Shocker SB v Evansville

[flyingMoose]

Due to Easter weekend, the Shockers host the Evansville series a day early, beginning on Friday at 2pm.

The Purple Aces are in the pre-season bottom clump of three with us and Indiana State. Their overall record is 8-16 with a conference mark of 1-4. They took one of three from Creighton and lost both of their games with Drake. The tournament schedule appears to be soft, but two mid-week losses to currently 7/6 Missouri were very competitive games.

Evansville have a team OPS of .635 versus an opponents' .745. Kayla Fortner (4 HR, 16 BB) is above 1.000, but no one else is above .800. The Shockers corresponding marks are .656 and .768 with us playing a better schedule. We have no hitters with an OPS above .800.

Five pitchers have been in the circle but nearly half of their innings belong to Sarah Patterson, who has an ERA of 2.55, a WHIP of 1.08 and almost one strikeout per inning.

The softer part of the conference schedule is over after this weekend. Hopefully, we will have a good weekend to build some confidence going into the rest of the schedule.

[1972Shocker]

Katie has a 1-hit (plus 2 walk) shut-out going through 6. Unfortunatley, Evansville's Sarah Patterson has been even better with a perfect game through 6.

[1972Shocker]

Katie gave a lead-off walk in the 7th. After a sac bunt mover the runner she got a groundout to SS that moved the runner to 3rd with 2 outs. Unfortunately, a pinch-hit home by Kirsten O'Connor puts Evansville up 2-0.

Patterson finishes off the perfecto.

Katie's tough luck conitnues. Part of Katie's luck is that she general faces the opposing teams's #1 pitcher.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks take game 2 over Evansville 4-3, but they almost let it get away form them in the 4th.

Sloan took a 4-1 lead into the 7th. Sloan got the fist hitter of the inning then hit a batter and allowed consecutove singles to make the score 4-2 with runners at 1st and 2nd and one out at which point Katie came on in relief of Sloan.

An infield single loaded the bases, still with only 1 out. Katie then walked in a run to make the score 4-3 with the bases continuing full and still only 1 out.

A grounder to SS produced a force out at home and the another grounder to SS produced the final out of the game on a force at 2B.

Shocks came about as close as you could come on blowing that one but managed to hang on for the win.

Shock with only 4 hits but made the most of them tallying single runs in the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th.

[flyingMoose]

Katie gave a lead-off walk in the 7th. After a sac bunt mover the runner she got a groundout to SS that moved the runner to 3rd with 2 outs. Unfortunately, a pinch-hit home by Kirsten O'Connor puts Evansville up 2-0.

I had the chance to see all of both of these games.

The tough part of this half-inning was that the runner had rounded third and was half-way to home on the groundout to Ali. Megan from first ran the girl back to third, throwing too late to get her out, what would have been the third out of the inning. The homer followed.

Patterson finishes off the perfecto.

We hardly had anything that smelled like a hit. There were three ground ball outs, three strikeouts and fifteen!! outs in the air. Brittany hit a ball to deep center that was easily caught and lined out to third to end the game though it was not a hard catch, not a screaming line drive.

Patterson does not appear to have great stuff and certainly does not have great speed. She must have a little wrinkle in the pitches and changes her speeds some. But I don't recall seeing many, if any, true change-ups.

[flyingMoose]

Shocks take game 2 over Evansville 4-3, but they almost let it get away from them in the 7th.

Sloan took a 4-1 lead into the 7th. Sloan got the first hitter of the inning then hit a batter and allowed consecutive singles to make the score 4-2 with runners at 1st and 2nd and one out at which point Katie came on in relief of Sloan.

An infield single loaded the bases, still with only 1 out. Katie then walked in a run to make the score 4-3 with the bases continuing full and still only 1 out.

A grounder to SS produced a force out at home and the another grounder to SS produced the final out of the game on a force at 2B.

The infield single was on a ball that their homerun hitter fisted to Ali, but she had no play. Katie made a great pitch and got no result.

Ali made a very nice play on the force at home. With the infield in, the grounder was in the 5-6 hole, but she backhanded it, made a half-pirouette and got the throw to Melanie.

Shocks with only 4 hits but made the most of them tallying single runs in the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th.

A couple of these runs were fortunate. Brittany led off the game with a double over the right fielder's head, advancing to third base when the second baseman made a wild, unnecessary relay to third. She then scored on a passed ball. The next three batters were outs, making the run unearned. In the third, Melanie got a two-out walk, stole second and scored on a single by Ali. Laura's double and Paige's pinch-hit single scored the run in the fourth. The run in the sixth was another fortunate run. After Megan drew a leadoff walk, Kaitlyn pinch ran for her. She was out on a steal attempt by six or eight feet, but the shortstop could not hold onto the ball when Kaitlyn slid in. Hayley then bunted her to third, and Laura delivered the sac fly.

