Shocker SB v Creighton

[1972Shocker]

Shocker pitching staff just unable to keep their team in games.

Sloan follows up the Shocks 5-run inning by allowing 2-runs to Creighton in the 6th but again stranded the bases loaded by getting a strike out to end the inning. So I guess it could be worse as Creighton has stranded 9 baserunners.

[1972Shocker]

Sloan's boogeyman, the long ball, bites her in the top of the 7th as she gives up a 2-run shot to CU's Alexi Cantu (her 4th home run in the last 2 games).

Sloan then gives up a single so Katie completes the full circle coming back into the game with 1 out in the 7th.

So it was Katie, then Katherine, then Sloan and now Katie again.

Katie walks the 1st batter she faces, gets a strike out for the 2nd out, then she gives up a 3-run bomb.

Creighton 15 - Shocks 6

[1972Shocker]

Final Creighton 15 - Shocks 7

Interestingly, the Shocks and Creighton both had 11 hits. Shocker pitchers gave up 12 free passes including 9 walks and 3 HBP's.

You simply are not going to win many, if any, games giving up an average of 13 runs a game.

[WSU2011Parent]

Edited - see post below

[WSU2011Parent]

Bright spots:
* 7 runs on 11 hits. That wins games more often than not.
* 7/11 hits were freshmen and I intend that solely as a potential bright spot as they grow into a collegiate game.
*Kaitlyn had 3 hits - first multi-hit game
* Brianne had 2 hits - first multi-hit game
* 5 runs on 4 (or 5?) hits in one in inning with no outs - knocked out a new pitcher.

That first run was hardly a spot. Fans enjoyed watching textbook softball to plate her.

If you hadn't heard, the officiating was deplorable. Coach B was ejected Friday and her strike-zone arguments were spot-on. Today was worse and Coach's tongue must be sore from biting it. Intentional vindication by officials seems unreasonable - until you got to witness today's performance. She wore them out and earned her ejection. She should have taken another today. No umpire should influence a game the way it happened today.

[flyingMoose]

If you hadn't heard, the officiating was deplorable.

The strike zone was awful for both teams. But we had far more pitches on the edge than Creighton, so we tended to bear the brunt of the inaccurate zone. (Accuracy is the criterion. A zone can be consistent, but if it is inaccurate, it is still a bad zone.) Well, actually we had several pitches where the whole ball was above the knee and most of the ball was on the plate and we still did not get them called strikes, so edges were not always the story. And some pitches not in the zone were called strikes. As @WSU2011Parent: said, just a deplorable zone.

[flyingMoose]

Comments on the game:

Creighton should have scored in the first, but they had some sloppy baserunning.

In the second inning, maybe the third, Katie threw a number of changeups and had the Jays off balance. My opinion remains that with the stuff and location that this staff has, if you don't throw at least a half-dozen offspeeds per inning, you are destined for failure.

Creighton scored their first run in the fourth on a double to right-center. But Rachel airmailed the relay about eight feet up the backstop, or the runner would have been out by fifteen feet. Even with a good throw, the Jays still score two runs that inning.

The wind was a big factor in this game, blowing in hard from left field. The error on Holly in left to lead off the fifth was her going back to far and then not holding on to the ball as the wind blew it back to the infield.

I thought the substitution of Katherine for Katie was a pretty quick hook. Maybe Coach B was seeing something in particular though. At any rate, Katherine only lasted four batters before Sloan was on. Katie eventually re-entered and finished the game.

In the fifth and again in the sixth, Creighton ran a suicide squeeze where Hilary should have taken the out, because we had no real play at the plate. Giving away even a few extra outs is just not something this team can do.

I recall Hayley's hit leading off our half of the fifth being a wind-blown double in short left field. At any rate, Coach Vigness also had a quick hook, but he also had an 8-1 lead. Maybe he was trying to give #4!! some work. After three batters and Melanie's bases-clearing double to the left field corner, that experiment was over and Changstrom was back in. I think we had a couple of wind-blown singles through here also.

Cantu's homer in the seventh was a rope that could not have cleared the center field fence by more than three feet. Dike's homer in the same inning was a single to center that Kaitlyn played into an inside-the-park homer when she dove for it as it landed six feet in front of her. Not a good decision. The relay throw home was not well executed, or we may have had a play at the plate.

We battled in the batter's box all game long. It was nice to see.

[Quick Pitch]

Cantu hit 3 homeruns in game 2 and another one in game 3. She was also the winning pitcher in game 2. The thing that stinks about that is that if Pooch would have had a better relationship with the coach at Butler, she could be playing for us. Apperantly she has a cousin that plays at Butler and when she was leaving TX Arlington, they contacted the Butler coach to help her find another D1 to go to. He introduced her to coach Vigness and the rest is history.

[Hovpen]

Cantu hit 3 homeruns in game 2 and another one in game 3. She was also the winning pitcher in game 2. The thing that stinks about that is that if Pooch would have had a better relationship with the coach at Butler, she could be playing for us. Apperantly she has a cousin that plays at Butler and when she was leaving TX Arlington, they contacted the Butler coach to help her find another D1 to go to. He introduced her to coach Vigness and the rest is history.

I think thats a good way to look at it. Current coach and Butler coach have a good working relationship though. At least thats how I see it.