Gopher Softball 2022

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Chase the Rise said:
Just to be accurate...Charlotte is good, maybe not quite top 20 (they are receiving votes), but they just knocked off a talented Virginia Tech team that was ranked #5 5-2....Rochard pitched for VA Tech, so it's a legit win.
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No doubt. Just saw that score. I clearly underestimated them.
 

MNsoftballfan said:
No doubt. Just saw that score. I clearly underestimated them.
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If Charlotte is good enough to blank the Gophers, completely it seems, yet only good enough to RV nationally, that would seem to leave the Gophers way down on the national ranking list. What's needed for MN to rise higher? Hopefully they have it in them.
 

They probably would need to shock the world this wknd
 

Oklahoma St should be beatable with 2 tries they've been struggling. Oklahoma on the road anything within dozen runs is a moral victory
 

Hrothgar said:
If Charlotte is good enough to blank the Gophers, completely it seems, yet only good enough to RV nationally, that would seem to leave the Gophers way down on the national ranking list. What's needed for MN to rise higher? Hopefully they have it in them.
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I think this is the big issue for fans like me. After 7 or 8 years of being a top 25 team (and a couple years as a top 10 team) I now may have to accept that this team is more like a 30-40 team in the nation. We will see for sure over the next few days, but that seems likely to me - and it’s all about the pitching as our lineup is as good as most of the lineups we have had over the years. Molton, Fiser, and especially Groenewagen were able to keep us in the games against really good teams. Without them, we may just not be at that level anymore.

There is plenty of good news for this team. Even being a top 40 team means we are still probably in the top 3 of the Big Ten. And Pease and Leavitt are good pitchers that will be able to win a lot of games this year. The Gophers are not going to always be able to luck out and have a top-5 national pitcher like Groenewagen or a top-15-20 pitcher like Fiser on our team.

Welcome the new, and totally reasonable, normal.
 


Probably a dumb question but what does RV with respect to a team mean? I agree you need a dominant pitcher to be really competitive, especially if you aren't lights out offensively. Need to find the next Groenewagen.
 

TNGophfan said:
Probably a dumb question but what does RV with respect to a team mean? I agree you need a dominant pitcher to be really competitive, especially if you aren't lights out offensively. Need to find the next Groenewagen.
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RV = “Receiving Votes” in the USA Today Coaches top 25 poll or ESPN top 25 Poll.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
I think this is the big issue for fans like me. After 7 or 8 years of being a top 25 team (and a couple years as a top 10 team) I now may have to accept that this team is more like a 30-40 team in the nation. We will see for sure over the next few days, but that seems likely to me - and it’s all about the pitching as our lineup is as good as most of the lineups we have had over the years. Molton, Fiser, and especially Groenewagen were able to keep us in the games against really good teams. Without them, we may just not be at that level anymore.

There is plenty of good news for this team. Even being a top 40 team means we are still probably in the top 3 of the Big Ten. And Pease and Leavitt are good pitchers that will be able to win a lot of games this year. The Gophers are not going to always be able to luck out and have a top-5 national pitcher like Groenewagen or a top-15-20 pitcher like Fiser on our team.

Welcome the new, and totally reasonable, normal.
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The true Top 10 programs who always recruit the consensus top players are usually more stable. It is exceedingly hard to consistently remain in the next echelon of teams, however. This next group of teams in the 11-25 range are often built on the backs of a dominant pitcher and some solid hitting. If you lose that for even a year, the team will often fall out of the top 25. Conversely, if someone that had been in the 26-40 range picks up a stud pitcher and some strong bats, they jump up.
 




ecoperson said:
The true Top 10 programs who always recruit the consensus top players are usually more stable. It is exceedingly hard to consistently remain in the next echelon of teams, however. This next group of teams in the 11-25 range are often built on the backs of a dominant pitcher and some solid hitting. If you lose that for even a year, the team will often fall out of the top 25. Conversely, if someone that had been in the 26-40 range picks up a stud pitcher and some strong bats, they jump up.
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This. This. 1000 times this. Perfect analysis.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
This. This. 1000 times this. Perfect analysis.
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Sadly, I think we are going to be exposed this year due to lack of pitching depth. A Pease injury and I think the wheels could come off very quickly. I hope that Piper can catch a little magic again soon! Would love another Fiser, Groenewegen, or Moultron in the pipeline... am I asking too much?!
 





