A nice post season run last year covered up the worst regular season in a number of years. It’s not just this year. We will see if next year starts to show a turn around, but we will be relying on freshman pitchers probably without a big name transfer or big improvement from LD, so I would expect us to be 2 years away probably if things go well. My larger concern is that the recent high profile recruits haven’t really panned out to where we would hope they would be. The “recruits are coming” mantra only matters if they develop while they are here.
I'm not sure Duke has upgraded their facilities enough for the NCAA to allow them to host a Regional. The last time Duke was selected to be a Top 16 seed, they actually played in Athens, GA, who was the #2 seed.
Yeah. They might have a bad day against a really good team and lose a game, like they did to Baylor early on. But I don't see anybody being able to beat them twice.
I'm watching the SC/Tenn game -- SC has heart, but the Cinderella story just came to an end. But what a huge turnaround for their program.
I remember that at the time and thinking what a big ouch to the program. I just looked up their facilities and found this on their media site: "The Duke Softball Stadium, which completed construction in late August 2017, has capacity for 500 fans in the stands along with additional lawn spaces down the right field line." Yikes.
So Duke will probably get a Top 8 seed, getting to the ACC tourney championship, being ranked #6 in regular D1 rankings, plus #6 in RPI. But unless the NCAA has changed their position, they will have to pick a host site to be a #2 seed (Florida?) and send Duke there as a #1. I would imagine if they would win an away regional, they would let them host a Super Regional, but not sure. That will be interesting to see what happens.
Actually they played each other in back to back years (21/22). In 2022, Durham was the regional site so the NCAA is okay with the size of their stadium.
Wonder why in 2021 Duke (#13 National seed) was the #1 seed in the Athens Regional? They didn't host that year, yet did so in 2022 as the #12 national seed. I remember 2 years ago there was talk about how crappy and small Duke's stadium was.
Covid. That year the committee predetermined 20 sites and Duke wasn’t one of them because of protocols there. Hosed us too because UGA won that home regional and then beat us.
Just an FYI - Cali Decker's San Diego State team just won the Mountain West conference tournament tonight, beating San Jose St. 8-0. They finished 2nd during the regular season with a record now of 35-15. Decker leads the team in hitting with a .381 average. 4 HR, 32 RBI, Slugging .500, OBP .476. She's their primary catcher and with 289 chances her fielding percentage is .990. Too bad she transferred. A local kid from Lake Mary, we could have used her this year.
Ocalamam, much has been written about why she left. Cali would have sat the bench no matter how poor #52 was. Cali knew it and left. Makes me wonder even more about player development. I almost would bet $100 that Tim keeps his staff intact. If he doesn't, I will gladly donate the $100 as an addition to my FAST commitment for 2023.
Believe Decker was originally from Cali but moved to Lake Mary for high school since she was committed to Uf. Good offensive player no doubt, but she played behind the plate so little last year because of the hand cut, hard to say what level of defender she was.
Correction think Deckers family went back and forth from Cali and Fl. Still a Cali connection but not total childhood. Also for comparison Longley fielded .987 this year. Very similar.
How many innings did 52 play at catcher last season? To suggest that's why Decker left is a stretch of epic proportion
