Final Week of SOFTBALL regular season - thoughts, theories, complaints, praises...

[BulldogBear]

...and whatever else comes to mind leading up to our series @ #11 Kentucky to finish the season. This will be a series of posts as I have to time to get some things down. UPFRONT DISCLAIMER:

I won't be discussing scenarios that while still mathematically possible (such as MSU football going 45-0 over the 2016-18 seasons) are extremely unlikely, such as Arkansas (17-36) going on the road and sweeping #1 Florida (47-4). That's not going to happen so I'm not going to discuss those scenarios. We are not going to suddenly go on the road and sweep #11 Kentucky so if you look at the standings below you will see that we are going to finish #12 and get the final spot in the SECT. We CAN discuss who we might end up playing (SEC #5), but I'm going to let you know up front that I'm assuming that nobody in the Top 5 spots in the standings is going to be getting swept by anybody that is not. Also, I am not going to entertain that Arkansas is even going to win 2 in this one case. I am also assuming that anybody #6-#10 is not going to be swept by schools #11-#13. That same logic will apply to any discussion going forward.

#1 Florida (17-4, 47-4) ...hosts Arkansas, best case 3-0, worst case: 2-1
#2 Auburn (15-5, 45-7) ...still has game today @ UT, hosts TAMU, best case: 4-0, worst case: 1-3
#3 Tennessee (14-6, 38-12) ...still has game today vs. Auburn, then @ Ole Miss, best case: 4-0, worst case: 1-3
#4 Alabama (14-7, 43-10) ...hosts UGA, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#5 Kentucky (14-7, 40-11) ...hosts MSU, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#6 Missouri (12-9, 37-12) ...hosts USCe, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#7 LSU (13-11, 40-13) ...hosts Washington Huskies (32-11), literally affects nothing
#8 Georgia (11-10, 39-14) ...@ Alabama, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#9 Ole Miss (10-11, 36-17) ...hosts Tennessee, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#10 Texas A&M (7-14, 35-16) ...@ Auburn, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#11 South Carolina (6-15, 34-18) ...@ Mizzou, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#12 Mississippi State (3-18, 25-27) ...@ Kentucky, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#13 Arkansas (1-20, 17-36) ...@ Florida, best case: 1-2, worst case: 0-3

Arkansas is out, we will be #12 seed regardless, so the only things we are really interested in is who could end up #5 and who could be the #4 whom we would play should we pull the round 1 upset next Wednesday at 4:00pm. So, let's look at possible opponents from Top down.

#1 Florida - will remain the #1 seed in any of these scenarios, although it's possible may share the #1 ranking with Auburn (but UF has tiebreaker).

#2 Auburn - Best case for Tigers they remain #2, but could fall as far as #5, but they'll have to lose to UT and Bama and UK will have to sweep.

#3 Tennessee - Best case for Vols is #2, but they could drop as low as #6 if Mizzou sweeps (MO has tiebreaker).

#4 Alabama - Best case is #2, but could drop as low as #5 (they would own tiebreaker over MO if Tigers sweep USCe)

#5 Kentucky - Best case is #2, worst case is #5 (they also own tiebreaker over MO, although if 3way tie with AL, KY, MO would result in UA #4, UK #5, UM #6)

#6 Missouri - Best case is actually #5 (but they will have to sweep and UT will have to have worst case) and worst case is #7 (lose tiebreaker with UGA although IDK about LSU or 3way with both as they did not play LSU). So, could be #8.

So we will open the SECT against Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, or Kentucky. The question is who do we want and what has to happen for that to happen?

[ScoobaDawg]

Well considering Auburn is the only one we have a win over... and TN has taken care of business again AU the first two... then you have BAMA sweeping which might be a little stretch considering how they just played against USC...
then you need MSU to get swept by UK which... well we already established is likely.

Bring on Auburn and our team BEFORE the meltdown occurred.

[BulldogBear]

Well considering Auburn is the only one we have a win over... and TN has taken care of business again AU the first two... then you have BAMA sweeping which might be a little stretch considering how they just played against USC...
then you need MSU to get swept by UK which... well we already established is likely.

Bring on Auburn and our team BEFORE the meltdown occurred.

Well, for starters, everybody absolutely needs to pull for Tennessee to beat Auburn tonight at 6:00pm on SECN

[BulldogBear]

If we can somehow beat KY 2 out of 3, we will be in a position to make the postseason just by going 2-1 in the SECT instead of having to win it. So, as mentioned above, let's examine who we would rather see be #5 (round 1 opponent) and #4 (round 2 if we win in round 1). Understand the SECT is in Starkville, so we can upset anyone but in general, we don't want to see......

ALABAMA: Although it was in Tuscaloosa, we lost 3 games by a combined point total of 23-2. We would have them in Starkville for the first time this season and I should note that of their 23 runs, 21 were scored with 2 outs. So, if we clean things up, we could possibly keep it much closer than 8-0, 8-1, 7-1. With that said, their pitching shut us down. I'm afraid if our 2 out pitching and defense would have been better it would have just made it something like 2-0, 3-1, 3-1. We don't match up well with them at all. Their greatest strength plays to our biggest weakness.

TENNESSEE: Although we didn't just get blown away, we were never a credible threat to win any of these games by the halfway point. They just out match us in every aspect of the game. Starkville could give us what we need as the season series was in Knoxville, but I generally think we don't want to see these girls in on Wednesday or Thursday. Just after we played them y'all may remember me saying I thought Tennessee was better than Auburn (UT was not highly ranked at the time) and you are seeing that play out this weekend as UT leads the series 2-0 over Auburn and will go for the sweep tonight.

