Gopher Softball 2019

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Gophers batting strategy vs. Barnhill...look at meatballs over the plate, swing at the high rise balls. That, unfortunately, didn't work well.
 

Yeah, they took gut pitches all night. I’ll never understand that.


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U2Gopher said:
Yeah, they took gut pitches all night. I’ll never understand that.
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It seems the same pattern against top-ten teams the past few years, way too passive at the plate. I keep expecting them to burst out with a big inning; one big inning is all it would take. I quit watching tonight's game after 2 1/2 innings; it was clear it was heading nowhere. Fiser deserves so much better in lots of her games.
 

Panthadad2 said:
Gophers batting strategy vs. Barnhill...look at meatballs over the plate, swing at the high rise balls. That, unfortunately, didn't work well.
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I asked a player who has faced Kelly Barnhill several times during her career (she is 0-9 with 5 strikeouts - career .400 hitter) why it is so hard to hit off her when everything appears to be the same speed and she seems to throw “meatballs” across the plate. Her response made a lot of sense. Barnhill has so much spin on the ball you can’t read the seams like you can with other pitchers. So every pitch looks exactly the same out of her hand. But Barnhill throws on 3 different planes and works the inside and the outside corners really well. And she is throwing around 70 mph so every pitch the hitter has just a spilt second to guess the final location.
 

GrudgeGuy said:
I asked a player who has faced Kelly Barnhill several times during her career (she is 0-9 with 5 strikeouts - career .400 hitter) why it is so hard to hit off her when everything appears to be the same speed and she seems to throw “meatballs” across the plate. Her response made a lot of sense. Barnhill has so much spin on the ball you can’t read the seams like you can with other pitchers. So every pitch looks exactly the same out of her hand. But Barnhill throws on 3 different planes and works the inside and the outside corners really well. And she is throwing around 70 mph so every pitch the hitter has just a spilt second to guess the final location.
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LSU scored 6 runs against Barnhill this past weekend, 3 in each game. LSU is a top-ten team, which is what the Gophers aspire to be. They need to find ways to steal games like last night, when 3 runs would have done it. Florida looked good but not unbeatable.
 


Hrothgar said:
LSU scored 6 runs against Barnhill this past weekend, 3 in each game. LSU is a top-ten team, which is what the Gophers aspire to be. They need to find ways to steal games like last night, when 3 runs would have done it. Florida looked good but not unbeatable.
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Every pitcher can be beat on any given day. But Barnhill does not have 1,000+ career strikeouts by accident. Give the girls some credit - they took some good hacks - the point is it is not as easy as it looks.
 

GrudgeGuy said:
Every pitcher can be beat on any given day. But Barnhill does not have 1,000+ career strikeouts by accident. Give the girls some credit - they took some good hacks - the point is it is not as easy as it looks.
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I lamented above about the pitches looked at down the middle of the plate, mainly with our power hitters, while rise balls above the head were swung at. But yeah, Barnhill is a great pitcher. Games swing by fractions of an inch. Fiser was one pitch away from throwing a shutout...with that one pitch thrown to a very good batter that's seen literally tens of thousands of Fiser's pitches come out of her hand. Conversely, if Denhartog makes contact 1/2" higher on the ball on several of her swings in the 6th with Brander on, it's a tie game. Close, but no cigar.
 

Panthadad2 said:
I lamented above about the pitches looked at down the middle of the plate, mainly with our power hitters, while rise balls above the head were swung at. But yeah, Barnhill is a great pitcher. Games swing by fractions of an inch. Fiser was one pitch away from throwing a shutout...with that one pitch thrown to a very good batter that's seen literally tens of thousands of Fiser's pitches come out of her hand. Conversely, if Denhartog makes contact 1/2" higher on the ball on several of her swings in the 6th with Brander on, it's a tie game. Close, but no cigar.
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There's the rub. As has happened more than once, Fiser could have thrown a shutout and still had no chance of winning the game because the Gophers hitters were helpless at the plate, which has become a pattern for a few years any time they play top-ten opponents. You can't hit elite level pitchers without elite level hitters. I'm just describing reality, as I see it. I root for them to break into the top-ten, but they need to score runs to do it.
 






It looks like this weekend's games won't be streamed? That's pretty bush league of Maryland. Geez.
 

It's possible Maryland is bush league by not having the info/link up yet but still may stream it.

https://www.btn2go.com/game/michigan-st-at-maryland-on-05042018-1

You can see at BTN that they streamed a game from College Park vs Michigan State at the end of last season. I don't think it's unusual for athletic departments to get the info up late with non-revenue and women's sports.
 



A lot of drama and injuries on the team right now. They need to hold it together. Has Trachsel been offered an extension? She might be gone regardless...
 

