Gopher Softball 2019

Give big credit to the Northwestern left fielder.

Great at bat by Kemmetmueller, too bad she didn't get her results :(
 

I once heard Patrick Reusse, on a radio broadcast, say that the biggest mistake the BIG ten ever made was admitting Rutgers to the conference.

Notre Dame would have made a lot more sense. Rutgers sucks at every sport
 

I'm so happy for the team!

What a friggin' great couple of games!

Way to go Gophers :clap:;):cool:
 


Hopefully that can lock up conference player of the year for Amber. TV said shin splints for Ellee, would be nice if she could play in regional
 


Notre Dame would have made a lot more sense. Rutgers sucks at every sport

I heard someplace Notre Dame wants to maintain independent status due to their longstanding deal with NBC.
 

Was this weekend Amber Fiser's finest hours?
Not sure if they were her finest (that's an awfully high bar [emoji4]), but to say she was fantastic would be an understatement. She was lights out from Friday on.

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Was traveling all day and just saw the result. WOW!! Fiser is amazing as is the rest of the team. Congrats to the Gophers!!

Also, it looked like we were heading for a first round matchup with host team Indiana, but Indiana lost today to Penn State so we get Rutgers (or Purdue) instead.
 

Bottom bracket so should have the late game each day which will be nice to be able to watch
 



Great weekend. 2/3 against a solid RPI team can only help us. Barring disaster we host a regional.
 

In today's pre-game warm-ups, MaKenna Partain made no overhand throws. She simply underhanded the ball to a teammate, who would relay it. And during the game, when she had to make overhand throws to first, she was wincing after every one of them. (It didn't affect her hitting at all though.) She had a wrap around her elbow -- hope she's okay.
 

In today's pre-game warm-ups, MaKenna Partain made no overhand throws. She simply underhanded the ball to a teammate, who would relay it. And during the game, when she had to make overhand throws to first, she was wincing after every one of them. (It didn't affect her hitting at all though.) She had a wrap around her elbow -- hope she's okay.

It appears she has been favoring that throwing arm for a few week. She jammed it sliding into second a few weeks ago. Not sure they are related. She was also walking with a slight limp today. She is a warrior though. As she goes, the gophers go,
 

Question for all you coaches(fans). To win the Big tournament, we probably have to beat NW and Mich. how much do you pitch Fiser in game one
 



Great way to convincingly wrap up the series vs. Northwestern. That's a good team and the Gophs locked them down in two of the three games; with the first game lost, barely, more because of the Gophs uncommon mistakes than Northwestern's dominance.

Part of me is pixxed that the BG10 had a totally bush league schedule that allowed MI get by without playing the top two ranked teams in the conference...so the 3rd ranked team gets a backdoor championship with no challengers. Guaranteed that they wouldn't escape a series vs. MN and NW without losses. To make it worse, MI still won't have to face MN or NW until the championship game. Total bush league.

On the other hand, this whole thing could potentially be a positive factor for the Gophies in NCAA regional positioning. The Gophs RPI should go up this week. If they do well next week, that means they could have even more high-RPI games vs. NW and MI which could push them up the food chain for the selection committee. I can only hope that with ESPN here on Saturday in a game the Gophs dominated, a beautiful day, big crowd, and gorgeous venue, that might give some credence for the committee.
 

In the first inning today, Brandner hit a ground ball to short that the shortstop made a nice backhand catch of, falling down in the process. There was no way she was going to get Brandner at first, so she threw the ball to third, trying but failing to get a sliding Houlihan. Since Houlihan was safe, and there was no way the shortstop could have gotten Brandner at first, why is this a fielder's choice instead of a hit? If the shortstop had simply gotten back up and made no throw, Brandner would have gotten a hit. Why should it make a difference that she threw it to third unsuccessfully? I guess it's possible the official scorer might have thought Brandner could have been thrown out at first, but it sure didn't look like it, given the position the fielder was in.
 

In the first inning today, Brandner hit a ground ball to short that the shortstop made a nice backhand catch of, falling down in the process. There was no way she was going to get Brandner at first, so she threw the ball to third, trying but failing to get a sliding Houlihan. Since Houlihan was safe, and there was no way the shortstop could have gotten Brandner at first, why is this a fielder's choice instead of a hit? If the shortstop had simply gotten back up and made no throw, Brandner would have gotten a hit. Why should it make a difference that she threw it to third unsuccessfully? I guess it's possible the official scorer might have thought Brandner could have been thrown out at first, but it sure didn't look like it, given the position the fielder was in.

Judgement call for the scorer on whether Brandner could have been thrown out at first. I think they can go back and review those judgement calls later.
 

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Go Gophers!!
 

