Yes, I thought maybe our right handed hitters should have moved an inch or two farther away from the plate, or alternatively up in the box to hit the screwball before it broke too far inside. Make her command the outside corner, which she never did because she didn’t have to. The only other solution would be to simply take those pitches. Some almost seemed if they would have hit us if we hadn’t swung and hit yet another hard shot out of play to the left. Adams spins it very well, but she won’t blow anyone away with her velocity.
I wonder who MN's hitting coach is. All these things are surely obvious to the MN coaches? Yet no apparent adjustments. I thought Iowa pretty much awarded game 3 to the Gophers by taking Vaxaquez out after one out in the 9th. Yet MN's better hitters had blasted her in the 6th inning of game 1. Maybve Gillespie was trying to avoid that scenario again w/ Chavez, Oakland, & Krapf coming up?
3-0 with 16 shutout inning. It was a given she would get itAutumn Pease is the BIG pitcher of the week. Well deserved!
Pease Named B1G Pitcher of the Week - University of Minnesota Athletics
The honor marks her second of the season and third of her careergophersports.com
She richly deserves it. Very tough to face a team two days in a row and shut them out both times. We need Autumn and our other key performers to step it up now, so it was nice to see her hitting her spots so well this weekend. The curve on the outside corner to the righties was particularly nasty and well-placed.
Very happy for her. You could see how excited she was doing the row/chop motion as she headed home from third. And the reaction of her teammates was awesome, too, as it was for Amani Bradley’s first HR as a Gopher in the 1st inning of Game 2.
Your statement piqued my interest so I went back and ran a quick check and by my count Pease is on a 34-inning scoreless streak, all the way back to the 5th inning of the first Indiana game. Anyone please correct me if I counted wrong. The entire pitching staff is on a long no earned run streak, I believe. I will go back and check that and report below.
True. I found myself thinking the same thing, although Wisconsin probably isn’t the most athletic-looking bunch in the league. I think Ohio State has some impressive athletes. Can’t wait to see how we compare to them.
| SCHOOL | CONF | PCT. | HOME | AWAY | STREAK | OVERALL | PCT. | HOME | AWAY | NEUTRAL | LAST 10 | STREAK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northwestern | 15-2 | .882 | 7-0 | 8-2 | W1 | 30-10 | .750 | 8-0 | 11-5 | 11-5 | 9-1 | W1 |
| Nebraska | 12-5 | .706 | 6-3 | 6-2 | W1 | 32-14 | .696 | 7-3 | 11-5 | 14-6 | 7-3 | W1 |
| Indiana | 12-5 | .706 | 6-3 | 6-2 | W3 | 34-15 | .694 | 11-4 | 13-4 | 10-7 | 4-6 | W3 |
| Minnesota | 11-6 | .647 | 7-2 | 4-4 | W5 | 30-16 | .652 | 12-2 | 6-10 | 12-4 | 9-1 | W5 |
| Ohio State | 10-7 | .588 | 6-3 | 4-4 | W2 | 30-15 | .667 | 8-4 | 10-8 | 12-3 | 8-2 | W2 |
| Michigan | 10-7 | .588 | 4-3 | 6-4 | L1 | 24-18 | .571 | 7-3 | 7-8 | 10-7 | 7-3 | L1 |
| Iowa | 8-9 | .471 | 3-5 | 5-4 | L3 | 28-20 | .583 | 3-5 | 10-6 | 15-9 | 5-5 | L3 |
| Wisconsin | 8-9 | .471 | 2-6 | 6-3 | L3 | 23-18 | .561 | 4-7 | 9-5 | 10-6 | 2-8 | L3 |
| Maryland | 7-10 | .412 | 5-4 | 2-6 | L1 | 31-15 | .674 | 10-5 | 6-7 | 15-3 | 5-5 | L1 |
| Penn State | 7-10 | .412 | 4-4 | 3-6 | W1 | 26-14 | .650 | 8-5 | 9-6 | 9-3 | 6-4 | W1 |
| Rutgers | 7-10 | .412 | 3-5 | 4-5 | L8 | 30-20 | .600 | 9-5 | 9-11 | 12-4 | 2-8 | L8 |
| Illinois | 6-11 | .353 | 4-6 | 2-5 | W3 | 28-21 | .571 | 10-7 | 5-11 | 13-3 | 5-5 | W4 |
| Purdue | 4-13 | .235 | 1-7 | 3-6 | L2 | 21-26 | .447 | 4-8 | 5-13 | 12-5 | 4-6 | L2 |
| Michigan State | 2-15 | .118 | 2-8 | 0-7 | L4 | 12-28 | .300 | 4-9 | 1-11 | 7-8 | 1-9 | L4 |
Nebraska is at Northwestern and Indiana is at Michigan, so we have a good shot at positioning ourselves for the 2-seed in the B1G Tournament if we play well in Columbus.
We posters here have been writing all season about the relative importance of run production and pitching. We'll need plenty of both from here on out. Gophers have the talent. Can they put it all together?
Minnesota has the better pitching, whereas Ohio State has the better offense. We'll see this weekend if good pitching beats good hitting or vice versa.
Defense will be important. You can't give a good hitting team 4 outs in an inning.
Despite the defensive meltdown at East Lansing, Minnesota is actually fielding at a .976 clip (.980 is the gold standard) in B1G play, good for 3rd in the conference.
I would say that we have seen some very simple errors with our defense happen this year. Also the fact that we see errors that seem to get changed after the game seems to indicate that coach is being easy on the fielders. The fact that we’re last in the big 10 in turning double plays show me our basic ability is less than many other teams. Ohio is much better at turning doubles and with our lack of hitting it will be a huge challenge. Simply looking at stats doesn’t tell the Gophers true defense skill level or the lack of it.
Errors get changed after every game for every team. That isn't a "gopher only" thing. And as a reminder, if you are taking errors away from fielders, your are giving hits against the pitchers. You're looking for something that isn't there. Fact the we have the fewest double plays...might be the most insane comment I've read in a long time. Double plays don't just happen...you've got the B10 leader in K's on the the team, not getting double plays isn't a matter of not being able to field...you do understand the chance needs to be there to even attempt a double play.