Game Thread Lady Vols Softball Team week 11

#76
#76
Tennessee run-rules Lipscomb by a score of 10-2 in 6 innings.

Sellout crowd once again (just over 1,700) but I think we could've easily had additional 300-400 people in the house no problem.

Pitching looked good except for one bad (fatty) pitch by Moss who gave up a 2-run homer at 1-2 count in the top of the 4th. She's given up some big hits at counts favorable to her and Karen Weekly addressed that in the post game radio interview. They'll fix it no doubt. Overall, Matty pitched 4 solid innings and Erin came in and pitched 2 scoreless innings and got the W.

Our hitting exploded in the bottom of the 5th scoring 8 runs; Megan Geer hit a 3-run bomb and Gretchen Aucoin hit a base-clearing grand slam. Up 9-2 in the bottom of the 6th, Meghan Gregg hit a walk-off triple scoring Geer from the first base thus ending the game and extending the STREAK.

CJ McClain has a lot of talent; I can see why the coaches are so high on her. If she gets on base, she can create many scoring opportunities just with her sheer speed as she did in the 5th inning (she hit an infield single, stole second base and scored on an Aubrey Leach single). She still strikes out too much for a slapper, but she has some potential at the plate going forward. I can see it..

The streak is now at 87 games in-a-row over in-state opponents! Wow. I want to see it keep extending and don't want to see it end in my lifetime. :) Go Lady Vols! #BeatTnTech #BeatAuburn
 
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#77
#77
The coaches are experimenting with Scarlet McSwain in the right field. I'm not too sure at this point whether that's such a good idea. She was dropping the ball during the pre-game warm-up. Maybe she wasn't as focused, but I'll cringe if she's in the right field against Auburn.
 
#78
#78
I will take CJ in the field if and that's a big if she will put the stick on the ball. Anybody in the dugout can whiff. She has the intangibles as mentioned. I still would like to find out if Scarlett is ever going to be able to play defense in the outfield. Lord knows that if she don't get it together this year she may not see the field next year. I know she is all LV but a transfer would not be out of the question.
 
#79
#79
WVU05UT09 said:
We're arguing over inches here but inches that determine championships. On a grading scale of A-F clearly they get A's. I'm just saying in comparison to championship winning pitchers like Jennie Finch, Danielle Lawrie of Washington, Jackie Traina, Lauren Hager, and Kalani Ricketts they were lacking that last bit of extra something special to bring a team over the top. Primarily that extra something being they were more versatile. I remember Traina specifically talked about realizing the summer before her Senior year she was too predictable to batters so she added pitches to change her game.
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Thanks for the clarification. But would you then consider Monica Abbot not elite since she didn't win a national championship either?? Yes or no?

Ivey and Ellen together could've won a national championships in 2013 and deserved better.

Winning a national championship not only requires elite level of skill/talent/coaching but a little bit of luck as well. In both 2007 and 2013, I'd say TN was a bit unlucky. :p
 
#80
#80
2Alum4EverVol said:
The coaches are experimenting with Scarlet McSwain in the right field. I'm not too sure at this point whether that's such a good idea. She was dropping the ball during the pre-game warm-up. Maybe she wasn't as focused, but I'll cringe if she's in the right field against Auburn.
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Not a chance in the world you will see her play the outfield with any regularity. She played an inning in left during the blowout Wednesday, but only warms up in the outfield because they won't let her warm-up in the infield.
 
#81
#81
2Alum4EverVol said:
The coaches are experimenting with Scarlet McSwain in the right field. I'm not too sure at this point whether that's such a good idea. She was dropping the ball during the pre-game warm-up. Maybe she wasn't as focused, but I'll cringe if she's in the right field against Auburn.
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She's been in the outfield before but I cannot imagine it happening with any regularity unless someone else is injured. JMO.
 
#83
#83
The pitching (or lack thereof) coupled with McSwain's fielding woes have been a serious problem for the team the coaches have been unable to solve. It has caused the continuation of the "pitching by committee" that went on last season (but has seemingly ramped up even more this season) and led to multiple players being moved around in the field and unable to establish the chemistry they otherwise might have.

I don't know how much Bush's injury has prevented her from pitching and I don't know what happened to the near-dominant Gabriel that was pitching in late February through the first part of March.

If Gabriel, Moss, and Bush all three could have been counted on since season's start, this season would have been quite a bit different IMO. I look at Florida's Ocasio, Gourley, and Barnhill and I honestly thought TN would have a junior version of that with the third or fourth best staff in the SEC.
 
