Gopher softball 2021

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My goodness has this team been passive at the plate all day. They haven't attacked anything in the zone. A lot of watching pitches go by, hoping they'd be called balls. Maryland at least has battled when they've had to. The Gophers have been mostly lifeless throughout the lineup.

Really makes me wonder what their mindset was coming in because it started in inning one of game one and has continued unabated since. Very unimpressive.

Better figure out how to hit because it's going to be a very mediocre season if this is their preferred approach at the plate.
 

Lost nightcap 2-1 to a bad Maryland team.

Probably deserved to be swept with how they played.

A pair of really lethargic, uninspired efforts from the ladies. Very disappointing.
 

I was surprised at our anemic offense but it's so early in the season. I thought we would sweep MD but on to the next game. The BTN plus broadcast was brutal. The announcers for women's basketball is even worse. I'm glad I only pay $9.99/month.
 

GringaGopher said:
I was surprised at our anemic offense but it's so early in the season. I thought we would sweep MD but on to the next game. The BTN plus broadcast was brutal. The announcers for women's basketball is even worse. I'm glad I only pay $9.99/month.
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The problem is that I saw those exact games before... in the 2020 season. They were exactly the same. I expected some differences.
 

MRJ said:
Lost nightcap 2-1 to a bad Maryland team.

Probably deserved to be swept with how they played.

A pair of really lethargic, uninspired efforts from the ladies. Very disappointing.
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I agree. I was left absolutely speechless watching their listless play on the field and passive approach at the plate. I'd guess former Gopher teams would've beaten today's Maryland squad 10-0 in about 5 innings. Wretched defensive mistakes nearly cost them game 1 and the passed ball spelled the sad ending to game 2. Partain's triple in the bottom of the 7th of game 2 was wasted by sending Kemmetmueller to the plate. I think she put one single ball in play in two games today. Today's play only replicated the lackluster play of last year's squad. Extremely huge letdown. Perhaps the talent just isn't there, which would be sad indeed.
 


Tough to jump right into games that count instead of building up against cupcakes
 


I've been following gopher softball religiously for the past 6 years. After last year and last night I don't know if I have it in me to watch any more. I feel sorry for Amber and also Autumn Pease. They deserve better.
 

If there is one question that I would like to hear an answer to it is “what happened to Elle Jensen?”. She has always been a near .400 hitter in a Denson, slap hitting + Speed sort of way (which by-the-way Denson did play fairly well last night).

Jensen was in the lineup for one game... but didn’t really hit... but pinch ran... and she played in left field... not center (DenHartog now is center). With Jensen’s speed; I don’t get it. There must be some upper-body injury-type explanation?
 



It is early. We will see how things go here the next couple weeks. There is a lot of rust to knock off for everyone.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
If there is one question that I would like to hear an answer to it is “what happened to Elle Jensen?”. She has always been a near .400 hitter in a Denson, slap hitting + Speed sort of way (which by-the-way Denson did play fairly well last night).

Jensen was in the lineup for one game... but didn’t really hit... but pinch ran... and she played in left field... not center (DenHartog now is center). With Jensen’s speed; I don’t get it. There must be some upper-body injury-type explanation?
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i agree about this. in the past it’s always been her feet/legs. she was even still in walking boots at times last season. she didn’t appear to be braced when she ran yesterday, but she did have one of those big oven mitts on her hand. pure speculation from what i could see on tv.

my bigger issue is with brandt and kemmetmueller. they are career .174 and .188 hitters. do we really have nothing better? i’m sure they are wonderful ladies and they both do fine in the field, but we’re not talking about a small sample size with those terrible averages. i’m not clear on why multiple coaching staffs continue to roll them out there, especially in clutch situations, with those numbers. unless the cupboard is really bare. and with 24 people on the roster this year, that’s seems unlikely.
 

junc1929 said:
i agree about this. in the past it’s always been her feet/legs. she was even still in walking boots at times last season. she didn’t appear to be braced when she ran yesterday, but she did have one of those big oven mitts on her hand. pure speculation from what i could see on tv.

my bigger issue is with brandt and kemmetmueller. they are career .174 and .188 hitters. do we really have nothing better? i’m sure they are wonderful ladies and they both do fine in the field, but we’re not talking about a small sample size with those terrible averages. i’m not clear on why multiple coaching staffs continue to roll them out there, especially in clutch situations, with those numbers. unless the cupboard is really bare. and with 24 people on the roster this year, that’s seems unlikely.
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The problem is a little broader than this. Offensive production out of the Catcher, First-Baseman, Third-baseman, and Short-Stop positions have all been too low, especially given where those positions have been slotted in our line-up last year and this year so far... usually, 4th, 5th, 6th 7th, and now even 2nd in our line-up. If you look at production last night from batters behind DenHartog, it wasn’t good. I worry that if this doesn’t get fixed soon, opposing teams will intentionally walk DenHartog all the time (like what happened to Lindaman in 2018 - prior to her transfer).

