Gopher Softball 2022

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Gopher68 said:
I don't think she planned on losing both Dueck and Hostettler. At the time they left, where did you expect her to find another quality pitcher?
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I think there were those of us that were frustrated to lose Jones (who I was most excited about seeing in the circle more), Dueck, and Hostettler all at the same time wiping out so much margin for error in our pitching staff. Obviously we now understand Dueck based on your information. As for Jones, she was past due playing time. Hostettler we don’t know about her situation but situations happen.

I will say it makes me feel a little better seeing that Jones is being used exclusively as a batter at North Carolina. That makes two sets of eyes that suggest pitching at that college level would have been more of a struggle for her.
 

Today's CAL/MN game wasn't on TV apparently, but it should've been. An even bigger nailbiter, it seems, than the ASU?MN game. CAL had the winning run on 3rd w/ no outs in the bot of the 7th, and Leavitt kept them from scoring. By gutting out all 8 innings, she took a page out of Pease's book from the night before. I'm surprised the game has aroused little comment. Really exciting and gutsy performance by the Gophers. Indicates a strong 3rd pitcher is an absolute necessity, but unlikely to pop up.
 

Hrothgar said:
…a strong 3rd pitcher is an absolute necessity, but unlikely to pop up.
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To be fair to Coach Ritter, Hollifield and maybe Valencia just have to really step up. Hollifield had some good pitching numbers and awards in suburban Atlanta, a softball hotbed. I would think she could be at least a serviceable BIG TEN pitcher. However, on Friday against UTEP she really struggled with her command.

I kinda don’t get how a pitcher can throw no hitters and perfect games in high school and then struggle mightily to throw strikes at all in college. Maybe it has something to do with the minimum velocity necessary in college games? Maybe in high school a pitcher can just float them in there if need be to get strikes without it being guaranteed to come back a millisecond later and knock out all the pitcher’s teeth? don’t know but there must be a reason.

My point is just that Hollifield and/or Valencia have to step up on the mound and perform. Now is their time.
 

Hrothgar said:
Today's CAL/MN game wasn't on TV apparently, but it should've been. An even bigger nailbiter, it seems, than the ASU?MN game. CAL had the winning run on 3rd w/ no outs in the bot of the 7th, and Leavitt kept them from scoring. By gutting out all 8 innings, she took a page out of Pease's book from the night before. I'm surprised the game has aroused little comment. Really exciting and gutsy performance by the Gophers. Indicates a strong 3rd pitcher is an absolute necessity, but unlikely to pop up.
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I followed all the games devotedly on Live Stats. Although IL State is 0-7 they gave everything they had against MN. Great 7th inning rally and a Chloe walk-off was awesome. I was more than pleased to see the comeback from the run rule game vs, ASU. And, yes, as late as it was, I followed to the final out. The Cal game was fun to follow. Their number three hitter is a very tough out. Congratulations to Emily for buckling down in 7 and 8 to get the W. She definitely has the capability to become a top notch pitcher.
 


ClassOf98Gopher said:
To be fair to Coach Ritter, Hollifield and maybe Valencia just have to really step up. Hollifield had some good pitching numbers and awards in suburban Atlanta, a softball hotbed. I would think she could be at least a serviceable BIG TEN pitcher. However, on Friday against UTEP she really struggled with her command.

I kinda don’t get how a pitcher can throw no hitters and perfect games in high school and then struggle mightily to throw strikes at all in college. Maybe it has something to do with the minimum velocity necessary in college games? Maybe in high school a pitcher can just float them in there if need be to get strikes without it being guaranteed to come back a millisecond later and knock out all the pitcher’s teeth? don’t know but there must be a reason.

My point is just that Hollifield and/or Valencia have to step up on the mound and perform. Now is their time.
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Your comments get at the heart of how I see the sport, too.
A) There's the actual performance in the circle/on the mound. If you have a good arm, you can pitch nohitters and perfect games in hs by just blowing fastballs by hitters down the middle of the plate. Every step you go take upward in the game the harder that gets. If you don't adjust & find the corners consistently, you're pretty soon toast for every decent hitter. On the other hand, look at Pease. She has neither the velocity nor the breaking pitches of Groenewegen or Fiser, but when Pease is good she can paint every corner, up & in, down & out with ease. Plus she has a higher softball IQ than the hitters. Some flame throwers can never learn that in a 100 years because they don't have the neural touch for hitting corners or a knack for out-thinking hitters. Pease can have hitters looking confident & then striking out or popping up on the next pitch. Can Hollifield & Valencia do that? Don't know.

