Shocker SB at Shocker Softball Classic

[flyingMoose]

She would be hard to miss. Not a small woman.

Especially since she was in the third base coaches box. She sent an Aztec runner home who was thrown out despite the throw from right field being at least six feet into foul territory, a nice play by Melanie with the tag. Nuvemann had a very funny "oh well" expression on her face.

[flyingMoose]

Early Friday Games

San Diego State 4-2 UMKC
The same two Aztec pitchers that the Shockers saw yesterday held the Roos scoreless until the seventh.

North Dakota 0-8(6) UMKC
The Roos scored in every inning except the first and held the Fighting Sioux to only three hits.

Iowa State 1-10(5) San Diego State
The Aztec ace, Danielle O'Toole, finally made an appearance, holding the Cyclones to three hits. Two home runs were part of the SDS attack.

[flyingMoose]

North Dakota 1-16(5) Shockers

The Shockers pummeled a hapless Fighting Sioux squad. The Shocks scored five in the first, including a three-run homer by PaigeM. Their four runs in the second came from a grand slam by PaigeL. In the third, the Shockers manufactured seven more runs with five walks, three singles and a double by Layne. Other extra base hits in the game were a triple by Cacy and a double by Melanie. PaigeL and PaigeM had five and four RBI, respectively.

Kaitlyn pitched the first three innings, allowing one unearned run and four hits. Hunter pitched the last two inning, giving up only two walks.

[flyingMoose]

Saturday Games

North Dakota 2-13(5) Iowa State
The Cyclones had thirteen hits and nine earned runs. North Dakota had four hits including a homer, their one earned run.

San Diego State 8-7 Northern Illinois
SDS dug themselves a 7-2 hole using their two secondary pitchers before bringing on their ace to start the fifth. With two outs and no runs yet scored in the sixth, seven consecutive Aztecs reached base, scoring six runs in the process. Jessica Sturm, the innings leader for the Huskies, did not pitch in this game.

UMKC v Iowa State
Northern Illinois v UMKC
These games, originally scheduled as the second and fourth of the day, were cancelled. It appears that UMKC, having already played three games and not scheduled for Sunday, declined their final two games of the tournament.

[Hovpen]

Saturday Games

North Dakota 2-13(5) Iowa State
The Cyclones had thirteen hits and nine earned runs. North Dakota had four hits including a homer, their one earned run.

San Diego State 8-7 Northern Illinois
SDS dug themselves a 7-2 hole using their two secondary pitchers before bringing on their ace to start the fifth. With two outs and no runs yet scored in the sixth, seven consecutive Aztecs reached base, scoring six runs in the process. Jessica Sturm, the innings leader for the Huskies, did not pitch in this game.

UMKC v Iowa State
Northern Illinois v UMKC
These games, originally scheduled as the second and fourth of the day, were cancelled. It appears that UMKC, having already played three games and not scheduled for Sunday, declined their final two games of the tournament.

Ought to be a fine of some kind levied for doing that. Teams traveled a long ways to play ball end up getting shafted.

[flyingMoose]

Early Sunday Games

North Dakota 7-13 San Diego State
Again the Aztecs used their inexperienced pitchers, allowing North Dakota to tie the game at 6-6, before they pulled away late in the game.

Northern Illinois 10-3 North Dakota
The Huskies scored six runs in the middle innings to take control of this game.

[flyingMoose]

Iowa State 16-18 Shockers

I would not dare try to give a blow-by-blow account of this game.

The Cyclones jumped out to a 6-0 lead, knocking Kaitlyn out of the circle in the third inning. The Shocks battled back with back-to-back homers in the third by Cacy and Kelli, Cacy's with a runner aboard. Melanie had a two run-homer in the fourth. But Sloan was doing no better than Kaitlyn in the circle, and the Shockers trailed 11-5 going into the bottom of the fifth inning.

Then the Shocks exploded for eight runs in the fifth: leadoff homer by Liz, two-run homer by PaigeL, two-run double by Cacy and a three-run homer by Liz, her second round tripper of the inning. The Shocks led 13-11 after five innings.

Kaitlyn reentered the game to start the sixth, giving up two runs. The Shockers countered with five runs of their own, the big blow being a grand slam by Cacy. Although the Cyclones scored three more in the seventh, it was not enough to catch the Shocks.

The Shockers had sixteen hits, including seven homers, two each by Cacy and Liz. Cacy had eight RBI, Liz four and Melanie three. The pitching gave up eighteen hits and fifteen earned runs.

[flyingMoose]

Northern Illinois 3-8 Shockers

Kaitlyn started this game, giving up single runs in the first and second innings. The Shocks matched the Huskies each inning, using an unearned run in the first and homer by Melanie in the second. Jessica Sturm is not pitching this game either for the Huskies - injured?

NIU scored an unearned run in the fourth, but the Shocks took the lead in the bottom half with a four-spot: RBI singles by Melanie and Ali and a two-RBI single by Cacy. Shocks led 6-3 after four.

Sloan came on to start the fifth. In the bottom of the inning, the Shockers closed out the scoring with an RBI double by PaigeL and another RBI single by Melanie.

Sloan pitched a scoreless final three innings, allowing two hits and striking out six, and earning a save. Cacy, PaigeL and Melanie led the thirteen-hit Shocker hit parade with three hits each.

[1972Shocker]

Did Iowa State and the Shocks decide to play a slow-pitch game in the first game?

[flyingMoose]

Did Iowa State and the Shocks decide to play a slow-pitch game in the first game?

The pitching must have looked slow to the hitters and probably the size of a beach ball. According to the Web site article, the Shockers set records for most runs scored, most hits, most RBI and most home runs in a game and most RBI in a game by an individual.

[luvthoseshox]

Well, even if we don't have that ace pitcher that we want. It sounds like our bats are going to win us some games.

[flyingMoose]

Melanie was named MVC Player of the Week, and Cacy was named MVC Newcomer of the Week.

http://www.goshockers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=61321&SPID=2845&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=209430425&DB_OEM_ID=7500

[1972Shocker]

Well, even if we don't have that ace pitcher that we want. It sounds like our bats are going to win us some games.

I not sure you can read a whole lot into the Iowa State game. That was just very unusual. I lot of times when you have those kind of slugfest games you have a home plate umpire with a keyhole for a strike zone. Not sure if that was the case in this game. In any case, you are not going to win very many games where you give up 16 runs on 18 hits and contribute 5 errors to the cause. Credit to the Shocks for somehow doing that but this one may be in the Shocker record book for a long, long time.

Still we are hitting 0.288 as a team with a 0.446 SP% and a 0.370 OB% vs 0.243/0.369/0.316 last year and that was before Sunday's games with Iowa State and Northern Illinois which will bump those numbers up nicely so I think we definitely are a better offensive team this year. OTOH, I believe you still have to have solid pitching to be successful over a full season.

[Hovpen]

Could someone help me out. I can't find the story on this tournament anywhere in the Eagle.

[luvthoseshox]

Still we are hitting 0.288 as a team with a 0.446 SP% and a 0.370 OB% vs 0.243/0.369/0.316 last year and that was before Sunday's games with Iowa State and Northern Illinois which will bump those numbers up nicely so I think we definitely are a better offensive team this year. OTOH, I believe you still have to have solid pitching to be successful over a full season.

I agree.