Shocker SB v Drake

[flyingMoose]

The Shockers open the conference part of their schedule with three games against Valley preseason #1 Drake this weekend. The DH on Saturday starts at noon, but the single game on Sunday starts at 11am.

Drake currently is at 16-9. They have a win over Montana in their opening tournament of the season and four losses to ranked teams, two to Arizona and one each to Alabama and Louisiana.

Leaders on offense for the Bulldogs are Sarah Maddox (OPS of 1.170 and eight!! homers), Megan Sowa (.955) and Tasha Alexander (.927). Taryn Pena and Kennedy Frank are members of the Preseason All-Conference team but have done little this year.

Nicole Newman is the returning Pitcher of the Year and is also a member of this year's Preseason All-Conference team. Newman was Pitcher of the Week after the opening weekend. However, her availability has to be in question. She last appeared on Saturday, three weekends ago. There is nothing on the Drake site about her current status nor in the Des Moines Register or the Times-Delphic, the student newspaper. Nonetheless, her ERA is 1.27 with a WHIP of 0.85. Most of the innings now belong to fellow junior Kailee Smith whose numbers are 4.20 and 1.70. Freshman Aryka Aroche is the third member of the staff, and she is struggling.

The Shocker record is now 12-10. Laurie with an OPS of 1.067 and five homers continues to lead the offense. Others are Paige (.984 and five homers), Macklin (.920 and four homers) and Madison (.917 and four homers).

Katie now has an ERA of 2.74 and a WHIP of 1.39. Jenni's numbers still look shabby, but they will improve as she continues to round into form after her surgery. Freshman Bailey is the third member of the staff, and she is struggling.

[flyingMoose]

Game One

Drake v Shockers

Katie has the start in this one. The lineup, which keeps getting shuffled around, is Mackenzie-5, Kelli-7, Laurie-6, Macklin-DP, Madison-2, Paige-9, Mauriana-4, Ryleigh-3, Ashley-9. Kailee Smith is the starter for Drake, which strongly suggests that Newman is unavailable this weekend - or perhaps for a couple of innings a la Jenni if she is recovering from some injury.

Off to the ballpark. Check in later.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks jump on Drake for 3 in the 1st and Laurie Derrico has just added a no doubtesr grand slam just a bit right of center to put the Shocks up 7-0.

The Bulldogs may be a bit toothless without Newman available to pitch
Shocks tack on a couple more runs for good measure to up the ante to 9-0 after 2 innings.

Might be a good time to get Bailey some work in the circle.

[1972Shocker]

Katie works the 1st four innings allowing only 1 hit and leaves with a 10-0 lead.

Bailey comes in to pitch the 5th and promptly walks the lead off batter. Bailey got the 1st out with a K then walked another batter but a couple of good defensive plays by Mackenzie Wright at 3B closed out the run-rule win for the Shocks.

I will say it again. Jamie Hull does a great job with her color commentary on the ESPN3 streams.

[1972Shocker]

Jenni Brooks started in the circle but wasm't sharp. She went 2 innings giving up 2 runs plus a lead off single, the 6th hi6 she allowed, in the 3rd before yielding to Katie. Katie got the 1st out of the inning on a foul pop but then gave up a 2-run homer to make it 4-0 Drake.

The Shocks had a golden opportunity in the bottom of the 3rd loading the bases with only 1 out but Madison Perrigan hit a little pop of the bat handle to the Drake 1B who doubled Kelli Spring off of 2B to end the inning. Not sure if Kelli misjudged that or what but it was a kller.

A walk and a double scored a 5th run for Drake in the top of the 4th.

Shocks plate 2 in the bottom of the 5th but left runners on 1st and 2nd to end the inning. A pretty badly missed call by the 1B ump with Ashley leading off the 5th didn't help the Shocker's cause any. This became even more important when Macklin led off the 6th inning with a home run off the scoreboard.

After Macklin's homer the Shock loaded the bases and managed to scratch out 2 more runs to get the game tied at 5-all after 6 innings.

With 1 out in the bottom of the 8th inning Mackenzie ripped a shot off the leg of the Drake 3B that ricocheted over to the Drake SS but Mackenzie beat the throw for one of the hardest infield hits you will see in softball game. Kelli put down a bunt to mover Mackenzie to 3rd and the Drake C threw wild down the RF line. Mackenzie rounded 3rd but was going to stop when the incoming throw got by the Drake player (their pitcher I think) who was covering home allowing Mackenzie to score the game winner. I think the gave an error on the throw by the RF but I didn't think the throw was that bad.

In any case, a big come from behind 6-5 victory for the Lady Shocks to sweep the DH against the team picked to finish 1st in the league. Whether or not this happens if Newman is available to Drake is questionable but it still counts as 2 wins.

Katie Malone picks up the win in both games.

[flyingMoose]

A Drake dad (I think this one is valid) tells me that Nicole Newman is through for the year with some kind of arm problem. She will qualify for a medical redshirt, since her twelve appearances are less than 30% of their 54 games (=16 games) if the entire remaining schedule is played.

[flyingMoose]

If you watched the games on ESPN3, some of this might have been obvious.

Game One

About the only thing additional to note was that Bailey seemed high with her hard stuff, but was effective with what seemed to be an off-speed curve (I may go back and watch her inning later - watching Game Two first). I think I was told in the fall that she had about three different speeds of off-speed. These did not appear to be true change-ups. She had two runners on with only one out, but got a couple of ground ball outs to close out the game.


