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Softball 2013

P

pdxfan

Active member
We're still a month away from the opening game, but it's not too early to talk about the prospects for the season. To begin with, we have an extraordinary schedule. A pre-season schedule of 30 games against just about all the major universities in the West. We have a total of 18 Big Sky games to play after that (plus 2 against U0 and 2 against OSU). The coaches and AD must have a lot of confidence in this team. And with reason.
Last year we won the PCSC with one very good pitcher and a freshman struggling to learn college level ball. Bernard, this year a senior, was named best pitcher of the league. Bernard is back, and Raya, the freshman, now has a year under her belt - by the end of last season she was looking good. She went 3-1 in conference. In addition we have another freshman coming in, Karyn Wright, who should be able to handle a couple games. Unlike last year, we have a solid pitching staff with depth. Add to this a solid infield- no graduations.
The one uncertainty is the hitting. We weren't bad last year - we won the conference, after all - but we could certainly do better. We're losing Krogh and Holliday to graduation; they were outstanding long ball hitters. The rest will have to pick it up. Batting .220 isn't good enough.
Looking forward to February!
 
martymoose said:
pdxfan said:
We're still a month away from the opening game, but it's not too early to talk about the prospects for the season. To begin with, we have an extraordinary schedule. A pre-season schedule of 30 games against just about all the major universities in the West. We have a total of 18 Big Sky games to play after that (plus 2 against U0 and 2 against OSU). The coaches and AD must have a lot of confidence in this team. And with reason.
Last year we won the PCSC with one very good pitcher and a freshman struggling to learn college level ball. Bernard, this year a senior, was named best pitcher of the league. Bernard is back, and Raya, the freshman, now has a year under her belt - by the end of last season she was looking good. She went 3-1 in conference. In addition we have another freshman coming in, Karyn Wright, who should be able to handle a couple games. Unlike last year, we have a solid pitching staff with depth. Add to this a solid infield- no graduations.
The one uncertainty is the hitting. We weren't bad last year - we won the conference, after all - but we could certainly do better. We're losing Krogh and Holliday to graduation; they were outstanding long ball hitters. The rest will have to pick it up. Batting .220 isn't good enough.
Looking forward to February!
Click to expand...

So I follow our softball, but not all that closely.

Question:

Will we come in the favorite to win conference since we're coming from the Pacific Coast Conference (i.e. are we dropping to a lesser quality conference)?
Click to expand...
 
The coaches/media polls aren't out yet, but I'd guess we'll be ranked 1st or 2nd. The teams of the Big Sky may be relatively new, but only relatively - they played in the PCSC last year, and Sac State has been in the PCSC as long as we have, I think. The Big Sky has to be ranked under the PCSC but not by much. Interesting, if we win the BSC, we may be playing the winner of the PCSC in the Regionals.

In batting, we were just average in PCSC statistics. In fielding, however, we were a close 4th (out of 12) in errors committed. And we led the league in pitching (Bertrand and Raya). Echo-Hawk is a great coach (she won Coach of the Year in the PCSC last year).

Our infield is solid this year. Alicia Fine as a freshman came in to play shortstop last year and took the PCSC Freshman of the Year award. Hendrickson, another freshman, played well at 2nd, McEachran, a senior this year, will as usual play 3rd. It's not clear who will play 1st in place of Holliday. Maybe Morales, though she's a right-hander. And we have a bevy of good outfielders. If our batting improves we should take the conference.
 
We kick off the softball season today at 4pm, playing San Jose State. Next up over the next four days are Boisie State, Stanford, Kentucky and Indiana. high (probably too high) hopes would be to split with these teams. It'll be interesting to see who starts for us, Bertrand or Raya. All of these teams have at least 4 pitchers. We have three, one of which is a freshman. We're definitely the underdog at the Kajikawa Tournament! But it's worth it for the experience of playing the nationally ranked teams.
 
A classic first game of the season, at least as far as pitching is concerned. Betrand collapsed in the second inning and never got better. In that inning she twice threw illegal balls and then hit a batter. Getting called on illegal pitches is rare. I think she was called on it twice last season. Must have something to do with her delivery. Raya then came on in the 4th and was shellacked for three more runs. Freshman Masters came on in the 5th and pitched no hits no runs no errors no one left on. How about that. A freshman. What a great start to her PSU career! The score was 12-2. We're certainly not that bad - but when the pitching is off anything can happen. I look for Bertrand to make amends tomorrow.
 
W over Boise State, 2-1; L to Stanford 3-1. This is the team we were supposed to be. Maybe better. Against Boise State, Masters proved she was no fluke, pitching the entire game with 6 hits and 4 strikeouts. Hard to say at this point, but she may be better than Raya! This is our freshman. Another Bertrand? (Yeah, I know; it's early days.) Bertrand pitched a solid game against Stanford (always top ten in the country).
What will catch the headlines is the performance of McEachran. 4 homers in 3 games! Will she hit another one tomorrow? Stay tuned.
We had 9 hits against Stanford - they just didn't come across the plate. And by the way; in three games we've had no errors. This is Division I ball.
 
We just lost the last one in the tournament to Indiana , 6-0. Still, not bad, playing in the majors so to speak. Especially considering that we're pitching freshmen more than half the time.Tobin-Hawk is smart to play them - they'll be needed down the road. Wright is doing reasonably well for a freshman, and Masters surprisingly isn't far behind. Looks like Tobin-Hawk is rotating through the entire pitching staff, giving everyone a chance to play a game or two. We closed out the tournament at 2-4, not bad at all for the PSU upstart; it shows we have every right to be there. I expect us to do better at the next tournament.
 
