Gopher Softball 2024

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Gophers getting out hit 12-4 and correcting down 5-2 to Boston University
 

At least this time it was a reliever blowing up in the 6th instead of leaving the starter in too long
 






Can't even do the fucking small things like bunting the player over. Strong chance of sweeping the weekend and then this happens, for fucks sake.:mad:
 

WayOfTheGopher said:
Can't even do the fucking small things like bunting the player over. Strong chance of sweeping the weekend and then this happens, for fucks sake.:mad:
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I don’t know who thought the Gophers had a strong chance of sweeping this weekend.

I kinda don’t know how some people don’t live in a constant mental state of disappointment and dissatisfaction given the expectations they have for the Minnesota softball team.
 

The usual problem. The last five batters in the lineup unproductive. You can't expect to beat top teams with only three hitters, Oakland, Chavez, & Krapf. You need hitters who can hit their way on base and drive in runs up and down the lineup. This is an ongoing problem since 2020.
 



PreacherRoe said:
The usual problem. The last five batters in the lineup unproductive. You can't expect to beat top teams with only three hitters, Oakland, Chavez, & Krapf. You need hitters who can hit their way on base and drive in runs up and down the lineup. This is an ongoing problem since 2020.
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The only season I can recall when we legitimately had .300 hitters through the entire lineup was 2017. Most teams that are good but not great suffer the same fate.

Given the pitching BU threw at us, I was happy to see four runs and that should have been enough. Good RPI loss, but have to keep plugging and win some of those.
 



It doesn’t get any worse than this. Margin for error in this tournament is gone. Have to finish the game.

Needed to come out of this weekend 3-2 to move up in RPI/KPI. So the weekend can still be salvaged but it will take a lot better play and particularly closing games to do it. And today they missed a golden opportunity to position themselves for at least a 4-1 record which really would have positioned themselves well going into B1G play.
 



rwlarson said:
It doesn’t get any worse than this. Margin for error in this tournament is gone. Have to finish the game.

Needed to come out of this weekend 3-2 to move up in RPI/KPI. So the weekend can still be salvaged but it will take a lot better play and particularly closing games to do it. And today they missed a golden opportunity to position themselves for at least a 4-1 record which really would have positioned themselves well going into B1G play.
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Another wasted opportunity after a strong performance from Richardson. This team needs a dependable arm to close out games. Enter and Hambrick are unreliable to close out games. Better to let them start and develop a primary reliever/closer. Give Snippes or Grayson a chance. Richardson looks like the third starter and have Schwartz as the optional starter or closer when she returns. I do agree that we need more production from. 5-9 and to cut down on costly errors (ie Michigan state 7th).
 

rwlarson said:
It doesn’t get any worse than this. Margin for error in this tournament is gone. Have to finish the game.
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I don’t think you really know how bad it could get. We have been blessed to have been fans of a team that was at the top rung of the Big Ten for the past 10 years, enough so to go to NCAA tournaments each of those years.

Imagine we become more like Penn State has been. That is not impossible.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
I don’t think you really know how bad it could get. We have been blessed to have been fans of a team that was at the top rung of the Big Ten for the past 10 years, enough so to go to NCAA tournaments each of those years.

Imagine we become more like Penn State has been. That is not impossible.
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I was referring to controlling an entire game only to allow five runs in the bottom of the seventh to lose in dramatic fashion, not the state of the program. I’m still bullish there.

I have been following Gopher softball since I worked for the U as a grad student and traveled with the team to their first NCAA tournament in Tucson when Mike Candrea was a young coach just starting to build Arizona into the sofrball powerhouse it would eventually become.

I remember that even though Arizona’s facilities at the time were worse than Minnesota’s, with no permanent seating, no press box or facilities, I was so impressed with Candrea and the entire Arizona softball staff. They ran a first class operation even though interest in softball at that time was almost nonexistent.

