Tennessee Softball

#3,177
#3,177
LA Vol said:
The team hasn't been bringing their best game for a month now, and the losses are mounting up. They've already dropped from 2nd to 4th in the SEC after this weekend and are poised to tumble out of the top 10 this week. They're in danger of losing the bye in the SECT and probably have already blown the chance for a top 8 national seed. Of course, if they keep playing like this, it may not matter since they could be eliminated in the regionals. Very disappointing for a team that has shown us they can play so much better.

Losing Shipman isn't causing this. Phillips is more than serviceable as catcher and she was one of the best hitters on the team until the past month. They have talent at every position-- enough to make a deep run in the SECT and have a good showing in the super regionals.
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No losing Ally did not cause this but It certainly had an effect on this team. She was a power RH hitter that we desperately needed and as good as Phillips is she would never had many catching opportunites with AS well. Phillips has to play and she could not have hurt us in RF off and on as well. Pancini should have had more ABs this year as well. I agree we probably will drop out of the top 10 and I also think we have not been top 10 any this year. We will not sweep Ole ms I don't think either. Bottom line with AS well our constant defensive alignments would most likely be set by now! Thanks LA!
 
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#3,178
#3,178
508mikey said:
Anyone think Arnold is done at UT after this season or relegated to a RP ?
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If she is, it would be her own doing, not the coaching staff's like it was with Sprang. The staff really needs her next year with Moss leaving. Otherwise, it's Rogers and the new pitcher from Florida, unless they intend to let some of the other recruits who have some experience with pitching get some innings, such as Kiki Milloy.

Arnold reminds me a lot of Ellen Renfroe, who could look like a first team AA or a pitcher who didn't even look like she should be pitching in the SEC, depending on her mood. I had never seen a UT pitcher so hot and cold, until I saw Arnold.

I will say I'm disappointed in the lack of development with Arnold. She was SEC FOY her first year and has regressed in each year since. It's clearly mental with her, as her mistakes tend to snowball, and she lacks a killer instinct IMO. Again, she reminds me of Ellen. She tends to give up a lot of homers for whatever reason, likely because she's a riseball pitcher and has a tendency of leaving them flat a lot of the time. If you notice, Rogers gets a lot more late break on her riseball than Arnold does. I hope we don't see Rogers fall into the same pattern as Arnold and regress in future years. Outside of the Renfroes, the Weeklys and Marty simply don't have a reputation of pitchers developing as their careers go along, and they've had a history of pitchers leaving the program (like Ashton Ward and Gabby Sprang) and/or finishing their careers in another capacity, such as Cat Hosfield and Gretchen Aucoin. They've even had to have players pitch who weren't recruited as pitchers, which happened with Jessica Spigner (briefly) and Rainey Gaffin (who was ironically the best pitcher on the staff during her last two years). WTBS, it seems Moss has developed pretty nicely as her career has gone along, so hopefully we will see Rogers go more along that route.
 
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#3,179
#3,179
volman128 said:
Pitching sucked this weekend, but overall pitching has been the strongest part of this team this year. Our lack of timely hitting is the biggest issue.

Honestly, timely hitting has been a big issue for UT for years. It cost us the NC when we had Abbott.
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Every issue big and small has reared its ugly head this year! Haley pulled for precaution and we needed her but more so next weekend! Who would have though I would say we need Haley Bearden. I have roasted her for 3 years but she may be our MVP!!
 
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#3,180
#3,180
Haley has been a major bright spot this year. But it's also disappointing that she's been a no-show the rest of her career. Who knew she had so much potential? Ralph has, of course, since he's been fawning over her her whole damn career. lol

Really wish Ayala and Morgan would show up. They showed so much promise early in the season. Hannon has really fallen off the map, too.
 
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#3,183
#3,183
volman128 said:
If she is, it would be her own doing, not the coaching staff's like it was with Sprang. The staff really needs her next year with Moss leaving. Otherwise, it's Rogers and the new pitcher from Florida, unless they intend to let some of the other recruits who have some experience with pitching get some innings, such as Kiki Milloy.

Arnold reminds me a lot of Ellen Renfroe, who could look like a first team AA or a pitcher who didn't even look like she should be pitching in the SEC, depending on her mood. I had never seen a UT pitcher so hot and cold, until I saw Arnold.

