Gopher softball 2023

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I think Piper can restore the Gophers to a top level team with continued success in recruiting. The biggest problem is the portal as players will seek out national championship contenders instead of playing for the school who recruited them and building that program into a NCAA championship contender.
 

Nipomo 56 said:
I think Piper can restore the Gophers to a top level team with continued success in recruiting. The biggest problem is the portal as players will seek out national championship contenders instead of playing for the school who recruited them and building that program into a NCAA championship contender.
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No question the portal is an issue for northern teams. When even former marquee programs like Michigan start losing their stars, you know times have changed. The BG10 for softball isn’t the transfer pipeline that MAC is for football, but it’s headed in that direction.
 

Panthadad2 said:
No question the portal is an issue for northern teams. When even former marquee programs like Michigan start losing their stars, you know times have changed. The BG10 for softball isn’t the transfer pipeline that MAC is for football, but it’s headed in that direction.
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This is truth.
 

Beat Virginia 2-1 in 8. Got one top 7 to tie it and 1 top 8 to win
 

It looks like Pease pitched lights out. I hope the coaches can figure out the batting lineup to help turn all those LOBs into runs.
 




True, the Allister era was great. But lots of exciting wins mixed with some excruciating losses then, too, not to be forgotten. Her key to success was superior recruiting. Piper and assistants can have the same success, if they consistently bring in talent like Oakland and build on that. This year's team can be all right if Pease gets help in the circle (which Hambrick showed signs v. Virginia) and bottom half of the lineup starts hitting. Up or grabs on those fronts. (Btw, what's become of nr. 7? Is she injured?)
 

Hrothgar said:
True, the Allister era was great. But lots of exciting wins mixed with some excruciating losses then, too, not to be forgotten. Her key to success was superior recruiting. Piper and assistants can have the same success, if they consistently bring in talent like Oakland and build on that. This year's team can be all right if Pease gets help in the circle (which Hambrick showed signs v. Virginia) and bottom half of the lineup starts hitting. Up or grabs on those fronts. (Btw, what's become of nr. 7? Is she injured?)
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In a game against North Carolina, she slid awkwardly into second on a steal and was slow to get up. It looked to me as though she injured her left arm or shoulder. Hopefully, they sat her for precautionary reasons.
 



Our softball team better be strong in their pitching and hitting next year or this weekend will be ugly:
 

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The first two weekends have shown to be extremely unpredictable. Many top ranked teams have lost to lesser opponents. The latest example is Oklahoma losing to Baylor. I know that Baylor isn't chopped liver, but some considered Oklahoma, with their stars augmented with transfers, unbeatable.
 

I trust that Piper and company will make the adjustments at the plate going forward. I know it’s silly but we have to remember that prior to Florida the only live pitching they saw was indoors. I have full confidence in our roster. We can all agree that the talent is there, hell, we’ve all seen it. Now it’s just a matter of putting it all together. Pitching will keep us in games,
 

GopherAlum03 said:
I trust that Piper and company will make the adjustments at the plate going forward. I know it’s silly but we have to remember that prior to Florida the only live pitching they saw was indoors. I have full confidence in our roster. We can all agree that the talent is there, hell, we’ve all seen it. Now it’s just a matter of putting it all together. Pitching will keep us in games,
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Hopefully you're right. The potential is there. Valencia seems to have an abundance of talent. If she starts hitting, it would be a huge plus.
 



Opportunity for some big quality wins this weekend against Baylor and Maryland.
 

Pitching so far seems adequate. Can they keep it up? Just need to play better defense and offense.
 

mngolf said:
Pitching so far seems adequate. Can they keep it up? Just need to play better defense and offense.
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Is Pease’s shoulder holding up better (at least through these first two weekends) than it did during the 2022 and half of the 2021 season?

I think I read that she may have had some reparative shoulder surgery? Maybe that worked?
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
Is Pease’s shoulder holding up better (at least through these first two weekends) than it did during the 2022 and half of the 2021 season?

I think I read that she may have had some reparative shoulder surgery? Maybe that worked?
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She had surgery in the summer before last year. Her innings were reduced last season. She seems to have more endurance and is pitching very well.
 


I'm skeptical about this upcoming weekend. Both Baylor and Maryland are better than UNC and Virginia, including better pitching. Minnesota really struggled offensively against pretty middle of the road pitching this past weekend. The Gophs definitely have the talent to compete with and beat Baylor and Maryland, but they haven't put the pieces of the puzzle together yet. On the other hand, if Minnesota can have a strong showing, this could be a turning point for the season. How do people think this is gonna go?
 