We played the toughest SEC schedule and that has something to with our demise. But it still doesn't make it feel any better. Everyone plays 8 series and it rotates annually. If you'll refer to the standings in the OP...MSU played or is about to play #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #9. Good grief. Not even one of #10, #11, #13. Anyway, Alabama and Tennessee are the only two opponents that we were just never going to beat on the road. Everyone else we either won a game or had an actual shot to win 1 or 2. All 3 of our conference wins were at home as well.

[BulldogBear]

So, what I'm interested in is having the standings shake out to where we end up with two out of Missouri, Auburn, Kentucky in rounds 1 and 2, meaning that two of them end up #4 and #5.


MISSOURI: They have seen us in Starkville recently so there would be no away game shock value, but if you'll recall we were right there almost winning games 1 and 2. We can beat these girls.

AUBURN: I'm less confident about. We did win one, almost two (lost in 14 innings), and the other one was close. But it's been a long time ago and at least on the surface we seemed to be a different team with more confidence. If we can get that mentality back then Scooba is exactly right, we could really match up well with them. A negative, we lost one of those in a way that became a trend. Poor base running. In the bottom half of the final inning we got the lead off runner on....then thrown out stealing 2B. Followed that by getting the second batter on with a freakin' hit... then thrown out stealing 2B. Patience may have won that one would've won that one.

Anyway, we would rather see either of these two than Bama or UT.

[Tbonewannabe]

Just curious but do you see us getting better next year? Do they rate girls softball recruiting? How are we compared to everyone else? It pisses me off that UM seems to be better than us.

[BulldogBear]

Just curious but do you see us getting better next year? Do they rate girls softball recruiting? How are we compared to everyone else? It pisses me off that UM seems to be better than us.

nsvltndog asked a similar question in another thread: How close are we?

I'm not a softball expert. I have a daughter that played and I love the diamond sports. Softball is a different game and in some ways I'm still learning it. We have enough baseball experts on ED so I decided to be the one to give softball some attention it deserves. And as I've hinted at before, who would you rather watch pitch at that angle on TV... Houston? Billingsly? Hudson? um, nope.... Holly Ward, Regan Green, and the rest of our gang. So, at the basest level, I get to watch a sport similar enough to baseball to be familiar but watch girls playing it. Win/Win!!! There are lot of NCAA athletes (all our Bulldogs included) that play their hearts out and barely get noticed outside certain circles. I just kind of adopted softball and didn't even really plan it. I've been watching the WCWS for years but you can thank the SECN for really helping interest in sports outside the Big 3 take off. I was just watching an MSU softball game on TV kind of marveling at the fact that it was now possible to do so and it just kind of took off from there. I've never actually been to a game. I do have a full round robin ticket for the SECT and will be there to see our girls play in person for the first time. I will go to every single game of the SECT. I've never had the opportunity to do that in any sport the SEC plays and have always wanted to. I now kind of think of WBB and softball a nice addition to the Big 3, though calling it Big 3.5 doesn't sound right because there's two additional sports, but even Big 4 only invokes the image of one extra. It's not yet reality to call them the Big 5, so I dunno what to call them. This could be the time to add that I love Lacrosse as well. It has spread as far south as ACC country in the mid-Atlantic. I hope it won't be too long before we see it down here, though it would probably spend many years as a club sport.

Anyway, I don't actually know that much about softball recruiting, but I can tell you what we need. The SEC is a big fat hairy beast on the rag in softball. More so even than football and baseball. There have been 10-11 SEC teams in the top 25 at one time. If you have a weakness, it will be exposed and exploited very quickly once conference play starts. If you falter at all, you will plummet down the standings. We have a decent team folks, but with a murderer's row of a schedule against the top teams that we just can't consistently compete with yet, you see the results. We're not likely to even make the postseason. The new facility surely will help with recruiting. What we need translates into the difference right now between us and the top 6-7 programs.

We need at least two more SEC caliber pitchers, whether we recruit them or develop them. Right now we only have one. Our pitching is young and shows potential, and we are graduating none of them this year. We through them in the fire early in the season. Apparently Silkwood was not injured and Vann just wanted the pitching staff to learn without depending on Silkwood as a crutch. I'm not convinced of the wisdom of that (it's a little Bush league actually) given that we are now a couple wins shy of not having to sit at home. We should never have had our best pitcher go cold into the meat of the season. But it's water under the bridge. So, we have young talent to develop.

We need more offense. Defensive breakdowns killed us this year, but you know we scored on defensive breakdowns by the other team. While these stand out, the real problem is lack of offense to overcome it. Baserunning = Compost Pile this year. But a few more hits would overcome that as well. Most good SEC teams have 7-8 good hitters and on any given night 3-5 of these have a good night. We have like 4-5 and 1-2 have a good night. That's the problem.

I got to go eat, so I'll finish this discussion later.

[Tbonewannabe]

I went to several games when I was at State. We used to just back up my roommate's pickup against the outfield fence and sit on his tailgate and watch the game. Probably similar to how the left field lounge started. I enjoyed it and there were always several good looking girls on the team that made it even more enjoyable.

[Taog Redloh]

Weren't we supposed to be good this year? Talk about choking. How many more years does Vann get?

[BulldogBear]

Weren't we supposed to be good this year? Talk about choking. How many more years does Vann get?

I think our pitching is better, but the offense....no. But yeah, this was thought to be an up and coming year although not THE year.

This is a step back and I DO QUESTION some coaching decisions, but she's played it well sometimes to. If we just had some offense, it would look very different. I think the jury's still out. Next year will tell us a lot. The schedule will be easier and we are only graduating two seniors, one of whom, while a contributor, has started no more than half the games this season. Overall we are a very young team, especially the bullpen.

