Softball 2023 Thread

[TU_BLA]

Ladies start the season 1-4 at some tournament. Only win against Texas Tech but then Tech blasted them the next morning. They lost 8-3 to Tech on Friday. (both teams had 8 hits...difference looks like Tech also walked 6 times). TU's pitcher seemed to be hit or miss in that game. She finished with 12 K's as well. TU didn't have as many walks and obviously couldn't get a key hit with runners on where Tech did. TU beat Tech 3-2 the next game. TU also lost 2 to UT-Arlington as well as another game to Tech 12-1 (another 8 walks in that game. )

I hope Rick Dickson is paying the same attention to softball as he did to some of our other Olympic sports. Now that there seems to be a commitment to investing in some of those non-revenue sports in terms of staffs and facilities, it's time to get softball back to being the class of the AAC. Strimple is obviously not the answer and DIckson could probably lure Bargfeldt back with the commitment of a facilities improvement.

 

[TUcandoit]

Bargfeldt needs to come back, period. I don't even think what he was asking for was unreasonable by any means. I do not blame him for leaving and him leaving was a HUGE loss for TU. He might be one of the best college coaches in the whole country. We just let him leave. I love TU but this one thing more than anything else put a sour taste in my mouth. TU was WRONG!!!!!

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Looks like softball is gonna suck again.

TU pooped the bed on this one a couple of years ago.

With as much talent locally as we have for softball (and baseball) finding both high level players and competent coaches shouldn’t be this hard.

Hiring this coach was not a good move, but a TU move that we’ve all seen many times unfortunately.

Sometimes I wish we’d stop giving jobs to folks who we know will take the least amount of money… this isn’t just a softball problem though, it’s across the board.

 

[TU_BLA]

Looks like softball is gonna suck again.

TU pooped the bed on this one a couple of years ago.

With as much talent locally as we have for softball (and baseball) finding both high level players and competent coaches shouldn’t be this hard.

Hiring this coach was not a good move, but a TU move that we’ve all seen many times unfortunately.

Sometimes I wish we’d stop giving jobs to folks who we know will take the least amount of money… this isn’t just a softball problem though, it’s across the board.

That happened on the previous watch. Knowing how Dickson (and Carson) approached the volleyball underperformance and firing Ryan Wills, I am hoping they take the same approach with softball. While our hitting has been a little better under Strimple, our pitching is basically on par with HS pitching at this point. It's just been terrible.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

That happened on the previous watch. Knowing how Dickson (and Carson) approached the volleyball underperformance and firing Ryan Wills, I am hoping they take the same approach with softball. While our hitting has been a little better under Strimple, our pitching is basically on par with HS pitching at this point. It's just been terrible.

I was more referring to how we operated with Gragg at the helm. Just frustrating to see a once great program with many ncaa appearances at the level it is now.

 

[TU_BLA]

I was more referring to how we operated with Gragg at the helm. Just frustrating to see a once great program with many ncaa appearances at the level it is now.

We're on the same page then.

 

[TU_BLA]

4-1 weekend for TU at Southern Miss tournament. Competition wasn't great. Best win was 4-2 over Southern Miss. Record is now even at 5-5. Up next is the So. Alabama Invitational. They will see South Alabama, Furman, Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech. Should tell a more complete story of what this team is capable of this season.

 

[HuffyCane]

It all boils down to pitching. Both coaching and playing. We could do both before and the rest followed. Now? Not so much …

 

[TU_BLA]

It all boils down to pitching. Both coaching and playing. We could do both before and the rest followed. Now? Not so much …

Yeah, our pitching is pretty atrocious.

 

[TU_BLA]

I've just seen a couple posts about TU softball, and very positive news on a couple fronts. 1) Apparently we've sold out all season tickets, mini plans, and the OSU and OU games. I wonder how many of those were purchased by OU and OSU fans just wanting to see those games? Anyway, good deal for TU on those.
2) TU has built a dedicated hitting practice area at the softball complex. Nice....hitting hasn't been our problem but that's the stuff Strimple knows. Unfortunately our pitching is about the same quality as the Thursday night beer slow pitch league I used to play in (it was also a church league but the kegs in the parking lot after the games kept a lot of people coming back and hanging around well past their primes).

So we have improvements for the program, now we need to get Bargfeldt back

 

[dlsnid]

We have won 4 in row, won again today playing and pitching much better.

 

[TU_BLA]

We have won 4 in row, won again today playing and pitching much better.

So I looked up what the other teams in this tournament have done. South Alabama is not very good and neither is Furman. We will have a test vs Mississippi St. I watched the game last night and I was amazed at the drop off in talent since Bargfeldt left. I honestly thought I was watching a HS team out there. The lack of arm strength in the infield. And I wanted to bench the catcher who couldn't seem to focus on calling pitches and getting the ball back to the pitcher...sorry when there are 2 outs in the 7th inning and you have a 3 run lead, there is ZERO reason to throw a ball down to first on a pick off attempt when the runner has no clear intention of trying to steal second. And I think the umpire bailed us out with the call at the end. I went back and watched it and I don't think the ball hit the runner and she clearly didn't do anything to obstruct the 1B.

