Gopher Softball 2018

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MRJ said:
Must have been one of the only times all season she had her good stuff considering her numbers. Surrendered 200 hits in just 162 innings pitched, an ERA just under 4.5 and a batting average against at near .300 AFTER baffling the Gophers yesterday.

And I would disagree that it was a crucial win for Penn State. They've won a grand total of 9 times while losing 39 games this season. But I suppose when you barely win under any circumstances, any win is crucial. Maybe if they're trying to squeak their way into the Big 10 tourney and extend their season for one more game? Possibly under that scenario. But the Gophers had far more to play for and showed no urgency or focus until it was clear they were in real danger of losing.

But I agree on the humble pie. Pretty clear they needed some.
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I agree with you. The Gophers had a possible BIG championship at stake. And they can't put up a better effort than that against a team that's lost 39 games? And a home game to boot? I, like many others, have lived with every pitch this team has played, but some of their lackluster performances leave me speechless. The longer you leave a team like PSU in the game, the more they start having some hope.
 

Michigan up 3-0 over Ohio State in the 2nd inning. Beaubien in the circle again as she was yesterday for the Wolverines.
 

Hrothgar said:
I agree with you. The Gophers had a possible BIG championship at stake. And they can't put up a better effort than that against a team that's lost 39 games? And a home game to boot? I, like many others, have lived with every pitch this team has played, but some of their lackluster performances leave me speechless. The longer you leave a team like PSU in the game, the more they start having some hope.
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Well, if today's response is any indication, it's pretty clear the ladies themselves were pretty darn pissed off too.

They're absolutely demolishing Penn State today.

Scored 11 in the first, added three more in the second and could have had more before Lindaman got thrown out at third for the final out in the second frame. Up 14-0 after two. Fiser out, Smith in to pitch.

In a way, it makes yesterday's performance even more galling. But at least they came out and slammed the Nittany Lions from the start today.
 

The beat-down is complete.

Gophers score multiple runs in each inning and win 19-0. Fiser started, then it was Smith with Lowary finishing it.

Really good to see them come out and slap Penn State silly after yesterday.
 

MRJ said:
The beat-down is complete.

Gophers score multiple runs in each inning and win 19-0. Fiser started, then it was Smith with Lowary finishing it.

Really good to see them come out and slap Penn State silly after yesterday.
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Concur.

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MRJ said:
The beat-down is complete.

Gophers score multiple runs in each inning and win 19-0. Fiser started, then it was Smith with Lowary finishing it.

Really good to see them come out and slap Penn State silly after yesterday.
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This may be a dumb question, but why did Smith get credited with the win? I thought whoever is pitching the inning the team takes the lead is considered the winner?
 

Waffle said:
This may be a dumb question, but why did Smith get credited with the win? I thought whoever is pitching the inning the team takes the lead is considered the winner?
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I think in a 5 inning game like today's the starting pitcher has to go at least 3 innings to get credited for the win. Smith went 2 innings and Lowary went 1. Hence since Smith handled the "bulk" of the relief innings and didn't give up a run, same as Lowary, she gets the W.
 

fan of Ray Williams said:
I think in a 5 inning game like today's the starting pitcher has to go at least 3 innings to get credited for the win. Smith went 2 innings and Lowary went 1. Hence since Smith handled the "bulk" of the relief innings and didn't give up a run, same as Lowary, she gets the W.
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Yep. Fiser would have had to go at least three innings to get the win. Smith came in and became the pitcher of record by pitching the third and fourth innings. Lowary pitching was basically mop-up duty.

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So now that the regular season B1G title is decided I guess we all look forward to the B1G tourney in Madison and hope that our Gopher ladies can win the tourney.
 



