Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

I really like E. Total class act.

FAU....you got lucky.

 

Agreed! There's lots to like about FAU -- I made it to a couple of their games this year. Granted Conference USA is not the SEC, but FAU's "paradise" branding is spot on. Great place for E to land.

 

OU's radio feed (linked in my earlier post) seems to be working.

 

And campus is close to the beach. Nice gig.

 

I was praising FSUs Alameda usage of her pitching staff recently and now I will question it tonight. While I would have started Sandercock, I can accept that decision knowing the game plan, but how do you not go to Sandercock after Leonard gives you 3 scoreless in a tie game in the 4th?

 

Was it the plan to take Leonard out after 3 innings regardless? And if so, why did she face one batter in the 4th (barely grazing the batter's leg with a pitch) before being taken out? With OU then prompting scoring three runs. I love to see some "brilliant" coach's strategy backfire that way. Hold mighty OU to one hit for three innings and you've gotta go.

 

Plus she's coached by 1 of the best pitching coach in the NCAA.

 

Only a sophomore? Great, I love to watch her pitch. Two more years!

 

Hopefully fsu manages another loss tonight.

 

I'm sure they'll find another way to lose. Strategy!

 

Elizabeth has signed to play in the Athletes Unlimited Auxiliary session that begins on Monday. At least she'll get paid. Will be interesting to see how she does and how high or low she is drafted each week by the player captains to stock their weekly roster.

 

Athletics Mercado - Smith has played 7 games so far this summer. Alyssa Hovermale is 9-14 (.643) with 11 runs scored, 15 rbis, 3 walks and no strike outs. Unfortunately, the stats I can access don't tell me the extra base hits but with that number of rbis it is a good bet at least some have been extra base hits with some going yard. Mercado, as with the Batbusters, is flat loaded with kids on the bench that could play anywhere so when things get out of hand the starters hit the pine. Edit: I can watch all of the games....just haven't had time. I did pull up Alyssa's 3-3 and 5 rbi game....for some reason the video started near the end of the game which is unusual. Anyway, I saw one ab for Alyssa.....a total moonshot bomb no doubter deep over the right center fence.

 

Batbusters - Stith has played four games so far. Our 2024 commit, Taylor Shumaker, who should sign her NLI this November is hitting leadoff or 2nd and is off to a slow start hitting 2-9 with one rbi, two walks and two strike outs. The kid can play and this short sample means little. Another kid I guarantee we want is a burner 2025 kid named Kai Minor. She is 4-9 so far with one walk, one strike out and 3 rbis. As with Mercado, I don't have access to extra base stats.

 

Athletes Unlimited auxiliary season starts on Monday. The team draft is tomorrow. This is the shorter season that will end in time for many of them to head off to their national teams for the upcoming world cup. The longer season will start in August once the world cup is over. Anyway, it is really good softball and unique with the scoring system. For those possibly unfamiliar, there are no coaches...the players run the entire show with captains based on the four top point totals holding a roster draft each week so the teams change every week. While this isn't close to a full list, some names of interest playing starting Monday: Odici Alexander, Sis Bates, Georgina Corrick, Megan Faraimo, Rachel Garcia, Danielle Gibson, Elizabeth, Aubrey Leach, Mandy Softball, Haylie McCleney, Aleshia, Jordan (Roberts), Kelsey, and Jessie Warren. As you can tell from that partial list....this is really top level softball. All games are available on one or the other ESPN channels.

 

Wow. Thanks a million....no....a billion for posting that. I have seen her play quite a few times but have never seen anything like that. What a wonderful young woman.

 

Gat an email today about signing up for the Gainesville Sun because we are now in softball season and I should get all the latest news. LOL.

 

I have a subscription and the Sun is horrendously bad at covering really all of the Gator sports. Softball in particular. If it wasn't for Ainsley Lee, we would never get a softball article. It is shocking to me just how pitiful the sports coverage. I should add the canned articles from Herb Brooks don't count. He is a paid employee of the softball program. You get nothing of value.

 

I have been on a variety of different Gator softball boards. I no longer post on any of them and just infrequently take a look. For the most part, with very few exceptions, they are populated with people that post constantly, pretend they are some sort of expert, and have absolutely no clue what they are talking about and have nothing of value to add to the conversation. Just one example, since Taylor Shumaker has popped up in recent conversation. This perpetual clown, who constantly posts incorrect information, posted a video of someone, who knows who it was, and claimed it was Taylor, our newest commit. When I politely responded "that is not Taylor. That is some slap hitter playing for a team I've never heard of. Taylor is a power gap hitter playing for Batbusters-Stith" Instead of saying, "oops, my bad", the guy actually attacked me for pointing out the error. I found that on this board, the only board I read and post, actually has people with valuable knowledge and information that teaches me something I didn't know. Never happens on the other boards. I strongly suspect those same people on this board have a lot more information I would love to learn but don't speak it due to confidentiality.