[Bothrops]

Something happened to the team this year.

[BulldogBear]

Something happened to the team this year.

We could have won all 3 against Auburn to open SEC play. After that we lost 1-0 in a pitcher's duel to Central Arkansas before the above mentioned series at Tennessee. We followed that with a mid-week let down bad loss to UAB 3-2 where they scored all their runs in T1 on Bulldog errors. Then lost game 1 of the UMiss series, before going to win game 2 in extra innings and lose game 3. We never recovered from that six game skid from UCA to UM g1.

[BulldogBear]

nsvltndog asked a similar question in another thread: How close are we?

I'm not a softball expert. I have a daughter that played and I love the diamond sports. Softball is a different game and in some ways I'm still learning it. We have enough baseball experts on ED so I decided to be the one to give softball some attention it deserves. And as I've hinted at before, who would you rather watch pitch at that angle on TV... Houston? Billingsly? Hudson? um, nope.... Holly Ward, Regan Green, and the rest of our gang. So, at the basest level, I get to watch a sport similar enough to baseball to be familiar but watch girls playing it. Win/Win!!! There are lot of NCAA athletes (all our Bulldogs included) that play their hearts out and barely get noticed outside certain circles. I just kind of adopted softball and didn't even really plan it. I've been watching the WCWS for years but you can thank the SECN for really helping interest in sports outside the Big 3 take off. I was just watching an MSU softball game on TV kind of marveling at the fact that it was now possible to do so and it just kind of took off from there. I've never actually been to a game. I do have a full round robin ticket for the SECT and will be there to see our girls play in person for the first time. I will go to every single game of the SECT. I've never had the opportunity to do that in any sport the SEC plays and have always wanted to. I now kind of think of WBB and softball a nice addition to the Big 3, though calling it Big 3.5 doesn't sound right because there's two additional sports, but even Big 4 only invokes the image of one extra. It's not yet reality to call them the Big 5, so I dunno what to call them. This could be the time to add that I love Lacrosse as well. It has spread as far south as ACC country in the mid-Atlantic. I hope it won't be too long before we see it down here, though it would probably spend many years as a club sport.

Anyway, I don't actually know that much about softball recruiting, but I can tell you what we need. The SEC is a big fat hairy beast on the rag in softball. More so even than football and baseball. There have been 10-11 SEC teams in the top 25 at one time. If you have a weakness, it will be exposed and exploited very quickly once conference play starts. If you falter at all, you will plummet down the standings. We have a decent team folks, but with a murderer's row of a schedule against the top teams that we just can't consistently compete with yet, you see the results. We're not likely to even make the postseason. The new facility surely will help with recruiting. What we need translates into the difference right now between us and the top 6-7 programs.

We need at least two more SEC caliber pitchers, whether we recruit them or develop them. Right now we only have one. Our pitching is young and shows potential, and we are graduating none of them this year. We through them in the fire early in the season. Apparently Silkwood was not injured and Vann just wanted the pitching staff to learn without depending on Silkwood as a crutch. I'm not convinced of the wisdom of that (it's a little Bush league actually) given that we are now a couple wins shy of not having to sit at home. We should never have had our best pitcher go cold into the meat of the season. But it's water under the bridge. So, we have young talent to develop.

We need more offense. Defensive breakdowns killed us this year, but you know we scored on defensive breakdowns by the other team. While these stand out, the real problem is lack of offense to overcome it. Baserunning = Compost Pile this year. But a few more hits would overcome that as well. Most good SEC teams have 7-8 good hitters and on any given night 3-5 of these have a good night. We have like 4-5 and 1-2 have a good night. That's the problem.

I got to go eat, so I'll finish this discussion later.

Ima continue this discussion.....

I mentioned offense is our greatest weakness. The arms are coming. We need to generate more offense, more hitters. I want to talk about slap hitting a little bit. It has it's place and before I say anything, we have a slap hitter going pro this year, although that's because she's an outstanding defender. I've seen slappers really put the smack to ball. I've seen them hit it to the fence. But in general slapping is about being fast and finding a gap or beating out a throw for an infield hit. You're best slapper should be your lead off girl. They are always (at least I've never seen otherwise) lefties because otherwise there's no point. Half of sappers' hits are infield hits beating the throw to 1B particularly laying one down the 3B line. It's really a sophisticated bunt, and for that matter you see a lot more bunting for hits in softball than baseball.

But you don't want too many of them. A lead off then maybe another in the 5, 6, or 7 hole depending on our scouting of the other team. We have 2 in at least every lineup and sometimes 3. Also when we've had 3 they've often been 8-9-1, all back to back to back. No. That makes for a crappy inning when you start with the 7 hole or 8 hole. A lead off slapper with a high OBP is great!!! But what happens when you have a slapper come up with ladies at 1B and 2B? Then your tap down the 3B line for a hit with no one on base becomes a fielder's choice step on the bag at 3B. It's effective at getting a lead off on. IMO, it is less so at moving base runners unless you bunt. But you don't have to be a slapper to sac bunt runners over to 2B and 3B. With runners on base it has to go thru a gap. Oh how I cringe when a slapper comes up with runners in scoring position and 2 outs. Inning. Over. Anyway, we need more traditional hitters (that can hit-that's important) so we don't have to have 3 slappers in the lineup. This is all IMHO.

[BulldogBear]

Well, for starters, everybody absolutely needs to pull for Tennessee to beat Auburn tonight at 6:00pm on SECN

With that game only a half hour away I need to wrap parts of this up because we may want to rethink my earlier ^^^^ thought.

