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I personally would have let Bradley hit — she had done well against Boyd so far — and pinch-hit Leschber for Strelow there, but for some reason Piper would rather roll with Strelow when we need a big hit to stay in the game. On another note, I had to laugh when the announcers said that Drohan...

Thanks for digging these up, Ignatius! Some of the Michigan fans thought she was ready to take over the Wolverines 11 years ago. I’m sure those same fans are delighted with what Barnes Arico has done there since. Could Plitzuweit have done as well there had she been given the chance? We will...

Agreed, if the new coach has had time to establish the foundation for future success. But I think most ADs in P5 conferences would like to hire a coach that is unlikely to leave after just 2-3 seasons. You are always rolling the dice with a new hire.

It would seem to me that LaRoque, if she continues her current run of success (no matter where she is coaching), would be a strong candidate to take over at Stanford when VanDerveer retires. If we hired her here, would she stay if Stanford came calling?

As an aside, Wichita is playing like a Top 10 team right now. They’re just crushing everybody. Can’t wait to see how we fare this weekend. Now is the time to start our push if we want to be relevant nationally this year.

Lol John you literally posted the schedule change as I was writing the very same thing. Gophers will only play the two games in Wichita against South Dakota St. and Wichita St. on Friday before heading south to Stillwater OK for Saturday games against ASU and Oklahoma State. These are all...

They probably shouldn’t even bother with conference awards until conference play starts, but even then, they generally just go off stat lines anyway, with rare exceptions.

They eventually won the Fullerton game in 11 innings but your point is well taken. It should never have gone to extras. I remain encouraged by the potential of this team. It may not be a great team like 2017 or 2019, but I see the first official NCAA RPI calculations have us at #26. It’s way...

Somewhat, yes. She has always been a streaky hitter though. The problem is with a season that is only 50-60 games, a bad slump at any point can be devastating to a player’s overall stat line. Hope she comes around and destroys the B1G.

I’m not arguing that this program can’t have better production at the 2B position. Just that she’s the best we have right now, and her previous numbers indicate she can do better. Currently, through about 30% of the season, she’s hitting 48 points below her career average (55 points if you don’t...

Strelow can and needs to play better for this team to be successful. She is a spark plug type player who can energize the entire team. I would be shocked if anyone who could replace her would perform better than she has. That said, she has proven she can play better than this, the season is...

Strelow base hit to beat Florida State and Cox PH HR to beat Northwestern. Clutch hits in tight ballgames on the road against very good competition. So, I’d argue that they have proven they can come through in the clutch, unlike the rest of the players being discussed above. I agree with you...

Massey has a proprietary formula that I like for softball especially over using RPI to rate teams because it takes into account dominance by including margin of victory. There is really no disputing that in softball, elite teams pile up a large number of run-rule victories.

At least Strelow and Cox have proven themselves before in clutch situations, even if neither is likely to post a very high batting average at this point in their careers. I was very high on Valencia after watching her smash line drives all over the yard in the fall of her freshman year. It would...

A P5 team competing for an at-large bid can’t afford more than one or two losses to sub-200 RPI teams unless it plays a lot of Top 25 teams and holds its own in those games. That allows its own RPI to be good enough that a tournament bid is a foregone conclusion. Unfortunately, Our schedule...

I arrived late for the first game so I didn’t see the first DenHartog HR, but I saw DenHartog and Oakland both pulverize line drives over the CF wall, and in the second game they both hit moonshots over the LF wall into a pretty stiff north wind. Both of those were hit off Hambrick, who along...

Thank you for posting that photo. I had forgotten about that anomaly which I now remember seeing written on the Jug years ago and wondering about at the time. Your post spurred me to do a little research as to why. Turns out that after the 1925 season the Big Ten instituted a rule requiring...

I don’t think this is accurate but regardless, I think the Jug should be on the line only in the first game between the two teams, if they play more than once. Under the current system, the second meeting would have to be for the B1G championship trophy. To clarify, this means that if they ONLY...

Big win for Piper and staff! She spins the ball well with good P5 velocity already that will only improve, great command, and a killer change. Nice easy motion, too. I like that all of our recent HS pitching recruits are very accomplished hitters as well.

Thanks Gopher68 for keeping us informed of recruiting developments. I had kind of forgotten that this was commitment season. I like the recruiting Piper and staff have done so far. We have to keep bringing in pitching from everywhere and find that next ace asap. But maybe with the relaxed...