Gopher Softball 2022

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Chase the Rise said:
Pitching got a little thinner. Dueck is no longer on the roster. You’ve got to think that the portal will be in play around semester time.
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I still kinda can’t believe that we had three (3!) pitchers transfer our this past fall.

I saw that interview posted on their Gopher softball Twitter where Ritter said they had four arms on staff but I sure don’t know who that forth could be. Seems like Pease, Leavitt and Hollifield are taking the mound all year long. I hope they hold up.
 

I feel like there are more unknowns this year than we've seen in quite awhile. Gives us all pause. Won't take long to know what we have. And if it's good, there will be plenty of chatter on here.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
I still kinda can’t believe that we had three (3!) pitchers transfer our this past fall.

I saw that interview posted on their Gopher softball Twitter where Ritter said they had four arms on staff but I sure don’t know who that forth could be. Seems like Pease, Leavitt and Hollifield are taking the mound all year long. I hope they hold up.
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I saw that same interview today and wondered who the 4th arm could be. Hope the pitching holds up. They need that joined with some serious run production. As a previous poster wrote, it seems strange that the arrival of the 2022 season draws so little publicity or apparent enthusiasm.
 

I think that Nani Valencia pitched and played third base in high school and may be viewed as an emergency fourth option. Maybe one of the other new additions also pitched at some level. Not ideal but may turn out better than expected.
 

Hrothgar said:
Hope the pitching holds up. They need that joined with some serious run production.
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Why am I so confident in their run production? I am probably overconfident. I just see great swings from Jensen, DenHartog, Evans, Cox, Kinch, and Strelow, coming alongside a high likelihood that between Dowell, Chavez, Drey, and Hansen/Costa and potentially other new faces they can fill in the pieces to a very potent lineup.

As Hrothgar says, Pitching. But the team seems to be raving over the freshman, Leavitt.

I am confident… probably overconfident.
 



big bummer that only one game is being streamed this weekend. unless i'm missing something. if anyone is there set-up a web cam!
 

St George 3 hit shutout Duke 4-0 over OK St, Elish 1 hr allowed then reliever gave up 3

Oklahoma 14-0 combined perfect game yesterday. They're even better this year with Bahl and Trautwin pitching should easily repeat as champs

UCF beat Georgia yesterday
 

A little surprised Leavitt is starting game one over Pease
 




dlw4gophers said:
A little surprised Leavitt is starting game one over Pease
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It’s actually the smart move in my opinion. By starting Leavitt, it allows the more experienced Peace to come in if necessary if the freshman was wobbly toward the middle/end of game 1 and then start game 2 with a very short break with little cool-down.

If she (Peace) would have started game 1 and threw a lot of pitches, she would have really cooled down by the time of the middle of game 2 and not really been a realistic option.

Since Leavitt has pitched so great, obviously it’s Peace and Hollifield’s game 2 against a very strong UCF team in their own tournament.
 

I’m not a huge fan of being down one run in the 6th and 7th and leaving Delanie Cox’s bat in the dugout. I kinda don’t get that, especially when Densen was up in the 7th inning as our 9 batter.

But actually, I don’t even know who didn’t travel this weekend? Cox isn’t in the team photo at the airport posted on Gophers Twitter. Maybe she is holding the camera?
 

Split today. Playing two quality teams for your first two game and getting a split is a plus. Was not able to see either game, but followed the live stats. Pitching seems good. Hitting the ball, but lack of clutch hits hurt them in the first game. Looking forward to a fun season.
 



Defense was great against UCF minus a miscommunication where Chavez took a grounder that Dowell should've got. DenHartog followed up with this running catch in bottom of 6th with an insurance run HR in top of 7th. Get Georgia back tomorrow morning!

 

dlw4gophers said:
Split today. Playing two quality teams for your first two game and getting a split is a plus. Was not able to see either game, but followed the live stats. Pitching seems good. Hitting the ball, but lack of clutch hits hurt them in the first game. Looking forward to a fun season.
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I think tonight’s results were awesome! This day gives me a lot of confidence that those Gophers are going to be really darn good this year. Ritter clearly has a TON of confidence in Leavitt.
 

I sure wish the Georgia game would have been televised/streamed. Pease looked like a total pro vs. UCF. Denhartog is star as is potentially Jensen - she'll be a .400 hitter this year if healthy. Pleasantly surprised with the D at SS and 3B. Bats were decent but need more clutch hitting, although UCF's very good defense had something to do with that.
 

Panthadad2 said:
I sure wish the Georgia game would have been televised/streamed. Pease looked like a total pro vs. UCF. Denhartog is star as is potentially Jensen - she'll be a .400 hitter this year if healthy. Pleasantly surprised with the D at SS and 3B. Bats were decent but need more clutch hitting, although UCF's very good defense had something to do with that.
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UCF is obviously very good… they beat Georgia last night after all.

