Post by gnawitall on Apr 24, 2016 20:00:59 GMT -8
Ladies drop one 7-2 to the Huskies today. I went and have some thoughts on the game and series.
Having golden chances to win Friday, winning Saturday and missing chances today I would say we are very close to the middle of the Pac 12. Even though we were out hit today 13-6 we missed a three run homer by a couple feet and hit a line drive to third with bases loaded. One thing that hurt us today was swinging at pitches out of the zone.
The game was played clean as neither team had an error today.
A couple bones of contention I have are:
1) as a kid playing baseball I was always taught to choke up on the bat with two strikes. I know now as an adult the reason behind that is choking up will increase one's ability to make contact. Our hitters never did that. The UW pitcher is throwing gas and with two strikes our girls are not choking up. Two of the greatest hitters baseball/softball has seen choked up on the bat; Pete Rose, Barry Bonds (pre and post-roids). It boggles my mind that the most decorated softball player in the US doesn't have them doing that. Maybe she suggests it and let's them make the decision.
2) I'm wondering if the dimensions of the softball complex are smaller than average. There are no numbers identifying left, right or center so I'm wondering if that is intentional. I bring that up because Frosh Meerha Nelson is a power pitcher and needs to have the luxury of benefiting from long fly outs. Granted, being a hard thrower she gives up home runs. That's part of softball. During this game, however, she gave up a home run to center to UW's lead off hitter, who is a stud by the way, and when she faced her again she had two strikes on her and then the left handed batter hit one down the left field line and I thought for sure that would be a fly out and it went over the fence. Our left fielder beat the ball to the fence and then watched it go over her head.
Hopefully Meerha will be back next year and our other pitcher coming in throws close to 70 which is 90 in baseball conversion. With two power pitchers coach Berg should move the fence back so our pitchers don't get discouraged when home runs should be fly outs. The other reason she should have it moved back is because of how fast our outfielders are and Berg has promoted them many times as such.
3) Lastly I noticed that Meerha doesn't have much off speed pitches. In four innings of work she threw 4 change ups from what I could tell. One was really good and the others not so much. In softball that is a very important pitch to be able to throw on command. If she gets that thing as a consistent pitch she will be very tough to hit.
Win or lose I always enjoy watching them play but it is always nice to leave after a win.
*Just had to add this: after posting the above I wanted to see if the lead off hitter for UW (who now has 20 hr's on the year and our leader has 9) hit another one during the series. In fact she did. With two outs in the top of the 7th and the Beavers leading 2-1, Ali Agular hit a home run to tie it. She hit it off....yes.....poor Meerha. The article says and I quote,'...barely over the fence...'
MOVE THE DAM FENCE BACK!!!
I'm passionate about it as you can tell :-)
PPPS. I've heard Berg lament how some hr's at the complex were not home run worthy hits. I hope she does something about it!
Having golden chances to win Friday, winning Saturday and missing chances today I would say we are very close to the middle of the Pac 12. Even though we were out hit today 13-6 we missed a three run homer by a couple feet and hit a line drive to third with bases loaded. One thing that hurt us today was swinging at pitches out of the zone.
The game was played clean as neither team had an error today.
A couple bones of contention I have are:
1) as a kid playing baseball I was always taught to choke up on the bat with two strikes. I know now as an adult the reason behind that is choking up will increase one's ability to make contact. Our hitters never did that. The UW pitcher is throwing gas and with two strikes our girls are not choking up. Two of the greatest hitters baseball/softball has seen choked up on the bat; Pete Rose, Barry Bonds (pre and post-roids). It boggles my mind that the most decorated softball player in the US doesn't have them doing that. Maybe she suggests it and let's them make the decision.
2) I'm wondering if the dimensions of the softball complex are smaller than average. There are no numbers identifying left, right or center so I'm wondering if that is intentional. I bring that up because Frosh Meerha Nelson is a power pitcher and needs to have the luxury of benefiting from long fly outs. Granted, being a hard thrower she gives up home runs. That's part of softball. During this game, however, she gave up a home run to center to UW's lead off hitter, who is a stud by the way, and when she faced her again she had two strikes on her and then the left handed batter hit one down the left field line and I thought for sure that would be a fly out and it went over the fence. Our left fielder beat the ball to the fence and then watched it go over her head.
Hopefully Meerha will be back next year and our other pitcher coming in throws close to 70 which is 90 in baseball conversion. With two power pitchers coach Berg should move the fence back so our pitchers don't get discouraged when home runs should be fly outs. The other reason she should have it moved back is because of how fast our outfielders are and Berg has promoted them many times as such.
3) Lastly I noticed that Meerha doesn't have much off speed pitches. In four innings of work she threw 4 change ups from what I could tell. One was really good and the others not so much. In softball that is a very important pitch to be able to throw on command. If she gets that thing as a consistent pitch she will be very tough to hit.
Win or lose I always enjoy watching them play but it is always nice to leave after a win.
*Just had to add this: after posting the above I wanted to see if the lead off hitter for UW (who now has 20 hr's on the year and our leader has 9) hit another one during the series. In fact she did. With two outs in the top of the 7th and the Beavers leading 2-1, Ali Agular hit a home run to tie it. She hit it off....yes.....poor Meerha. The article says and I quote,'...barely over the fence...'
MOVE THE DAM FENCE BACK!!!
I'm passionate about it as you can tell :-)
PPPS. I've heard Berg lament how some hr's at the complex were not home run worthy hits. I hope she does something about it!