Gopher Softball 2019

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Michigan is at Maryland. I’m guessing they sweep, even if we sweep NW we are still 1/2 game out. Dang snow out.. win the next 6 and maybe we get to host.��. Are you listening NCAA.
 

Tucker said:
Northwestern is still undefeated in the Big Ten. Everyone will be wanting a sweep.

I wonder if two out of three shouldn't be considered a success going in?
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This. Winning the series should be the goal. Everything else including RPI will fall into place.
 

Tucker said:
Northwestern is still undefeated in the Big Ten. Everyone will be wanting a sweep.

I wonder if two out of three shouldn't be considered a success going in?
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2 of 3 would be fine but we need a sweep for a shot at the conference title. We somehow dropped a game against PSU last year to lose out on a share of the conference title. Anything is possible and Michigan could do us a favor and lose a game.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
 

Very interested in what the RPI looks like following the last week.

Figuring on them staying near the top 10, if not inside of it.

Thinking the ladies can win two of three if they get good defense and the offense can find a way to break through against a tough pitching staff. On top of that, playing another top-15 RPI team won't hurt in the rankings either.

All and all, the ladies have put themselves in a really good position in terms of potential regional hosting possibilities. Hopefully, they can continue on that trend next weekend.
 

Weekly RPI report card. Back on top.

10 Minnesota Big Ten 37-10-0 15-6-0 14-4-0 8-0-0 0-0-0
11 Northwestern Big Ten 41-7-0 11-4-0 17-2-0 13-1-0 0-0-0
17 Michigan Big Ten 37-11-0 12-5-0 10-6-0 15-0-0 0-0-0
34 Wisconsin Big Ten 36-10-0 13-6-0 15-2-0 8-2-0 0-0-0
38 Ohio St. Big Ten 32-14-0 9-6-0 13-5-0 10-3-0 0-0-0
46 Indiana Big Ten 33-19-0 6-11-0 16-3-0 11-5-0 0-0-0
50 Illinois Big Ten 27-22-0 9-8-0 10-7-0 8-7-0 0-0-0
78 Rutgers Big Ten 25-22-0 7-12-0 13-6-0 5-4-0 0-0-0
84 Purdue Big Ten 30-23-0 2-10-0 19-6-0 9-7-0 0-0-0
96 Nebraska Big Ten 20-28-0 5-12-0 8-7-0 7-9-0 0-0-0
106 Iowa Big Ten 18-28-0 3-13-0 13-7-0 2-8-0 0-0-0
125 Maryland Big Ten 20-28-0 4-15-0 10-5-0 6-8-0 0-0-0
146 Penn St. Big Ten 23-29-0 7-10-0 12-9-0 4-10-0 0-0-0
157 Michigan St. Big Ten 15-32-0 3-12-0 8-10-0 4-10-0 0-0-
 


MNsoftballfan said:
Weekly RPI report card. Back on top.

10 Minnesota Big Ten 37-10-0 15-6-0 14-4-0 8-0-0 0-0-0
11 Northwestern Big Ten 41-7-0 11-4-0 17-2-0 13-1-0 0-0-0
17 Michigan Big Ten 37-11-0 12-5-0 10-6-0 15-0-0 0-0-0
34 Wisconsin Big Ten 36-10-0 13-6-0 15-2-0 8-2-0 0-0-0
38 Ohio St. Big Ten 32-14-0 9-6-0 13-5-0 10-3-0 0-0-0
46 Indiana Big Ten 33-19-0 6-11-0 16-3-0 11-5-0 0-0-0
50 Illinois Big Ten 27-22-0 9-8-0 10-7-0 8-7-0 0-0-0
78 Rutgers Big Ten 25-22-0 7-12-0 13-6-0 5-4-0 0-0-0
84 Purdue Big Ten 30-23-0 2-10-0 19-6-0 9-7-0 0-0-0
96 Nebraska Big Ten 20-28-0 5-12-0 8-7-0 7-9-0 0-0-0
106 Iowa Big Ten 18-28-0 3-13-0 13-7-0 2-8-0 0-0-0
125 Maryland Big Ten 20-28-0 4-15-0 10-5-0 6-8-0 0-0-0
146 Penn St. Big Ten 23-29-0 7-10-0 12-9-0 4-10-0 0-0-0
157 Michigan St. Big Ten 15-32-0 3-12-0 8-10-0 4-10-0 0-0-
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It looks like the winner of this week's MN/NW series might end of inside the top 10 next week. That should be a good time at the ballpark. Weather should be good too.
 

Cori's latest one of you can never use too much eye black definitely is accurate for some of the Gophers pictures from the weekend series
 

MNsoftballfan said:
Weekly RPI report card. Back on top.