Hopefully, having seen Sarah Patterson, we will have a better handle on her deliveries tomorrow.

[1972Shocker]

Shock trying to give Game 3 to the Aces.

The Shocks were leading 3-1 after 3 then gave up a 5 spot in the 4th with some very charitale play.

Katie gave up a lead off single, but struck out the 2nd hitter of the inning. At that point the wheels came off. Katie gave up another single with the runner advancing to 3rd and the hittter advancing to 2nd on the throw to 3rd. A fielding error by Shocker 1B Megan McKracken on the next hitter scored 2 runs to tie the score at 3-all. Another single put runners at 1st and 3rd with only 1 out.

Sloan came on in relief of Katie and struck out the 1st batter she faced for out number 2. However, she followed that with a walk to load the bases, a walk to force in a run and a hit batter to force in a run. Not sure what happened next but it sounds like Shocker C Melaine Jaegers tried to pick the run off first and threw wildly allowing the runner from 3rd to score. The runner from 2nd also tried to score but was thrown out at the plate for the final out.

Evansville though had plated 5 runs in the inning to take a 6-3 lead. Only 2 of Evansville's runs are earned.

Shocks pushed across another run to make the score 6-4 after 4.

[1972Shocker]

Enough with the charity. The Shocks rally for 3 in the bottom of the 5th to go back on top 7-6. Brianne Bond with the big blow, with a 2-run double to left center to tie the score at 6-all. After an walk and and Evansville error loaded the bases Brianne scored on a ground out to 2b by Britt Fortner.

Now can the hold off the Aces for 2 innings?

[Hovpen]

Growing pains hurt

[1972Shocker]

Shocks add 3 in the 6th capped off by by 2-run pinch-hit home run by Molly Baker to a take 10-6 lead into the 7th inning.

[1972Shocker]

Sloan closes out the game with a strong 1-2-3 seventh. Final: Shocks 10 - Aces 6

Shocks scored in all 6 of their at bats including 3 in both the 5th and 6th innings. Nice job ladies.

[flyingMoose]

The Shocks were leading 3-1 after 3 ...

I had the chance to see all of this one, too. The three runs included a bomb by Ali in the third.

... then gave up a 5 spot in the 4th with some very charitable play. Katie gave up a lead off single, but struck out the 2nd hitter of the inning. At that point the wheels came off. Katie gave up another single with the runner advancing to 3rd ...

And this runner should have been out. Paige simply failed to catch the throw from Laura, so no tag was made.

A fielding error by Shocker 1B Megan McKracken on the next hitter scored 2 runs to tie the score at 3-all.

Ali made a good-enough throw, but Megan stretched for the throw before it was made (she always does this - it has to be corrected), so she could not stretch across her body to make the catch and the throw was off her glove. With proper execution, we are out of this inning with no runs being scored.

Not sure what happened next but it sounds like Shocker C Melanie Jaegers tried to pick the run off first and threw wildly allowing the runner from 3rd to score. The runner from 2nd also tried to score but was thrown out at the plate for the final out.

Exactly. This is a throw that Melanie had no business making, but it is also a throw that Megan has to keep in front of her somehow.

Evansville though had plated 5 runs in the inning to take a 6-3 lead. Only 2 of Evansville's runs are earned.

[flyingMoose]

Shocks add 3 in the 6th capped off by by 2-run pinch-hit home run by Molly Baker to a take 10-6 lead into the 7th inning.

This half-inning exemplifies the sloppy play by both sides. Ali lead off the inning with a double over the head of the left fielder who she started in, then turned the wrong way. Even at that, the throw to second was in time to get Ali, but the (poor) tag was late and high. A really wild throw from the third baseman on a ball hit by Hayley preceded Molly's homer which barely cleared the center field fence. With better execution, no runs score. The same starting pitching as yesterday, but a totally different game.

[flyingMoose]

Sloan closes out the game with a strong 1-2-3 seventh. Final: Shocks 10 - Aces 6

Shocks scored in all 6 of their at bats including 3 in both the 5th and 6th innings. Nice job ladies.

We didn't get many style points today, but if we are at least .500 in all of our conference series, it will be a good season.

[flyingMoose]

Oh, with Oklahoma having the weekend off, Keilani was in the house, sporting her Shocker Softball t-shirt.