Gopher Softball 2018

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The Gophers look good, but are they good enough to compete at the very highest national level? As the past 2 seasons have shown, when they faced the Washingtons and Alabamas and LSUs, Groenewegen was the only Gopher able to compete truly at that level. She became pretty much a one-woman team at that level. They had their chances against Alabama, but none of the hitters could produce a single run-scoring hit. This year's infield defense needs to get better. Despite all the fantastic things Allister accomplished, Trachsel may have a better grip on the defensive aspects.
 

I saw 5 innings of the first game before I had to leave and was wondering why Arneson wasn't playing. She looked fine running and throwing. So if she was the only one on the roster not to play in either game, there is some reason other than her standing on the depth chart for her not to have played, right?
 

Tucker said:
I saw 5 innings of the first game before I had to leave and was wondering why Arneson wasn't playing. She looked fine running and throwing. So if she was the only one on the roster not to play in either game, there is some reason other than her standing on the depth chart for her not to have played, right?
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I asked the same question of the father of one of the regular starters. He made a guess as to why Arneson didn't play. He said Arneson was late for practice one day last week. Keeping her on the bench because of that may have been a coach's decision.
 

One person team? There is no such thing. We beat LSU 3-0. We lost to Washington 3-2 when she pitched. We lost both games 1-0 against Alabama. And I can assure you Sara G. would NEVER blame her teammates for any of those losses and would not take credit for the win. Go on the road and play in a hostile environment against a quality team. It comes down to who makes a timely play or who gets a lucky break. Play the same teams at home and the results are different. And to point fingers at our players for the Alabama debacle is ridiculous. Those kids were handed a burden they didn't deserve and that disappointment was reflected in their performance. But they still performed against a top level team in a VERY HOSTILE stadium. If you were at the game you know that the fan base screams at the umpires and opposing players throughout the game. There is no Minnesota nice when you play at Alabama. Hats off to them because they were the better team that weekend. But come up north and play the Gophers and the results may be quite different.
 

GrudgeGuy said:
One person team? There is no such thing. We beat LSU 3-0. We lost to Washington 3-2 when she pitched. We lost both games 1-0 against Alabama. And I can assure you Sara G. would NEVER blame her teammates for any of those losses and would not take credit for the win. Go on the road and play in a hostile environment against a quality team. It comes down to who makes a timely play or who gets a lucky break. Play the same teams at home and the results are different. And to point fingers at our players for the Alabama debacle is ridiculous. Those kids were handed a burden they didn't deserve and that disappointment was reflected in their performance. But they still performed against a top level team in a VERY HOSTILE stadium. If you were at the game you know that the fan base screams at the umpires and opposing players throughout the game. There is no Minnesota nice when you play at Alabama. Hats off to them because they were the better team that weekend. But come up north and play the Gophers and the results may be quite different.
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Agreed. It was the biggest screw job by the NCAA I've ever seen. And to top it off, the first loss to Alabama was literally given to them by a southern-biased umpire.

I guarantee Alabama would never have come North to play last year's team at Cowles. None of those southern teams would have.

It was straight up politics by the NCAA and the chair of that committee, who happens to work for an athletically corrupt school named Louisville.

To claim none of our girls can compete is frankly insulting to this group.

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GrudgeGuy said:
Those kids were handed a burden they didn't deserve and that disappointment was reflected in their performance. But they still performed against a top level team in a VERY HOSTILE stadium. If you were at the game you know that the fan base screams at the umpires and opposing players throughout the game. There is no Minnesota nice when you play at Alabama. Hats off to them because they were the better team that weekend. But come up north and play the Gophers and the results may be quite different.
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MRJ said:
Agreed. It was the biggest screw job by the NCAA I've ever seen. And to top it off, the first loss to Alabama was literally given to them by a southern-biased umpire.
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Guys, I am still so pi**ed at that frigging committee you can hardly believe it. And I completely agree, we were not given the fair opportunity we had earned to play at home (plus not deal with the distraction of being hosed in front of the softball nation) and try to achieve the goal the team had set to get to the WCWS.
 

