Softball 2025-expectations?

[Krymsonman]

Bottom of 6th: Giles flies out to CF, 1 down. Hawkins flies out to the wall in RF, 2 down. Duchsherer singles to LF. Pate runs for her. Clark pitch hitting for White. Pop up on the infield, inning over. 3-2 BAMA going to the 7th.

 

[Krymsonman]

Top of 7th: Lead off K for Briski, 1 down. Another K for Briski, 2 down. Ground ball base hit thru the hole to LF. Lots of foul balls, but Briski gets the K. BAMA wins 3-2.

We get South Carolina again tomorrow night. I'm pretty sure we will need to score more than 3 runs tomorrow night. BAMA moves on, the Barn goes home. Have a great evening.

 

[TideATL70]

Thanks for all the updates K Man- was not able to watch live but was following. Win or lose, the ladies fight hard and are a TEAM- no "me first" players it seems like. Briski has had some tough moments in her Soph. campaign, but winning in the postseason cures a lot of ills. Glad for her.

 

[BamaHoHo]

A new hitting coach isn't gonna make a difference as long as Coach Murphy's philosophy is that one big play is gonna win all these games. Other teams have figured out that stringing hits together and getting runners on base and getting singles and doubles to bring them in works a lot better and demoralizes the other team.
Murph just wants the home run.
Watch them when they bat. Majority are strikeouts and pop outs. Waiting on a pitch to drive.

Pitching coach: Same crap, just coming out of a different mouth.

 

[Krymsonman]

BAMA vs SC. BAMA is the visitor:

Top of 1st: Vandagriff goes yard to lead off, 1-0 BAMA. Johnson walks. (she had a double down the LF line but it was changed to a foul ball on review). Heivilin grounds out to SS, Johnson to 2nd, 1 down. Giles singles up the middle, 1st and 3rd BAMA, 1 down. Hawkins - ground ball to the pitcher, bad throw, Johnson scores. 2-0 BAMA. Now 2nd and 3rd BAMA, 1 down. Ellestad bunts to the pitcher, 2 down. Was it a squeeze? Runner did not go. Duchsherer pops up on the infield, 3 down.

 

[Krymsonman]

Bottom of the 1st: SC gets 1 run back. Had bases loaded, 1 out, but we got out of it giving up only the 1 run.
Top of 2nd: BAMA goes quietly
Bottom of 2nd: SC gets a 2 out hit, but BAMA gets out of it. 2-1 BAMA after 2 complete.

 

[Krymsonman]

Top of 3rd: First two hitters ground out. Giles grounds out to end our half of the inning. Maybe this is a Murphy coaching rule, but I think we're looking at a lot of good pitches to hit. 2-1 BAMA

 

[Krymsonman]

Bottom of 3rd: Line out to SS, 1 down. Walk. Double in the gap to right center. Walk scores. 2-2, 1 down. Line out to RF, 2 down. GREAT diving grab by Heivilin in short right for the third out. Saved a run. 2-2 after 3 complete. Our pitcher Riley is getting hit a lot harder than we're hitting their pitcher.

 

[Krymsonman]

Top of 4th: Hawkins singles to left. Ellestad flies out to CF, 1 down. Duchsherer grounds out to 3rd. Hawkins to 2nd, 2 down. Valentine flies out to LF, inning over.

 

[Krymsonman]

Bottom of the 4th: Briski in to pitch. Line drive to SS, Hawkins goes up and gets it, 1 down. Ground out to 3rd, 2 down. Ground out to 2nd, 3 down. Still 2-2 going to the 5th.

 

[Krymsonman]

Top of 5th: New pitcher for SC. We had trouble with this girl over in SC. Preuitt flies out to LF, 1 down. Vandagriff, weak ground ball to 2nd, 2 down. Johnson strikes out on a pitch 2 feet over her head. We're starting to look feeble at the plate.