I don't know who the girl pitching was. She was OK but she tries to nibble too much and BB have been an issue in the games we've lost this season. When you have a 3 run lead in the 7th, you throw strikes. The team they were playing has struggled to hit the ball this season so why give them free bases. It also doesn't appear that she has more than 1 reliable pitch in her repertoire.

 

[TUcandoit]

So I looked up what the other teams in this tournament have done. South Alabama is not very good and neither is Furman. We will have a test vs Mississippi St. I watched the game last night and I was amazed at the drop off in talent since Bargfeldt left. I honestly thought I was watching a HS team out there. The lack of arm strength in the infield. And I wanted to bench the catcher who couldn't seem to focus on calling pitches and getting the ball back to the pitcher...sorry when there are 2 outs in the 7th inning and you have a 3 run lead, there is ZERO reason to throw a ball down to first on a pick off attempt when the runner has no clear intention of trying to steal second. And I think the umpire bailed us out with the call at the end. I went back and watched it and I don't think the ball hit the runner and she clearly didn't do anything to obstruct the 1B.

I don't know who the girl pitching was. She was OK but she tries to nibble too much and BB have been an issue in the games we've lost this season. When you have a 3 run lead in the 7th, you throw strikes. The team they were playing has struggled to hit the ball this season so why give them free bases. It also doesn't appear that she has more than 1 reliable pitch in her repertoire.

I agree with most of what you said, however, just one slight difference. When you have the lead that is the time to allow a little bit of nibbling. Try to get them to chase bad pitches, dont give them anything nice to look at. Don't allow that one swing to let them back into the game. With that said, nibbling is ok but you still have to get outs and that is still the priority.

 

[TU_BLA]

Beat Furman 7-4 (another bad team) and got run-ruled by Miss St. Our pitching is bad against halfway decent teams. We will struggle against AAC competition where most teams can hit.

 

[I.I.]

I've just seen a couple posts about TU softball, and very positive news on a couple fronts. 1) Apparently we've sold out all season tickets, mini plans, and the OSU and OU games. I wonder how many of those were purchased by OU and OSU fans just wanting to see those games? Anyway, good deal for TU on those.
2) TU has built a dedicated hitting practice area at the softball complex. Nice....hitting hasn't been our problem but that's the stuff Strimple knows. Unfortunately our pitching is about the same quality as the Thursday night beer slow pitch league I used to play in (it was also a church league but the kegs in the parking lot after the games kept a lot of people coming back and hanging around well past their primes).

So we have improvements for the program, now we need to get Bargfeldt back

I think Moore is 4-1 pitching.

 

[I.I.]

Moore a no-hitter. That's not too bad.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Walk off to beat #24 Mizzou today. Maybe they’re better than we originally thought.

 

[TU_BLA]

Walk off to beat #24 Mizzou today. Maybe they’re better than we originally thought.

Maybe but they didn't start the first weekend looking like they could get anyone out. I think we can hit with anyone except maybe the top 10 teams (and not one in the country can keep up with OU). We'll see. I hope they can keep it rolling

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Maybe but they didn't start the first weekend looking like they could get anyone out. I think we can hit with anyone except maybe the top 10 teams (and not one in the country can keep up with OU). We'll see. I hope they can keep it rolling

You still could be right, mizzou came back and stomped a hole in us today

 

[TU_BLA]

We're 10-10. We beat a couple good teams but we've lost to a lot of dogs too so far this year and I'll stick by my earlier assessment that our pitching as a whole is not very good. And our hitting, while good, seems to come up short in key situations and we can string hits together or get the big hit when runners are on.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

We're 10-10. We beat a couple good teams but we've lost to a lot of dogs too so far this year and I'll stick by my earlier assessment that our pitching as a whole is not very good. And our hitting, while good, seems to come up short in key situations and we can string hits together or get the big hit when runners are on.

With this area being such a hot bed of softball talent, we should (in theory) be much better than we are.

 

[TU_BLA]

With this area being such a hot bed of softball talent, we should (in theory) be much better than we are.

100% and we used to be but the old coach quit to take an assistant coaching job because the previous admin at TU treated softball like a club sport. Strimple was a great player for TU but she lacks some of the all around knowledge of the game needed to be the HC and her recruiting has pretty much missed the mark. With Dickson's approach to other Olympic sports the last year or so, I am hoping he makes a similar move for softball. I think Bargfeldt could be lured back from OSU as it is apparent TU is making some commitments for a lot of these non-revenue sports and apparently that is why Bargfeldt left...the previous admin wouldn't commit to supporting the program the way it needed to be (and quite frankly had earned the right to be supported $ and facilities wise).