Gopher softball 2023

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Chavez has a will to win that needs to rub off on the rest of the team (except for Pease; she’s unflappable when she’s on).

We did manage to go 2-2 on getting bunts down in this game, so that’s another little positive takeaway.

Hats off to Pease and Chavez!

Did anyone else notice Strelow seems to have cut down her swing considerably? It worked for an infield hit today.

Leschber continues to impress with her swing. Oakland needs to work her way out of a deep slump, as does Bradley.

Tomorrow should be a completely different type of game. Let’s get another W!
 

Great that we got that win! Nice to see that
Chavez sees the ball and makes solid contact at almost every at bat. That kid is rocking!

Not sure about the effort by the right fielder in tracking down that fly ball but maybe the wind pushed it around, hard to tell. Overall the defense did just enough to get the game won, we just need the batters to step up and Chavez did!

Not sure if we can sweep all 3, but I really don’t view Penn as a top level team.
 

Sweeping all 3 is a must after going 0-3.
 



I was impressed with Chavez last year ( as a freshman playing 3rd. I am also impressed with many of the players in the starting line up that are FRESHMAN or players that have not had the experience that is needed to be good. I am looking forward to seeing this team stick together and winning in the next few years. I know call me a homer but this team as young as they are has a ton of potential with experience Just my opinion
 

twinsbballfan said:
okay I’m sure Hrothgar is going to trash our pitching!
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I try to comment only on what I perceive happening on the field. As an old-time pitcher myself, I mainly notice what's going on in the softball circle or baseball diamond, but I am no expert. I appreciate being corrected, if indeed it is a correction.
 

LarBear said:
I was impressed with Chavez last year ( as a freshman playing 3rd. I am also impressed with many of the players in the starting line up that are FRESHMAN or players that have not had the experience that is needed to be good. I am looking forward to seeing this team stick together and winning in the next few years. I know call me a homer but this team as young as they are has a ton of potential with experience Just my opinion
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Agree with everything but needing experience. With what travel ball is now, they got their experience already. Tourneys and teams have both higher stakes and level of play than most of their college games. Not all, but most.
 

mngolf said:
Agree with everything but needing experience. With what travel ball is now, they got their experience already. Tourneys and teams have both higher stakes and level of play than most of their college games. Not all, but most.
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I don’t buy this.

The average college player (and I am going to limit my window as to “college” to let’s say the top 150 RPI NCAA teams) is going to be bigger, faster, stronger, and all around better than the average 18U club team player. In part this is going to be true because the average college player is going to be 20 years old as compared to 17 years old on these 18U travel teams. The speed of play is going to be necessarily faster due to the average athlete being more advanced down their athletic career.
 



Hrothgar said:
I try to comment only on what I perceive happening on the field. As an old-time pitcher myself, I mainly notice what's going on in the softball circle or baseball diamond, but I am no expert. I appreciate being corrected, if indeed it is a correction.
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Don't fall for that Hrothgar. You don't "trash" anyone. Like 90% of the posts on here your respectful. Wish we would have played today. We could have built snowmen beyond the fence for our players to aim at.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
I don’t buy this.

The average college player (and I am going to limit my window as to “college” to let’s say the top 150 RPI NCAA teams) is going to be bigger, faster, stronger, and all around better than the average 18U club team player. In part this is going to be true because the average college player is going to be 20 years old as compared to 17 years old on these 18U travel teams. The speed of play is going to be necessarily faster due to the average athlete being more advanced down their athletic career.
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I'll give you stronger, but don't agree on the rest. Many more pressure situations to gain experience on.
 

What can we expect and/or look forward to in Sundays' DH? Any ideas?
 

I would start Pease 1st game and if we can hit and earn runs and get a lead then I would have JC or Enter come in. That allow you to start Pease in game 2. That would give this team the chance at taking both games and getting the much needed sweep.
 


Was thinking great game and then Strelow with an error. Lazy one not getting in front of the ball. Cost a run.
 

have to feel for pitching…errors on 2nd took the shut out away. Just misread the ball.
 

WayOfTheGopher said:
What's going on with DenHartog? Popout after popout.
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I think that she is focusing on hitting the bottom of the ball which is part of the home run hitting theory. It provides the lift and launch angle you need to lift the ball over the fence. Hitting the middle tends to produce line drives and hitting the top of the ball creates ground balls. The whole team tends to hit the bottom of the ball. I would tend to think that is exactly what the coach’s are teaching them to do.
 




Sometimes you can’t go with your canned strategies….should have been able to see that Pease dominated the last 2 games. Her low pitch count in todays 1st game meant you should have rode her into the 2nd. Instead coaches went with a pre planed thought process. It lost them the game in my opinion. You have 0 offense with this team at this stage of the season so you can’t afford to give up a single run. This game was lost on NOT hitting. Giving up 2 runs should not be a big deal. if you can’t hit the pitchers with big swings then play small ball…make a change to your strategy . You had a replay of the 1st game so you already saw this pitcher. No excuses not to change.
 
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Two completely different teams showed up this afternoon. What the hell was Ritter thinking about starting Enter instead of Hambrick?
 

WayOfTheGopher said:
Two completely different teams showed up this afternoon. What the hell was Ritter thinking about starting Enter instead of Hambrick?
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Regardless of what she was thinking, pitching was not a problem. Giving up only 2 runs, a team should expect to win almost any game. But except for Chavez, the entire batting order is lifeless at the plate, notably even DenHartog. MN hit lots of popups and squibs to the infield, which PSU wasn't always able to catch or field, luckily.
 

Minnesota has a big test this weekend vs Indiana. I'm really interested to see how Indiana's bats do against Pease. Indiana's offense has been on fire, but they haven't faced any top pitching during their long winning streak. Minnesota should be able to score quite a few runs against Indiana's pitching, though we all know hitting has been very streaky with this team.
 

Indiana has been a very streaky team under Stanton. One season they looked like they had arrived in non conference and totally fell apart during B1G play. Another year, they were terrible in non-conference and did very well in B1G play. But Indiana is still looking for their elusive first NCAA bid under Stanton.

They opened B1G play at home against Maryland, and were trailing 1-0 heading to the bottom of the 7th. They scratched out two runs and rode the emotion of that victory to destroy Maryland in the final two games of that series.

They have won 21 straight so they will be brimming with confidence coming in. Winning Game 1 is so important to plant a seed of doubt in their collective head. If we can do that, break their long winning streak right off the bat, I think we have an excellent chance to sweep.
John3298 said:
Minnesota has a big test this weekend vs Indiana. I'm really interested to see how Indiana's bats do against Pease. Indiana's offense has been on fire, but they haven't faced any top pitching during their long winning streak. Minnesota should be able to score quite a few runs against Indiana's pitching, though we all know hitting has been very streaky with this team.
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Unfortunately, the Indiana hitting is on display at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium today.

Chavez coming up big again. See if the Gophers can get her home in bottom of 5th down 5-1.

Copeland and the Indiana Hoosiers offense are the REAL DEAL.
 
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