 

[Krymsonman]

Bottom of 5th: Single up the middle, fielded but safe at first. Goodbye, 2 run home run to left CF. SC now up 4-2. Strike out, 1 down. Double down the LF line. Ground ball to SS, 2 down. 4 pitch walk, runners at 1st and 2nd. We've had a walk in every inning but one so far. Line drive to RF, played well by Preuitt, good throw home. Runner holds at 3rd. Bases loaded, 2 down. Ground out to 3rd, out at 3rd, we get out of it, but SC now leads 4-2.

I like SC's approach at the plate. They call it CPA's - competitive plate appearances. Even when they get out, they are hitting the ball hard. I wish we would do that. I don't think we've had a hard hit ball since the first inning.

 

[Krymsonman]

Top of 6th: Heivilin flies out to the track in RF, 1 down. Giles flies out to RF, 2 down. Hawkins strikes out on ball 2 feet over her head, inning over. Our defense is greatly improved, but we've gone back to the Murphy School of Hitting techniques.

 

[Comin2yourCity]

Pitching is just horrible. Like so many other games, score in 1st and nothing after.

 

[Krymsonman]

Bottom of 6th: Single up the middle - 9th hit for SC. Ground ball to 3rd, out at 2nd, safe at 1st, 1 down. And, another 2 run home run, by the same girl that did it earlier. Now 6-2 SC. She hit a HR on a 1-2 count. New pitcher coming in for BAMA. Winstead is the new pitcher. Base hit to LF, 1 down. Pop up to 2nd base, 2 down. Ground ball to 2nd, inning over. 6-2 SC, going to the 7th.

I wish we had a team that could hit. Our pitching can't carry us when we don't hit the ball.

 

[Krymsonman]

Top of 7th: Last chance for BAMA, 6-7-8 coming up. All 3 are hitless so far. Hubbard pinch hits, doubles to CF. Marceaux pinch hitting for Duchsherer. Grounds out to SS, Hubbard goes to 3rd. Pupillo in as a pinch hitter. Pupillo K's, 2 down. Clark now pinch hitting. I guess Murphy has conceded and decided he wanted to let everyone play. Clark K's. Ball game over. We're now 0-4 vs SC in the SEC tournament.

 

[Krymsonman]

Big question now is will we get a regional. I would say probably not, but if we get one, the only reason will be is a regional in Tuscaloosa brings in big $$$$$. The way we hit, I'm not sure if we could win our own regional. We shall see.

 

[TideATL70]

I feel like pitching wise, Briski started the season slow but got better as we went along and the rest of the staff the complete opposite. And hitting, while it seemed better than the past few years, was too inconsistent. I magine we go on the road as a 2 seed for the regionals- possibly? to an SEC host.

 

[Krymsonman]

I feel like pitching wise, Briski started the season slow but got better as we went along and the rest of the staff the complete opposite. And hitting, while it seemed better than the past few years, was too inconsistent. I magine we go on the road as a 2 seed for the regionals- possibly? to an SEC host.

You never know with pitchers. Tuesday Briski was really sharp, and got the outs when she needed them. Last night, she was a little off with her pitches and it cost her, especially against that one girl who had the two dingers. It was the same with SC's ace Gesser. She threw great last weekend at SC, but we chased her after a few innings, mainly because she wasn't sharp. Riley gave us another arm, and she's pretty good when she's on. She wasn't doing too bad last night and I was surprised Murphy pulled her when he did. One thing that did improve for us over the year was our defense. That got a lot better as the year went on. And yes, we did hit better this year than last year, but still no where good enough to be considered a top tier SEC team. Scoring a couple of runs a game just won't cut it anymore in today's softball game. That's the biggest thing we've got to figure out.

I hope we get a regional but won't be surprised if we don't. Who knows, we might be a 2 seed in our own regional. I guess we'll find out Sunday.

 

[TideATL70]

i wonder if in today's game with the girls starting earlier and having so many more opportunities for top tier competition (middle school, high school, travel ball) and the hitting getting so much better if we'll see those pure "aces" anymore. I think of the aces we've had, pitchers OU, Arizona, UCLA, Cat Osterman at Texas- gotta be hard to be that dominant anymore. Agree with you on the hitting- a few more runs a game would cure alot of ills.