Well, I see my post provoked some comments, which is what I wished for. I watched every single game the Gophers softball played last season, either in person or on TV or live streaming. There's no other sports team I have ever even come this close to following so faithfully. I realize the Gophers players gave it their all under unfair circumstances, but Oklahoma beat Alabama at Alabama, and the Gophers had their chance, too. When I say Groenewegen was a one-woman team, I overspoke, but the fact remains she was the only pitcher who could win at the NCAAs. In the regionals the last two years the secondary pitchers couldn't even handle lesser opponents in the elimination games; Groenewegen had to come in and save those games and then try to win against Washington or Alabama on the last day, too. That's asking too much of one player. My personal take on the NCAA snub is wholly homespun. I remember ESPN announced in May that they were firing a lot of employees, including some well-known announcers, because of lower viewership. I theorize that ESPN told the NCAA, okay, we'll televise your softball tournament (mainly, I suspect, against ESPN's will) but only as long as you keep all the sites in the SEC and the West Coast, meaning keep ESPN's costs down. Minnesota and Michigan both could have hosted Regionals, but they got shut out, unfairly, because the NCAA committee lacked backbone.
 

Oklahoma beat Auburn to go to the WCWS - not Alabama. And with the abuse allegations surrounding Auburn's coaching staff it is no surprise that Oklahoma won. I agree that Sara G. is a phenomenal pitcher and will be difficult to replace. But the kids we have on the roster deserve their credit too. They are not here by accident and most had MULITPLE opportunities to play at other schools and chose Minnesota. And several had school reaching out asking them to transfer when Allister left but they all decided to stay. Because they know this team is a talented top to bottom as anyone in the country. I guess we just need our "fans" to start believing in them.
 

GrudgeGuy said:
Oklahoma beat Auburn to go to the WCWS - not Alabama. And with the abuse allegations surrounding Auburn's coaching staff it is no surprise that Oklahoma won. I agree that Sara G. is a phenomenal pitcher and will be difficult to replace. But the kids we have on the roster deserve their credit too. They are not here by accident and most had MULITPLE opportunities to play at other schools and chose Minnesota. And several had school reaching out asking them to transfer when Allister left but they all decided to stay. Because they know this team is a talented top to bottom as anyone in the country. I guess we just need our "fans" to start believing in them.
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And it still was a team loss to Alabama. Yes Sara missed a couple pitches, but there were a couple missed fielding plays, missed opportunities at bat, and nobody with a big home run or anything to carry the team

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Hrothgar said:
Well, I see my post provoked some comments, which is what I wished for. I watched every single game the Gophers softball played last season, either in person or on TV or live streaming. There's no other sports team I have ever even come this close to following so faithfully. I realize the Gophers players gave it their all under unfair circumstances, but Oklahoma beat Alabama at Alabama, and the Gophers had their chance, too. When I say Groenewegen was a one-woman team, I overspoke, but the fact remains she was the only pitcher who could win at the NCAAs. In the regionals the last two years the secondary pitchers couldn't even handle lesser opponents in the elimination games; Groenewegen had to come in and save those games and then try to win against Washington or Alabama on the last day, too. That's asking too much of one player. My personal take on the NCAA snub is wholly homespun. I remember ESPN announced in May that they were firing a lot of employees, including some well-known announcers, because of lower viewership. I theorize that ESPN told the NCAA, okay, we'll televise your softball tournament (mainly, I suspect, against ESPN's will) but only as long as you keep all the sites in the SEC and the West Coast, meaning keep ESPN's costs down. Minnesota and Michigan both could have hosted Regionals, but they got shut out, unfairly, because the NCAA committee lacked backbone.
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And when Oklahoma beat Auburn at Auburn, that was in the Super Regionals. They hosted their regional. They were also eventual National Champions. Gophers were pretty serious longshots to win the Natty but they had a legitimate chance to make it to Oklahoma City (which was their stated goal, and they'd never been before). That is until the infamous selection show. Even if we would have won in Alabama we then would have had to go through Florida. We we were basically toast to get to OK City after that night. Of course our players would never admit it, and they shouldn't.

