2018 AAC Softball Championship

[flyingMoose]

Release by the AAC.

Championship Central

[flyingMoose]

The stats summary (conference only) for the teams, arranged by seed.


#1 USF

Astin Donovan has an OPS of 1.073. Lindsey Devitt and Brooke Hartman have an OPS above .800 with Hartman having six of the team's fourteen home runs. Amber Atkinson has an OPS above .900 in about two-thirds of their games, but had only two ABs this past weekend. Coming back from an injury?

Georgina Corrick (ERA of 1.53 and WHIP of 0.91) and Cheyenne Eggens (2.24 and 1.22) have all of the conference starts for the Bulls. Hannah Parker (2.33 and 0.93) has ten appearances totaling fifteen innings.

This is a pitching-dominant team as we saw last weekend.


#2 Houston

There are no conference-only stats for the Cougars. Sarah Queen (ten homers on the season) and Arielle James lead the offense. Savannah Heebner is the staff mainstay with Trystan Melancon next in line.

This team relies on Heebner to carry them.


#3 Shockers

Mackenzie is the offensive leader with an outstanding OPS of 1.240. Others with an OPS above .900 are Ryleigh (1.034 and five homers), Bailey (.977), Laurie despite her late-season swoon (.956 and seven homers) and Madison (.933).

Bailey (ERA of 2.72 and WHIP of 1.39) and Caitlin (4.50 and 1.46 - more walks allowed than hits) have all but one of the conference starts. BaileyK (1.91 and 1.32) has twelve appearances in relief totaling 22 innings.

This team is carried by its offense with some help from Bailey. Will she start every game this Tournament?


#4 UCF

The offensive leader for the Knights is Cassady Brewer with an OPS of 1.081. Denali Schappacher is at .914 with Erin Emmanuel and Kyra Klarkowski both above .800.

Alea White has almost all of the starts and all but 21 of the innings for UCF. Her ERA is 3.02 with a WHIP of 1.43. Cierra Word and Kamryn Toney each have two starts.


#5 Memphis

Amazingly, no one has an OPS above .800 for the Tigers.

Molly White had two starts each weekend. She has an ERA of 3.29 and a WHIP of 1.17. Mariah Nichols is the second starter with numbers of 4.20 and 1.74.

This team has to hope that White gets really hot.


#6 Tulsa

Juli Hollingsworth (.906) is the only OPS above .800.

Emily Watson is the staff mainstay (ERA of 1.79 and WHIP of 0.97) with not much help from Samantha Pochop.

In two words, Emily Watson.


#7 ECU

The offense for the Pirates is led by Alex Mycek (.903 and four homers) and Meredith Burroughs (.885 and five homers).

Erin Poepping (ERA of 3.73 and WHIP of 1.45) and Whitney Sanford (3.92 and 1.70) are the starters.


#8 UConn

Briana Marcelino has the highest OPS for the Huskies at .806. Chloe Kerns has a nicer number, but far fewer at-bats.

Katie Koshes (ERA of 3.14 and WHIP of 1.27) and Jill Stockley (4.26 and 1.42) have most of the innings.

[flyingMoose]

Game One

Tulsa v Shockers

The video link and LiveStats link are on the Champion Central page. Unfortunately, I am going to miss it no matter where it is. Having to beat Watson worries me as the Shocks failed twice in the conference series. That was early and hopefully the new-to-the-conference worries are over.

[1972Shocker]

I wondered if the team was just going to stay in Tampa through the week following the series with USF and that is what they did.

http://goshockers.com/news/2018/5/9/the-roundhouse-rh-shockers-adjust-to-big-park-in-florida.aspx

[1972Shocker]

Through 5 innings Bailey has only given up 3 hits but those have produced 3 runs to give Tulsa a 3-0 lead going into the bottom of the 5th.

In the bottom of the 5th Bailee reached safely on an error by 2B and Madison singled to left center moving Bailee to 3rd. Paige reached on an infield single scoring Bailee and moving Madison ot 2nd.

Mauriana failed in two attempts to get a sac bunt down and then struck out. Mackenzie just missed a couple of pitches fouling them straight back and she struck out and the Asea Webber struck out to end the inning.

Shocks pull to within 1 at 3-1 but missed a golden opportunity. Emily Watson appears to be in control with two innings to play.

A lead off single by Madison in the bottom of the 7th and a 2-out semi-intentional walk to Mackenzie put the tieing runs on base for the Shocks. Fr. Ashton Esparza, pinch hitting for Asea, struck out to end the game.

The Shocks will now have to wait to see if they might sneek into the NCAA Tournament with an at-large bid. Seems like that might go either way.

The Shockers and Tulsa both had 5 hits but the Shockers had 5 singles while Tulsa had a home run to lead off the game and a timely triple to drive in their other two runs.

Tulsa's Emily Watson struck out 13 Shockers many in key situations.

The Shockers close out the season with a 30-21 record and now wait to see if they receive an at-large bid to an NCAA Regional Site on Selection Sunday, May 13. Broadcast live on ESPN2 at 9:00 p.m. CT, the show will select teams competing at the Regional sites held May 18-20, on 16 campus sites. At each campus site, a four-team, double-elimination tournament will be conducted and the 16 winning teams advanced to the Super Regionals.

