And my guess is there will be a few others who hit the portal. Right now we only have 20 players on the roster, 8 of those are for sure leaving and 6 freshmen coming in. That gives us 18 players, so there is a lot of room to add some quality portal players. Most SEC rosters have 24-26 players, including 6 or 7 pitchers. Right now we have Lexie Delbrey, Olivia Gigante and the 2 highest rated high school pitchers in the country, Keegan Rothrock & Ava Brown. The roster will look very different next year and I think the starting lineup will as well.
Waiting at the airport to return to Dallas after the tournament. Our 2 pitchers ran out of gas. They are not aces but both of them were "warriors" and gave everything they had. In visiting with the players and parents, I can tell you there will be changes. I was told about quite a few but in confidence. Obviously not all of them will happen or come true but I believe we will be happy with those that do.
I enjoyed this community so much this season. I enjoyed talking to you and reading your insightful posts and comments. I can't wait to see what's in store for the seniors and what's to come for the incoming and returning players. Go gators!
The team looked awful in SEC play and washed out in the regionals - the regionals away from home for the first time in 19 years. We lose Echols which is a blow. We lose Egan who has been a steady bat in the lineup. We have ZERO pitching, which is worse than next-to-no-pitching of this year. Players have not been developed. Stands don't sell out. We lost the revenue from a regional. Yes, changes must happen. Bosch and Thomas GONE. I will be shocked if we don't lose Wallace to the portal. We need two hot, have already played on this stage pitchers. PORTAL Walton PORTAL We saw Roe - who can stand anywhere but not play the position on 3rd, disaster. We better have an awesome third base player or PORTAL Walton PORTAL. We need a quality catcher with a top arm. Wilkie looked better this year. Roe is a no go Why were we watching Egan ride the bench, subbed first for Pollard then Longley, neither of whom have the steadiness of her bat. My thoughts.
Is anyone else relieved this morning? I love these ladies and would never want them to lose, but 'we're free at last, praise God Almighty, we're free at last.'
I get the relief comment and agree. CTW has a lot of decisions to make moving forward and I know that won’t be easy. I hope he makes the tough/right moves necessary to get this team back to an elite level. I do hope he uses this Summer to scour the portal for the right players to bridge the gap with all the wonderful talent he’s bringing in through recruiting. Hopefully Rothrock and Brown will be our Nijaree, and that we land a stellar pitching coach to develop their skills. In watching all the games throughout the Regionals I’ve been amazed at all the good pitchers playing throughout. The common theme across the board is the pitcher was able to keep the batters unsure of what was coming (spin, quality change of speed and location) over raw velocity. I’m sure this explains some of the upsets we’ve seen. A big thank you to all the Gator Players for fighting hard to the end and giving it your all. My Family enjoys so much watching all of you play. Go Gators!
Somebody posted on another thread that Skylar Wallace is enrolled in grad school at UF. I think she's very happy in Gainesville. 2 of our incoming freshman can play 3rd and I expect most of the 6 to compete for starting positions. Brown and Rothrock are the 2 top rated pitchers in this year's recruiting class, but they will still be freshmen and I agree that he needs at least 1, hopefully 2, experienced pitchers from the portal who can be successful at the SEC level. After the 8 graduating players are taken from our roster we have 12 left and I do expect a couple of them to transfer out. So even with the 6 high quality freshmen coming in, Coach Walton has plenty of room to hit the portal hard to build this team back to where it needs to be.
Can you imagine how Abbot throwing batting practice would prepare our team for facing the best arms on our schedule??!!
Great article on Clemson's Valerie Cagle. How the collision of passion and pain propelled a must-see softball star
Great point. Nothing would prepare our batters better for reading pitches better than that level of pitching.
Just tossing this out....Rylee and Sandercock were on the same USA National team coming out of high school. While Rylee wasn't the ace, she was used more than Sandercock who barely got any innings. Fast forward to now....which one got great coaching and turned out to be a dominant pitcher who throws a perfect game in the regional final and who didn't get that coaching?
lol -- I was feeling guilty for having that very thought. Especially since Duke is close enough to where I live that I would go to Supers. And I don't care that some posters are saying that our freshman class next year is not the answer, they're going to take years to develop, etc. Nope, I've already bet the house on next season. Go Gators!