It is way, way too early to panic too much, but if the upper classman in these positions struggle for too long over the next 10 games (or less) to adequately back up Partain and DenHartog, I really am going to want to see what underclassman batters Evans, Ehlke, Jones, Cox, Costa, Ceynowa, Peterson, Beckstrom can do when told to swing-away for the deep gaps and fences.
 

Yes it was like watching two 2020 games last night.

Time for this program to start moving up again. HEAD COACH NEEDS TO SET HER HEART ASIDE and start making lineup changes. Like previous posters said, I am sure there has to be plenty of talent on that bench. If they stay with this roster, this is going to be a very long and rough season. Just think we are only playing other BIG schools and finding it extremely difficult to even get base hits let alone win. Ouch!!!!

If Jensen is out again, she must have some very brittle bones and proned to injury. Maybe a concussion or two we don't know about? Previous injury or two that never healed correctly? Otherwise, right now I cannot come up with anything else that would be keeping her out of the lineup.

Shall see later today Coach Ritter's lineup. She has brought in two great Assistant Coaches so it is time for the three of them to start experimenting with those bench players. Can only go up from here.
 



If none of the EIGHT batters that I mentioned above can’t yet regularly touch college pitching this year, which would really send off some alarm bells for the future of the program, then they can shift and go with an athletic, speed-based small-ball strategy. Their roster is huge at 24 players, they can fill a small-ball line-up card too. However, in my opinion, their high-success of that strategy depends quite a bit on Jensen and her natural athleticism.

I just think they have a roster size that provides them options to score runs and win lots of games this year. The only option that doesn’t look to me like it will work too well is sticking too much longer with upperclassman in critical spots in the line-up (2nd batter/4th batter/5th batter/6th batter) the who in theory can drive the ball but in actuality don’t regularity make contact with college-quality pitching.
 

I think you at least stay with Kemmetmueller at third because she's a reliable fielder and has some pop in her bat. With Brandt, she's basically a defensive player and relief pitcher at this point. Do they have somebody else to take over at shortstop? If not, Carlie will stay in the lineup.

I was most disappointed with the ho-hum approach at the plate from everybody. I saw very little fight displayed, especially when they got down in counts. They were far to willing to become the next out. Maryland on the other hand battled much, much harder in the box than any of the Gophers and definitely deserved better than a split. It was a sad sight to watch.

Seems this group will need to be constantly told to dig-in during at-bats because the passivity they displayed yesterday won't win them anything of note, which is apparently a continuation from 2020.
 

After reading the comments above, I'm glad my Flosoftball stream kept freezing. I gave up watching early on.
 

mngolf said:
Watching that replay infuriates me. My 14 yr old's team gets an earful when they fall for sucker plays like that.
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Sorry, but what happened? Streaming technology wasn't working for me last night.
 

MRJ said:
I think you at least stay with Kemmetmueller at third because she's a reliable fielder and has some pop in her bat. With Brandt, she's basically a defensive player and relief pitcher at this point. Do they have somebody else to take over at shortstop? If not, Carlie will stay in the lineup.
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Third Base and Short Stop may be classified as so important from a defensive position perspective that these two players who are so dependable defensively need to stay in the line-up - but always at the 8th and 9th spots in the batting order. I could (?) buy that logic.

Off topic a little, why is it that the Big Ten softball website is SO horrendous this year? That is where I have gone over the last couple years to get a lot of comparative information and statistics. Too many sports being played concurrently and web-developer people are overworked?
 


See the softball game is Extra Innings.

Well, if the coaching staff does not change the lineup, they could be saying we are starting the players that GIVE US THE BEST CHANCE TO WIN THE GAME. Ouch again!!!!!
 