ComoGopher said:
A lot of drama and injuries on the team right now. They need to hold it together. Has Trachsel been offered an extension? She might be gone regardless...
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Why would she be gone? Is this wishful thinking on your part? Or based on details?
 

ComoGopher said:
A lot of drama and injuries on the team right now. They need to hold it together. Has Trachsel been offered an extension? She might be gone regardless...
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That is very surprising to me. I mean if the season ended today, the Gophers would be in great position to host a regional. Surprised to hear about any drama.
 

Flosoftball has 6 B1G games scheduled to be streamed today. All but Gophs - Maryland.

This happened last fall with Gopher Volleyball vs Ohio State. In that case Flovolleyball actually streamed the game but didn't put a link up anywhere to access it.
It's kind of like the tree falling in the forest without no one there to listen!
 

Kind of worried about this weekend. Maryland appears to be much improved from last year, and I bet the ladies just want to get home.
 

Day off work and bored so sorry about the multiple posts. I really hope we only throw Fiser once this weekend. We have to limit her innings I think. I would rather lose a few games and keep her relatively fresh than win at all costs.
 

MNsoftballfan said:
Day off work and bored so sorry about the multiple posts. I really hope we only throw Fiser once this weekend. We have to limit her innings I think. I would rather lose a few games and keep her relatively fresh than win at all costs.
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No need to apologize!

I waffle on your point. On the one hand, if the goal is to win the Big 10 regular season championship, they probably start Fiser 2 of 3 three games and maybe rest her if the score allows. If the goal is post season success over conference regular season, then maybe rest her against lesser opponents. Some depends on the health of other pitchers too. After 28 games this year, Fiser has pitched 104 innings vs. 111 innings last year, so there's that.
 

Maryland scored 3 in the first off Fiser. So predictable. Give the kid some freaking rest!
 

Gophers need to get something...anything...out of the bottom of the order from now on or it's gonna be a disappointing conference season.
 


move Maddie lower in the batting order, god damn it
 



Panthadad2 said:
Gophers need to get something...anything...out of the bottom of the order from now on or it's gonna be a disappointing conference season.
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Good point. The Fiser 'problem' isn't overworking her but demoralizing her. She's being put out there every game with the expectation of pitching a shutout to have a chance of winning. Impossible and also a long-term recipe for disaster. Her offense needs to give her runs to work with, but with the bottom 4/5 of the batting order being sure outs and the top half not hitting against top teams, scoring runs is a big order. Giving up only 3 runs should have been enough to give Fiser and easy win against a team like Maryland --- that is, with a normally productive hitting attack.
 

rugger14 said:
True dat! [emoji38]

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Who else would you hit in that spot? The team is comprised of below .300 hitters who strike out too much and don’t walk enough. At least Maddie has speed to steal when she gets on, can execute a bunt, has some pop in the bat to get extra base hits and she is not going to panic late in a game when we are down a few runs but have runners on. She delivered tonight when most of this team wouldn’t have. And you can’t hit her any lower because our lack of speed. Put a slow base runner in front of her and you take away a lot of weapons that she brings to the game (stolen bases, hit and run, 1st to 3rd on base hits, bunting for base hits/infield hits that are eliminated with a FC).

Not sure there is another player on the team with the same skill set that is hitting better and has proven she isn’t afraid of the big moment.
 

GrudgeGuy said:
Who else would you hit in that spot? The team is comprised of below .300 hitters who strike out too much and don’t walk enough. At least Maddie has speed to steal when she gets on, can execute a bunt, has some pop in the bat to get extra base hits and she is not going to panic late in a game when we are down a few runs but have runners on. She delivered tonight when most of this team wouldn’t have. And you can’t hit her any lower because our lack of speed. Put a slow base runner in front of her and you take away a lot of weapons that she brings to the game (stolen bases, hit and run, 1st to 3rd on base hits, bunting for base hits/infield hits that are eliminated with a FC).

Not sure there is another player on the team with the same skill set that is hitting better and has proven she isn’t afraid of the big moment.
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Maddie is my favorite Gopher. Glad she hit the grand dinger to win the game.
 

GrudgeGuy said:
Who else would you hit in that spot? The team is comprised of below .300 hitters who strike out too much and don’t walk enough. At least Maddie has speed to steal when she gets on, can execute a bunt, has some pop in the bat to get extra base hits and she is not going to panic late in a game when we are down a few runs but have runners on. She delivered tonight when most of this team wouldn’t have. And you can’t hit her any lower because our lack of speed. Put a slow base runner in front of her and you take away a lot of weapons that she brings to the game (stolen bases, hit and run, 1st to 3rd on base hits, bunting for base hits/infield hits that are eliminated with a FC).

Not sure there is another player on the team with the same skill set that is hitting better and has proven she isn’t afraid of the big moment.
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Dude that was completely tongue in cheek. Maddie has proven herself and is one of the best players in the conference.
 

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