KENTUCKY: This is easy, if we beat them at least once we pretty much guarantee they won't finish any higher than #4 as to do so would mean both UT and Auburn have to tank. That's difficult because they have to play each other one more time. They can't both end up with the worst case scenario above and that's the only way Kentucky can go higher than #4 without sweeping us. So, a Bulldog win takes care of putting KY at #4 or #5. So, we want Auburn or Mizzou to end up being the other #4 or #5. How does that happen? How do we pull? Which is more likely to happen?

The only way Mizzou moves up to #5 is sweep USCe (very possible) and for Tennessee to win no more than one more (as you see above I believe they'll beat Ole Miss at least once in a worst case scenario). So, from that perspective you'd want to pull for Auburn tonight and Ole Miss to take two of three from UT this weekend, which is possible, even if improbable, as it's in Oxfart. But if UT wins 2 @ UMiss or Mizzou drops even one to USCe, then Mizzou won't get to #5. Well, if that backfires, the worst an Auburn team that wins tonight will probably do is 2-2 and that won't drop them to #4 if we beat KY. Okay let's examine if a UT win tonight does indeed do more for us as originally thought.

A Volunteer victory exes out Mizzou but can it realistically drop Auburn to #4? Yes, as long as Bama sweeps UGA and UT wins 2 in Oxford AND Auburn loses two AT HOME to A&M.

If I use Occam's Razor, I really begin to look at Mizzou sweeping the Gamecocks and UT dropping 2 in Oxford to be more likely. It's a close call, but I think I'm going to change this notion from earlier. We need to pull for Auburn to beat Tennessee tonight!! Ending up with Mizzou and Kentucky at 4/5 seems more likely than Auburn and Kentucky. I think we'd come nearer beating Mizzou than Auburn anyway. It's close, but that's my leaning. Go Auburn.

[RocketDawg]

...and whatever else comes to mind leading up to our series @ #11 Kentucky to finish the season. This will be a series of posts as I have to time to get some things down. UPFRONT DISCLAIMER:

I won't be discussing scenarios that while still mathematically possible (such as MSU football going 45-0 over the 2016-18 seasons) are extremely unlikely, such as Arkansas (17-36) going on the road and sweeping #1 Florida (47-4). That's not going to happen so I'm not going to discuss those scenarios. We are not going to suddenly go on the road and sweep #11 Kentucky so if you look at the standings below you will see that we are going to finish #12 and get the final spot in the SECT. We CAN discuss who we might end up playing (SEC #5), but I'm going to let you know up front that I'm assuming that nobody in the Top 5 spots in the standings is going to be getting swept by anybody that is not. Also, I am not going to entertain that Arkansas is even going to win 2 in this one case. I am also assuming that anybody #6-#10 is not going to be swept by schools #11-#13. That same logic will apply to any discussion going forward.

#1 Florida (17-4, 47-4) ...hosts Arkansas, best case 3-0, worst case: 2-1
#2 Auburn (15-5, 45-7) ...still has game today @ UT, hosts TAMU, best case: 4-0, worst case: 1-3
#3 Tennessee (14-6, 38-12) ...still has game today vs. Auburn, then @ Ole Miss, best case: 4-0, worst case: 1-3
#4 Alabama (14-7, 43-10) ...hosts UGA, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#5 Kentucky (14-7, 40-11) ...hosts MSU, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#6 Missouri (12-9, 37-12) ...hosts USCe, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#7 LSU (13-11, 40-13) ...hosts Washington Huskies (32-11), literally affects nothing
#8 Georgia (11-10, 39-14) ...@ Alabama, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#9 Ole Miss (10-11, 36-17) ...hosts Tennessee, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#10 Texas A&M (7-14, 35-16) ...@ Auburn, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#11 South Carolina (6-15, 34-18) ...@ Mizzou, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#12 Mississippi State (3-18, 25-27) ...@ Kentucky, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#13 Arkansas (1-20, 17-36) ...@ Florida, best case: 1-2, worst case: 0-3

Arkansas is out, we will be #12 seed regardless, so the only things we are really interested in is who could end up #5 and who could be the #4 whom we would play should we pull the round 1 upset next Wednesday at 4:00pm. So, let's look at possible opponents from Top down.

#1 Florida - will remain the #1 seed in any of these scenarios, although it's possible may share the #1 ranking with Auburn (but UF has tiebreaker).

#2 Auburn - Best case for Tigers they remain #2, but could fall as far as #5, but they'll have to lose to UT and Bama and UK will have to sweep.

#3 Tennessee - Best case for Vols is #2, but they could drop as low as #6 if Mizzou sweeps (MO has tiebreaker).

#4 Alabama - Best case is #2, but could drop as low as #5 (they would own tiebreaker over MO if Tigers sweep USCe)

#5 Kentucky - Best case is #2, worst case is #5 (they also own tiebreaker over MO, although if 3way tie with AL, KY, MO would result in UA #4, UK #5, UM #6)

#6 Missouri - Best case is actually #5 (but they will have to sweep and UT will have to have worst case) and worst case is #7 (lose tiebreaker with UGA although IDK about LSU or 3way with both as they did not play LSU). So, could be #8.

So we will open the SECT against Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, or Kentucky. The question is who do we want and what has to happen for that to happen?

I see we are 12 out of 13. Does Vanderbilt not have a women's softball team? Are they subject to Title IX rules too since they're a private institution?

[BulldogBear]

I see we are 12 out of 13. Does Vanderbilt not have a women's softball team? Are they subject to Title IX rules too since they're a private institution?