Game Two

Ryleigh's inexperience at first base showed a couple of times in this game. I was surprised that the ground triple by Sowa got past her in the top of the first. Her previous experience has been as a middle infielder where you do not have to be quick, but you do need to be speedy to cover some ground. At the corners, it is just the opposite. You have to be quick because the ball gets to you sooner, but you don't have to be speedy because there is not much ground to cover. This ball was not a shot - it was a two-hopper that she did not react quickly enough to. Was positioning an issue? Here it is the responsibility of a coach to have her positioned properly based on the batter, the pitcher and the game situation.

The second instance was in the top of the second. Drake had a runner at second with one out when there was a bouncer to Ryleigh at first. The runner advanced to third, and you never were going to throw her out. Ryleigh chose to try to tag the batter-runner while keeping her eye on the advancing runner. The runner dodged Ryleigh's tag (well, she didn't really miss her I think the replay will show - very poor positioning by the umpire(s?) - we will have more to say about them later). Point One. The proper play in this instance is to turn your back to the batter-runner and go touch first base. You can't throw out the advancing runner at third, and she cannot advance from second all the way home while you are getting the out at first. Make the easy play. Point Two. If there had been a runner at third, then yes, you cannot turn your back and go get the out at first base - you have to tag the batter-runner and keep the runner at third in your peripheral vision. But if you are going to tag her, you have to mirror her every move and stay in front of her - don't give the chance to try to dodge you - tag her right in the middle of the chest.

Kailee Smith adjusted her approach from the first game. She threw a ton of change-ups. I doubt she ever threw three consecutive hard pitches. The Shocks struggled for a long time against her.

Now I am at the tag play in the top of the second. At a minimum, it seems there was a "pony-tail" (actually a "braid") tag and that is an out. I'm not so sure that she was not tagged (brushed) on the shoulder as she went by. If you are making this tag (as we have talked about before), you have to knock the batter-runner sideways so that the umpires do not have a chance to miss the call.

The Shockers had the bases loaded with one out in the third when Madison hit a soft line drive/pop up to first. Kelli wandered too far away second and was doubled off to end the threat. I have no idea what she was doing - she is normally a very smart player.

In the fourth with a runner at first, Drake hit a double to the gap in left-center. Kelli was able to cut it off before it got to the fence, but her relay overshot Laurie by a bunch and there was no play at the plate by the time the ball was corralled in the infield. I think the Shocks had a play at the plate with a good relay. Kelli has been an infielder all her life, so this may have been some defensive inexperience showing. Drake returned the favor in the game on the same type of play.

In the bottom of the fifth, Ashley was called out at first on a grounder at first when she was clearly safe. Later, this same umpire is going to miss another call at first (I think - I can't find it just now). In Game One, not much was going on, but I thought the plate umpire did a nice job. In this game, the plate job was a little more ragged and there was some very questionable calls on the bases. The camera work is not the greatest (and only four cameras), so replays don't tell you a whole lot. As the fifth progressed however, it looked like the call might be Big in the result of the game.

In the fifth with Mackenzie on third and Kelli on second, Kelli tapped the top of her helmet to signal to Laurie that a change had been called by the catcher. The pitch came in high and Laurie spanked it into left field to drive in the first run of the game for the Shocks.

And when Macklin led off the sixth with her homer, the call on Ashley looked Really Big. Then the Shockers got a break later in the inning. With one out and the bases loaded, Laurie hit a comebacker to the pitcher. The throw home got one out, but the catcher's throw to first to complete the double play was slightly wide of first, and the first baseman pulled her foot off the base as she stretched for the throw. Mackenzie on second continued all the way home in a heads-up running play to score the second run of the inning. Madison followed with her game-tying single, a chopper over the third baseman's head.

In the top of the eighth, Madison made a terrific catch up against the netting of a foul pop.

In the bottom of the eighth, the throw from right following the throwing error by the catcher got by the pitcher near home plate as she just didn't bend down far enough. Mackenzie then chugged in from third for the winning run.


Hmm. A kinda long report. Maybe you should quit sending me to these games. :)

[flyingMoose]

Games article from the Eagle. I think the most ink I have ever seen about Shocker games.

[flyingMoose]

Game Three

Drake 4-8 Shockers

Any game summary will have to come later.

[flyingMoose]

Game Three

Drake 4-8 Shockers

Any game summary will have to come later.

The Shocks took a 3-0 lead after two, were tied up at 4-4 in the top of the fifth, but scored two in each of the fifth and sixth to sweep the series.

Katie pitched a five-hitter with two walks and three strikeouts. All four runs she gave up were unearned! on three Shocker errors. :(

The Shockers had fourteen hits against Kailee Smith who pitched the entire game for the Bulldogs. Laurie had three singles and three RBI. MackenzieW (who scored three runs), Mauriana and McKenzieA each had a double and single. Kelli had two singles and scored two runs. Paige hit her sixth home run, and Ashley had a triple for other extra-base hits.

Macklin was at first, Paige was the DP and McKenzieA was the right fielder with Ryleigh sitting out.

[flyingMoose]

Other Weekend Series

Bradley 1-2 Southern Illinois

Northern Iowa 2-1 Missouri State

Illinois State 3-0 Indiana State

Loyola 0-3 Evansville

[flyingMoose]

In the bottom of the fifth, Ashley was called out at first on a grounder when she was clearly safe.

If you take the Sunday Eagle, the photo of Ashley crossing first base is this play. (The photo in question is not part of the online article.) The caption says the play is from the opening game of the double header, but a review of Ashley's at-bats show there is no play such as this in her first game. She did have a single off the pitcher that caromed to the second baseman, but there was no throw to first. There, my eyes are not failing me yet. :)

[flyingMoose]

Sunday game article from the Eagle

[1972Shocker]

Games article from the Eagle. I think the most ink I have ever seen about Shocker games.

This might become the new normal considering that the softball team may actually be outdrawing the baseball team in terms of butts in the seats this season.