You know, playing sports you can get in the zone and play your best, or you can be in your head and you won't play your best. I think getting screwed over and being made an example of nationally was an invitation for the players to be in their own heads in Tuscaloosa. We would have had a much better chance in Tuscaloosa if we would have played them in the Super Regional after having won our own regional like we had earned.

A lot of people disagree with me and think the players "had their chance" and the NCAA was proved right by our loss. I think the awareness that the Gophers knew they had to win or the NCAA would be "proved right" was just more distraction piled on. I'm going to my grave thinking the Gophers were screwed and the committee was wrong unless one of the players or coaches on that team tells me otherwise :)
 

Yeah, I tend to agree with what folks are saying, even if my one post seemed to say the opposite. I love this Gophers team and want nothing more than for them to win and win even bigger than they have so far. They've come a long way in a short time. All they need is a break-through to the next level, such as Michigan has had, and then they'll get the respect deserved. Maybe Groenewegen graduating, sad as that is, will be a boon to the program, as other pitchers will have to step up and fill the spots. The potential is there. What disappoints me more than the NCAA snub (and that hurts) is Allister leaving a program she was still building, but who knows maybe Trachsel will be even better. I can't wait to see what happens next spring. As NCAA softball now functions, it's way too heavily tilted toward the SEC and the PAC-10. The Big 10 can change that by performing on the field.
 

Hrothgar said:
Yeah, I tend to agree with what folks are saying, even if my one post seemed to say the opposite. I love this Gophers team and want nothing more than for them to win and win even bigger than they have so far. They've come a long way in a short time. All they need is a break-through to the next level, such as Michigan has had, and then they'll get the respect deserved. Maybe Groenewegen graduating, sad as that is, will be a boon to the program, as other pitchers will have to step up and fill the spots. The potential is there. What disappoints me more than the NCAA snub (and that hurts) is Allister leaving a program she was still building, but who knows maybe Trachsel will be even better. I can't wait to see what happens next spring. As NCAA softball now functions, it's way too heavily tilted toward the SEC and the PAC-10. The Big 10 can change that by performing on the field.
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In theory the B1G can fix it by performing on the field but as we saw last year there is almost no margin for error. Did the team need to get a win against Washington to host a regional? They could have easily lost several other games. If the committee is going to disregard the RPI, I am not sure what a team like Minnesota can do.

They won the B1G and the tournament. They were obviously worthy of hosting a regional.

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rugger14 said:
In theory the B1G can fix it by performing on the field but as we saw last year there is almost no margin for error. Did the team need to get a win against Washington to host a regional? They could have easily lost several other games. If the committee is going to disregard the RPI, I am not sure what a team like Minnesota can do.

They won the B1G and the tournament. They were obviously worthy of hosting a regional.

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Of course, the Gophers were worthy of hosting a regional. As my homespun theory expressed yesterday posited, it had nothing to do with worthiness but was all about money. With their ratings sinking, ESPN wanted to keep the whole tournament setup in the SEC and PAC 10 to reduce travel for their broadcast crews and save money. Minnesota and Michigan were too far away for ESPN to "waste" money on. I may be wrong about that, but until somebody proves me wrong, I'll stick to my opinion. I think it had nothing to do, in truth, with the Gophers' W-L record or RPI. It had everything to do with their geographical location. To break out of that "geographical isolation" the Gophers and other Big 10 teams need to start beating the Washingtons and Alabamas on the road. Not easy but some big upsets would mean big breakthroughs.
 



Hrothgar said:
I may be wrong about that, but until somebody proves me wrong, I'll stick to my opinion.
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Haha, Hrothgar, see that's how I feel about my opinion, too! I don't feel that way about all my opinions, but when it comes to 2017 Gopher softball and the NCAA I am very angry and holding my opinions to the bitter end :mad:

RAH!!
 