It appears she has been favoring that throwing arm for a few week. She jammed it sliding into second a few weeks ago. Not sure they are related. She was also walking with a slight limp today. She is a warrior though. As she goes, the gophers go,

I noticed the limp, too. I ran into Partain in Dinkytown one day last September and spoke to her; she said she'd had labrum surgery during the summer and felt fine. I hope she didn't get a recurrence of that complaint. She was running the bases great today.
 

Okay, somebody tell me why us and Michigan State only played 22 conference games and the rest of the BIG played 23? Did we get rained out a game with them, that never got made up? Had we played 23 games and gotten the win in that game, we would be tied with Northwestern and then would get the #2 seed for the BIG tournament based on our head-to-head with NW, right? (this is probably discussed and explained somewhere else in this thread, but I'm too lazy to look it up) Thanks in advance for the answer!
 

Okay, somebody tell me why us and Michigan State only played 22 conference games and the rest of the BIG played 23? Did we get rained out a game with them, that never got made up? Had we played 23 games and gotten the win in that game, we would be tied with Northwestern and then would get the #2 seed for the BIG tournament based on our head-to-head with NW, right? (this is probably discussed and explained somewhere else in this thread, but I'm too lazy to look it up) Thanks in advance for the answer!

One game between us & MSU was cancelled due to crappy weather (the big snowfall was earlier that week). They were lucky that they were able to get the DH in on Sunday.
 

One game between us & MSU was cancelled due to crappy weather (the big snowfall was earlier that week). They were lucky that they were able to get the DH in on Sunday.

The BG10 standings methodology just seems like bad luck to me (although I actually prefer the opening round pairing the #3 seed gets in the tourney). I don't know how else you would do it equitably. What burns me is that Michigan, the #3 ranked team, doesn't have to play the top two ranked teams and gets to hang a banner because of it.

I wonder if the BG10 will ever eliminate the "regular season champion" title and go with division titles which would seem more appropriate.
 
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The season is so short you can't do a true round robin, would be nice if they could get as close to a full schedule where you either play a Tuesday or Wednesday doubleheader or a Friday-Sunday series against every team, would be 6.5 full weeks with at least one weekend at end of season for potential makeups, but then at minimum you're either flying or having the girls miss 7 weekdays of class and more if you don't do round trip games.

The alternative is you relegate the two worst teams - Rutgers and Maryland - to the Big East or A10 to make scheduling easier
 
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The BG10 standings methodology just seems like bad luck to me (although I actually prefer the opening round pairing the #3 seed gets in the tourney). I don't know how else you would do it equitably. What burns me is that Michigan, the #3 ranked team, doesn't have to play the top two ranked teams and gets to hang a banner because of it.

I wonder if the BG10 will ever eliminate the "regular season champion" title and go with division titles which would seem more appropriate.

I can see this for the tournament:

Borrowing from the NHL (sort of), the top 2 teams in each division get the byes. Then the next 8 best records, regardless of division, play in the first round.

Quarterfinals would be WC1/WC8 vs 2nd place team with the worse record, WC2/WC7 vs the other 2nd place team, WC3/WC6 vs 1st place team with the worse record, and WC4/WC5 vs other 1st place team.

If they went straight top 4, MSU would be in Iowa out.
 

The season is so short you can't do a true round robin, would be nice if they could get as close to a full schedule where you either play a Tuesday or Wednesday doubleheader or a Friday-Sunday series against every team, would be 6.5 full weeks with at least one weekend at end of season for potential makeups, but then at minimum you're either flying or having the girls miss 7 weekdays of class and more if you don't do round trip games.

The alternative is you relegate the two worst teams - Rutgers and Maryland - to the Big East or A10 to make scheduling easier

Actually, Rutgers finished 6th this year.
 



Great weekend. 2/3 against a solid RPI team can only help us. Barring disaster we host a regional.

Gophers RPI now at 8! Nice!

I'll stick my neck out and say the Gophies could be a bubble Super Regional host if they take the conference tourney next week. Right now they're sitting at 2W 5L against Top 1-7 RPI teams, and 3W 3L against RPI 9-16 teams. Wins against NW and MI would put them at 5W 3L against RPI 9-16 teams. Hate to get my hopes up though. Need to win games first.
 
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Facts and figures aside, all that truly matters is winning ever more games. The spoils go to the teams who are hottest at the end of the season, not at the beginning.
 

Gophers RPI now at 8! Nice!

Just more data to get my blood boiling when they get hosed in the seeding. The scandalous seeding the year they went 51-3 (RPI like 3) or so might be the biggest hose job I have ever seen in college sports. And that says a lot in the corrupt world of college sports.
 

The scandalous seeding the year they went 51-3 (RPI like 3) or so might be the biggest hose job I have ever seen in college sports. And that says a lot in the corrupt world of college sports.

this
 




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