Minnesota softball under Linda Wells was generally successful at a time when softball still pretty much a regional endeavor. Then Wells left for Arizona State, where she became a Hall of Fame coach. That might have been a wake up call for us, and we entered a brief period where we invested in facilities and a big name coach in Teresa Wilson, who was reigning PAC-12 Coach of the Year and had just taken Oregon to the WCWS. Post-Minnesota, Wilson would take Washington to six WCWS before a prescription drug scandal derailed her career.

Under Wells and Wilson, we won three B1G regular season titles in six years. It appeared Minnesota softball was in a good place. Fans and donors were excited. We raised the money to build Jane Sage Cowles. Little did we know at the time, but Wilson’s 1991 title would be our last one for 26 years.

It was after Wilson left and the new facilities were in place that we became somewhat complacent. Bernstein and Standering are good softball people (with ties to the aforementioned first class Arizona program). They won just enough to keep the wolves at bay (five NCAA appearances and one B1G tournament championship in 19 seasons)
but nothing that would really take Minnesota softball to the next level. For whatever reason, they couldn’t field comsistently competitive teams and a few of their teams, particularly toward the end of their tenure, were downright horrible.

Then we got lucky. By this time, we were no longer going after big name coaches. We took a chance on a young coach with no previous head coaching experience. Those kinds of hires have maybe a 10% chance of working out at all. But this time, we hit the jackpot.

This coach took a program that had been on the skids and had no built-in advantages and ushered in a Golden Era of Minnesota softball, culminating with a #1 ranking in 2017 and laying the groundwork for our first WCWS appearance (although sadly, thanks in part to the infamous NCAA snub which undoubtedly left her questioning whether she would ever be able to accomplish her goal of winning a national championship here, she wasn’t around to enjoy that run).

So yes, I know exactly how bad it could get if the administration becomes too complacent. But right now, thanks to the Golden Era, interest in Minnesota softball remains high, and the WCWS run proves that it can be done here if the right ingredients are in place.

We do need to make some investments in facilities and in this era, NIL or we will have no chance of attracting and retaining the kind of pitching in particular that we will need to keep building on the winning tradition that we’ve established here over the last decade.
 

rwlarson said:
I was referring to controlling an entire game only to allow five runs in the bottom of the seventh to lose in dramatic fashion, not the state of the program. I’m still bullish there.

I have been following Gopher softball since I worked for the U as a grad student and traveled with the team to their first NCAA tournament in Tucson when Mike Candrea was a young coach just starting to build Arizona into the sofrball powerhouse it would eventually become.

I remember that even though Arizona’s facilities at the time were worse than Minnesota’s, with no permanent seating, no press box or facilities, I was so impressed with Candrea and the entire Arizona softball staff. They ran a first class operation even though interest in softball at that time was almost nonexistent.

Minnesota softball under Linda Wells was generally successful at a time when softball still pretty much a regional endeavor. Then Wells left for Arizona State, where she became a Hall of Fame coach. That might have been a wake up call for us, and we entered a brief period where we invested in facilities and a big name coach in Teresa Wilson, who was reigning PAC-12 Coach of the Year and had just taken Oregon to the WCWS. Post-Minnesota, Wilson would take Washington to six WCWS before a prescription drug scandal derailed her career.

Under Wells and Wilson, we won three B1G regular season titles in six years. It appeared Minnesota softball was in a good place. Fans and donors were excited. We raised the money to build Jane Sage Cowles. Little did we know at the time, but Wilson’s 1991 title would be our last one for 26 years.

It was after Wilson left and the new facilities were in place that we became somewhat complacent. Bernstein and Standering are good softball people (with ties to the aforementioned first class Arizona program). They won just enough to keep the wolves at bay (five NCAA appearances and one B1G tournament championship in 19 seasons)
but nothing that would really take Minnesota softball to the next level. For whatever reason, they couldn’t field comsistently competitive teams and a few of their teams, particularly toward the end of their tenure, were downright horrible.

