Shocker SB v Indiana State

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers open the conference portion of their season by hosting the Sycamores of Indiana State for three games this Saturday and Sunday beginning at noon both days.

Indiana State was a preseason pick for ninth in the Valley and has a record of 4-12. Included are two losses to Colorado State and a loss to Boise State in extras, teams that the Shockers have wins against. The Sycamores do have a win over Northern Iowa.

Their leading hitters are Erika Crissman (OPS of .929) and Megan Stone (.921), both on the All-Conference Second Team last year. Crissman was a Player of the Week earlier this year.

Taylor Lockwood (ERA of 2.82 and WHIP of 1.03) has the slight majority of their innings with Yvette Alvarez (10.73 and 2.93 - ouch!!) next on the innings-pitched list. Taylor was the Pitcher of the Week this past week and had ten strikeouts in their win over UNI.

The Shockers have run their record to 15-9 with their win on Wednesday against Oklahoma State, their sixth straight. The Shocks now have four players with an OPS above .900: Brittany (1.259), Erin (1.114), Mackenzie (.988) and Liz (.951). Katie (ERA of 4.07 and WHIP of 1.49) has over half of the innings with Jenni (4.35 and 1.86) and Kelsey (7.00 and 1.91) having almost all of the rest of the innings. As has been noted, Katie is the only pitcher that we pretty much know what we are getting when she is in the circle. Jenni and Kelsey have been warm and cold. Brittany, Liz and Katie have received Weekly Honors from the Valley this year.

As a side note, it appears the RPI for softball is first published late this month.

[1972Shocker]

A very disappointing start to the conference season as the Lady Shocks drop a pair of games (2-1 and 9-2) to Indiana State to open Valley play. :(

[luvthoseshox]

Wow.

[flyingMoose]

I witnessed these games in person - ouch!

Game 1

Indiana State 2-1(8) Shockers

This was THE WORST plate game by an umpire that I recall witnessing in years and years. She missed well over a dozen pitches which is totally unacceptable at this level. Normally you will not see that many obviously missed pitches for the whole weekend. The plate umpire finally had to give HCKB a formal warning that any more complaints about balls and strikes would result in an ejection. She had already come more than halfway to home plate from the third base coaching box to complain about an earlier pitch that was low when it left the pitcher's hand but was still called a strike. Because of the difference in pitching styles (Taylor a finesse pitcher and Katie a power pitcher), maybe 80% of the bad calls were to Indiana State's benefit.

Taylor Lockwood, the Sycamore pitcher, managed to spin the ball enough and throw enough changes to keep the Shockers off balance for the whole day. Our plate discipline was not the greatest, swinging at a number of change-ups with less than two strikes. Unless you are sitting on the pitch, that is something you try to avoid.

In the second, the Shocks cut down a run at the plate on an attempted double steal. The Shockers scored a run in the fourth on a single by Kelli, sac bunt by Mackenzie, ground out and ground single up the middle by Cacy. We "lost" the game in the top of the fifth. With a runner at second, a chopper was hit to Mackenzie at third. She fielded on the run and threw the ball to first on the run. The throw was up the line towards home and Erin alligator-armed the (attempted) catch at first, allowing the tying run to score. Mackenzie had plenty of time to set her feet and make a strong throw to first. Erin can move to foul ground to make the catch of the actual throw or stretch her arm more, knowing she may get run into. Somebody has to make a play here. (Earlier in the game, Mackenzie made a similar play on a sac bunt, fielding on the run. Had she set her feet as she was fielding the bunt, she had plenty of time to get the force at second. As it was, her only play was at first.)

In the latter stages of the game, the Sycamores started "barreling-up" Katie. Layne threw out a runner at the plate in the sixth with a nice assist by Melanie on the pickup of the throw. On a sac bunt in the Indiana State eighth, three Shockers managed to get in each other's way and the sac turned into a bunt single. Somebody has to take control of the play, somebody has to talk. With runners at third and second, Megan Scott hit a line shot back through the middle that Katie only caught because her glove was in the way. Then with two outs, a change by Katie got through the five-hole, a stop Melanie makes 98 times out of a 100, and the lead and eventual winning run scored. Mackenzie lead off the bottom half with a double and was bunted to third by Liz, but neither Cacy nor Erin could get the timely hit. Between no timely hitting and small mistakes that gave the Sycamores an edge ...


Game 2

Indiana State 9-2 Shockers

The Shockers scored a run in each of the first two innings (Liz singled to score Kelli in the first, and Brittany singled to score Layne in the second) against the 10.73 ERA pitcher. Indiana State got a run back in the third with a RBI single with Layne throwing out a second runner at the plate on the same hit. A double and two singles tied the game in the fourth. Erin opened the Shocker fourth with a double (a new Sycamore pitcher had started the third) and was move to third on a ground out, but neither Paige nor Ashley could score her. Lockwood came into the game to retire Ashley.