Anyone know what the illegal substitution was on the Gophers yesterday. #33 hit and got a single. She was then called out for illegal substitution. Not sure what the reason was on this.
 

dlw4gophers said:
Anyone know what the illegal substitution was on the Gophers yesterday. #33 hit and got a single. She was then called out for illegal substitution. Not sure what the reason was on this.
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It was not Cowger, it was Velasquez. Apparently they had her pinch-hit but did not make the substitution properly.

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ComoGopher said:
So now that the regular season B1G title is decided I guess we all look forward to the B1G tourney in Madison and hope that our Gopher ladies can win the tourney.
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The unbalanced schedule in the BIG diminishes the regular season title and elevates the value of winning the tournament. Especially this year when Michigan played Penn St., Maryland, Rutgers, Michigan St., Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue and Iowa in conference. No games against Illinois, MN, Wisconsin, Northwestern, or Nebraska.
 

So the announcer on ESPN says about last year:
"And they weren't even seeded, and they sent them to Alabama"
The other announcer says:
"I think everyone was devastated by that seeding. I think everyone thought that they would host. And they end up going to one of the toughest places to play, Tuscaloosa against Alabama".
Back again
...."and it was one of the worst seeding jobs ever!"
Back again
"I think everyone was so surprised by how gypped" the Gophers were.

But not the great Gopher fans. The great Gopher fans expect our players to be over it in seven days. For our fans the story isn't the seeding, the story is we took too many pitches. We didn't adjust. We showed how we couldn't play with the big boys.
 



Tucker said:
..."I think everyone was so surprised by how gypped" the Gophers were...But not the great Gopher fans. The great Gopher fans expect our players to be over it in seven days. For our fans the story isn't the seeding, the story is we took too many pitches. We didn't adjust. We showed how we couldn't play with the big boys.
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I think you might be trying to gin up some controversy where non exists. There's probably some truth in all of your above comments except the last one. Yes they were gypped...both in the seeding and some of the umpiring. Yes they probably took too many pitches (given the home cooking umpiring and pitchers that were hitting their spots). No they didn't seem to adjust (thus the results). Of course they could compete with the "big boys" last year given the right circumstances.
 

Tucker said:
So the announcer on ESPN says about last year:
"And they weren't even seeded, and they sent them to Alabama"
The other announcer says:
"I think everyone was devastated by that seeding. I think everyone thought that they would host. And they end up going to one of the toughest places to play, Tuscaloosa against Alabama".
Back again
...."and it was one of the worst seeding jobs ever!"
Back again
"I think everyone was so surprised by how gypped" the Gophers were.

But not the great Gopher fans. The great Gopher fans expect our players to be over it in seven days. For our fans the story isn't the seeding, the story is we took too many pitches. We didn't adjust. We showed how we couldn't play with the big boys.
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I don't think the views are mutually exclusive.

The fact is yes, they were screwed over big time and that they also took too many pitches and didn't adjust at the regional. That doesn't wipe away 56-5, the double Big 10 titles or the big wins they had over Texas, LSU, Notre Dame and a bunch of other NCAA Tournament teams during the season. To me, it was a momentary snapshot under extraordinary circumstances. The only thing that really pissed me off about those losses (from the perspective of looking at it a year later), was that it was the end of the road for Sara G, Macken and Finucane.

There's no doubt they were given the figurative middle finger by the NCAA and undoubtedly, it affected their mindset to a certain degree. Against Louisiana Tech in the opener, they came out flying. The next three games were a struggle. But that didn't prove to me they couldn't compete with the big boys. To me, it just ended up being what the NCAA wanted. Namely, putting Minnesota in it's place. That's the way the NCAA has always worked. They're essentially a cartel no matter how much they tout parity and equality in sports.

And being the unabashed dickheads that they are, the NCAA made an incredibly feeble attempt to justify that middle finger and ended up looking like the political crap-sacks that everyone knows they are. If anything, I'm glad even ESPN commentators are still both mystified and pissed off about the NCAA's stunt from last year. It was the ultimate screw job and everyone knows it.

