Gopher Softball 2024

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How many 3-2 counts? Between hitting batters and 3-ball counts the control for the Gopher pitchers has been awful. Need to work on control this off-season
 

And can we please work on hitting a cutoff in the offseason too? It’s like watching a High School team with bad fundamentals.

They work hard to get back in game and then make silly mistakes. Hopefully it doesn’t haunt them.
 

MN pitchers behind in counts all game, until Hambrick's last inning plus. She pitches better in relief than as a starter. But who's to argue about a win? The whole game was just IL stalling until some Gopher unloaded on one. Thanks to Krapf!
 


BTN said 6 walks to Oakland was as a program record. Didn't WI walk Lindaman 7 times in a game in 2017?
 



DietCokeFan said:
And can we please work on hitting a cutoff in the offseason too? It’s like watching a High School team with bad fundamentals.

They work hard to get back in game and then make silly mistakes. Hopefully it doesn’t haunt them.
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This seems to be an epidemic on college softball. The amount of times (both for and against us) this year I see a runner advance to second base on a throw home that wasn't even close to getting the runner is astonishing.
 





Nipomo 56 said:
If the 7th is a multi position player like Copeland at Indiana. We had 2 starters go down this year which left us 3/4 of our staff freshmen.
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Hopefully Snippes,Grayson and Susa will be able to support Schwartz and Richardson. One upper class men would be nice.
 

Nipomo 56 said:
If the 7th is a multi position player like Copeland at Indiana. We had 2 starters go down this year which left us 3/4 of our staff freshmen.
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Schwartz was that pitcher. When not in the circle, she played 1st.
 
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Gopher68 said:
Schwartz was that pitcher. When not in the circle, she played 1st.
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It still seems strange to me why so many battery mates (pitchers & catchers) fade from the Gophers scene in recent years. This year not a word about apparent injuries to Schwartz and Enter or what happened to Lindmark (losing Krapf would have been a double disaster given Lindmark's disappearance).
 

PreacherRoe said:
It still seems strange to me why so many battery mates (pitchers & catchers) fade from the Gophers scene in recent years. This year not a word about apparent injuries to Schwartz and Enter or what happened to Lindmark (losing Krapf would have been a double disaster given Lindmark's disappearance).
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Schwartz has a lower body injury and is taking a medical redshirt. Enter has a hip flexor that just hasn’t responded enough to treatment to get her cleared to pitch.

Yes, Limdmark is a mystery. But we know she left the team after just six at bats. Reilly Gardner is also somewhat of a mystery. Obviously she hasn’t played this year, and was in a large knee brace until recently.

The lack of information is not that unusual for sports that receive paltry media coverage. Universities (not just Minnesota) frequently cite HIPAA regulations to avoid talking about the nature of injuries to players.

So often the only way to obtain this information is to go directly to the injured player and simply ask them. Few reporters are willing to skirt the SID office rules about media access to players to aggressively seek this information.

Thus, the only way to get any information like this is via insider leaks.
 

Is Harness from Nebraska some All-American pitcher?
After seeing her for 3 games last weekend, through four innings today this team simply can’t connect off her. Two hard hit balls. What a pathetic performance.
 
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There must be someone who could throw a strike. Maybe let Nani pitch. She did two years ago although not well but these two cannot throw anywhere close to the zone. This has been the issue all year
 



NextYear_76 said:
Never mind Grayson can throw it down the middle. Pitching for next year needs work.
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I would concede that this season was less strong than I expected.

Obviously I agree with the point bolded in the post above because, as we all know, a team’s success in this sport is so driven by their pitching.
 

Oakland, Chavez, and Krapf all looked extremely frustrated today. Will be an interesting offseason. Hopefully they all stay and we see some coaching changes.
 

If the NCAA didn't already have good reasons for excluding the Gophers, yesterday's embarrassing play clinched it beyond all doubt. A performance hard to watch. Can't blame the players; there's a handful of true D1 performers. Otherwise the coaches have put together squad at mid-major level, no higher.
 

PreacherRoe said:
If the NCAA didn't already have good reasons for excluding the Gophers, yesterday's embarrassing play clinched it beyond all doubt. A performance hard to watch. Can't blame the players; there's a handful of true D1 performers. Otherwise the coaches have put together squad at mid-major level, no higher.
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My opinion is that Piper should be on the hot seat next season.
 

mngolf said:
My opinion is that Piper should be on the hot seat next season.
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So, to understand this: The team loses their #1 and #2 pitchers, still is able to manage a 5th place finish in the B10.

Tell me which teams in the B10 could handle losing their top two pitchers and still compete at a high level.

Obviously, there are things that need work...all teams have that. But to say it's on Piper...that's misguided.
 

PreacherRoe said:
If the NCAA didn't already have good reasons for excluding the Gophers, yesterday's embarrassing play clinched it beyond all doubt. A performance hard to watch. Can't blame the players; there's a handful of true D1 performers. Otherwise the coaches have put together squad at mid-major level, no higher.
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I just don’t know. It is the players that are the people out there on the field. Why can’t we at least acknowledge that many players have to get better? Coaching is not nothing, but it is overrated in my book in terms of the wins and losses.

I think what we need most from our coaching staff, absent any misconduct from coaches that I am not aware of, is stability in our softball program. Piper provides that stability and I am all for her.
 

Chase the Rise said:
So, to understand this: The team loses their #1 and #2 pitchers, still is able to manage a 5th place finish in the B10.

Tell me which teams in the B10 could handle losing their top two pitchers and still compete at a high level.

Obviously, there are things that need work...all teams have that. But to say it's on Piper...that's misguided.
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The conference is also absolutely terrible, so pretty low bar to be middle of pack
 

rowdaboat said:
The conference is also absolutely terrible, so pretty low bar to be middle of pack
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The conference has always been terrible; but those are our peers and have always been our peers. Those Gopher fans who think the bar should be set higher than performing well in our conference are masochists pure and simple.
 

Ultimately Piper’s tenure will be defined by her ability to field a respectable or better pitching staff. That is her bread and butter, she is known in softball circles for the product she has put in the circle through the years. Now she needs to prove she can attract the kind of pitchers needed to be nationally relevant as the head coach/lead pitching recruiter.

I see some people on this board calling for changes to the coaching staff without offering any reasons other than our outfielders occasionally miss the cutoff. To those folks I say be careful what you wish for. Our offensive talent stacks up with just about anyone. Those players were recruited by these coaches.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
The conference has always been terrible; but those are our peers and have always been our peers. Those Gopher fans who think the bar should be set higher than performing well in our conference are masochists pure and simple.
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B1G teams (including us) have proved that a World Series run is possible about half the time. These are big schools with deep pockets. They are attractive to some players over some of the softball factories on academic reputation alone.

The realistic ceiling in the portal/NIL era may not be a national title as it is at Oklahoma, Texas, UCLA, Florida, etc. However, a B1G championship followed by a WCWS berth should always be the goal for every B1G team.
 

Piper as the head coach and pitching coach is simply not working. I have also seen enough of the 3rd base coach. The amount of terrible decisions she makes is horrendous. The kids look absolutely lost out there. I understand there's injuries, but the fact that a team cannot adjust to pitching is baffling. How do you only get three hits off that Nebraska pitcher when she literally threw probably 300 pitches the weekend before. Expect Oakland and others to be long gone.
 

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