Gopher softball 2023

[4EverAGopher]

Hoping Pease can shut them down. She seems to have struggled in the 7th a few games this season after having a great game up until then.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

But… Pease is throwing a no-no.

She lost the no-hitter on a bunt. That’s too bad.

 

[4EverAGopher]

Great win for Pease. Will she start the next game? Yep, stupid bunt!

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

Great win for Pease. Will she start the next game? Yep, stupid bunt!

I would keep her going as she is warm but didn’t throw too many pitches (only 80) in the last game.

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

Great win for Pease. Will she start the next game?

My guess is Hambrick, let's just hope she can duplicate what she did against them yesterday. She goes 3-4 innings and then gives Schwartz some innings hoping we can score some runs along the way, only using Pease in case of an emergency.

 

[rowdaboat]

Liberty up on ucla in 7th

 

[rowdaboat]

And liberty won

 

[dlw4gophers]

Let’s get this done ladies. Hambrick on the mound. Bottom of 2, no score

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

Exact carbon copy of last matchup with McNeese, gets a leadoff hit and then three straight flyouts or gets a rally going with two out only to have it wasted.

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

Might as well put in Pease as this could very well be her final collegiate game.

 

[SHGopher]

Might as well put in Pease as this could very well be her final collegiate game.

And what a great year she had.

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

Damn, that Nebraska-Wichita St game is crazy. Down three in the 7th and comeback and tie it, down two in the 9th and they tie it again.

 

[rowdaboat]

Non-existent clutch hitting both nights

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

By my own definition of expecting the Gophers to play at least four games in the NCAA regionals for the weekend to be a good one… this weekend was not that.

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

That was a very frustrating game to watch, stave off elimination just to get shutout. We were rolling going into the B1G tournament and ever since then the wheels have just fallen off. Smh.

 

[Gophearl]

Tough tournament, but IMO a good season. Thank You Ladies!

 

[John3298]

28 hits on the weekend but only 8 runs. Until Minnesota learns how to actually manufacture runs instead of swinging for the fences, they will never have sustained success. Pitching did its job this weekend. This is on the bats.

 

[SHGopher]

Season tickets have a waiting list. This is a great team with a strong following. Can't win them all.

 

[Nipomo 56]

We are leaving a lot of runners on base.

Too many missed opportunities by the gophers. Last time I heard the announcer mention the the opportunities with runners in scoring position was 4 for 24. Would of liked to see them play Washington just to see how they stacked up against the huskies. Overall a good season. With 7 freshman coming in it should be interesting next season. I think Hambrick and Schwartz will be a good foundation for the pitching with a couple of freshman arms. Maybe a transfer for additional experience. Interesting that Enter didn’t make a appearance in the tournament.

 

[rwlarson]

That was a very frustrating game to watch, stave off elimination just to get shutout. We were rolling going into the B1G tournament and ever since then the wheels have just fallen off. Smh.

Maybe with the 3rd paid coaching position we can get someone who can help with situational hitting. We hit the ball hard a lot this weekend but the opponent positions its defense with a purpose. In certain situations you have to look specifically for pitches in locations that don’t force you to hit the ball right at defenders.

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

Season tickets have a waiting list. This is a great team with a strong following. Can't win them all.

If you want to be competitive, you can't be losing 1-0 to teams like McNeese State. If they played at their potential, they had a really good shot at taking down Washington but I guess we'll never know now.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

If you want to be competitive, you can't be losing 1-0 to teams like McNeese State. If they played at their potential, they had a really good shot at taking down Washington but I guess we'll never know now.

“Competitive”… what do you mean by that word?

On the positive side, no similarly situated team to the Gophers (meaning Big Ten Team) has been to as many NCAA tournaments as us since 2014.

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

Too many missed opportunities by the gophers. Last time I heard the announcer mention the the opportunities with runners in scoring position was 4 for 24. Would of liked to see them play Washington just to see how they stacked up against the huskies. Overall a good season. With 7 freshman coming in it should be interesting next season. I think Hambrick and Schwartz will be a good foundation for the pitching with a couple of freshman arms. Maybe a transfer for additional experience. Interesting that Enter didn’t make a appearance in the tournament.

I really don't want to single any player out, but where the hell was Krapf? Lead the team in RBI and HR, totally non-existent in the postseason.

 

[WayOfTheGopher]

“Competitive”… what do you mean by that word?

On the positive side, no similarly situated team to the Gophers (meaning Big Ten Team) has been to as many NCAA tournaments as us since 2014.

I guess you're in the "just happy to be here" camp.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

I guess you're in the "just happy to be here" camp.

Yeah… the non-delusional camp.

 

[#2Gopher]

Tough loss. I missed the 2nd game and see that they took advantage of the little opportunities in the 2nd inning (walk, groundout advance, and then one single). I really thought we could have pulled this one off.

As I didn't see it, if they are really trying to hit home runs every at bat, something is wrong. You'll lose just about every time. That sounds like a desperation type at bat that typically doesn't pay off.
I really thought that they would win at least two games. Agreed, would have been fun to watch them play against Washington.

Good season with a little hole at the end.

 

[bleedsmaroonandgold]

Yeah… the non-delusional camp.

I don't think it was delusional to expect us to at least play a game against Washington this weekend.

 

[ClassOf98Gopher]

I don't think it was delusional to expect us to at least play a game against Washington this weekend.

No it wasn’t. I expected to be entertained by tracking their play today. I am disappointed.

In fact, I expected them to be playing in the Big Ten Championship game. I was disappointed last week at this time.

In my mind, those are extremely high expectations for a program whose location means that the only home series where their fans didn’t have to wear blankets to the game was the final series of the regular season.

My delusional comment was in direct response to a series of posts that conveyed extreme upset every time the Gophers didn’t win each game they played.

 

[rwlarson]

“Competitive”… what do you mean by that word?

On the positive side, no similarly situated team to the Gophers (meaning Big Ten Team) has been to as many NCAA tournaments as us since 2014.

And I’d like to remind everyone that I consider UCLA to be extremely competitive, but they just went out and lost back-to-back home games to Grand Canyon and Liberty.

Some Gopher fans feel that our team doesn’t get enough respect nationally for their accomplishments and that’s why missed opportunities on the national stage hurt so much.

And to that, I won’t say they are wrong. For example, one of the announcers mentioned our 10-season NCAA tourney streak, and McNeese’s three season streak, then made the inane comment that the next step for these programs was reaching a super regional, without mentioning that we have been to two supers and one WCWS during that run, and that one of our players (Den Hartog) actually has WCWS experience.

 

[rwlarson]

I really don't want to single any player out, but where the hell was Krapf? Lead the team in RBI and HR, totally non-existent in the postseason.

If you are going to single out a player, Krapf isn’t who you should be singling out. She didn’t have a good weekend, but she drove in the tying run in the 6th inning of the first game, and she represented the run that was thrown out at the plate.

She isn’t a player who likes to take walks, yet she also walked twice. I said in an earlier post that what she needs is protection behind her in the order so pitchers have to come in to her and not constantly try to get her to chase marginal pitches. I hope the coaches realize this and alter the primary batting order next year to give her that protection.

I know this is unconventional, but a lineup of Ehlke leading off (she makes pitchers work and will take a walk), Chavez, Krapf, and Oakland is something that I think would work well. Then put someone like Gardner in the fifth spot as a kind of leadoff hitter for the second half of the order and have the philosophy that the job of the second half of the order is to manufacture runs by stealing bases, moving runners, etc.