And if people are highlighting it a full year later, I'm satisfied. It means they saw the same thing that we all did, and consider it egregious enough that it still angers commentators to this day.

As for the peanut-gallery comments about "not being good enough" and the "NCAA was right", screw 'em. If that's all they took from that regional, then they don't have the brain power to waste time on.
 

On another note, it was nice to see the ladies run-rule Penn State again today to close out the regular season.

Nice to send the seniors out with one more home victory (we know they've enjoyed a lot of them during their careers).

Hoping they can carry over the past two games into the conference tourney.
 

MRJ said:
On another note, it was nice to see the ladies run-rule Penn State again today to close out the regular season.

Nice to send the seniors out with one more home victory (we know they've enjoyed a lot of them during their careers).

Hoping they can carry over the past two games into the conference tourney.
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The 2018 Gophers team can beat anyone in the country, especially with their improvement on defense. It all depends on which Gopher team shows up on a given day. Some games this year they simply haven't shown up, as against MSU (1st game) and Friday against PSU. Other times they came to play and it showed, as against Arizona and their run-rule victories. Hopefully, they'll get redhot in the BIG tourney. :)
 



MRJ said:
Was a little worried about the RPI after that loss to Penn State, but turns out the ladies only dropped three slots to 28.

link: https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/softball/d1/ncaa-womens-softball-rpi
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OSU, Minnesota, Michigan, and Northwestern should be safe with sub 40 RPIs.

Nebraska should be OK at 40.

Wisconsin is on the bubble at 46, they probably have to beat Purdue & us to go to the NCAA tournament.

Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Purdue, Maryland & MSU have to win the tournament to advance to a regional.
 

MRJ said:
On another note, it was nice to see the ladies run-rule Penn State again today to close out the regular season.

Nice to send the seniors out with one more home victory (we know they've enjoyed a lot of them during their careers).

Hoping they can carry over the past two games into the conference tourney.
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What is funny is that the Friday and Sunday games are almost the same games with two significant differences.

1) The PSU pitcher was awful in the 1st inning on Sunday. She couldn't hit her spots to save her life and was wild. Then she threw together a string of solid innings where she kept the Minnesota hitters off balance.

2) Maddie hit the walk-off instead of flying out to the warning track.

On Friday it is a OMG the sky is falling this team played with no passion and on Sunday these ladies are awesome and run-ruled PSU. Kind of funny IMO. More to do with the PSU pitcher and one swing in each game by Houlihan than anything else but completely different results.
 

ComoGopher said:
What is funny is that the Friday and Sunday games are almost the same games with two significant differences.

1) The PSU pitcher was awful in the 1st inning on Sunday. She couldn't hit her spots to save her life and was wild. Then she threw together a string of solid innings where she kept the Minnesota hitters off balance.

2) Maddie hit the walk-off instead of flying out to the warning track.

On Friday it is a OMG the sky is falling this team played with no passion and on Sunday these ladies are awesome and run-ruled PSU. Kind of funny IMO. More to do with the PSU pitcher and one swing in each game by Houlihan than anything else but completely different results.
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You can try and sugarcoat again if you like, but they weren't focused and ready to play. Cowger even said as much on Saturday. What's more important than anything is that they rebounded.

But to suggest Friday's showing was anything more than an awful loss is really stretching.

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MRJ said:
You can try and sugarcoat again if you like, but they weren't focused and ready to play. Cowger even said as much on Saturday. What's more important than anything is that they rebounded.

But to suggest Friday's showing was anything more than an awful loss is really stretching.

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Cowger's "Athlete Speak" is thorough analysis. Of course she said that. I am not trying to sugar-coat the loss on Friday. If anything I am saying that the win on Sunday was not that great. Cummings pitched a heck of a game on Friday, her drop ball was nasty, she did a decent job hitting the corners, and she got the Gophers to swing at bad pitches. On Sunday she was a completely different pitcher (specifically in the first inning). We can give the Gophers all kinds of credit for being great on Sunday but they jumped on a pitcher early when she was struggling mightily with control and she was not getting the strike calls she was getting on Friday. Sure the Gophers deserve credit for scoring 5 in the first but if Cummings had command of her pitches on Sunday like she did on Friday it would have been a different game.
 