The bottom line to me as it pertains to 2018 is that no matter what happened in 2017 (and make no mistake, it was a brazen and blatant screw job), this team is going to win a lot of games. Unless something truly remarkable happens, I fully expect another 40-plus wins and another run at the Big 10 regular season and tournament titles.

Coach Trachsel has referred to it in the past, by stating her humorous goal for this season is to "not sink the ship." But in all seriousness, she's fully aware this team is pretty much stacked. They not only have tons of talent on hand, but they EXPECT to win and win at a big level.

Last year, they did just that. Any team that can return seven of nine starters from a squad that goes 56-5 is stacked with talent. Are there questions that need to answered? Sure, but every team in the country has questions to answer. Losing Sara G. is obviously a huge loss, but having Fiser and Brandt back along with a high-quality transfer in Smith is a nice problem to have to help address it.

In other words, this is going to a very good team in 2018. Can they be elite? We'll see. But to say we should be excited about the prospects for this season would an understatement.
 

Ski U Mah Gopher said:
I think Maddie might move back to 1st base, with Sydney moving to her natural position, DP.

That would mean 2 new corner outfielders.
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This is an intriguing possibility as well. Obviously, Maddie can play in either spot depending upon the situation, but if they put Syd back in the DP slot and do move Houlihan to first, it would be interesting to see who steps into the two corner outfield slots.
 

MRJ said:
This is an intriguing possibility as well. Obviously, Maddie can play in either spot depending upon the situation, but if they put Syd back in the DP slot and do move Houlihan to first, it would be interesting to see who steps into the two corner outfield slots.
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Does anyone think it will be different than with Allister? If I had to guess who plays OF it will be whoever can hit.

There are four freshmen who can play OF:

Jensen
Velasquez
Gill
Thompson

You can probably add Miller to that.

Returning we have Cowger, Krueger, Brandt, Rozelle, and Kemmetmueller.

If they can hit the ball and are serviceable on defense I think that is who plays outfield.

In the end I think it will be whoever can hit the ball.

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MRJ said:
Agreed. It was the biggest screw job by the NCAA I've ever seen. And to top it off, the first loss to Alabama was literally given to them by a southern-biased umpire.

I guarantee Alabama would never have come North to play last year's team at Cowles. None of those southern teams would have.

It was straight up politics by the NCAA and the chair of that committee, who happens to work for an athletically corrupt school named Louisville.

To claim none of our girls can compete is frankly insulting to this group.

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Just to refresh your memory and renew your anger :) here's a photo of the umpire's called Ball 3 in the last at-bat in the first Alabama game. Sara G. gave the ump a long stare down after this call which may have led to the last ball 4 call.
bad.jpg
 

rugger14 said:
Does anyone think it will be different than with Allister? If I had to guess who plays OF it will be whoever can hit.

There are four freshmen who can play OF:

Jensen
Velasquez
Gill
Thompson

You can probably add Miller to that.

Returning we have Cowger, Krueger, Brandt, Rozelle, and Kemmetmueller.

If they can hit the ball and are serviceable on defense I think that is who plays outfield.

In the end I think it will be whoever can hit the ball.

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There could be some other factors as well (arm strength, lineup balance, specific matchups, etc), but yeah, I would think this would be at least a baseline for whatever lineup Trachsel decided works best.

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Panthadad2 said:
Just to refresh your memory and renew your anger :) here's a photo of the umpire's called Ball 3 in the last at-bat in the first Alabama game. Sara G. gave the ump a long stare down after this call which may have led to the last ball 4 call.
View attachment 5134
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My immediate reaction was that the ump needed to pee, so he decided to pee on the Gophers before hitting the can himself. And that's a polite way of putting it.

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MRJ said:
My immediate reaction was that the ump needed to pee, so he decided to pee on the Gophers before hitting the can himself. And that's a polite way of putting it.

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Funny, I also told my wife the ump probably had to poo really bad...and was only half kidding. The team's great season could have been cut short by a bad case of the runs.
 

We'll all be there rooting for them to the last at-bat.
 

