Gopher Softball 2025

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A cursory look at the Gophers' 2024 Big Ten schedule shows only 3 home series. Is that all there will be? Or are other non-conference series being scheduled indoors?
 

PreacherRoe said:
A cursory look at the Gophers' 2024 Big Ten schedule shows only 3 home series. Is that all there will be? Or are other non-conference series being scheduled indoors?
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All teams play 2 series at a neutral site.
 


Gophers got 17 hits and beat Concordia St. Paul at Jane Sage Cowles yesterday. The score was a lopsided 13-3, but Concordia wasn't bad, just lacking anyone close to matching Oakland, Krapf, Valencia, and Chavez's bats, or Burnet's speed. Snippes started in the circle, but she was yanked in the 2nd after yielding a 3-run HR. The Gopher pitchers who followed were as good as they needed to be, but I saw no special velocity or breaking pitches that're likely to dominate or even trouble ranked opponents. I longed to see glimpses of some sorely needed new arrivals at the plate or in the circle to match the skills nrs. 9, 13, and 77. Without a steady yearly influx of outstanding new talent, we may get mired in the mid-ranges of sucess, which is sad to consider. But it's only fall ball. Better yet to come? I love to hear....
 

Got the opportunity to see the team this afternoon. It hasn't been mentioned, but Sydney Schwartz is still wearing a boot. I hope she is recovered by Feb. All Minnesota pitchers got in the game. I thought that the transfer pitcher, Presley Hosick did well. Snippes had a rough start, but Piper had a couple of conversations with her and she responded well. The starting infield was Chavez, Oakland, Tobias and Chard. The starting defense was very good. Krapf was the designated player and Wolocko caught. Krapf was a hitting machine - she was 4 for 4 during the innings that I watched. Chard showed good power - home run into the wind and another that would have been out with less wind. If she can keep it going, it would help with production from first base. For the most part, the other hitters had their moments. I agree that the team speed is much better this year.
 


PreacherRoe said:
Yes, they return, but will they hit for power or average? Hope they do, doubt they will. Bat speed needs to get faster.
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Valencia and Burnett in 2024: 66 hits, 14 doubles, 1 triple and 4 HR’s. This Fall there have been 3 homeruns, Valencia being one of them. One triple so far, Burnett.
 

GopherAlum03 said:
Valencia and Burnett in 2024: 66 hits, 14 doubles, 1 triple and 4 HR’s. This Fall there have been 3 homeruns, Valencia being one of them. One triple so far, Burnett.
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Now they need to show they can do that against Oregon-caliber pitching.

Fall ball is great to get them on the field. Don’t want to extrapolate too much though.
 

Gopher68 said:
Got the opportunity to see the team this afternoon. It hasn't been mentioned, but Sydney Schwartz is still wearing a boot. I hope she is recovered by Feb. All Minnesota pitchers got in the game. I thought that the transfer pitcher, Presley Hosick did well. Snippes had a rough start, but Piper had a couple of conversations with her and she responded well. The starting infield was Chavez, Oakland, Tobias and Chard. The starting defense was very good. Krapf was the designated player and Wolocko caught. Krapf was a hitting machine - she was 4 for 4 during the innings that I watched. Chard showed good power - home run into the wind and another that would have been out with less wind. If she can keep it going, it would help with production from first base. For the most part, the other hitters had their moments. I agree that the team speed is much better this year.
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I think the infield will be pretty good this year; how did the outfield look? assuming Burnett was in left? who was in center and right? Hopefully we have options as Velencia in my option is too slow to be in right field.
 

DietCokeFan said:
I think the infield will be pretty good this year; how did the outfield look? assuming Burnett was in left? who was in center and right? Hopefully we have options as Velencia in my option is too slow to be in right field.
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Burnett was in center, Gardner in left and Valencia in right.
 




mngolf said:
Anyone know how the new House settlement will affect scholarships for softball? Increasing for a lot of other sports so wondering if on softball too. I saw where there are no more walk ons, everyone is on scholarship now. Football is going from 85 to 105.
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New roster limit would be 25.

