Shocker SB at North Texas

[Stickboy46]

Looks to me like we keep trying to hit the ball out of the park, vs. just making contact and focusing on base hits.

Fundamentally meh offensively.

Very frustrating team this year. Just keep finding ways to lose

[1972Shocker]

I can't say that I am harboring very happy thoughts about the state of this softball program right now.

Hope the weather in Nebraska this evening wasn't weighing the Nebraska kids down but that might have been an issue.

At least we know where we stand as far as getting to the post season and maybe, with the way Chloe is pitching, the Shocks can find a way.

[flyingMoose]

@flyingMoose may have to explain this one.

My guess is that, in the umpire's judgment, no one had a chance to field the ball.

EDIT: After I posted, I read your next post which says the same thing.

[flyingMoose]

Other Friday Games

Charlotte 5-0 UAB

Florida Atlantic 0-1 USF
A two-hitter

UTSA 0-10(5) Tulsa

East Carolina 4-3 Memphis
Two runs in the top of the seventh for the win

[BAShocker]

All of the below, just my opinion-rant.

I’m probably going to get skewered for this, but I’ll go ahead…what the heck, I don’t care. KB elevated this program to NCAAT level, partly on the backs of players like Syd. At any rate, that’s where we are, hopefully still are. With that, my opinion, they inherently are under the same scrutiny as the Mens Basketball program is…again, at least for me.

Offensively speaking only, right now, we have about three players competing: CC, Addie and Kris. Occasionally Taylor and maybe one or two others from time to time…maybe, have decent at-bats. Call it a collective slump for everyone else, whatever. (I have no stats to back this up, btw). Maybe it’s mental, who we are playing against, or perhaps it’s just the best the can do…either way, it isn’t working. Just not competing at the plate, trying to simply get on base.

I wonder what would happen if KB juggled the lineup. Perhaps it’s too late in the season and she’s just going to roll with what she has. Who knows.

I’ve watched more college softball this year that I ever have. Not sure why, I just have. I question our strength and conditioning. We just don’t “appear” to be in great shape, compared to other top level teams…and now it’s showing late in the season.

Anyway, don’t hate…I just had to vent. I want to see them succeed. I want them to give the fans reason to support, donate and give NIL $ to them and the program. Right now, it’s not there.

[flyingMoose]

Game Three

Chloe (no real surprise, but how long can she go?) and Childers for North Texas are the starters in the circle.

No score after two. Chloe has yielded no hits, walked two, and struck out one.

Childers strikes out the side in the first, gets two more Ks in the second, one more in the third before she issues three consecutive walks to load the bases with two outs. After a wild pitch score one run, Taylor unloads the bases with a three-run homer. One K for Chloe. 4-0 after three.

Wagoner is in the circle to start the fourth for North Texas. Three up, three down for both sides. No hits through four for the Mean Green. This is impressive given that Chloe only has two Ks. She is not overpowering them but is still getting outs. The Shockers only have the one hit though.

In the fifth, UNT gets two two-out singles but no runs. 4-0 after five.

Six up, six down in the sixth. 4-0.

Sami leads off the seventh with a walk and one out later, Caroline doubles her home. Another out later, Krystin has an RBI-double of her own. 6-0 in the middle of the seventh.

A one-out, ten-pitch, full count walk is the only "threat" in the bottom of the seventh.

Shockers 6-0 North Texas


Another outstanding outing for Chloe: two singles, three walks, and three strikeouts. She has to be a shoo-in for Pitcher of the Week again. The Shocks did not waste their three hits. Each drove in a run with Taylor's three-run blast being the big hit. The bottom of the order produced the last two runs which is nice to see.

[1972Shocker]

I don't see anything wrong with your comments BAShocker. Thought I would provide a little more color and detail regarding how we got to this point. I agree with you observation that other teams appear to be much more athletic players than the Shockers. In baseball and softball not always the most important thing but it counts. After all you would never look at CC and say now there is an athlete. So I think this comes down simply to the type of softball players you are recruiting. HCKB has really not shown much interest in playing small ball and recruiting the type of athletes you need for that. She and Coach E are more into the grip and rip style of players not that we haven't had some very athletic players. I assume they are conditioned accordingly.

Syd was a once in a generation, if not a lifetime player. Great hitter. Great defensive player. Great baserunner. Great softball IQ. Great leader. We knew we weren't going to replace Syd.