No, they don't have a softball team. Title IX applies unless an institution is granted an exemption, but I don't know what criterion would get one nor how hard it is to obtain. Vanderbilt offers 9 women's sports and 6 men's sports so they would be in compliance anyway.

[BulldogBear]

Welp, Auburn-Tennessee game just cancelled. Let me adjust the best and worst case scenarios for them from the OP:

#1 Florida (17-4, 47-4) ...hosts Arkansas, best case 3-0, worst case: 2-1
#2 Auburn (15-5, 45-7) ...hosts TAMU, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#3 Tennessee (14-6, 38-12) ...@ Ole Miss, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#4 Alabama (14-7, 43-10) ...hosts UGA, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#5 Kentucky (14-7, 40-11) ...hosts MSU, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#6 Missouri (12-9, 37-12) ...hosts USCe, best case: 3-0, worst case: 1-2
#7 LSU (13-11, 40-13) ...hosts Washington Huskies (32-11), literally affects nothing
#8 Georgia (11-10, 39-14) ...@ Alabama, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#9 Ole Miss (10-11, 36-17) ...hosts Tennessee, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#10 Texas A&M (7-14, 35-16) ...@ Auburn, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#11 South Carolina (6-15, 34-18) ...@ Mizzou, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#12 Mississippi State (3-18, 25-27) ...@ Kentucky, best case: 2-1, worst case: 0-3
#13 Arkansas (1-20, 17-36) ...@ Florida, best case: 1-2, worst case: 0-3

This now means that Missouri cannot finish #5 in any possible scenario so they are out. What would have to happen now for us still land Auburn and Kentucky at #4 and #5? Let me think about it.

[BulldogBear]

If Auburn loses two to TAMU... Bama sweeps UGA... UT wins two at Ole Miss

...then Auburn would fall to #4

[Offshore Dawg]

BulldogBear all this aside. I would like to take this time to thank you for doing the inning by inning up-dates.

[BulldogBear]

BulldogBear all this aside. I would like to take this time to thank you for doing to inning by inning up-dates.

Y'all are more than welcome. I enjoy the batter by batter even more if I have the time to devote my full attention to it!

[BulldogBear]

Tuesday bump

[BulldogBear]

Tonight's game is at 5:00pm. I'll be on road so few updates. We need to win badly.

Pull for:

TAMU over Auburn

Tide over UGA

Vols over Beardsharkettes

[BulldogBear]

Game 1 at Kentucky

2258

Alexis Silkwood in the Circle

[BulldogBear]

Delete, double post

[BulldogBear]

Katie Anne Bailey - C
Caroline Seitz - 3B
Kayla Winkfield - SS
MacKenzie Toler - DP
Calyn Adams - 2B
Sarai Niu - 1B
Amanda Ivy - CF
Emily Heimberger - RF
Loryn Nichols - LF

[BulldogBear]

End of 4 and it's scoreless

One hit a piece, 2 K's for Silkwood

Fast game

[BulldogBear]

T6

We have gals on corners with 1 out in a scoreless game

[BulldogBear]

MSU takes a 1-0 lead into B6

[BulldogBear]

Dawgs are 3 outs away from a 1-0 win

[BulldogBear]

17

[BulldogBear]

T8

Bases juiced, 2 outs

[BulldogBear]

Calyn Adams - all safe! RBI single gives Dawgs 2-1 lead!

[BulldogBear]

B8

3 outs away again....

Had them down to 1 out with nobody on in B7

[BulldogBear]

1 out

[BulldogBear]

17

[BulldogBear]

B9, tied 2-2

Leadoff double by Cats (17 again and again 17)

[BulldogBear]

17

Seventeen

17

17

SEVENTEEN

10+7

17/1 (it's a prime number!)

17*1

17
1

[BulldogBear]

17 17 17ity 17

So tired of watching this same movie over and over all year. Lose every big extra inning game. Blow lead in 7th inning or blow victory OPPO in 7th inning. We had 'em down to ONE OUT with empty bases.

[BulldogBear]

Game 2 @ Kentucky is an early start today at 11:00am on SECN+

Well, last night was our heartbreaking loss. That means we have one whuppin' to come yet and one that were in it for a while but they just pull away a run or two at a time. We're right on our normal SEC pace this season. Which one will today be?

I'm being overly negative of course but our SEC outings are getting to be like watching reruns of the same series with different unis.

[BulldogBear]

2259

Holly Ward started and is still pitching in a scoreless game. Dawgs hangin' in there. It's the Bottom of the 6th, 2 down, runner on 1B

[BulldogBear]

0-0 headed to the final inning

[BulldogBear]

9-1-2 coming up for MSU

[BulldogBear]

2260

Loryn Nichols

5-3

1 gone

[BulldogBear]

2262

Katie Anne Bailey

grounds out

2 gone

[BulldogBear]

2263

Caroline Seitz

grounds out to 3

Mid-7th, 0-0

[BulldogBear]

Looks like it's extra innings again if we are going to win. We are 1-4 in SEC extra inning games, the lone win being Ole Miss.

[BulldogBear]

Bottom of the 7th

Ward with a backwards K

It was close but it kind of makes up for the 4" x 4" x4" HR ball strike zone we seem to get a lot

[BulldogBear]

5-3, nice throw by Seitz

2 down

[BulldogBear]

4 pitch BB

2 gone, winning run on 1B

[BulldogBear]

Pinch hitter for Cats, Silkwood is in the pen for Dogs

[BulldogBear]

Grounder to Winkfield, who steps on 2B bag


Headed to extra innings, 0-0

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 8th

3-4-5 coming up for Doggies

I don't know the lineup offhand as I am late to the party today and actually only have a few minutes more I can have computer access

[BulldogBear]

2264

Kayla Winkfield

4-3

1 out

[BulldogBear]

2265

Mackenzie Toler

K, rare

2 down

[BulldogBear]

2266

Calyn Adams

High chopper 6-3

Mid-8th, still 0-0

I rarely work on Saturdays but am today and gotta focus back on task

[BulldogBear]

Well, we just threw one away at 1B

No outs, winning run on 2B

See y'all later...