Also, walk-ons haven't been eliminated. Every sport would be an equivalency sport in the new model, and the limit is just a max. Schools can offer whatever number of scholarships they wish up to the max, and if they fund under the max, they can divide them up however they want. e.g. A program could offer 20 full scholarships and 5 walk-ons if they want.
 

SomeGopherFan said:
New roster limit would be 25.

Also, walk-ons haven't been eliminated. Every sport would be an equivalency sport in the new model, and the limit is just a max. Schools can offer whatever number of scholarships they wish up to the max, and if they fund under the max, they can divide them up however they want. e.g. A program could offer 20 full scholarships and 5 walk-ons if they want.
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That would tell me rich conferences like B1G will likely do the max then.
 

mngolf said:
That would tell me rich conferences like B1G will likely do the max then.
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Nope. There has been serious discussions of creating tiers within each athletic department. Tier 1 would be (at MN) football and women’s basketball. Everyone else will be tier 4. Tier 1 would have access to full scholarships for the entire roster as well as the entire NIL/NCAA settlement and new monies. This satisfies Title IX requirements. Everyone else is considered no scholarship across the board, in essence removing them from the NCAA settlement and future monies. This funneling all the money towards football and women’s basketball. MN is not the only B10 school that is having these serious talks. College athletics as we know it won’t exist in the next couple of years. The P4 schools will have the upper echelon teams stay there, the mid tiers like MN, will try to stay relevant at the cost of the other athletic programs. Mid majors and D2 will start attracting more/better athletes at the non tier 1 levels as there will be better access to money and scholarships at those institutions. Obviously not a done deal….but the framework of what is laid out here is close.
 



Chase the Rise said:
Nope. There has been serious discussions of creating tiers within each athletic department. Tier 1 would be (at MN) football and women’s basketball. Everyone else will be tier 4. Tier 1 would have access to full scholarships for the entire roster as well as the entire NIL/NCAA settlement and new monies. This satisfies Title IX requirements. Everyone else is considered no scholarship across the board, in essence removing them from the NCAA settlement and future monies. This funneling all the money towards football and women’s basketball. MN is not the only B10 school that is having these serious talks. College athletics as we know it won’t exist in the next couple of years. The P4 schools will have the upper echelon teams stay there, the mid tiers like MN, will try to stay relevant at the cost of the other athletic programs. Mid majors and D2 will start attracting more/better athletes at the non tier 1 levels as there will be better access to money and scholarships at those institutions. Obviously not a done deal….but the framework of what is laid out here is close.
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I would think at Minnesota, MBB, VB, and Men's Hockey would be Tier 1.

Also, what would happen to endowed scholarships for the Tier 4 sports?
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
I would think at Minnesota, MBB, VB, and Men's Hockey would be Tier 1.

Also, what would happen to endowed scholarships for the Tier 4 sports?
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I would imagine that the endowed scholarships would still exist. They would probably go to the player(s) that would normally be the highest of recruits.

As for MBB,VB, and MHoc.....you are missing the point. This is about money, not programs. They want all the money to go to FB, but have to be Title IX compliant so pick the so pick the women's sport with the fewest athletes and brings in the most money (even though they are a non-revenue generating sport). But with even Title IX compliance being argued in the court system right now (More so about payment vs. accessibility) Title IX will probably not even be in the conversation in regard to the paying of players or scholarships if moved to a tiered type of system. It's already been stated that about 90% of the new NCAA money is going to Football players.
 

Chase the Rise said:
Nope. There has been serious discussions of creating tiers within each athletic department. Tier 1 would be (at MN) football and women’s basketball. Everyone else will be tier 4. Tier 1 would have access to full scholarships for the entire roster as well as the entire NIL/NCAA settlement and new monies. This satisfies Title IX requirements. Everyone else is considered no scholarship across the board, in essence removing them from the NCAA settlement and future monies. This funneling all the money towards football and women’s basketball. MN is not the only B10 school that is having these serious talks. College athletics as we know it won’t exist in the next couple of years. The P4 schools will have the upper echelon teams stay there, the mid tiers like MN, will try to stay relevant at the cost of the other athletic programs. Mid majors and D2 will start attracting more/better athletes at the non tier 1 levels as there will be better access to money and scholarships at those institutions. Obviously not a done deal….but the framework of what is laid out here is close.
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I don't see this working. Have to have competition at tier 1, cant only have a small group competing. That would fail to draw interest from fans and therefore fail to bring in money. And lower tiers would not want to compete with tier 1
 



