Gopher Softball 2020

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MNsoftballfan said:
Is there really no inside information re the status of Jensen and Brandner?
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I talked to Jensen a moment before the Missouri State game in Clearwater. She had both ankles in boots. She said the injury/injuries "are getting there" and seemed optimistic. Someone else present at that time said she could be ready "by the start of the BIG season." Another lady, who attends all the MN games, sounded less optimistic. (Note: Absolutely none of this is inside information; more like hearsay; so I submit it as such.]
 

Hrothgar said:
I talked to Jensen a moment before the Missouri State game in Clearwater. She had both ankles in boots. She said the injury/injuries "are getting there" and seemed optimistic. Someone else present at that time said she could be ready "by the start of the BIG season." Another lady, who attends all the MN games, sounded less optimistic. (Note: Absolutely none of this is inside information; more like hearsay; so I submit it as such.]
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Thanks. I was in Clearwater last week too and saw her in the two boots. I was actually shocked. I just ASSUMED she would be 100% this season. Best wishes for her!!
 


Just tossing this out there. Going into today's game an at the plate comparison so far this season. See if some of these players can significantly improve. Gophers need it without Brandner and Jensen.

2019 2020
Partain .383 .479
DenHartog .373 .381
Kemetmueller .222 .095
White .229 .100
Lindner .205 .154
Brandt .177 .269
Hansen .125 .320
Jones ---- .188
VanderHeide .230 .182
 

Barring a meltdown, this game is looking positive. A great way to end the weekend. It will be interesting to see the rankings after this weekend.
 



A couple new faces in the starting batting lineup have been impressive so far.

Syd Strelow looks like a natural hitter; she might be a future star.

Emily Hansen looks very good too. If she keeps it up, the Gophs are gonna need to find a place for her bat in the lineup if Brandner comes back.

Glad to see Kianna Jones got the big dinger on Sunday. It has to be tough for freshmen to come in and face the nation's best pitching early in the season at Clearwater.
 

Panthadad2 said:
A couple new faces in the starting batting lineup have been impressive so far.

Syd Strelow looks like a natural hitter; she might be a future star.

Emily Hansen looks very good too. If she keeps it up, the Gophs are gonna need to find a place for her bat in the lineup if Brandner comes back.

Glad to see Kianna Jones got the big dinger on Sunday. It has to be tough for freshmen to come in and face the nation's best pitching early in the season at Clearwater.
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I'd say put Emily in RF and then have Ali/Brooke rotate for CF until Ellee is back
 

Tucker said:
Lots of people have been complaining, so I'm going to share the nadir of the season for me..lol
When our hitter took two strikes with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out and we had just tied the game in the bottom of the 7th inning against Missouri, that really got me down.
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Biggest pet peeves for any level are strikeouts with RISP and failed sac bunts, should never happen
 



rowdaboat said:
I'd say put Emily in RF and then have Ali/Brooke rotate for CF until Ellee is back
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I'd say put Emily at SS (where she has 2 more years to mature into the position) and Carly in LF or RF. Carly is an outstanding outfielder; she plays better there than at SS (imho); she made great catches in LF last year. Everybody seems to agree that Jensen, Brandner, Jones, and Strelow are needed additions in the hitting order, plus #44 the Nevada player (can't draw her name up) has a good bat, too. Tucker is right; the bottom of the 7th in the first Missouri game (Missouri has no business beating MN) & being robbed of a 2nd run vs. VT were as depressing as it gets. Hopefully everything will be upward from now on. I've been one of the negative posters, but this can be a great team, IF they hit and score runs, which has been the Gophers' trademark for at least the past 6 years.
 

This start of the season schedule has been a gauntlet. They have done pretty well considering. Please put that in perspective. This team will still be good. Their pitching is just too good for it to not be. Fiser will come around and this other kid looks like she has some bullets also. Couple that with the big kid at first coming back, I'm not worried. They've played some teams that are nationally ranked powerhouses and won some and lost some with new players starting/seeing playing time.
 