B) There're also the psychological intangibles. What if a pitcher comes to college living & dying the game and finds that she/he doesn't especially like or understand the coach or pitching coach or that coach doesn't care so much for the player either. Not antipathy but basic misunderstanding of each other. Or maybe the first-year pitcher is a long way from home & coursework is not going so well & at the same time the pitching coach gabs at you to learn a new pitch that you're not good at. The past few years several pretty talented Gopher pitchers have come & then faded away while Groenewegen & Fiser prospered in the circle. That's probably due to command of their psyche, not just their pitch location. The disaffected athlete is a common commodity. That's why I really admired Pease & Leavitt vs. ASU & CAL. Both of them could've easily said hell with it, not my day, I'm outa here. Instead they stuck with it and won. Not pitching gems but enough to win. No idea what Hollifield & Valencia are made of. Hope they also stick with it.

Sorry for sounding so bombastic, I could've stayed quiet, but I played & coached hs & college baseball and saw both the 1) native native talent for the sport and 2) the mental aspects of it and how they affected players. If the Gophers are going anywhere this 2022 season, they surely need some backup pitching. Hope they find it.
 

Hrothgar said:
Your comments get at the heart of how I see the sport, too.
A) There's the actual performance in the circle/on the mound. If you have a good arm, you can pitch nohitters and perfect games in hs by just blowing fastballs by hitters down the middle of the plate. Every step you go take upward in the game the harder that gets. If you don't adjust & find the corners consistently, you're pretty soon toast for every decent hitter. On the other hand, look at Pease. She has neither the velocity nor the breaking pitches of Groenewegen or Fiser, but when Pease is good she can paint every corner, up & in, down & out with ease. Plus she has a higher softball IQ than the hitters. Some flame throwers can never learn that in a 100 years because they don't have the neural touch for hitting corners or a knack for out-thinking hitters. Pease can have hitters looking confident & then striking out or popping up on the next pitch. Can Hollifield & Valencia do that? Don't know.

B) There're also the psychological intangibles. What if a pitcher comes to college living & dying the game and finds that she/he doesn't especially like or understand the coach or pitching coach or that coach doesn't care so much for the player either. Not antipathy but basic misunderstanding of each other. Or maybe the first-year pitcher is a long way from home & coursework is not going so well & at the same time the pitching coach gabs at you to learn a new pitch that you're not good at. The past few years several pretty talented Gopher pitchers have come & then faded away while Groenewegen & Fiser prospered in the circle. That's probably due to command of their psyche, not just their pitch location. The disaffected athlete is a common commodity. That's why I really admired Pease & Leavitt vs. ASU & CAL. Both of them could've easily said hell with it, not my day, I'm outa here. Instead they stuck with it and won. Not pitching gems but enough to win. No idea what Hollifield & Valencia are made of. Hope they also stick with it.

Sorry for sounding so bombastic, I could've stayed quiet, but I played & coached hs & college baseball and saw both the 1) native native talent for the sport and 2) the mental aspects of it and how they affected players. If the Gophers are going anywhere this 2022 season, they surely need some backup pitching. Hope they find it.
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Thanks for your insight.

I would like to add to your first point that the freshmen pitchers are 18 or just turned 19 and are pitching to 22 and 23 year old players that are seasoned to the college game. It is a huge step for them. I have not heard of a U14 player on a U18 roster - that would be a similar jump.

As to your second point, the time commitment to play a college sport may be more than the player anticipated. There are more important things in life than softball. Also, there is little future in softball after college. So, if softball is monopolizing your life, you may reconsider its importance.
 
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To me it's like QB's in football. HS stars go to college and find they're not good enough anymore. College stars, including Heisman winners, go to NFL and fail all the time. If you're not recruiting the top PGF pitchers it's probably a crap shoot and probably still is then too.
 

Gopher68 said:
Thanks for your insight.

I would like to add to your first point that the freshmen pitchers are 17 or just turned 18 and are pitching to 22 and 23 year old players that are seasoned to the college game. It is a huge step for them. I have not heard of a U14 player on a U18 roster - that would be a similar jump.