[flyingMoose]

Game Two

ECU 1-3 Houston

The Cougars had only five hits, but one was three-unearned-runs homer to take this one.

[flyingMoose]

Game Three

Memphis 3-0 UCF

Molly White pitched a two-hitter for the Tigers.


Game Four

UConn 1-2(12) USF


A day dominated by pitching - no game had more than four runs scored.

[flyingMoose]

Game Five

Tulsa 7-3 Houston

Today Watson struck out fifteen to go with thirteen yesterday and gave up only one earned run.


Game Six

Memphis 7-8 USF

Both starters were gone by the second inning. The Bulls rallied with two in the fifth and a two-out single in the seventh for the win. They used four pitchers, but not Corrick.

[flyingMoose]

The Championship Game is between #1 USF and #6 Tulsa. Tulsa can only make the NCAA Tournament by winning tomorrow - their RPI is 59 going into the AAC Tournament and that will not be good enough for an at-large bid. Even with a loss, USF will make the NCAAs by virtue of being the regular season champion and having an RPI of 42.

USF won the regular season series by 2-1 with Watson taking the two losses, one in relief. She appears to be on a mission this week however.

If Tulsa wins, does this create questions for the chances of the Shockers? The two additional possible at-large possibilities beyond USF are the Shocks and Houston.

RPI: Shockers 32 .. Houston 35
Head-to-head: Houston 2-1
Regular season finish: Shockers T3 .. Houston 2
Tournament record: Shockers 0-1 .. Houston 1-1

If USF wins, there are no worries. If Tulsa wins, maybe four teams from the AAC will qualify for the NCAAs. If Tulsa wins and only three teams total are taken by the NCAA ...

[1972Shocker]

So to summarize: Go Bulls!

[flyingMoose]

During the early portion of the telecast, the announcers noted that an RPI of 47 made last year's NCAAs and an RPI of 48 made the previous year's Tournament. Perhaps too much worry about nothing. (And I may have reversed those years.)

[flyingMoose]

Game Seven

Tulsa v USF

Tulsa scores one in the first and two more in the third to knock Corrick out of the game. She gave up six hits and two walks in 2.1 innings.

Tulsa leads 3-0 in the middle of the third.

USF gets an unearned run in the fourth on a single and two-base error followed by a sac fly.

The Hurricane leads 3-1 after four.

They get the run back in the fifth on a single, stolen base, fly ball out and ground ball out.

Emily Watson strikes out the side in the seventh to carry Tulsa to the NCAA Tournament.


Tulsa 4-1 USF

As often happens, a team rides the strong arm of their ace to win a conference tournament. Watson gave up three hits and no walks and had eight strikeouts.


The Selection Sunday show is at 9pm on ESPN2.

[flyingMoose]

Watching the SEC Championship and there is conversation about Selection Sunday. "Will the AAC get more teams in than the ACC?"

[1972Shocker]

In this post by WstateU he links to an inteview of Becky Endicott, Senior Women's Administrator and Associate AD by Pual Suellentrop.

https://shockernet.net/forum/wichita...78#post1137478

They discussed what AAC Championships rotate and what Championships might be available to host in Wichita. I think they said the Shockers would be hosting next years AAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. However, Wilkins Stadium does not meet the requirements to host the AAC Softball Championships. Sounded like the main reason was that it does not have LED lighting and that ESPN requires that to televise games. Not sure if there are any other factors or not. Becky did mention that the southern AAC schools aren't wild about going north.

Becky said that when they were in the MVC that our facilities were as good as any and better than most. That's not necessarily the case in the AAC. UConn is building a new $25 million softball facility for example.

She didn't come right out and say that improvements were coming for Wichita State softball facilities but the implication is that may need to happen.

[flyingMoose]

In this post by WstateU he links to an inteview of Becky Endicott, Senior Women's Administrator and Associate AD by Pual Suellentrop.

https://shockernet.net/forum/wichita...78#post1137478

They discussed what AAC Championships rotate and what Championships might be available to host in Wichita. However, Wilkins Stadium does not meet the requirements to host the AAC Softball Championships. Sounded like the main reason was that it does not have LED lighting and that ESPN requires that to televise games. Not sure if there are any other factors or not. Becky did mention that the southern AAC schools aren't wild about going north.

Becky said that when they were in the MVC that our facilities were as good as any and better than most. That's not necessarily the case in the AAC. UConn is building a new $25 million softball facility for example.

She didn't come right out and say that improvements were coming for Wichita State softball facilities but the implication is that may need to happen.

I happened to have a very short conversation with HCKB at the 5A State Tournament hosted by Maize HS about the general topic of a stadium. The new president would like to have the piece of land they are on, there is no room on the Innovation Campus for athletic facilities, building a new facility on the parking lot near the Indoor Practice facility so that it connected to the softball field would be wonderful. She pointed to the ground level press box as being something to get rid of.