Softball

[TideATL70]

A very nice start to the season in the desert. While the AZ game was ugly (nothing seemed to go well for us pitching, offense, or defense) the two wins over ranked Washington were great. The bats were much hotter than I expected in the majority of the games as well.

 

[HSV_1969]

I had an overall more positive feel about the team than I expected coming out of the weekend. It is obviously still early to have much confidence in season predictions based on one weekend.
The hitting was better than I expected. They were shut down in the AZ game (by a Kentucky transfer pitcher). There are 3 players hitting .500 or better with at least 14 at bats (Preuitt, Pupillo and Vandagriff). I don't think we could say that at any point in the season last year. Vandagriff also set a program record with 5 stolen bases in a game on Sunday. She was 9-9 in steal attempts in the 5 games over the weekend.
I'm not sure how I feel about pitching. Briski, Riley and Winstead all have about a 3 ERA after the weekend. It's not a panic item, but I didn't get a sense that shutting opponents out is going to be common.
The competition should be pretty high level this weekend in Clearwater. I'm also looking forward to seeing the team play against Jax St. at Toyota Field in Madison on 2/19.

 

[4Q Basket Case]

OK, guys...you know the rules. No profanity.

That includes cute attempts to circumvent the filters -- like in this case using symbols to convey the real letters of the word.

Provided the numbers and symbols are truly random, grawlixes are still fine. The problem occurs when the symbols are used as a discernable substitute for the real letter.