In addition to Syd moving on to the pros, we also graduated Lauren Mills and Zoe Jones and we lost Lauren Lucas to some kind of injury. Both Zoe and Lauren were terrific hitters with runners in scoring position as the combined for 117 rbi last year. It helps having Syd and Addie in front of you in the lineup but they both delivered when needed.

Were lucky we got CC, who is a great DH, out of the portal and I hate to think where we would be if we had not picked her up. I guess CC is in a bit of a slump if you consider hitting .350 over her past 7 games a slump. CC is actually a bit of an upgrade from Lolo at the DH spot and that has been a pleasant surprise.

Addie is having a good, solid All-Conference year and Krystin is duplicating her turn around from a terrible start of last year.

Those 3 players are hitting a combined .393 with an average OPS of around 1.275. Nothing to complain about there.

The best of the rest is Taylor who is hitting .277 but has a good OPS due to her power. Personally, I think Taylor may have the best natural physical tools on the team. How far she can take those tools remains to be seen. Taylor is having a little better year at the plate, mostly in the power department, and has filled in admirably at short when Sami was unable to make the transition from 2nd base.

Lainee is good receiver but maybe not a great throwing arm (she has thrown out 6 of 38 base stealers on the season) and Lainee has never hit much as a Shocker.

Sami is a terrific defensive 2nd baseman, but so far hitting consistently at this level has escaped her and her power numbers are no where near where they were in high school.

But overall this year's team batting average is down 50 points at .277 from last years .327 and the runs per game are down to 5.4 from 6.5 last year.

Opponents have stolen 44 bases to only 20 for the Shocks this year compared to last year when the Shocks had 51 steals to only 28 for the opponents.

Perhaps more importantly the pitching has fallen off this year with a team ERA of 4.38 vs 2.55 last year and that is with returning all 3 pitchers who handled the workload. Freshman Chloe Barber, who is fantastic when she is on, has the lowest ERA on the staff this year at 3.38 with the 3 returning pitchers at 4.71. The staff's WHIP is 1.63 this year vs 1.26 last year. There has been speculation that the change of pitching coach may be behind this. That is certainly a possibility but one that is very hard know for sure. I will say that Alex and Alison are primarily finesse pitchers and Lauren isn't overpowering but had a decent rise ball. The style of pitching seemed to be constantly have runners on base but working out of those situations consistently. The style for those 3 pitchers this year is the same, although Lauren's command of her rise ball hasn't been as good IMO and they just are not extricating themselves from jams with the same success as they did last year. I think the real quality of the Alex, Alison and Lauren triumvirate is somewhere between last year and this year. Another factor that perhaps may well account for some of the decline in pitching stats is that last year the Shockers strength of schedule was ranked #65. At this point this year it is ranked #30. It would appear that the new AAC is a better softball league than the old AAC was.

So this team lost the GOAT, their 2 leading RBI producers, and a very good DH and basically only replaced and perhaps upgraded the DH. None of this year's freshman class except Chloe on occasion has done anything this year. They are playing with an outfielder at the very key position of shortstop with a pitching staff that has been quite erratic (for whatever reason) against a stronger schedule.

Looking forward to next year we will have to replace Addie, CC (most likely), LaurenH, Lainee, Burbs, Jess Garcia, and perhaps a bigger loss than most fans realize in the very little used Madyson Espinosa and her infectious spirit and energy on the bench. Hopefully, Lauren Lucas will be back and as good as before. And hopefully Erica Shertz will be able to provide some help in the circle after a redshirt year. But clearly there are challenges.

As far as this year goes it's win the AAC Tournament or hang up the cleats for the season. And if Chloe has figured things out they might be able ride her powerful right arm into the NCAA Tournament. And that same right arm gives the Shocks a chance against most regional hosts they might face.

[1972Shocker]

Not as many strikeouts for Chloe in today's game but after seeing her for 6 innings yesterday North Texas hitters no doubt knew they had to start their swings sooner today. Did not do them much good as they still only managed 2 singles today. Nice work Chloe and good job by the offense giving her some run support today with Taylor, Caroline and Krystin providing the key hits.

If you had told me that North Texas would only score 4 runs in the 3 games this weekend I would have expected a Shocker sweep. Unfortunately, it didn't shake out that way.

[flyingMoose]

Other Saturday Games

Charlotte 7-1 UAB

Florida Atlantic 10-8 USF

UTSA 0-8(5) Tulsa

East Carolina 6-0 Memphis

[1972Shocker]

Chloe has lowered her team leading ERA to 2.81 after today's complete game shutout.