MRJ said:
There could be some other factors as well (arm strength, lineup balance, specific matchups, etc), but yeah, I would think this would be at least a baseline for whatever lineup Trachsel decided works best.

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This is my first post on the board so I apologize because I did not intend for it to be an opinionated post but I am a HUGE softball fan and found this board today and I have an opinion on this outfield discussion. I live local and have watched all these Minnesota girls play High School and travel ball. Hitters play in softball. God bless Maddie but she plays outfield because she can hit not because she is a great outfielder. Thompson is fast and Jensen is fast too. Velasquez is a step behind them. They all are really good outfielders defensively. Probably better as a group than what the Gophers had last year if you put those three on defense. Blah blah blah we can talk arm strength and other things but if I want to put a defense together that won't allow hits in the gap I put Jensen, Thompson, and maybe Wagner or Velasquez in the outfield. Can they hit D1 pitching? That is the question. If they can't hit they will not play. Do you think it is odd that so many fast outfielders were in this recruiting class? Allister saw a need and wanted to upgrade the speed on this team.
 

Several freshmen contributed last year and there is no reason to think that they can't this year. The outfield talk is background noise but I get it. Can either of the frosh pitchers contribute immediately in a meaningful way? If one of them can step up that is a huge bonus.

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ComoGopher said:
This is my first post on the board so I apologize because I did not intend for it to be an opinionated post but I am a HUGE softball fan and found this board today and I have an opinion on this outfield discussion. I live local and have watched all these Minnesota girls play High School and travel ball. Hitters play in softball. God bless Maddie but she plays outfield because she can hit not because she is a great outfielder. Thompson is fast and Jensen is fast too. Velasquez is a step behind them. They all are really good outfielders defensively. Probably better as a group than what the Gophers had last year if you put those three on defense. Blah blah blah we can talk arm strength and other things but if I want to put a defense together that won't allow hits in the gap I put Jensen, Thompson, and maybe Wagner or Velasquez in the outfield. Can they hit D1 pitching? That is the question. If they can't hit they will not play. Do you think it is odd that so many fast outfielders were in this recruiting class? Allister saw a need and wanted to upgrade the speed on this team.
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I guess it's all settled then.

Make sure you let coach Trachsel know what she should do. I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

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ComoGopher said:
This is my first post on the board so I apologize because I did not intend for it to be an opinionated post but I am a HUGE softball fan and found this board today and I have an opinion on this outfield discussion. I live local and have watched all these Minnesota girls play High School and travel ball. Hitters play in softball. God bless Maddie but she plays outfield because she can hit not because she is a great outfielder. Thompson is fast and Jensen is fast too. Velasquez is a step behind them. They all are really good outfielders defensively. Probably better as a group than what the Gophers had last year if you put those three on defense. Blah blah blah we can talk arm strength and other things but if I want to put a defense together that won't allow hits in the gap I put Jensen, Thompson, and maybe Wagner or Velasquez in the outfield. Can they hit D1 pitching? That is the question. If they can't hit they will not play. Do you think it is odd that so many fast outfielders were in this recruiting class? Allister saw a need and wanted to upgrade the speed on this team.
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Welcome to the board!
 


Does anyone know if they will do the same format this weekend as last with the first game being pretty much a straight up game and the second one being more of an exhibition with runners starting at different bases etc? I kind of liked the format. Coach got to take a look at a lot of girls and got to give a lot of girls a chance to get in the game.
 

rugger14 said:
Does anyone know if they will do the same format this weekend as last with the first game being pretty much a straight up game and the second one being more of an exhibition with runners starting at different bases etc? I kind of liked the format. Coach got to take a look at a lot of girls and got to give a lot of girls a chance to get in the game.
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I don't know but I hope Ms Allie gets to play this week :)
 

Improved defense is vital, but the most important aspect of all is pitching. As the Twins proved in baseball, you can't win big-time without big-time power pitching, or as Allister put it repeatedly "depth in circle." It'll be interesting to see how the Gophers do in the circle against tough competition.
 

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