[BulldogBear]

Without a hit, Cats score that run.

Dogs drop to 25-29, 3-20 SEC

[BulldogBear]

Game 3 @ Kentucky:


Starts today at 11:55am on SECN+

Not sure what exactly happened yesterday but we threw it away no pun intended. Threw it away at 1B to put the runner in scoring position and then threw it into CF from the plate and that scored the runner on the throwing error. WT....??? Moving on...

So, how important is today's game. It's the season. And may be anyway. Well, somebody reads ED*** because we're bringing in Alcorn State for a last minute home game tomorrow (Monday) at 1:00pm. But we don't win today then whatever we've paid them to make this trip is just $$$ down the drain. We are 25-29 therefore with two games left because of the Alcorn game. If you don't win the conference tournament for an automatic bid, you must have a .500 record to make a regional, no matter how hard your SOS was nor how awesome your RPI is. Period. If we win today and beat Alcorn tomorrow, we'll be 27-29 going into the SECT. That gives us a chance to get into postseason play by making thru the first three days to get to the Championship game on Saturday without actually having to win it. Drop either of the remaining regular season games and we finish 26-30, meaning we'll have to get the auto bid anyway.

The thing, we have gotten the help we need from everyone in the SEC to make sure we have the best chance to make it past the first two SECT round. We don't wanna see Bama or UT IMO. We will face #5 and then #4 if we win against #5. Of the top 5 seeds, we seem to have the best chance to beat Auburn and Kentucky. But Auburn had to lose to TAMU 2 of 3, highly unlikely. Well, guess what, the Ags won the first two games. Mission accomplished. We also needed Bama to sweep UGA. Tide is 2-0. We needed UT to beat Ole Miss 2 of 3. It's 1-1 going into today. We need Bama, and UT to win today to assure we face the best odds of getting thru the first two round of the SECT. ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS BEAT KY if the above happens, because if we don't KY will finish #2 or #3 and we'll get UT (yay...not) on the 2nd day of the SECT. If we make it thru days 1 and 2, we'll still have to win on Day 3 to get a postseason bid. But, you never know what could happen. There might even be other upsets and we might not be facing Bama or UF, etc. But it all starts with winning today.

Go State!

[BulldogBear]

2268

Alexis Silkwood back in the Circle today

[BulldogBear]

Here's a shakeup, we're leading off with....

2269

Loryn Nichols - CF

2270

Caroline Seitz - 3B

2271

Kayla Winkfield - SS

2272

Mackenzie Toler - DP

2273

Calyn Adams - 2B

[BulldogBear]

2274

Katie Anne Bailey - C

2275

Taylor Kelly - 1B

2276

Olivia Golden - LF

2277

Emily Heimberger - RF


Shakeup indeed. Our best OF, Amanda Ivy, is no where to be found.

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 1st

2278

Loryn Nichols

Infield Single!!!!

[BulldogBear]

2279

Caroline Seitz

Sac Bunt moves Nichols to 2B

[BulldogBear]

2280

Kayla Winkfield

Backward K

2 down, Nichols at 2B

[BulldogBear]

2281

Mackenzie Toler

Backwards K

So, we get the leadoff on with no outs and give the pitcher a free out. DPs are very very rare in softball. So, one of our best hitters gets the bunt call. #cohening

0-0

[BulldogBear]

Bottom of the 1st

Leadoff bunt OVER the SS for a single

[BulldogBear]

Caught her stealing 2-6

Yuss!!

1 gone

[BulldogBear]

BB

1 out, Cat on 1B

[BulldogBear]

5-3, runner advances

2 down, Cat on 2B

[BulldogBear]

High Chopper over Silkwood's head but grabbed by Adams, 4-3 ends inning

After 1, no score

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 2nd

5-6-7 coming up for MSU

Adams, Bailey, Kelly

[BulldogBear]

2282

Calyn Adams

4-3

1 out

[BulldogBear]

2283

grounds out 3-4

2 gone

[BulldogBear]

2284

Taylor Kelly

K

0-0 mid 2nd

[BulldogBear]

Bottom of the 2nd

Leadoff double off the wall

I'm afraid we can't afford inning like the 1st. When we get leadoff's on and/or runners in scoring position with 1 out, we MUST get a run or two in or we won't win this game.

[BulldogBear]

Game 3 @ Kentucky:


Starts today at 11:55am on SECN+

Not sure what exactly happened yesterday but we threw it away no pun intended. Threw it away at 1B to put the runner in scoring position and then threw it into CF from the plate and that scored the runner on the throwing error. WT....??? Moving on...

So, how important is today's game. It's the season. And may be anyway. Well, somebody reads ED*** because we're bringing in Alcorn State for a last minute home game tomorrow (Monday) at 1:00pm. But we don't win today then whatever we've paid them to make this trip is just $$$ down the drain. We are 25-29 therefore with two games left because of the Alcorn game. If you don't win the conference tournament for an automatic bid, you must have a .500 record to make a regional, no matter how hard your SOS was nor how awesome your RPI is. Period. If we win today and beat Alcorn tomorrow, we'll be 27-29 going into the SECT. That gives us a chance to get into postseason play by making thru the first three days to get to the Championship game on Saturday without actually having to win it. Drop either of the remaining regular season games and we finish 26-30, meaning we'll have to get the auto bid anyway.

