Do me a favor: drop over to the ‘on going baseball’ thread and point that last line out to a poster. A poster wanted me to know that in the last 3 full played seasons that the gators were a 1 seed once and 2 seed twice. Apparently that person thinks the gators have really been ‘achieving’ in that time. Nope.
Her stats in live games can't be disputed, except for the fact that her OBP was good because she walked and got hit a lot. However, in following the fall practices and games, Walton was raving about her hitting and said she was being counted on to to be a solid hitter on the 2022 team.
So was Charla, so was Regan, so was Wilkie, so was Sam, etc. All teams have injuries. Who you have on the bench to fill and hit is what counts. There was plenty of time to get a good hitter after Julia left but we chose to take a 2.65 ERA pitcher from the Lower Level D 1 program. We could have had KB from Alabama who once again torched us. Again, poor management of the portal and the roster by Aric/Tim/Mike. Even poorer development of the hitters by Aric. When I hear an answer as to why Sarah as a PH and I get a she makes good contact, I know BS when I hear it and this is total BS from anyone who believes it. This is like sending me up to bat during my college years to bat for Johnny Bench.
I'm also critical of TW and probably will continue to be so. However, I ask you people should we be cutting him some slack since he has 12 scholarships to spread over 23 players. I've got to think that restricts him from offering some of the better players. Maybe NIL will help coaches of equivalency sports stack the roster with more quality players. It would be interesting to know how much each of the players receive in scholarship money.
Evaluation, evaluation, evaluation. It’s obvious that there is some failure in that department. OR, there is failure in the development department. Either they are missing frequently on who they ARE giving a scholarships to rather than going after other more talented prospects, or they just flat out aren’t developing the top kids on into championship level players at the SEC level. It’s one or the other. And that’s on the staff. Somethings got to give.
Actually I think there’s a good dose of both recognition and development deficiencies. Probably a slight bias to development. So tired of seeing players making the same mistakes at the plate with no adjustments. Pitchers not developing a proper mix of pitches and having to be pulled after an inning or two. Look there is no doubt this team has changed since the departures of our assistants from 2014/2015 years. At the same time the SEC has become ever more competitive. It’s a tough job staying at the top and I feel like CTW will figure this out, find the drive to arm this team with top notch assistants/analysts and regain some stature as a top hitting and pitching team.
Hopefully. But it shouldn’t take 3-4 more seasons for him to recognize and respond. If he keeps his buddy 2 more years and the O stays ineffective, that will not be a good thing.
Absolutely! We’re long past needing change, and trying to explain it away as tough luck. Maybe our AD will have to shake the bushes a bit (See Football and CDM’s reluctance to let his pals go). I believe CTW is a great leader, but I’m a firm believer in your staff having played the game of softball at a high level.
Sorry. Longtime lurker. Hardly ever post in baseball or softball but I enjoy the knowledge base here. Lots of informative posters. Probably a terrible question but was Rocha that critical to our program? Seems like our steady decline from prior highs coincided with her absence. I'll hang up and listen
My personal opinion (and that's all it is) is that she was that critical to the big time success of the Florida program. We, also, miss Kenny Gajewski, the current head coach at Oklahoma State, who was an assistant at UF softball from 2013-2015, with the Gators winning 2 national titles during his 3 years there. He played baseball with Tim Walton at Oklahoma and was director of baseball operations at Tennessee for 2 years prior to coming to Florida. He was hired at OK St. in the summer of 2015 and has steadily built that program into a national player. But Rocha came to Florida with Walton from Wichita State in 2006 and was critical in recruiting and developing players, primarily the pitchers. She, also, called pitches during games and has been missed big time since she took the job at Oklahoma as pitching coach & associate head coach in the summer of 2018. From what I understand she not only returned to her alma mater, but doubled the pay she was getting at Florida, maybe more. Jennifer Rocha - Associate Head Coach - Softball Coaches - University of Oklahoma
I believe it is more on development: Haley Pittman-Alabama 2x 4A player of the year. I realize her arm was overused in HS and Travel. She has looked better lately. Avery Goelz-2020 Florida Gatorade Player of the Year Sam Roe-Nominated 2x for Gatorade Player of the Year. 2x All State. Reagan Walsh-2021 Los Angeles Times All-Star Team. 2021 PGF All-American Western Region Lexie Delbrey-2021 PGF All-American - Southeast Region. 2020-21 Region 1-AAAA Player of the Year 2019-20 Region 1-AAAA Pitcher of the Year Emily Wilkie-2020 WSBTV Female Athlete of the Year. 2019 Georgia Athletic Coaches Association (GACA) All-State First Team. Kendra Falby-2019 Canadian U-19 Women’s National Team. 2019 Canadian Jr. Athlete of the Year Katie Kistler-2x 8A All-State Team Cali Decker-2021 PGF All-American - Southeast. 2x 7A All-State First Team Sarah Longley-2019 PGF All-American - Southeast Region. 2x 8A All-State First Team If this is not an indication of a lack of development, I don't know what is. The talent is there, it is being wasted, which is a crying shame. I cannot believe CTW can sit-by and let this happen to these young ladies.
Roe, Walsh, Delbrey, and Falby of course are all freshman. I think you need to give it another year before their development is judged.
I agree, the talent is there and development is the bigger problem. If we keep our recruits on track over the next few years, there should be no question the talent should be sufficient for top level performance.
Rocha definitely meant more to this program than Kenny. When he left to take over OSU, the offense was still great for the new few years. It was when Rocha left and Coach Thomas took over the offense …when the program kind of started a small decline (for Florida standards). The last time Florida made the WS was due to Barnhill and Lorenz literally carrying the team on their shoulders as seniors. Last year it was Charla and Hannah being clutch. I’m not trying to put the blame solely on him, because that’s unfair. It also falls on development and such. But when you don’t see any adjustments at the plate, it can get frustrating. Florida use to be that team that adjusted to the pitchers. But I still have faith in the team, and in Walton.
5 ot last 9 games are against lessor teams namely Stetson, FGCU and Mercer. They have a combined record of 47 wins & 92 losses which is really bad. I'm not sure playing these types of teams helps the Gators much. I'm afraid killing these teams, which they will, might give these girls a false sense of security.
The other way to look at it is that they need wins to get some confidence back heading to the post season.