ecoperson said:
The true Top 10 programs who always recruit the consensus top players are usually more stable. It is exceedingly hard to consistently remain in the next echelon of teams, however. This next group of teams in the 11-25 range are often built on the backs of a dominant pitcher and some solid hitting. If you lose that for even a year, the team will often fall out of the top 25. Conversely, if someone that had been in the 26-40 range picks up a stud pitcher and some strong bats, they jump up.
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Michigan isn't top 10 but always top 20. That's what I expect.
 


mngolf said:
I'll take this win.
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Yes, today it felt good to avoid losing to a team that's 6-10 on the season. Still, 2 things in this game epitomized Gopher softball shortcomings of the past 2+ seasons. 1) if our starting pitcher had avoided BB, she would've eaily won about 7-2. 2) in the 6th inning at 6-6, bases full w/ a chance to blow the game wide open, 2 batters who have power meekly piddled a grounder to 2nd and then struck out swinging, needlessly prolonging the opponent's hope of winning. If the team is to be top 10 or 20, as posters are writing here, we need game clinching performances earlier in games that immediately get opponents playing from behind. It doesn't feel good to be this critical; don't know if the situation is on the coaches or the players.
 



I can barely believe we are playing Stanford (Allister) tomorrow. It kinda sucks and I am nervous about it.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
The very second Ritter is the winningest head coach in the history of College Softball, then your expectation will become a fair one.
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So the program doesn't matter, it's only the coach? Think SEC teams that change coaches immediately lower expectations?
 


mngolf said:
So the program doesn't matter, it's only the coach? Think SEC teams that change coaches immediately lower expectations?
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I think Carol Hutchins is special.

I also have been especially proud of how the Gopher softball program has responded to the loses of Allister, Lindaman, Brandner, and a coaching staff not to be named (but now in Oxford, MS), all within the last 5 years yet despite all that is a pretty competitive team.

Go Gophers!!!
 

mngolf said:
So the program doesn't matter, it's only the coach? Think SEC teams that change coaches immediately lower expectations?
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SEC teams are at a whole different level due to their advantages in spring weather and history. We've debated on this site about how the SEC teams get an unfair bump in ratings but they do tend to attract more talent than northern schools.
 

ecoperson said:
SEC teams are at a whole different level due to their advantages in spring weather and history. We've debated on this site about how the SEC teams get an unfair bump in ratings but they do tend to attract more talent than northern schools.
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Better spring weather? Yes. Lower academic requirements? Probably. NCAA indifference/favoritism? Apparently.
 

ecoperson said:
SEC teams are at a whole different level due to their advantages in spring weather and history. We've debated on this site about how the SEC teams get an unfair bump in ratings but they do tend to attract more talent than northern schools.
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And I'm not asking for top 10 all the time. Just regularly make top 20 or at least ranked. That's not asking too much for this program.
 

mngolf said:
And I'm not asking for top 10 all the time. Just regularly make top 20 or at least ranked. That's not asking too much for this program.
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We've been a consistent top 20 team for around a decade. Recent coaching shuffles and loss of all-time Gophers in the form of a stud workhorse pitchers and clutch hitters has us sliding down a bit the last couple of years.

We'll see how Pease holds up over the season and whether Leavitt can get locked in enough to provide Pease some rest. We'll see whether the offense can get going because it has lacked clutch hitting the last couple of years.

It seems cliche to say it but we won't make that jump back into the top 20 this year if we don't get a little bit of both. We may simply be a top 4 B1G team this year.
 


mngolf said:
Wow was that ugly
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I know I’m a broken record on this but I believe we were so lucky to have that COVID year last year that allowed Fiser to have that extra year to at least bridge us to Leavitt. Can you imagine some of the ugliness in some games last year with pitchers on last year’s roster that had less tools than Leavitt? I think it could have been an embarrassing number of ugly games last year.

As to this year… I know we have all been saying pitching was going to be key, but it just hasn’t played out like I expected months ago. I thought we would be weaker at the one and two starting pitcher spots than we are used to being but that we could throw bodies at our opponents as well with lots of relief pitchers. But those extra pitchers on the roster are almost all gone. So we are not as strong at 1 and 2 starters as we are used to being AND thinner in the bullpen. Not good!

What happened to Hostettler?
 


Suspended play with bases loaded no outs for gophers. 8 walks lucky for Leavitt to only give up 1 run
 

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