The thing, we have gotten the help we need from everyone in the SEC to make sure we have the best chance to make it past the first two SECT round. We don't wanna see Bama or UT IMO. We will face #5 and then #4 if we win against #5. Of the top 5 seeds, we seem to have the best chance to beat Auburn and Kentucky. But Auburn had to lose to TAMU 2 of 3, highly unlikely. Well, guess what, the Ags won the first two games. Mission accomplished. We also needed Bama to sweep UGA. Tide is 2-0. We needed UT to beat Ole Miss 2 of 3. It's 1-1 going into today. We need Bama, and UT to win today to assure we face the best odds of getting thru the first two round of the SECT. ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS BEAT KY if the above happens, because if we don't KY will finish #2 or #3 and we'll get UT (yay...not) on the 2nd day of the SECT. If we make it thru days 1 and 2, we'll still have to win on Day 3 to get a postseason bid. But, you never know what could happen. There might even be other upsets and we might not be facing Bama or UF, etc. But it all starts with winning today.

Go State!

^^^^And I repeat^^^^

[BulldogBear]

F-8, runner tags to 3B

1 out

[BulldogBear]

K

2 gone, Cat on 3B

[BulldogBear]

6-3 ends inning

0-0 after two

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 3rd

2285

Olivia Golden

Backwards K

1 out

[BulldogBear]

2286

Emily Heimberger

Singles to center!!

1 out, runner on 1B

[BulldogBear]

2287

Loryn Nichols

FC 6-4

2 outs

Nichols on 1B and promptly steals 2B

[BulldogBear]

2288

Caroline Seitz

Plinks one off the barrel 6-3

Headed to B3, still scoreless

[BulldogBear]

Bottom of the 3rd

leadoff K

Go Dogs!

[BulldogBear]

5-3

2 down

[BulldogBear]

6-3

Good job Bulldogs! Great play by Winkfield!

End of three, still 0-0

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 4th

3-4-5 on tap for MSU

Winkfield, Toler, Adams

[BulldogBear]

2289

K

1 down

[BulldogBear]

2290

Mackenzie Toler

Singles thru left side gap!!

[BulldogBear]

2291

Calyn Adams

F-7

2 down, runner at 1B

[BulldogBear]

2292

Katie Anne Bailey

Texas Leaguer!!!!

2 down, Doggies on 1B and 2B

[BulldogBear]

2293

Taylor Kelly

6-3

We continue to fail to score when we have the chance

Half way there, 0-0

[BulldogBear]

Bottom of the 4th

Leadoff single

[BulldogBear]

WP, runner goes to 2B

Bulldogs conference at circle

[BulldogBear]

#buntfail F-5

Love it! Way to go Seitz!

1 down, Wildcat on 2B

[BulldogBear]

BB

1 out, runners on 1B and 2B

[BulldogBear]

Pitching change for MSU

2294

Cassady Knudsen into the Circle

[BulldogBear]

3-2 count

Let's get her at the plate!

[BulldogBear]

Caught her looking!

Hail yeah!!!

2 down, Wildcats on 1B and 2B

Let's get back to the dugout Dawgs!

[BulldogBear]

F-2 in foul territory

Way to get off the field Bulldogs!!!!

We've played four and it's still scoreless

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 5th

8-9-1 due up for Dawgs

Golden, Heimberger, Nichols

[BulldogBear]

2295

Olivia Golden

5-3

1 gone

[BulldogBear]

2296

Emily Heimberger

Safe at 1B, close play, first baseman foot was off bag. Not sure if they're scoring a hit or not. Probably.

1 out, Bulldog on 1B

[BulldogBear]

2297

Loryn Nichols

FC 5-4

2 outs, runner on 1B

[BulldogBear]

2298

Caroline Seitz

Over the fence.....just left of the LF foul pole

2-2 count

[BulldogBear]

F-7 deep LF

Mid 5th, still no score

[BulldogBear]

Bottom of the 5th

Nichols moves to LF and Amanda Ivy comes in at CF!!!

[BulldogBear]

Knudsen gets the leadoff runner swinging!

1 down

[BulldogBear]

Bunt 2-3

Good job Bailey!!

2 outs

[BulldogBear]

6-3

Dawgs get 'em 1-2-3!!!!

After five, 0-0

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 6th

3-4-5 due up for State

Winkfield, Toler, Adams

[BulldogBear]

2299

Kayla Winkfield

Deep F-7

1 out

[BulldogBear]

2300

Mackenzie Toler

K

2 outs

[BulldogBear]

2301

Calyn Adams

6-3

Mid 6th, no score

[BulldogBear]

Bottom of the 6th

F-9

1 down

[BulldogBear]

BB

1 out, Wildcat on 1B

[BulldogBear]

Left side tweener

1 out, runner on 1B and 2B

[BulldogBear]

2302

Holly Ward takes over in the Circle for Mississippi State

[BulldogBear]

Tapped to who really has no where to go with it, all safe

1 out, bases juiced

[BulldogBear]

FC 5-2 in the dirt

KY takes the lead (probably for good) 1-0, we have the bottom of the order coming up and frankly, that just never does us much good

Still one out, bases juiced

[BulldogBear]

Ball goes off pitcher's glove and into RIGHT FIELD, scoring 2, giving KY the 3-0 lead

1 out, runners at 2B and 3B

This game is over

[BulldogBear]

Adams looks runner back to third and then gets the 4-3

2 outs, runners at 2B and 3B

[BulldogBear]

4-3

KY takes 3-0 lead

Headed to T7, Bulldogs last chance to avoid having to win the SECT

[BulldogBear]

Top of the 7th

MSU: 6-7-8 due up

Bailey, Kelly, Ivy

Well, maybe some hope there... I forgot Ivy was now in

[BulldogBear]

It's 4-0 KY

I missed something somewhere

[BulldogBear]

2303

Katie Anne Bailey

F-5

1 out

[BulldogBear]

2304

Taylor Kelly

K

2 down

[BulldogBear]

Well, that's not Ivy coming up, looks like Cousineau

2306

Madison Cousineau

K

That's it

[BulldogBear]

Kentucky wins 4-0 dropping MSU to 25-30 overall and a 3-21 final SEC record. Good think Arkansas sucks or we'd be hosting the SECT and being the one school not to play in it.