John3298 said:
I'm skeptical about this upcoming weekend. Both Baylor and Maryland are better than UNC and Virginia, including better pitching. Minnesota really struggled offensively against pretty middle of the road pitching this past weekend. The Gophs definitely have the talent to compete with and beat Baylor and Maryland, but they haven't put the pieces of the puzzle together yet. On the other hand, if Minnesota can have a strong showing, this could be a turning point for the season. How do people think this is gonna go?
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I honestly feel coming out of this weekend, they need a split between the Maryland/Baylor games. A&M commerce has to be a win. I don't see them winning both games vs Maryland and Baylor in the pool games. Maryland is 8-1 and their only loss was to Cal Baptist (Mike Smith head coach) which also no hit Wisconsin on opening weekend. Baylor is 8-1, and their only loss was to #7 Arkansas where they scored 7 runs to Arkansas 11.

If they come out and go 2-2 vs Maryland and Baylor, that is a successful weekend. But these teams will give us problems. Both teams will pressure you on the bases, and have about 25 stolen base attempts each. For comparison...we have 10 total attempts. And both of these teams are stealing bases at a high percentage. So we need to limit walks/errors/HBP, etc...keeping them off the bases has to be priority number 1.

Baylor pitching is definitely better than Maryland, but we need to have more consistent at bats. Too many k's and pop ups for my liking. The ball has to be put in play.

0-3 vs Baylor and Maryland is not a good sign for the Gopher squad. Which then means they need to beat Commerce twice and against a 2-9 team that is bad shouldn't be a problem. But I thought the same thing vs Colgate....so...yeah.
 

John3298 said:
I'm skeptical about this upcoming weekend. Both Baylor and Maryland are better than UNC and Virginia, including better pitching. Minnesota really struggled offensively against pretty middle of the road pitching this past weekend. The Gophs definitely have the talent to compete with and beat Baylor and Maryland, but they haven't put the pieces of the puzzle together yet. On the other hand, if Minnesota can have a strong showing, this could be a turning point for the season. How do people think this is gonna go?
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I'm skeptical as well. But it's early enough in the season and the pitching seems adequate, that I'll still give them a chance to put it together. But they're running out of time with me before my expectations for the season drop through the floor.
 

Chase the Rise said:
I honestly feel coming out of this weekend, they need a split between the Maryland/Baylor games. A&M commerce has to be a win. I don't see them winning both games vs Maryland and Baylor in the pool games. Maryland is 8-1 and their only loss was to Cal Baptist (Mike Smith head coach) which also no hit Wisconsin on opening weekend. Baylor is 8-1, and their only loss was to #7 Arkansas where they scored 7 runs to Arkansas 11.

If they come out and go 2-2 vs Maryland and Baylor, that is a successful weekend. But these teams will give us problems. Both teams will pressure you on the bases, and have about 25 stolen base attempts each. For comparison...we have 10 total attempts. And both of these teams are stealing bases at a high percentage. So we need to limit walks/errors/HBP, etc...keeping them off the bases has to be priority number 1.

Baylor pitching is definitely better than Maryland, but we need to have more consistent at bats. Too many k's and pop ups for my liking. The ball has to be put in play.

0-3 vs Baylor and Maryland is not a good sign for the Gopher squad. Which then means they need to beat Commerce twice and against a 2-9 team that is bad shouldn't be a problem. But I thought the same thing vs Colgate....so...yeah.
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I was really impressed in 2022 by the Maryland HC. He seemed a veteran, who knew the game and had an organized team on the field playing with a purpose.
 


Weird that the Gophs don't publish the season stats online. Keeping it on the down low.
 


junc1929 said:
they do if you google "2023 gopher softball stats." for whatever reason they don't show up on the stats page. pretty silly.

gophersports.com

University of Minnesota Athletics

University of Minnesota Athletics
gophersports.com gophersports.com
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It’s worse than silly. It’s very frustrating. I complained about this same problem with the softball team’s website on this forum last year. No other NCAA softball team’s website that I have encountered doesn’t have an easy to navigate to current year stats page on their “stats” drop-down menu. Just the Gophers.

Nowadays, I just google “2023 gopher softball stats” five darn times a weekend.
 
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Kinch struggling at ASU so far. Surprises me a little.
 


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