Tucker said:
Popping out to the catcher in fair territory with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out in the bottom of the 8th....the perfect metaphor for the Gophers right now
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There are too many metaphors this game. But we gotta be pleased that, so far this season, Piper has the pitchers locked in!
 

That was flat dumb. Same situation but we don't run the sucker play. Wth
 

Tucker said:
Are the Gophers going to play the remaining games this weekend....................or are they going to call it a day?
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Well they better play! I spent $30 on the BTN+ Softball package so they better play and give me something to complain about.
 


Going into this last game, Gophers Team Batting Avg .212. I see the team left 14 players on base this game with 29 total so far this season. Oh my goodness. Dray, the 4th batter, has contributed to 11 of those LOB's. Team needs to start rebounding this next game.

I am not there to see these games. Can anybody respond to the players and coaches how they are reacting to these losses?
 

I think we have reached the “pitchers-are-wearing-down” phase of the Big Ten softball weekend. The reason that the Gophers are going to be with the two other favorites to win the Big Ten is that we don’t have to worry too much about pitcher fatigue as compared to the 11 other Big Ten teams with Fiser and Pease.

And that is why I am thankful for the sake of our softball program that the only good thing that came from COVID is that it ended our 2020 season early, causing a 2021 super senior class, that may spare us a thoroughly mediocre, middle-of-the-pack in the Big Ten 2021.
 

I am happy they won, but they still are not hitting the ball. Scored mainly from the opportunity on the 13 walks they had. Both Dray and Kemmetmueller have left the most batters stranded on the bases so far this season.

I have not been keeping up with all the talk. What year will be Piper and her Aissistants First actual recruiting class?
 

MRJ said:
I think you at least stay with Kemmetmueller at third because she's a reliable fielder and has some pop in her bat. With Brandt, she's basically a defensive player and relief pitcher at this point. Do they have somebody else to take over at shortstop? If not, Carlie will stay in the lineup.

I was most disappointed with the ho-hum approach at the plate from everybody. I saw very little fight displayed, especially when they got down in counts. They were far to willing to become the next out. Maryland on the other hand battled much, much harder in the box than any of the Gophers and definitely deserved better than a split. It was a sad sight to watch.

Seems this group will need to be constantly told to dig-in during at-bats because the passivity they displayed yesterday won't win them anything of note, which is apparently a continuation from 2020.
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Points well taken, sadly. The passive approach at the plate against mediocre opponents is extremely depressing to watch. But It's hard to tell if any urgency exists about it. I can't get a handle on what kinds of players they're recruiting for; certainly no power hitters are visible. And no hitting at all from veterans at 3rd base & SS. Recruiting for strength at SS would seem a given. At any rate, the program is shamefully wasting the talents of two very good pitchers. It's that aspect that's hardest to bear.
 

Hrothgar said:
Points well taken, sadly. The passive approach at the plate against mediocre opponents is extremely depressing to watch. But It's hard to tell if any urgency exists about it. I can't get a handle on what kinds of players they're recruiting for; certainly no power hitters are visible. And no hitting at all from veterans at 3rd base & SS. Recruiting for strength at SS would seem a given. At any rate, the program is shamefully wasting the talents of two very good pitchers. It's that aspect that's hardest to bear.
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Gopher68 usually has such a good handle on recruiting but I gotta say that I think they do recruit for power. Evans, Ehlke, Hansen, Kinch, Costa, and so many others on the team had really large home run numbers in high school and pre-college club softball, as compared to their similar age peers. I think they have displayed a lot of power when they connect with the ball. It is the “connecting with the ball” that is the problem. I think there is just orders of magnitude difference in the pitching abilities of 21 year old college trained pitchers as compared to 17 year old pitchers.

I watch some videos and it looks like they are hitting beach balls while if you watch these college games it looks like those women are pitching BBs. Some players seem to just have a knack for making contact. Partain seems to have that knack. Strelow may have some of that knack. Others seem to struggle to keep up with the pace and movement of these college pitchers and I don’t know how you would know that for sure until they get into games and test their reaction time out.
 

Didn't get a chance to watch either game yesterday, but in looking at the box scores, one thing has been clear through four games: This team can't (or hasn't) hit. The offensive production hasn't been average or even slightly off; it's been straight up putrid.

And let's also be honest about what this current team is at the moment: Not top-25 or Big 10 title contender worthy. The pitching is excellent and the fielding is solid, but this lineup is going to lead to a whole lot of losses if they can't figure out how to make solid contact at some point.
 

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