In Chloe's starts against Arkansas, Illinois State and Nebraska in late February and her recent start against UAB and the 2 starts against North Texas this weekend Chloe pitched a total of 41 innings allowing only 4 earn runs on 21 hits while striking out 70 and walking 18 for an ERA of 0.68 and a WHIP of 0.95.

Let's hope Chloe's lengthy middle of the season woes are behind her. She certainly has more than regained the confidence of the Coaches at this point.

[flyingMoose]

And I have to think that the coaches deserve some credit here. From the RH linked to below, you have the impression that much of the issue for Chloe was not having the confidence to work through bad stretches.

Link

[1972Shocker]

Game 3 was an interesting contrast to Game 2 in terms of how Chloe got the North Texas hitters out.

In game 2 the 18 outs recorded by Chloe were on 14 strikeouts (77.8%), 2 pop ups to infielders (11.1%) and 2 fly balls to the outfield (11.1%). UNT had 3 hits for 7 total bases.

Clearly, North Texas made an adjustment in their approach which for game 3 which you would expect from a good, well-coached team.

In game 3 the 21 outs recorded by Chloe were on 3 strikeouts (14.3%), 10 pop ups to infielders (47.6%), 6 fly balls to the outfield (28.6%) and 2 ground ball outs (9.5%). But UNT only had 2 hits for 2 total bases.

Of the 8 balls hit into the outfield 5 were easily caught pop flies. 3 balls were hit hard on 3 consecutive at bats in the 5th. A hard line drive to right with a strong wind behind it that Mila Seaton made a nice running catch on followed by the 2 singles to enter a sharp ground ball and a solid lined drive. It was good to see that Chloe did not let that bother her and she got right back on track.

I wonder how many bats Chloe would had broken today if they were using wood bats.

[1972Shocker]

So what are the odds that Chloe will be selected as the AAC Pitcher of the Week for the 2nd consecutive week? I very little about what transpired around the league this weekend but I would think Chloe's odds have to be PDG.

Both those games yesterday were a hard pill to swallow, especially that 2nd game. The Shocks left 14 runners on base, 9 of those in scoring position and they were a combined 0-13 at the plate with runners in scoring position. And it was a team effort as CC, (1 RISP LOB), Addie (1), Sami (2), Lainee (2), and Burbs (1) were all 0-1 with RISP. Taylor (3), Nelson (3), Talent (2) and Garcia (2) were all 0-2 with RISP. The Shocks left the bases loaded in each of the 1st 3 innings. The Shocks outhit North Texas 9-3 in this game. North Texas only left 2 runners on base primarily because they had very few runners reach base.

In today's game the Shocks managed to put up 6 earned runs on only 3 hits.and only left 1 runner on base for the entire game. It helps when the big hit, Taylor's 3rd inning home run, followed 3 consecutive walks and a wild pitch all coming after 2 were out. Perhaps proving that the when you get your hits is more important than how many hits you get.

Softball and baseball can have some really strange and painful outcomes at times.

[1972Shocker]

Lol .. Chloe gives up a home run on a strike out at bat (that was an awful 3rd pitch call)

I didn't see it yesterday. Went back and looked at he replay. I thought it was border line. Could have went either way. This ump was not really giving the pitchers that left edge and that pitch was right at the top of the strike zone. OTOH, Zoe got a lot of calls on the right edge of the plate.

Also, I've noticed that the umps tend to give a pitcher the edge on the slde of the plate the corresponds to which of the catcher's shoulder they are looking over. This ump, as many if not most do look over the catcher's left shoulder when a right handed batter is up and vice versa. In this case Smith was a right handed batter. So he is viewing the left side of the plate at an angle.

In any case, we didn't lose the game because of that call. Going 0-13 with RISP was is what did the Shockers in.

[1972Shocker]

I absolutely hate taking the bat out of her hands on a 3-0 pitch. That pitch was a meatball

Again didn't see this yesterday so I went back to take a look.

I agree that you should give your best hitters the green light on 3-0 way more often than coaches do in both baseball and softball, especially at the collegiate level. You often get a get-me-over fastball. However, this was actually a pretty decent 3-0 pitch. It was a decent fast ball right on the inside black. Would have been tough for Addie to get her arms extended on that one. The next 3 pitches were probably better pitches to hit. The first of those was a little low but center cut and Addie hit it low and hard but pulled it foul, The 2nd of those pitches was a little up but center cut and Addie was a little late and fouled it off. The 3rd was waist high fast ball right down the middle that Addie just swung through.

So in this case it's not like Addie did not still get several good pitches to hit. Just one of the Shocks 13 failures to get a hit with RISP.