Batting 3rd in the Gophers' lineup Friday evening, Krapf pounced on the first pitch thrown to her in the bottom of the first inning and hit a 3-run HR, a high towering drive to left-center. That was pretty much the story on offense as the Gophers beat St. Thomas 5-2. Difficult to judge a game when one first-inning swing of the bat settled it.

Snippes, Susa, and Hosick pitched. Only Susa faltered a bit, as she, like the other two in the circle, was often behind in the B/S counts. St. Thomas got few hits.

Hard to know how to judge the MN team as a whole. They seem solid in general, both in the field and at the plate. Plus they're loaded with pitchers. It's really hard to judge the pitching; there seem to be no dominant strikeout pitchers on the staff, but not many walks allowed either. And Piper seems quick to jerk any pitcher who nibbles too much around the corners.

Any other comments on what Fall Ball produced?
 

PreacherRoe said:
Batting 3rd in the Gophers' lineup Friday evening, Krapf pounced on the first pitch thrown to her in the bottom of the first inning and hit a 3-run HR, a high towering drive to left-center. That was pretty much the story on offense as the Gophers beat St. Thomas 5-2. Difficult to judge a game when one first-inning swing of the bat settled it.

Snippes, Susa, and Hosick pitched. Only Susa faltered a bit, as she, like the other two in the circle, was often behind in the B/S counts. St. Thomas got few hits.

Hard to know how to judge the MN team as a whole. They seem solid in general, both in the field and at the plate. Plus they're loaded with pitchers. It's really hard to judge the pitching; there seem to be no dominant strikeout pitchers on the staff, but not many walks allowed either. And Piper seems quick to jerk any pitcher who nibbles too much around the corners.

Any other comments on what Fall Ball produced?
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Thanks for your report.
 


Gophers to play in LSU round robin tournament, Mar 8-9. Gophers will play split double header against South Alabama and LSU both days.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
What’s the lineup going to look like next year? Thoughts on if the Gophers can climb back up toward the top of the legacy Big Ten conference teams (I am excluding UCLA, Washington, and Oregon from this question due to unfairness).
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Their conference schedule is brutal with Nebraska, Oregon , northwestern and Michigan.
 

ClassOf98Gopher said:
What’s the lineup going to look like next year? Thoughts on if the Gophers can climb back up toward the top of the legacy Big Ten conference teams (I am excluding UCLA, Washington, and Oregon from this question due to unfairness).
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What's the "unfairness"? Sure I know you are talking about the "legacy" B1G teams, but I'm not sure what's unfair about those west coast schools.
 

GoDucks349 said:
What's the "unfairness"? Sure I know you are talking about the "legacy" B1G teams, but I'm not sure what's unfair about those west coast schools.
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As you may be aware, there are some who really dislike the new B1G. I've been good with it, but some sports may make it harder for some schools to be competitive. We'll have a better idea after a complete year has passed.
 

mngolf said:
As you may be aware, there are some who really dislike the new B1G. I've been good with it, but some sports may make it harder for some schools to be competitive. We'll have a better idea after a complete year has passed.
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I get what you are saying, however, if the B1G had added universities that were not highly competitive it would drag the conference down. The way to make the conference stronger is to have more strong teams in all sports.
 

GoDucks349 said:
I get what you are saying, however, if the B1G had added universities that were not highly competitive it would drag the conference down. The way to make the conference stronger is to have more strong teams in all sports.
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It will always be harder for upper midwest states to compete in baseball/softball due to weather. Nothing is going to change that.
 

mngolf said:
It will always be harder for upper midwest states to compete in baseball/softball due to weather. Nothing is going to change that.
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Yea, that's pretty true. Sort of like LA schools competing in hockey. Or for that matter, West coast school
 

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