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#84
#84
McSwain really seemed to be pressing in yesterday's game against OU. She was swinging so hard that one of the announcers commented that she "wasn't getting cheated"...Of course Aucoin wasn't too far behind her...pretty hefty cut at that ball up around her eyeballs early in the game when the count was 3-2, and a walk would have been nice. Batters seemed a bit undisciplined at the plate yesterday.
 
#85
#85
I don't think the pitching is as bad as some of you believe. In the Florida series, Gabriel or Gaffin didn't even pitch in the first game. Moss started and Bush relieved her, with Aucoin finishing the game. In the 2nd game, Gabriel started, and pitched pretty darn well, leaving in the 6th inning with the game tied at 2-2, and Gaffin had trouble fining the strike zone, in a 4-2 loss. In the final game of the series, Gaffin went the distance, giving up only 1 earned run in a 3-0 loss. Pitching held its own in that series, defense reared its ugly head and the offnse was non existent. Florida is the top defensive team in the country...they made 0, 0, ZERO errors in that series.
 
#87
#87
Around the SEC...

Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee still fighting for the third and fourth seeds. Kentucky has 7 losses and TN and Alabama each have 6 losses.

If TN takes two at home to Auburn and sweeps at Ole Miss they will finish with 7 losses. These series' are HUGE for TN.

Kentucky finishes at home with MSU and should sweep and if so they will finish the season with 7 losses.

Alabama goes to SC and then finishes at home with Georgia. Hard to say...they might win all 6 and might lose 1. I doubt they lose 2. One loss gives them 7 losses for the season.

Seven losses for all three teams...a big logjam. My best guess is TN loses at least 2 and has 8 losses, and both KY and Alabama finish with 7 losses and Alabama gets the tiebreaker for 3rd, Ky gets 4th and TN gets 5th.

Missouri is a bit of a wild card. They have 9 losses and have one more to play against A&M and then finish at MSU and home to SC. They could win all 7 or lose 2. If TN and Missouri end up tied with 9 losses, Missouri gets the 5th seed tiebreaker and TN falls to 6th.

Florida.........15-3
Auburn.........15-3
Kentucky......14-7
Alabama.......12-6
Tennessee....12-6
Georgia........9-9
Ole Miss.......9-9
LSU.............10-11
Missouri........8-9
Texas A&M....6-11
S Carolina.....5-13
Miss State.....3-15
Arkansas.......1-17
 
#88
#88
hokievol12 said:
I don't think the pitching is as bad as some of you believe...
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I don't think the pitching is "bad". I think it is more important than the fielding and on balance for the season is not as good as I expected it to be. :dunno:
 
#90
#90
LVJeff said:
I don't think the pitching is "bad". I think it is more important than the fielding and on balance for the season is not as good as I expected it to be. :dunno:
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No big deal...I think we're routing for the same team. I'm just saying that I think pitching has kept us IN a lot of games...and defense has taken us OUT of a lot of games. I was a pitcher...maybe I'm biased! Defense...get it together! lol
 
#92
#92
hokievol12 said:
I don't think the pitching is as bad as some of you believe. In the Florida series, Gabriel or Gaffin didn't even pitch in the first game. Moss started and Bush relieved her, with Aucoin finishing the game. In the 2nd game, Gabriel started, and pitched pretty darn well, leaving in the 6th inning with the game tied at 2-2, and Gaffin had trouble fining the strike zone, in a 4-2 loss. In the final game of the series, Gaffin went the distance, giving up only 1 earned run in a 3-0 loss. Pitching held its own in that series, defense reared its ugly head and the offnse was non existent. Florida is the top defensive team in the country...they made 0, 0, ZERO errors in that series.
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Pitching hasn't been that bad but our offense sure has been better than both our pitching & defense for sure!
 
#93
#93
LVJeff said:
I don't know how much Bush's injury has prevented her from pitching and I don't know what happened to the near-dominant Gabriel that was pitching in late February through the first part of March.
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Nothing happened to her, she just started running into teams that had three years' worth of film on her. It's the same thing that Ellen struggled with her senior season. She does the same things and makes the same pitches she always has. She has certainly gotten better, but when you've hit off of her before, it's a lot easier to have success.

Lauren Haeger ran into this her junior year at Florida, teams figured her out. She had her best year as a senior by reinventing herself in the mound. Changed her motion, adjusted her grip, did just enough that the batters' previous experience was no help.
 
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#94
#94
LVJeff said:
Who will you take in the field if CJ doesn't put the stick on the ball?
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You know Jeff I guess that is the 64,000 question and the truth is I do not have a solution but that is not my job. I would assume Ralph and Karen is going with what we got. I would have though they would have had a plan at least since last year. Scarlett was a decent fielder but seemed to get worse. Geer is better but she has proved she is not great at 3rd. I may play Scarlett/Lockman maybe ever Huffstatler if she is the best utility infielder we have ( according to Brian Rice) on the radio broadcast. Finally if CJ is going to play if she would bunt every time at least the defense has to make a play.
Gosh I did not mean to get long winded.
 