As for Georgia, I like our chances against them tomorrow. I hope we put out our best lineup against them. I just don’t know how the Gophers can expect to beat a team like Georgia with Jensen sitting on the bench the entire game.

I think the strategy going into this weekend was to almost assume a game 1 loss to Georgia and then giving it all to take out UCF. From there, they had planned on really trying to get game 2 from Georgia tomorrow.

I just think the coaches were a little surprised at being in the lead as late in the game as they were against Georgia and were slow to pull out all the stops to get that win (obviously the errors didn’t help).
 

Agreed about the importance of Jensen in the lineup; she produces runs in so many ways. With her in the batting order in game 1, they likely would've won. In game 1, the Gophers, as I recall, had 4 BB & 2 HBP baserunners but didn't drive in a single one of them. It looked then like a rerun of the past 2 years, but game 2 looked more like a team on a mission. Run production, run production; that's the key, it seems. They have to hit big time, score runs early, and make opponents play from behind. If they do, the season can be a real success. My opinion only.
 

Coach Ritter is exactly like coach McCutchen… those coaches just do not call into the game reserves/bench players much at all.
 

To me, there seems an ample supply of talent on the Gophers, but for two years plus now RLOB has seemed continual plague. A couple of well-timed base hits with runners on base would've cinched decisive wins in each of these first 3 games. There's no reason why Leavitt & Pease had to lose those games. It's just really good pitching performances wasted by lack of timely hitting. Maybe I should quit commenting on the games, period. Hoping for better.....
 

I probably wouldn’t have tried a squeeze play with Evans on 3rd and Dray at the plate down a run in the last half-inning, even though Dray hasn’t been hitting. She is a threat to go deep and potentially win the game outright, and you put pressure on the IF to decide whether to play in, opening up holes for ground balls, or play back and basically concede the run on a ground ball anywhere but the corners.

However, there was no stream, so we have no idea what the IF positioning was, and we don’t see players in practice working on the squeeze play. Who knows? Maybe Dray is a high-percentage bunter.

I still would go for the base hit or sacrifice fly, and leave the HR in play with Dray batting.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
Dray’s LOB numbers are… not good.
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Yeah, she hasn’t hit as well as her North Carolina numbers suggested, although she isn’t the kind of player who pads stats against poor pitching and is helpless against good pitching. She’s had her share of hits against good pitching. The problem is she just hasn’t had many hits at all. She seems to be streaky, but hasn’t had many long hot streaks for the Gophers.

Anyway, with Hansen and Valencia waiting in the wings, I wonder how long Piper sticks with her. Remember, DenHartog didn’t play early in her freshman year, then pinch hit a few times (and blasted at least one HR) before finally being inserted into the starting lineup.
 


My complaint is the same as last season; when you have opportunities to score you have to put your best hitting player available in the batters box. We have not seen Coach Ritter make substitutions in those instances regardless of how inept the player scheduled to bat has looked. She is an amazing pitching coach. Maybe she has delegated that portion of the game management to her staff, either way, that is not a sign of good head coaching. The talent is there. They are not getting the most out of it.

I understand decisions will not always go your way as coach, but we are not using all the available talent to the fullest. Missed two good opportunities for strong wins this weekend. I will get the opportunity to see them in person next weekend. Looking forward to that.
 

Alabama 11-0 mercy rule vs #9 arizona, and Jordy 4 hits 14 K vs UCLA she's second best pitcher behind Montana
 
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Great weekend to start the softball year for the Gophers. We are a top 3 team yet again in the Big Ten, that seems apparent after this weekend.

I just would love to have a clearly powerful bat in Delanie Cox get swing(s) every game. But other than that, I can’t complain - and maybe she tested positive for COVID or something.
 

Great way to clinch wins in games 4 & 5, with late HRs. A couple of timely hits would've done Georgia in, too. W/O TV coverage, it's hard to tell how good the opponents were, but Gophers had 11 more runners LOB vs. FSU. Esp. with Chavez' leadoff triple and still not scoring her? Gotta do better than that.
But maybe this weekend was good for working out some kinks? Surely Georgia & UCF have played plenty outdoors this season already. The Gophers have talent, just need to get it all to mesh. Question: Can they go the whole season w/o using Hollifield?
 

Follow up on the above post. Any info on Cox. I can’t imagine they can get through these OOC tournaments without getting Hollified some innings
 

A few cupcakes coming up in Grand Canyon, UTEP, Illinois St, UNI, Charlotte that they should be able to get Hollifield in for. Big missed chance since ranked wins will be hard to come by with the schedule to not get 1 Georgia but at least didn't lose the others
 

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