Hrothgar said:
I'd say put Emily at SS (where she has 2 more years to mature into the position) and Carly in LF or RF. Carly is an outstanding outfielder; she plays better there than at SS (imho); she made great catches in LF last year. Everybody seems to agree that Jensen, Brandner, Jones, and Strelow are needed additions in the hitting order, plus #44 the Nevada player (can't draw her name up) has a good bat, too. Tucker is right; the bottom of the 7th in the first Missouri game (Missouri has no business beating MN) & being robbed of a 2nd run vs. VT were as depressing as it gets. Hopefully everything will be upward from now on. I've been one of the negative posters, but this can be a great team, IF they hit and score runs, which has been the Gophers' trademark for at least the past 6 years.
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Yeah, Josey White looks like a natural hitter too. She's struggled a little with pitch selection with her limited number of at-bats. I'm hoping she can find some more at-bats somewhere to get her in the groove.
 

Not at all worried about 5-4 through the first two weekends. Tough schedule and a bit-shorthanded, but still over .500 with a couple of big-time quality wins in hand.

I'd say they're right on schedule for another outstanding year.
 



MRJ said:
Not at all worried about 5-4 through the first two weekends. Tough schedule and a bit-shorthanded, but still over .500 with a couple of big-time quality wins in hand.

I'd say they're right on schedule for another outstanding year.
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Problem is that Alabama starting on a rough stretch gets plenty of conference games against good teams. Gophers get UCLA on 3/7 and then road series vs Michigan and Northwestern as the only teams left that can help tournament résumé. SOS will be good, but quality wins won't stack up
 

rowdaboat said:
Problem is that Alabama starting on a rough stretch gets plenty of conference games against good teams. Gophers get UCLA on 3/7 and then road series vs Michigan and Northwestern as the only teams left that can help tournament résumé. SOS will be good, but quality wins won't stack up
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Taking even one of the V-Tech or OK State games would have helped the resume. Both were winnable. One could argue the Gophs got royally screwed vs. V-Tech (they definitely did) but no-one will remember that 2-3 months from now.

That said, the Gophs conference slate is extremely tough this year with most big games on the road. If they finish high in the standings, they will deserve it and get recognition for it.
 

rowdaboat said:
Problem is that Alabama starting on a rough stretch gets plenty of conference games against good teams. Gophers get UCLA on 3/7 and then road series vs Michigan and Northwestern as the only teams left that can help tournament résumé. SOS will be good, but quality wins won't stack up
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If you say so...I guess the rest of the season is just window-dressing.
 

MRJ said:
If you say so...I guess the rest of the season is just window-dressing.
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Not window dressing. They are almost "must win" games if the team wants to host a regional. It is always nice to sweep a conference series and have it hurt the team rating.
 

rugger14 said:
Not window dressing. They are almost "must win" games if the team wants to host a regional. It is always nice to sweep a conference series and have it hurt the team rating.
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I'll simply state this team already has more quality wins at this point of the season than last year's team did at the same time. And we all know how that turned out.

All I'm saying it let the season play out before making any grand pronouncements about regionals or otherwise.
 

MRJ said:
I'll simply state this team already has more quality wins at this point of the season than last year's team did at the same time. And we all know how that turned out.

All I'm saying it let the season play out before making any grand pronouncements about regionals or otherwise.
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Good points. All the Gophers can do is take remaining games one at a time & win them all, or close to it. My major question is: How realistic is that goal unless they get Brandner back on the field and in top form?
 

Only dropped two spots in the USA poll to 15, not sure if the voters are watching any games.

Problem with the conference schedule is the good teams are on the road, and losing any home games vs the bottom feeders hurts more than a series of like 30-4 helps RPI and chances at a good seed
 

MRJ said:
I'll simply state this team already has more quality wins at this point of the season than last year's team did at the same time. And we all know how that turned out.