As to your second point, the time commitment to play a college sport may be more than the player anticipated. There are more important things in life than softball. Also, there is little future in softball after college. So, if softball is monopolizing your life, you may reconsider its importance.
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Thanks. You said succinctly in 6 lines what it took me forever to try to say.
 



The three teams the Gophers play a combined 5 games against this weekend are a combined 18-7. This won’t be a super easy weekend either; these opponents know how to win.

Oh, and regarding past teams we played against, Longwood is good this year and Grand Canyon University is not bad.

This is a tough pre-conference schedule.
 

Good insight by everyone. I think those last three games were the most exciting 3 game stretch that I've ever seen.
The Gophers may struggle in some of these pre Big Ten weekends because of pitching depth but when the Big Ten season starts with playing only one game a day and just three on the week-end they will be really competitive. Both Autumn and Emily have had times of being really good. Hopefully they will continue to be more consistent.
Hitting wise they seem to be able to hit through the lineup. I think their team batting average is around .300
 

The pitchers absolutely deserve credit for hanging in there and working hard but lets face it... the hitters who were not performing came alive to save the weekend! Every time the a pitcher had a bad inning the TEAM had their back.... That is huge!
 

Friday's game with UNI is Live Stats only. For the tech savvy, is it absolutely impossible to see any streaming or televised showing of the game?
 



Hrothgar said:
Friday's game with UNI is Live Stats only. For the tech savvy, is it absolutely impossible to see any streaming or televised showing of the game?
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I’ve tried to watch streaming softball games that are just a single video camera shot without announcers, just field notice. As a softball team fan, you are much better off by just following Live Stats.
 

Caesars odds for national champion. Great value on Oklahoma, potentially on Florida but don't see anyone besides Oklahoma having a chance

Oklahoma 3
Alabama 5
UCLA 6
OK St, FSU, FL 10
Wash 12
Arizona 20
Virginia tech 22
Texas 25
Oregon, Arkansas, Michigan 28
Duke, Georgia 30
LSU, Missouri 35
...
Gophers 75
 


3 hr 11 rbi in 11 games, just shows further like with Denson and Lindner getting at bats and who wasn't last year that the current coaching staff isn't evaluating hitting very well at all
 




rowdaboat said:
NW could be hosting supers this year

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I doubt it. They are good, don’t get me wrong. But that have notoriously faded at the end of their past 3 seasons (excluding the COVID season of 2020) after strong starts. I suspect Rachel Lewis hates the Gophers - we have had their number.
 

Does anyone know how to access the visual of gophers and Charlotte at 5 pm? The site refuses to accept a username.
 

Hrothgar said:
Does anyone know how to access the visual of gophers and Charlotte at 5 pm? The site refuses to accept a username.
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You would probably want to look away anyway; at least through 2 innings.

We are going to have to put up a ton of runs on the board to even have any chance at all.
 


rowdaboat said:
Kianna could be a worse transfer miss than Lindaman

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I would be much, much more frustrated with her transfer if she were successfully pitching for North Carolina; or even serviceably pitching innings at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to see her go this past summer, but everyone knows where we appear paper thin, and that is in the pitching department.
 

If I'm going to mention great wins, I have to mention bad losses. Charlotte is a bad loss. Pease with a bad inning cost the game.
 

mngolf said:
If I'm going to mention great wins, I have to mention bad losses. Charlotte is a bad loss. Pease with a bad inning cost the game.
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Ok, I’ll ask, why is that a bad loss? Losing to top 20 team… at their home field… at their annual tournament… by one run doesn’t seem that bad to me.
 

Their best win is vs. James Madison. Nothing else impressive. Charlotte is not a program I feel MN should be losing to. Makes no difference to me where it is as Gophers play on the road for weeks every year. Having your "ace" on the mound and giving up 4 in an inning are also bad.
 

mngolf said:
Their best win is vs. James Madison. Nothing else impressive. Charlotte is not a program I feel MN should be losing to. Makes no difference to me where it is as Gophers play on the road for weeks every year. Having your "ace" on the mound and giving up 4 in an inning are also bad.
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James Madison is a strong program! They were one if the last four teams in the Women’s college World Series just last year!
 

My point all along has been that the Gophers lack a dominant pitcher, who shuts down top teams from the first batter on. Right now they have two good starters, who would be fine #2 or #3 starters on a top 10 or top 5 team. Likely a lot of games like v. Grand Canyon & Charlotte are in store.
 

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