10 Minnesota Big Ten 37-10-0 15-6-0 14-4-0 8-0-0 0-0-0
11 Northwestern Big Ten 41-7-0 11-4-0 17-2-0 13-1-0 0-0-0
17 Michigan Big Ten 37-11-0 12-5-0 10-6-0 15-0-0 0-0-0
34 Wisconsin Big Ten 36-10-0 13-6-0 15-2-0 8-2-0 0-0-0
38 Ohio St. Big Ten 32-14-0 9-6-0 13-5-0 10-3-0 0-0-0
46 Indiana Big Ten 33-19-0 6-11-0 16-3-0 11-5-0 0-0-0
50 Illinois Big Ten 27-22-0 9-8-0 10-7-0 8-7-0 0-0-0
78 Rutgers Big Ten 25-22-0 7-12-0 13-6-0 5-4-0 0-0-0
84 Purdue Big Ten 30-23-0 2-10-0 19-6-0 9-7-0 0-0-0
96 Nebraska Big Ten 20-28-0 5-12-0 8-7-0 7-9-0 0-0-0
106 Iowa Big Ten 18-28-0 3-13-0 13-7-0 2-8-0 0-0-0
125 Maryland Big Ten 20-28-0 4-15-0 10-5-0 6-8-0 0-0-0
146 Penn St. Big Ten 23-29-0 7-10-0 12-9-0 4-10-0 0-0-0
157 Michigan St. Big Ten 15-32-0 3-12-0 8-10-0 4-10-0 0-0-
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Aha, Michigan sweeps four games off the bottom two Big Ten teams, two of those games in 5 innings, and drops four spots in the RPI. Their weak schedule will eliminate them from any regional-hosting possibility, won't it?
 

let'sbeclear said:
Aha, Michigan sweeps four games off the bottom two Big Ten teams, two of those games in 5 innings, and drops four spots in the RPI. Their weak schedule will eliminate them from any regional-hosting possibility, won't it?
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Probably unless they win the conference title and then by luck of the draw get the opportunity to play and then beat us and NU in the B1G tourney. Those would be two good wins.
 



Weather forecast for the D C area is 80% chance of rain on Friday and 40% on Saturday and Sunday. I would settle for Michigan just losing a game to weather. Take care of business this weekend, that is the only thing that the Gophers can control.
 

rugger14 said:
Probably unless they win the conference title and then by luck of the draw get the opportunity to play and then beat us and NU in the B1G tourney. Those would be two good wins.
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I agree. Kind of strange when you think of it. Winning the conference and getting the 1 seed would actually hurt Michigan’s chances to host.
 

rugger14 said:
unless they win the conference title and then by luck of the draw get the opportunity to play and then beat us and NU in the B1G tourney.
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The first part doesn't match the second. If they win the conference they will be the 1 seed and will be on the opposite side of the draw from both NU and MN. In that scenario, they could play either MN or NU in the championship game, but it would be impossible for them to play both teams in the tourney.
 

MNsoftballfan said:
The first part doesn't match the second. If they win the conference they will be the 1 seed and will be on the opposite side of the draw from both NU and MN. In that scenario, they could play either MN or NU in the championship game, but it would be impossible for them to play both teams in the tourney.
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So would a win against a team like Ohio State or Wisconsin plus a title over NU or the Gophers be enough for Michigan to host? I really think that Michigan getting beat in 2017 is what screwed the Gophers. If we had beaten them for the conference title instead of tOSU I think we would have hosted.
 



MNsoftballfan said:
The first part doesn't match the second. If they win the conference they will be the 1 seed and will be on the opposite side of the draw from both NU and MN. In that scenario, they could play either MN or NU in the championship game, but it would be impossible for them to play both teams in the tourney.
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Good catch. I didn't realize the Gophers could get swept and still be the #3 seed.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
 

MNsoftballfan said:
The first part doesn't match the second. If they win the conference they will be the 1 seed and will be on the opposite side of the draw from both NU and MN. In that scenario, they could play either MN or NU in the championship game, but it would be impossible for them to play both teams in the tourney.
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Another scenario, if Michigan ties Northwestern and shares the regular season championship, Northwestern gets the #1 seed (with its higher RPI as tiebreaker) which leaves MI and MN at #2 and #3. Hard to believe how much that lost weather game matters.

On the flip side, hypothetically, if MN could sweep NW leaving both MI and MN with 1 loss, could MN pay Michigan State to replay the lost game early next week? I thought Missouri did something strange like that last year, except they switched a decent nonconference team with a patsy.
 