Time to go to Madison and win the tournament. On a positive note I think the team is as healthy as they have been all season.

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I am guessing she will go Fiser, Fiser, Fiser.
Opposing, my guess is Hestekin, Trainer, Beaubien.
 


ComoGopher said:
Cowger's "Athlete Speak" is thorough analysis. Of course she said that. I am not trying to sugar-coat the loss on Friday. If anything I am saying that the win on Sunday was not that great. Cummings pitched a heck of a game on Friday, her drop ball was nasty, she did a decent job hitting the corners, and she got the Gophers to swing at bad pitches. On Sunday she was a completely different pitcher (specifically in the first inning). We can give the Gophers all kinds of credit for being great on Sunday but they jumped on a pitcher early when she was struggling mightily with control and she was not getting the strike calls she was getting on Friday. Sure the Gophers deserve credit for scoring 5 in the first but if Cummings had command of her pitches on Sunday like she did on Friday it would have been a different game.
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Ellie's comments aside, Cummings isn't very good. Sorry to break that to you, but apparently you're convinced the Gophers can't hit her unless she's just off. The stats say she's been off the vast majority of the season. Then all of the sudden, she's on her game and was simply baffling to the Gophers. Under that line of thinking, I guess it was just lucky that she was off on Sunday. I'm sure the team is breathing a huge sigh of relief on that one.

Bottom line was they made virtually no adjustments in that Friday game. And no one said they were great on Sunday. They simply got the job done like they should have on Friday. Obviously, the comments on the ugliness of that loss still bug you. And I certainly don't think it's just a happy coincidence that they outscored the Nits 27-0 over the final two games. They knew they laid an egg on Friday and more than made up it for it, which is what they deserve the most credit for.

But it's over and done with. Time to move on to the Big 10 Tournament.
 


I'm kind of keeping an eye on Drake because of their pitcher.
Also, who is going to emerge as the champ from the CAA? Hofstra or James Madison?
 

MRJ said:
Ellie's comments aside, Cummings isn't very good. Sorry to break that to you, but apparently you're convinced the Gophers can't hit her unless she's just off. The stats say she's been off the vast majority of the season. Then all of the sudden, she's on her game and was simply baffling to the Gophers. Under that line of thinking, I guess it was just lucky that she was off on Sunday. I'm sure the team is breathing a huge sigh of relief on that one.

Bottom line was they made virtually no adjustments in that Friday game. And no one said they were great on Sunday. They simply got the job done like they should have on Friday. Obviously, the comments on the ugliness of that loss still bug you. And I certainly don't think it's just a happy coincidence that they outscored the Nits 27-0 over the final two games. They knew they laid an egg on Friday and more than made up it for it, which is what they deserve the most credit for.

But it's over and done with. Time to move on to the Big 10 Tournament.
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I don't think Cummings is very good and that is my point. She had a good night on Friday. I don't think our team was awful but they weren't great. I am giving the pitcher credit for pitching a great game. She was awful in the first inning on Sunday and then we couldn't score on her again for four innings. Friday was not that bad and Sunday was not that good. On Sunday, the ladies had a really good first inning and then at the end of the game Partain scores on a freak play and Maddie gets the HR.

Why is it that if this team loses they somehow have to be "flat" "unprepared" "mentally not with it" "coaches didn't do their job" etc... If they win that is not the case. My original point after Friday was that if Maddie hits the HR all the negative Nancy stuff would not have been posted. We probably would have been talking about how "clutch" the Gophers are and the only difference would have been one pitch and one swing.

The real choke jobs this B1G season happened in Chicago and not on Friday night.
 

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