I will say I'm disappointed in the lack of development with Arnold. She was SEC FOY her first year and has regressed in each year since. It's clearly mental with her, as her mistakes tend to snowball, and she lacks a killer instinct IMO. Again, she reminds me of Ellen. She tends to give up a lot of homers for whatever reason, likely because she's a riseball pitcher and has a tendency of leaving them flat a lot of the time. If you notice, Rogers gets a lot more late break on her riseball than Arnold does. I hope we don't see Rogers fall into the same pattern as Arnold and regress in future years. Outside of the Renfroes, the Weeklys and Marty simply don't have a reputation of pitchers developing as their careers go along, and they've had a history of pitchers leaving the program (like Ashton Ward and Gabby Sprang) and/or finishing their careers in another capacity, such as Cat Hosfield and Gretchen Aucoin. They've even had to have players pitch who weren't recruited as pitchers, which happened with Jessica Spigner (briefly) and Rainey Gaffin (who was ironically the best pitcher on the staff during her last two years). WTBS, it seems Moss has developed pretty nicely as her career has gone along, so hopefully we will see Rogers go more along that route.
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You touch on a lot of stuff in that post. My thoughts on a few of them.

My general impression over the years is that few pitchers for UT have improved substantially through their careers., including the Renfroes. Some have improved a little. Some have gotten worse. You mention Moss as one that has developed nicely over her career? Here is her ERA in SEC games over the years: Freshman 1.72 - Soph 2.38 - Junior 3.92 - Senior 4.80. Also her home run totals have gone up a lot since her freshman year. I don't see the development. But I wonder if this is as much about coaching as it is about the physical maturity of female pitchers. Are elite, or at least above average pitchers, already close to as good as they can get when they are college freshmen? I'm too lazy to do much research but Barnhill is 1 example. Her SEC ERA the last 3 years: (2017 - .09 ) (2018 - 1.41) (2019 - 2.48). Also her season HR totals the last 3 years: (2017 - 5) (2018 - 21) (2019 - 13). She's getting hit harder. Does her pitching coach suck? Or did she come in physically about as good as she could be and with each successive year teams have faced her more and have a better idea of how to attack her? I'm sure there are examples of pitchers that were mediocre and became awesome, but I wonder what the norm is?
 
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#3,184
#3,184
I think as players mature, the conference coaches get more familiar with them, as there is much more film. That's the same with Moss and it's the same with Barnhill. I think Moss has better stuff (better movement) than she did as a freshman. Barnhill is essentially the same pitcher she was when she came into college, but admittedly she was a much better pitcher than Moss when they came into college, and that's still the case. I guess I was thinking mostly in the mental aspect of the game regarding Moss and the overall array of pitches she can throw. Also in her first year, she had Gabriel on the team, as well as Gaffin. It was more of a true staff, whereas the last two years it's been basically her and Arnold. I figured this year would be easier but for whatever reason Arnold has not been herself virtually all season and Moss has really struggled a lot as of late.

I do think pitchers (and players overall) tend to go up and down. Abbott struggled more her junior year at UT. She was only 2nd team All-SEC and got hit hard a lot in conference play. She was still first team AA, but she was more dominant her first two years, and was super dominant her senior year. I couldn't tell you why that was.

Ellen Renfroe struggled quite a bit her last year at UT after Ivy left. You could see she pitched a lot better as part of a staff vs. being a true #1 ace.

I'm not fan of Marty McDaniel, BTW. Never have been, TBH.
 
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#3,185
#3,185
I don't think pitching development has ever been our strong suit overall. But, one thing to remember is that hitting has caught up to pitching. Moncia was awesome still is getting the best hitters in the world out, but if you watched in those days and til 8 years ago or so the strike zone given was larger they tended to give a lot off they plate so games were mostly very low scoring affairs. Offense makes for better tv viewship and you can figure out the rest plus an enormous amount of time and money is poured into hitting from the early stages so hitting is much better now. Back in the Monica days offense was scratch and claw for runs this then led to slappers being really focused on for offense. Now it is attack and pound the ball that gets it done -- see Oklahoma. I''m afraid some of our coaches still live in the Monica days where a few runs was good enough with a dominate pitcher but those days are gone as a norm. I'm afraid psychologically as humans when things go bad we fall back on what worked before but the game has changed and what worked before will get you beat against the best teams the majority of the time now. IMHO
 
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#3,186
#3,186
kregman said:
Another error by Morgan but the girl stepped off bag and got tagged out!
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I know I am really late at seeing these posts, but I usually only look on here during the week. How did this play happen exactly? Wish I could have watched or listened to the game, but was unable to.
 