#95
#95
DeerPark12 or anyone else. I understand that Morrison is redshirting. Any other known redshirting/
Just wondering!!
 
#96
#96
The problem with playing a team like Oklahoma is that they come from a conference where there really are only two or three good teams-them, Baylor and Texas. So, Oklahoma had a lot to play for. They could pick up some good RPI points by playing on the road plus they could beat an SEC team. We on the other hand have about 8 or 9 juggernauts in this conference and we have a tough game almost every week. Our team needed a breather where Oklahoma gets them almost every week. It is much simpler to name the bad teams in the SEC-Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss than the good teams. And, you could tell our team came out with very little focus and Oklahoma was pumped.
 
#97
#97
Sandvol said:
...It is much simpler to name the bad teams in the SEC-Auburn, Arkansas, Ole Miss than the good teams. And, you could tell our team came out with very little focus and Oklahoma was pumped.
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I can understand Arkansas, but Auburn is a bad team? Ole Miss has the same record as Missouri and Missouri took two from Tennessee. I don't think those two are bad teams.

Karen said in the radio interview after the Oklahoma game the team was too pumped to play Oklahoma. Then after the Pendley homerun they were totally deflated.
 
#98
#98
DeerPark12 said:
Nothing happened to her, she just started running into teams that had three years' worth of film on her...
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Erin started giving up first and second inning runs before the SEC schedule began.

Edited to say she didn't pitch too much her sophomore season either. That was Ellen's senior campaign. Erin was still injured, or recovering from her surgery, and I don't remember her pitching much at all in the spring.
 
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#100
#100
If I may, I would like to chime in as an OU fan. First, thanks for the invite to play in Knoxville. I actually live in Nashville and have been following TN for some time. You guys and gals have a great thing over in Knoxville.

It was, as Coach Weekly said, probably the worst game TN has played. I haven't watched enough of TN this year to gauge the players, but I thought it was uncharacteristic of the TN players to be making the errors they were making. I don't know if that can be attributed to focus, experience or what. As the game wore on from the 2nd Inning forward, It seems to me that OU's underclassman were a step ahead in development. Not saying thats the reason for the errors, but after reading many post in this and other threads, it seems the players aren't being brought along at the pace it should or needs to be. I think that what Gasso recruits at OU is players that aren't necessarily your HS AA's but kids that know how to work and strive. Not saying TN doesn't have those same players. But once they get on campus, it's up to the coaches to coach them up, not down. Of course it's easier when you have players (Romero, Knighten and Pendley) who have sisters that are playing D-1 level, and others who come from families with athletic background. And I truly believe that Asst Coach Melissa Lombardi could be a HC at any other program and that she has done a great job over the years of developing very good catchers, pitchers and recruiting.

As for the pitching, it looked as though Parker is about 2/3rds ahead of the pitchers at TN. Given Parkers resume from last year and this year, she has been developing nicely in the circle. The FR, Finney, seems to be coming along and although not convinced she will be the "ace" pitcher, she can definately be one to watch. Stevens has has such a sporadic career, she once held such good promise but has settled more into the "closer" role. I am confused by a statement by Coach Ralph Weekly that TN had scouted Parker and had a game plan that, if followed, would have worked. I have yet to put my finger on that one. Being down 3-0 that early in the game isn't reason to scrap the plan. Parker wasn't necessarily overwhelming the TN batters. As one of the ESPN commentators said, a pitcher doesn't always have to strike out a player, give them a pitch to put the ball in play and let the defense score the out. As they said, in OU's NC in 2000, there was only one strikeout by OU's pitcher the whole game. The rest were made by the defense. Sometimes, I think today's pitchers are hell-bent on getting the strike-out (which is a good thing) but forget that they have a team ready to take the challenge for them as well on the defensive side. I thought TN's pitching was good, OU was just able to see the zone well and was placing the bat on the ball where and when they wanted for the most part. Gasso said that this year was even more fun than last year because they were now actually playing the game of softball by having to use more running than the previous couple of years or so due to lack of HR production. Defensively, I don't know that the Weekly's were outcoached in some situations or over-coached. OU certainly took some advantages of infield coverage by TN.

TN will do well in the post-season, I believe. The players just need to play within themselves and not let the game get ahead of them.

All in all, it was a great weekend (I know, easy to say when the team you root for is winning), but I for one am just glad that these young ladies, all of them, get to show who and what they are on national television and softball has come a long, long way since the olden days of recreational league type games in the NCAA.
 
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