We're 2-2 at Las Vegas, as of tonight, beating Northridge and BYU, losing to UNLV and Nevada. Three have been close games; the last tonight was close for 4 innings, and then our pitcher fell apart and we ended up 1-8. So it goes in pre-season, as the coach tries different lineups. I'm impressed by how she is giving the freshmen a chance. In fact, it looks like Celaya in left field and Bliss at catcher are moving into a starting position. And Orozco might well work out at right field. Depends on how well they hit. Our pitching is a little rocky as all work the kinks out. Tonight against Nevada the freshmen were at work, and as I said for the first four innings they looked fine. When Masters came in in the fourth in relief, she didn't have much relief to give, getting shelled for 5 runs. This is learning the hard way, on the firing line.

We're 4-6 on the season, not bad when playing a lot of freshmen. We're averaging an error a game, which is high compared with last season. But that should improve. We should lose to California tomorrow - be interesting to see how close we can make it. Maybe....if Bertrand pitches, and pitches the way she did last year.....
 
pdxfan,
Think you mean CSU Fullerton instead of CSU Northridge. I believe, Northridge is playing in the Stanford Tournament this week-end.
 
You're right, Potty. Don't know what I was thinking. It was late. The California game is on right now - have to see if I can get it on Livestats.
 
Well, we lost to California, no surprise. And chances are we'll lose four more starting tomorrow against No. 3 Arizona State. Wonder why we scheduled 4 against ASU? One of the top 5 in the country? Our pitchers will never have it so tough this season. Hope they don't come out of this with their self-confidence too dented. Time for Bertrand to get her act together. And no more errors, please.
 
I really like the fact that PSU isn't afraid to step up and play some of the nations top teams. The girls will have a wonderful opportunity to learn with each game they play against ASU. The girls have the talent and I believe they will walk away from this experience at a much higher level than when they started the series. Smart coach.
 
ASU just scored a run in the 12th - 12th! - inning and won 6-5. This was truly outstanding softball. Their pitcher was as you would exepct of a #3 ranked team. She had 17 strikeouts. Somehow we managed to squeeze out 6 hits over those twelve innings - they ended up with 11. We had 3 errors, they had 1. And yet, we actually had a one run lead in the 9th - Hendrickson hit a homer. I don't know how Bertrand does it. Nothing special in strikeouts - only I think 8. But every time she got in trouble, somehow she pitched her way out of it.

The freshmen certainly saw enough action today, they all played, one way or the other. ASU is clearly a top 5 team. Excellent pitching, strong hitting. We're playing one of the best this week.
 
pdxfan said:
ASU just scored a run in the 12th - 12th! - inning and won 6-5. This was truly outstanding softball. Their pitcher was as you would exepct of a #3 ranked team. She had 17 strikeouts. Somehow we managed to squeeze out 6 hits over those twelve innings - they ended up with 11. We had 3 errors, they had 1. And yet, we actually had a one run lead in the 9th - Hendrickson hit a homer. I don't know how Bertrand does it. Nothing special in strikeouts - only I think 8. But every time she got in trouble, somehow she pitched her way out of it.

The freshmen certainly saw enough action today, they all played, one way or the other. ASU is clearly a top 5 team. Excellent pitching, strong hitting. We're playing one of the best this week.
Click to expand...

Strong showing against a quality team.
 
In the end, ASU had stronger bats. But only just. They beat us today 4-3, scoring two runs in the seventh. Bertrand pitched today, hence the close score. The other two games we lost 9-2 and 9-0; our freshmen pitched those games.
In brief, except for Bertrand, our pitching's erratic. Our hitting is spotty, but actually better at this point than last year. Still a ways to go before conference opens, but I'd say we'll do fine with Big Sky teams. They don't have the pitching that ASU does.
 
Just think of the experience these young freshman developed playing a team like ASU. Also think this will help in recruiting next year, PSU playing top ranked teams should definitely be a draw.
 
I'd guess we're playing the best in the nation, pottystop - ASU now stands at 16-0! Yes, it probably does help in recruiting. We've already recruited a bunch for next year, including a promising pitcher. But it's hard recruiting against the Pac-12. Inevitably, we have to recruit down in California, where they play year round. Tobin-Hawk has done a great job so far. This weekend we take on Boston, Riverside and Arizona, none of whom are ranked. We should play them close, maybe take Boston and Riverside. Not sure about Arizona. Depends on our freshmen pitching. Last year Bertrand had to pitch nearly every game, and that's hard on the arm. I pray that the freshmen come on soon, and of course Johnson. It's especially nice that Lauren Bliss, our freshman catcher, is proving to be a good hitter as well as having a good arm. ASU stole a lot of bases, but that's ASU. They're fast.
 
You know what else helps, playing in tournaments in Arizona and California. There are a lot of high school softball players that attend these tournament to watch, learn and hopefully be recruited by these teams. Can you imagine how many girls with hopes of playing for ASU (but won't be asked) saw how tough PSU played them those 2 games and just might be considering PSU as an option. Exposure is everything and the PSU coach is one smart individual.
 
Caught Saturday's PSU vs U of Riverside softball game while in Tucson. The girls looked really good, was very impressed, nice win. Decide to return for the evening game against U of A. They started well but after several errors and some bad plays the team seemed to fall apart. Totally different team than what I saw against U of R. U of A has great bats but I think PSU could have stayed with them if the mistakes had not deflated the girls. There is talent on this team, think they will do well in league.
 
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