The Sycamores took the lead in the fifth with four singles. (The play-by-play says the third one was fielder's choice, but Kelli made a sliding stop in the 5-6 hole and could not get the force at third. She had no play at first and the batter should have been credited with a hit. People who majored in golf trying to score softball again.) The last single brought Kelsey into the game. Indiana State ran a squeeze play, and Mackenzie made a marvelous play on the ball to get the force at home. In the bottom of the fifth, Kelli singled with one out and stole second, but Mackenzie and Liz could not score her. We should have run on this catcher more - she has only thrown out one runner in eighteen steal attempts. (Melanie has thrown out ten of twenty-nine attempts and caught two more today I think.)

Kelsey loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth on a single and two walks and that brought on Katie. A sac fly and a single scored two runs for the Sycamores and a third scored when the lead runner crossed the plate before the out was made on the trail runner of an attempted double steal. Three more runs scored in the seventh for Indiana State when Kelli's two-out error extended the inning. Brittany and Kelli had two-out singles in the seventh, but the Shocks could not score nine runs with two outs this time.

Somewhere late in the game (the sac fly in the sixth?), Layne made a terrific diving catch in left, extending herself toward the left field line. She was the star of the game for the Shocks, going three for four and making the defensive plays mentioned earlier.

We need to show more patience if we are to solve Taylor Lockwood tomorrow. Else it will be a bad way to start the conference.

[1972Shocker]

Else it will be a bad way to start the conference.

I would say we are already at a bad way to start the conference. Tomorrow will determine if it will be a bad way or a disastrous way to start conference play.

[1972Shocker]

In what was close to, if not in fact a must win the Lady Shocks scored 5 runs in the 1st all with 2 outs and Katie Malone made is stand up as the Shocks knocked of Indiana State 6-2.

Katie did give up a 2-run in the 2nd and loaded the bases with 2-outs in the 7th but Katie was able to get the final out of the game with out further damage.

I'll leave it to @flyingMoose: to provide a detail recap.

[flyingMoose]

Game 3

Indiana State 2-6 Shockers

I was otherwise occupied this afternoon, so this will have to be off the LiveStats.

After a two-out error in the Shocker first, Cacy doubled home one run, Erin singled home two more and Melanie homered to cap a five run inning. Alvarez, the 10.73 ERA pitcher, came on in relief of Lockwood to close out the inning.

The Sycamores got two runs back in the second with a walk and home run.

The Shockers threatened in the fifth when they had runners at second and third with no outs. But a strikeout and double play got Indiana State out of the jam. In the sixth, doubles by Cacy and Melanie scored another run for the Shocks. Melanie's double brought on a third pitcher for the Sycamores.

Indiana State loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh on a single, single and walk, but Katie got a pop out to end the game.

We were two-for-two on stolen bases, while Melanie threw out both steal attempts against her.

As I suspected, we got to Lockwood early but did not do much offensively after that. Four of our eight hits came in the first inning and another three hits came in the sixth. Cacy had two doubles and Melanie had three RBI. Katie gave up five hits and three walks while striking out six.

This is not the start to conference hoped for given the competition, but it is the first weekend and we can certainly recover. While winning conference would be the best, finishing second gives the same double-bye in the conference tournament that finishing first does. But the MVC tournament is a long ways away. :)


I should have noted yesterday that the wind blowing in cost the Shockers probably four home runs. The offense is built around hitting as opposed to speed (although we do have some base stealers) - if you can hit, you will play. We sacrifice some defense for that approach, and yesterday's first game was an instance when that tradeoff did not pay off.

[1972Shocker]

@flyingMoose: do you think that coming off a win at Oklahoma State maybe caused the Lady Shocks to maybe come in to the Indiana State lacking the proper focus?

Outside of the final two innings of Game 2 the pitching was okay. Certainly adequate for a good hitting team to take advantage of. Are we a team that will struggle against soft stuff? What do ya think?

[flyingMoose]

Are we a team that will struggle against soft stuff? What do ya think?

That was the conclusion I had come to - we hit the hard stuff better than the soft stuff. But I suspect we will adjust because the conference will be mostly soft stuff. And there may have been some of "Wow! We just won some games against the P5 Conferences!" too.

[flyingMoose]

Other series results (some of which finished on Monday)

Evansville 1-2 Loyola

Northern Iowa 1-2 Illinois State

Bradley 0-3 Southern Illinois

Drake 2-1 Missouri State


Plus, we managed to get Taylor Lockwood another Pitcher of the Week award.