[BulldogBear]

We have no offense and that's our problem. Other SEC schools, at least the top 8-10, are a threat to score in any inning. We are only a threat to score every other inning or so. We tried to shake things up today but I'm not sure how well that works. Bringing in players that don't start much, particularly Freshman, against SEC pitching is throwing them to the wolves. This isn't meant to knock them, it just takes experience to have expectable success against SEC caliber pitchers. It's no coincidence that these players went 0-6 today with 4 Ks. These are wasted at bats. We're not going to bring people off the bench and whallop SEC pitching. They're going down for the most part.

We tend to lose SEC games late on defensive and/or base running breakdowns. That's not as big of a deal as it sounds like. We score on some defensive hijinks as well. The problem is other SEC teams can overcome giving up some runs. We can't. Our pitching is going to be fine in the long run, but we've got to bring in some hitters.

[Bothrops]

So do we not play in our hosted tourney now?

[BulldogBear]

So do we not play in our hosted tourney now?

We do....as the last team in. Arkansas is the only one left out and Vandy has no softball team.

[BulldogBear]

Well, the SECT field is now set. By virtue of Georgia's win over Alabama today, we get the Tide in round 1 Wednesday at 6:30pm.

We literally match up better against anyone else in the SEC other than ALABAMA. Their strength, pitching, plays right into our weakness, offense, particularly hitting.

I hope our ladies give BulldogBear a big 17U this week and top the Tide, but I'm not very optimistic at all. We must WIN the SECT to advance to postseason and I would rather have literally rather been up against anyone but the Gumps on day 1. Well, we earned it. We're home and maybe that'll be some mojo for us.

[preachermatt83]

We need a coach that knows how to recruit.

[mic]

We need a coach that knows how to recruit.

Need a new coach period....

[preachermatt83]

Need a new coach period....

Two words... Trae Embry. On the verge of his 7th state championship in a row. 12th total at two diff schools. And could sell ice to an Eskimo. If he would have been at state u can bet your bottom dollar Lunderman wouldn't be in Oxford right now.

[mparkerfd20]

Vann has to go. No other way around it.

[AROB44]

Now we are into firing women's softball coaches? Really...what's next....track, golf?

[CadaverDawg]

Now we are into firing women's softball coaches? Really...what's next....track, golf?

Lol

[BulldogBear]

We're playing a make up game against Alcorn State at this very moment. It would mean something if we could have won but 2 of the last 11 straight SEC games we have lost including FOUR extra inning games. As it is, today we can win 25-0 or lose 25-0 and we will still only make the postseason if we win the SECT.

ETA: I was wrong on time. Starts at 1:00pm. I had in my mind it had started at 11:00am

[preachermatt83]

Now we are into firing women's softball coaches? Really...what's next....track, golf?

Any sport we have is worth being competitive in. 3-21 in the SEC don't cut it. I don't care if it water polo, if we gonna have a team we better compete.

[BulldogBear]

Any sport we have is worth being competitive in. 3-21 in the SEC don't cut it. I don't care if it water polo, if we gonna have a team we better compete.

^^^This


lineup today:

Nichols - LF
Heimberger - RF
Winkfield - SS
Seitz - 3B
Toler - DP
Adams - 2B
Niu - 1B
Bailey - C
Ivy - CF

Knudsen gets the start in the circle

Glad to see #25 back in the lineup

[BulldogBear]

4-0 MSU after two

[ScoobaDawg]

We must of agreed to a make up game a while back cause.. you are right it makes no sense. 26-30 still won't make NCAA's..have to win the tournament. Well one more game..

[CadaverDawg]

Any chance they'll play us again today?....and then a DH tomorrow?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bzu7Pn78FB8/Vdd6HuCmMcI/AAAAAAAATUU/iHRQsArMipM/s1600/shrug.gif

[BulldogBear]

We must of agreed to a make up game a while back cause.. you are right it makes no sense. 26-30 still won't make NCAA's..have to win the tournament. Well one more game..

Only announced it last week


Any chance they'll play us again today?....and then a DH tomorrow?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Bzu7Pn78FB8/Vdd6HuCmMcI/AAAAAAAATUU/iHRQsArMipM/s1600/shrug.gif

You wish



We won 8-0, Knudsen recorded a no hitter. That's worth a Hail State!

[BulldogBear]

We must of agreed to a make up game a while back cause.. you are right it makes no sense. 26-30 still won't make NCAA's..have to win the tournament. Well one more game..

I think the idea was, you know, we win one (or more) against KY and then it would have made a big difference. Instead we lose our 3rd and 4th SEC EI games in a row. The joke's on us and Alcorn gets a payday.

[mparkerfd20]

Now we are into firing women's softball coaches? Really...what's next....track, golf?

You jest, but softball is a very fast growing sport in the SE and the SEC is the best of the best. State deserves better than it's been getting.