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11 minutes ago, Pancho Negro said:

I expected a regional at minimum. A super regional was just gravy. 

Excited for the future no matter what happens in the supers 

No question that the future is bright, and I truly believe Mike White is going to get us to the WCWS in very short order. I expect we will see some attrition from this years team, as many of these girls now realize where they fit/don't fit in White's plans. The change won't look pretty initially, but it will continue to free up scholarship monies for him to bring in the type talent he needs to compete. I am sure that we are scouring the portal looking for a few bats to plug into this lineup.

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1 hour ago, FloridaHorn said:

 

 

. Pretty standard defensive rotations were ignored, and catchers are taught not to throw the ball unless they see the fielder in front of the runner. 

Excellent point !    Adrenaline got the best of Iakopo..

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Bama, Ok State and OU are all 1-0

Ugh, the committee is probably salivating at OU and Okie State being in the WCWS - butts in seats.  But I'm sure OKC won't be too happy - that's 2 fanbases who don't need to drop cash on hotels (a little over an hour from Stillwater and 40 min from Norman). 

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7 hours ago, Js1 said:

I don't think Elish pitched that badly other than one bad pitch to Schroeder when she fell behind in the count. 

She has to throw strikes and stay ahead of batters.  End of story. 

Elish hung in there... but her pitches were flat.  It may have been fatigue from the regional.  Really happy to see Brooke pitch 2 scoreless innings last night.  Glad Coach White was able to take Elish out early.... hopefully she'll have better movement tonight!!

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I haven't watched all that much this year, but I have I think noticed something about Elish.  When she gets "emotional" or fired up and the commentators start talking about it, that seems to be when she tries to throw that much harder and the pitches flatten out.

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