#3,187
#3,187
The discussion on pitching above is really interesting. I personally think that today's hitters have caught up to the pitching. Let me clarify, some teams have and others have not. I am seeing aggressive at bats and none not so aggressive. I think it boils down to coaching at both the high school and collegiate levels.
Every player is different and has personal physical abilities. I guess you can say some players are built to hit home runs and most are not. This is where coaching takes over. I know, it's not that easy. You still have to know the strike zone and know when a pitch is a strike. But mainly, your swing must be technically correct and it must be aggressive.
And while all this is going on in the batters' box, the pitcher,via the coach, is moving the ball inside and out, up and down, with some spin and speed control. Most batters will achieve success 1 for 3 per game. The great batters will achieve greater numbers with greater RBIs. I guess I am saying, this year, I am seeing more great batters.
 
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#3,188
#3,188
miatenn5 said:
I know I am really late at seeing these posts, but I usually only look on here during the week. How did this play happen exactly? Wish I could have watched or listened to the game, but was unable to.
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This game was audio so Brian's call was that Morgan missed the grounder then retrieved the ball how far I don't know but in the mean time the hitter must have rounded the bag and Morgan then tagged her.
 
#3,189
#3,189
kregman said:
This game was audio so Brian's call was that Morgan missed the grounder then retrieved the ball how far I don't know but in the mean time the hitter must have rounded the bag and Morgan then tagged her.
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I hate no getting to watch games and audio does little for the imagination. I had wondered about that play but the runner must have come pretty close to Morgan because she is slow as most catchers!! May I add that she has got to start hitting for us to have much success and she is not the only one!!!
 
#3,190
#3,190
As pertains to Arnold, I’ll leave you with this; didn’t start pitching until high school, became a stud. Got a spot at a top 10 program and then ditched those around her who helped her become what she once was.
 
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#3,191
#3,191
tnburban said:
As pertains to Arnold, I’ll leave you with this; didn’t start pitching until high school, became a stud. Got a spot at a top 10 program and then ditched those around her who helped her become what she once was.
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Did she ditch those when she was at Dyersburg?
 
#3,192
#3,192
sccshortstop said:
Did she ditch those when she was at Dyersburg?
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No didn’t ditch anyone anywhere. I have known the family for some time. Agreed she didn’t start playing until late but was asked to play all over. Got opportunities to play at higher levels just like a lot of kids do an took the opportunities. Not sure how she ditched anyone.
 
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#3,194
#3,194
sccshortstop said:
I had never heard what other poster said but I did know she was from WT like myself.
thanks
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I thought she was from Maryville? I also personally though Caylan pitched better than Moss and Rogers this weekend...... Caylan was pulled in the second game having only givin up two runs on no hits in the fourth inning...... only gave up 3 runs in game 3 before being pulled..... I feel like she’s starting to pitch better especially since the allergic reaction thing.
 
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#3,195
#3,195
dusbelli said:
I thought she was from Maryville? I also personally though Caylan pitched better than Moss and Rogers this weekend...... Caylan was pulled in the second game having only givin up two runs on no hits in the fourth inning...... only gave up 3 runs in game 3 before being pulled..... I feel like she’s starting to pitch better especially since the allergic reaction thing.
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I agree and did not know why she was pulled either. She transferred to Maryville when I think her dads job transferred him from Dyersburg. Don't really remember exactly what class she was in!
 
#3,196
#3,196
sccshortstop said:
I agree and did not know why she was pulled either. She transferred to Maryville when I think her dads job transferred him from Dyersburg. Don't really remember exactly what class she was in!
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I didn’t realize she was from dyersburg..... I’m originally from Weakley Co. and we would play various teams in various sports from Dyer co.
 
#3,197
#3,197
Very familiar with WC, I am from Crockett Co. and graduated at UTM. Not sure how long she was in in Dyer County but I saw on the roster website that she was born in Jackson, Tn. so I would say several years. Small world! Thanks!
 
#3,198
#3,198
sccshortstop said:
Very familiar with WC, I am from Crockett Co. and graduated at UTM. Not sure how long she was in in Dyer County but I saw on the roster website that she was born in Jackson, Tn. so I would say several years. Small world! Thanks!
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Yes it is.....I also attended UTM my first year of college before I transfered to middle TN.....I hope Caylan continues to get her confidence back because we need her if we have a chance of getting past super regionals and on to the World Series.
 
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