Panthadad2 said:
Another scenario, if Michigan ties Northwestern and shares the regular season championship, Northwestern gets the #1 seed (with its higher RPI as tiebreaker) which leaves MI and MN at #2 and #3. Hard to believe how much that lost weather game matters.

On the flip side, hypothetically, if MN could sweep NW leaving both MI and MN with 1 loss, could MN pay Michigan State to replay the lost game early next week? I thought Missouri did something strange like that last year, except they switched a decent nonconference team with a patsy.
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That lost weather game matters not one bit. Michigan State is 15-32. 50% of RPI is your opponents winning percentage. Any game played against MSU only hurts our RPI. The regular season BIG 10 championship, due to the unbalanced schedule, is MEANINGLESS in the grand scheme of things. Adding any game this late in the season when we need our pitchers as fresh as possible for the post season would be beyond foolish.

If we win the weekend series v. Northwestern we are mortal locks to host. Pretty close to that already, but a series win this weekend guarantees it. So here is the plan. We go all out to win two games this weekend. Then we go to Bloomington with a regional host in our back pocket, hoping to win the BIG 10 conference tournament, but we don't overwork Fiser in the process. The BIG 10 tourney is not life or death. Life or death comes the following week when we HOST regionals with a reasonably well rested Fiser and your meaningless BIG 10 regular season champ Michigan heads to Lexington, Kentucky, the same place their season ended a year ago with two losses to the #3 seed.

Eye on the prize people. And the BIG 10 regular season is NOT the prize. Been there, done that.
 

MNsoftballfan said:
That lost weather game matters not one bit. Michigan State is 15-32. 50% of RPI is your opponents winning percentage. Any game played against MSU only hurts our RPI. The regular season BIG 10 championship, due to the unbalanced schedule, is MEANINGLESS in the grand scheme of things. Adding any game this late in the season when we need our pitchers as fresh as possible for the post season would be beyond foolish.

If we win the weekend series v. Northwestern we are mortal locks to host. Pretty close to that already, but a series win this weekend guarantees it. So here is the plan. We go all out to win two games this weekend. Then we go to Bloomington with a regional host in our back pocket, hoping to win the BIG 10 conference tournament, but we don't overwork Fiser in the process. The BIG 10 tourney is not life or death. Life or death comes the following week when we HOST regionals with a reasonably well rested Fiser and your meaningless BIG 10 regular season champ Michigan heads to Lexington, Kentucky, the same place their season ended a year ago with two losses to the #3 seed.

Eye on the prize people. And the BIG 10 regular season is NOT the prize. Been there, done that.
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Interesting thoughts. Kinda reminds me of the Gophers' women's hockey. They ended up edging WI for the regular season conference championship, but then lost to them for the national championship. Consolation prize for sure, but at least they won one of the two titles. Given the weather, it would be great if the Gophers softball could arrange to play some games (like v. MSU) indoors. DII & DIII teams go to Rochester to play indoors (and elsewhere, too?). Don't know what those facilities are like, but they're apparently better than not playing at all. The solution to the present situation is: Beat NW. And then let MI limp away with the regular season championship. If MI is then favored by the NCAA, it won't be the first time.
 

This Tweet implies that the record attendance at the Jane was well over the stated capacity of 1,000. It sounds like the record was set at a 2017 Iowa game (see link).

I had great season tickets but couldn't attend that series. For anyone there back then, how the heck did they fit the extra fans in? The current general admissions bleachers are pretty small.

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 

MNsoftballfan said:
That lost weather game matters not one bit. Michigan State is 15-32. 50% of RPI is your opponents winning percentage. Any game played against MSU only hurts our RPI. The regular season BIG 10 championship, due to the unbalanced schedule, is MEANINGLESS in the grand scheme of things. Adding any game this late in the season when we need our pitchers as fresh as possible for the post season would be beyond foolish.

If we win the weekend series v. Northwestern we are mortal locks to host. Pretty close to that already, but a series win this weekend guarantees it. So here is the plan. We go all out to win two games this weekend. Then we go to Bloomington with a regional host in our back pocket, hoping to win the BIG 10 conference tournament, but we don't overwork Fiser in the process. The BIG 10 tourney is not life or death. Life or death comes the following week when we HOST regionals with a reasonably well rested Fiser and your meaningless BIG 10 regular season champ Michigan heads to Lexington, Kentucky, the same place their season ended a year ago with two losses to the #3 seed.

Eye on the prize people. And the BIG 10 regular season is NOT the prize. Been there, done that.
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True, although I think the players and coaches really want to win the regular season conference crown too. The way they've been talking on social media, they may go all-in this weekend as well. The ladies have pretty much owned the conference tourney the last five years, so that isn't as big a deal imo unless they want to go for a 4-peat.