Then we got lucky. By this time, we were no longer going after big name coaches. We took a chance on a young coach with no previous head coaching experience. Those kinds of hires have maybe a 10% chance of working out at all. But this time, we hit the jackpot.

This coach took a program that had been on the skids and had no built-in advantages and ushered in a Golden Era of Minnesota softball, culminating with a #1 ranking in 2017 and laying the groundwork for our first WCWS appearance (although sadly, thanks in part to the infamous NCAA snub which undoubtedly left her questioning whether she would ever be able to accomplish her goal of winning a national championship here, she wasn’t around to enjoy that run).

So yes, I know exactly how bad it could get if the administration becomes too complacent. But right now, thanks to the Golden Era, interest in Minnesota softball remains high, and the WCWS run proves that it can be done here if the right ingredients are in place.

We do need to make some investments in facilities and in this era, NIL or we will have no chance of attracting and retaining the kind of pitching in particular that we will need to keep building on the winning tradition that we’ve established here over the last decade.
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Touché. So you know.
 

I get shifting batting order for people who are struggling, but Piper literally changes it every game. How does anyone ever get comfortable?
 

DietCokeFan said:
I get shifting batting order for people who are struggling, but Piper literally changes it every game. How does anyone ever get comfortable?
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How much of the batting order is the responsibility of coach Wynn? Of course, coach Ritter could request an alternate order.
 

Gopher68 said:
How much of the batting order is the responsibility of coach Wynn? Of course, coach Ritter could request an alternate order.
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Seems odd to me if your head coach is not putting out the starting lineup.
 

DietCokeFan said:
I get shifting batting order for people who are struggling, but Piper literally changes it every game. How does anyone ever get comfortable?
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Looks like the shifting of the lineup worked. Happy to see Kraft homer twice. Looks like she’s finding her stroke.
 

Run-rule 14-4 win over NC State, which had beaten Northwestern and Michigan State so far in this tourney. That is the kind of response I would hope for after yesterday’s debacle. But to even partially make up for lost opportunity yesterday, we need to find a way to beat South Carolina on their home field in the next game.

South Carolina has good options in the circle, including the Stanford grad transfer Vawter, who always seemed to have our number while she was with the Cardinal.
 




Can someone refresh my memory on JH and her pitching last year? She is so up and down this season. With Schwartz out, we really need her to be more consistent and efficient on that mound.
 

Surely we all feel crushed by these recent results, but if MN wants to win at this D1 level they gotta have top-tier DI talent, at bat & in the circle. Only about 4 Gopher players are performing at that level. The whole program's gotta step up or the slide will continue.
 


4EverAGopher said:
Can someone refresh my memory on JH and her pitching last year? She is so up and down this season. With Schwartz out, we really need her to be more consistent and efficient on that mound.
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When looking at last year, it’s so tough to compare because Autumn Pease pitched so
many innings; and so many of those innings were the toughest innings against the toughest opponents every weekend.
 

Nipomo 56 said:
Another wasted opportunity after a strong performance from Richardson. This team needs a dependable arm to close out games. Enter and Hambrick are unreliable to close out games. Better to let them start and develop a primary reliever/closer. Give Snippes or Grayson a chance. Richardson looks like the third starter and have Schwartz as the optional starter or closer when she returns. I do agree that we need more production from. 5-9 and to cut down on costly errors (ie Michigan state 7th).
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Enter had the MSU game closed out perfectly well. She produced ground balls, her specialty. Then the infield error spelled doom. The old axiom held; don't give the opponent 4 outs in an inning. (I hate to seem to place blame on the player who made the crucial error because she's carried the team by herself much of the season. Where's every body else?)
ClassOf98Gopher said:
When looking at last year, it’s so tough to compare because Autumn Pease pitched so
many innings; and so many of those innings were the toughest innings against the toughest opponents every weekend.
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Good velocity but not quite velocity enough to subdue good D1 hitters. Good breaking pitches but not enough pinpoint control of them to keep good D1 hitters off balance.
 

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