All I'm saying it let the season play out before making any grand pronouncements about regionals or otherwise.
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I agree. This season reminds me of last year. We started out against extremely good competition last season and continued to improve throughout the year. I see that happening again.

There is a lot of room for improvement with all the young contributors this team is playing right now due to injuries. You could see improvement from the first weekend to this weekend. Now, if we can add Jensen and Brandner back to the lineup we will really be tough all the way from top to bottom.

Our strength of schedule will be very high again. Jamie does a great job with scheduling to give the team a chance to earn top seeding come playoff time. If we fall just short, then you have to battle to pull the upset. Tough to do, but it can be done.

Will all that happen? It will be fun to watch and find out! I certainly hope it does for all the seniors. They deserve it for their contributions over the last 4 years.
 

rowdaboat said:
Only dropped two spots in the USA poll to 15, not sure if the voters are watching any games.

Problem with the conference schedule is the good teams are on the road, and losing any home games vs the bottom feeders hurts more than a series of like 30-4 helps RPI and chances at a good seed
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What exactly is your point here?

Voters don't realize how bad we are since we're still ranked top 15?

We aren't going to beat good conference teams on the road? Any losses at home will sink chances at a seed?

Honestly, where are you going with all of this?
 

MRJ said:
What exactly is your point here?

Voters don't realize how bad we are since we're still ranked top 15?

We aren't going to beat good conference teams on the road? Any losses at home will sink chances at a seed?

Honestly, where are you going with all of this?
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Does he have to be going somewhere with it? Maybe just saying that the early losses in some winnable games reduced the margin for error significantly for the rest of the season? There are a lot of games to play. The ladies lost to Florida Gulf Coast last year and still got to host. Higher results yield higher expectations. We will see what happens this year.
 

We are a big-time program. The team has a lot more fans. Fans expect more than losing to Mizzou, Kentucky, and VT. Go back to mediocre and be happy with the performance so far.
 

ComoGopher said:
We are a big-time program. The team has a lot more fans. Fans expect more than losing to Mizzou, Kentucky, and VT. Go back to mediocre and be happy with the performance so far.
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Top 16 is hosting a Regional. Top 8 is hosting a Super. That is the current reality and discussion...with 2 of our top players on the bench due to injuries. That is a far cry from mediocre.
 

AZGopher8 said:
Top 16 is hosting a Regional. Top 8 is hosting a Super. That is the current reality and discussion...with 2 of our top players on the bench due to injuries. That is a far cry from mediocre.
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Not arguing that. At this point this team needs to win some games to host a regional and be top 16. Those players might be gone for the year. We don't know. This team has fan support of a top 8 team. We will see how the support goes if they fail to produce. I hope they can be at least top 16.
 

Well if the ladies fail to make the top 16 we can blame it on something. Win games ladies and it does not matter.
 
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Long-term rewards for the Gophers should be based on building fine shorter-term results, that is, taking the season one step at a time. 1) Compile a strong pre-season W-L record. 2) win the BIG title. 3) win the BIG tournament. 4) Use those accomplishments to get a good NCAA seed. I fear doing those things without Brandner's bat, fielding prowess, and leadership may be difficult, but what do I know.
 

rugger14 said:
Does he have to be going somewhere with it? Maybe just saying that the early losses in some winnable games reduced the margin for error significantly for the rest of the season? There are a lot of games to play. The ladies lost to Florida Gulf Coast last year and still got to host. Higher results yield higher expectations. We will see what happens this year.
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Not necessarily, but I see it as a lot of pretty ridiculous hand-wringing considering we're nine games into a 50-plus game slate.

But, that's just me.
 

ComoGopher said:
We are a big-time program. The team has a lot more fans. Fans expect more than losing to Mizzou, Kentucky, and VT. Go back to mediocre and be happy with the performance so far.
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WTF are you talking about? Go back to mediocre and be happy? Right off the deep-end with that line.

I guess that win over Florida State and run-ruling Missouri the second time around just scream mediocrity.
 

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