Anyway, I pretty much feel the same way. Would love to win as many titles as possible this season, but if they don't win either the regular season or conference tournament titles, it won't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

They've already built up a lot of goodwill in terms of resume: No. 1 ranked strength of schedule in the non-conference, two wins against the RPI top-10 (both against Texas) and 12 wins (12-8 overall record) against the top 50 with an overall RPI rating of 10.

On top of that, they're ranked #8 in the USA Today/ESPN.com poll, #13 by the coaches and #11 in the Softball America poll. Would think those numbers should be more than enough for a regional host.

Take two of three this weekend, and they're sitting pretty. In a really good spot regardless, but taking the series from the Wildcats would hopefully seal the deal.
 

MRJ said:
True, although I think the players and coaches really want to win the regular season conference crown too. The way they've been talking on social media, they may go all-in this weekend as well. The ladies have pretty much owned the conference tourney the last five years, so that isn't as big a deal imo unless they want to go for a 4-peat.

Anyway, I pretty much feel the same way. Would love to win as many titles as possible this season, but if they don't win either the regular season or conference tournament titles, it won't matter much in the grand scheme of things.

They've already built up a lot of goodwill in terms of resume: No. 1 ranked strength of schedule in the non-conference, two wins against the RPI top-10 (both against Texas) and 12 wins (12-8 overall record) against the top 50 with an overall RPI rating of 10.

On top of that, they're ranked #8 in the USA Today/ESPN.com poll, #13 by the coaches and #11 in the Softball America poll. Would think those numbers should be more than enough for a regional host.

Take two of three this weekend, and they're sitting pretty. In a really good spot regardless, but taking the series from the Wildcats would hopefully seal the deal.
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All-in as in pitching Amber all 3 games?
 

Panthadad2 said:
This Tweet implies that the record attendance at the Jane was well over the stated capacity of 1,000. It sounds like the record was set at a 2017 Iowa game (see link).

I had great season tickets but couldn't attend that series. For anyone there back then, how the heck did they fit the extra fans in? The current general admissions bleachers are pretty small.

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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They have the capability of moving in temporary bleachers down the left-field line. Did it the last two years (I think) and I'm guessing they would do the same if they hosted a regional.
 

rowdaboat said:
All-in as in pitching Amber all 3 games?
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She and Syd have been splitting it up for most of the past month, so I'm guessing they would simply keep the same rotation. Amber may start all three games and pitch most of the innings but Syd is a pretty good No. 2 at this point. As a result, I'm guessing they'll keep things the same.
 

MRJ said:
She and Syd have been splitting it up for most of the past month, so I'm guessing they would simply keep the same rotation. Amber may start all three games and pitch most of the innings but Syd is a pretty good No. 2 at this point. As a result, I'm guessing they'll keep things the same.
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I agree, Amber starts Friday & Sunday. Syd gets Saturday.
 

E-mail I received today about regional tickets.


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Ski-U-Mah!
 
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Great quote from coach Trachsel about Piper Ritter in today's Pioneer Press: "She just spits out All-Americans all the time."

link: https://www.twincities.com/2019/05/02/meet-piper-ritter-the-backbone-of-the-gophers-softball-programs-pitching-dynasty/

Couldn't ask for a better pitching coach. Plus, as coach Trachsel once said, "Piper is Minnesota softball."

Also liked her comments regarding Stanford after Allister bolted. Blunt and completely believable.

The program is certainly lucky to have her!
 

MRJ said:
Great quote from coach Trachsel about Piper Ritter in today's Pioneer Press: "She just spits out All-Americans all the time."

link: https://www.twincities.com/2019/05/02/meet-piper-ritter-the-backbone-of-the-gophers-softball-programs-pitching-dynasty/

Couldn't ask for a better pitching coach. Plus, as coach Trachsel once said, "Piper is Minnesota softball."

Also liked her comments regarding Stanford after Allister bolted. Blunt and completely believable.

The program is certainly lucky to have her!
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Nice to see the local major press taking note of the program. Good article.
 

Gophers have only won one regular season Big Ten championship since 1991 (that was 2 yrs ago in the year of the screwing).

So:
-though it's a long shot for Michigan to lose a game
-fans think it's not a big deal, they want RPI and home field

For the young ladies playing the games this weekend this is a BIG SERIES! And Northwestern has A LOT to play for!!!

I think winning three is a long shot. But if they can do it, they deserve all the credit in the world :p


GO GOPHERS :clap::cool02::cool:
 

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