I was at the meeting as well. Olivia is eligible to play this year which means a pitching staff of three with Keegan Rothrock and Ava Brown.
Very happy to have her. I have to give her a bunch of credit. The 13th best player of the 2023 recruiting class comes to Florida knowing she will probably be the #3 pitcher on staff for all four years. Touch of class.
I've been irritated by these Off Topic being given. And they are done mainly by lurkers you never hear from anywhere else. I'm going to start a thread on it, and everyone add to it as you random ones.
As posted elsewhere:She was 22-2 1.17 era and 261 k’s in 155 innings. Batted .442 with 4 hrsand 39 RBI’s in 2023. Go Gators
Of course competitors never think they are 3rd best, I'm sure she feels she is just as good. And by the same token, she just joined a team with zero returning innings in the circle....about as open a door as you will ever see
Unless one of them becomes the dominant ace, I would expect all three to have about the same amount of innings by the end of the year.
Let’s not forget, Olivia will be our only Lefty as well, which will assure her situational innings. Our SEC Series will more than likely feature the three pitchers. All three pitchers are future stars and more importantly Gators!
This is not necessarily true. I do not know if there are any parents on here now, but there have been recently, and some are probably still here. We should be frank, but not personally derogatory about individuals.
I am very excited about more UF teams this year than in Several years. Softball, ,swimming, Etc, all seem to be in an upswing .Even womens round ball.
Volleyball plays #8, #2, #5, & #1 before conference schedule begins. Wish softball team played better nonconference opponents.
Softball does by going out west for the Mary Nutter Tournament in California. The tourney at USF has another good team besides UF, Michigan several times, plus USF usually fields a decent team. The Bubly Tournament in Gainesville has attracted Louisiana which has a good softball program. Maybe they should try to bring in two top programs to beef up the home tourney. Another option is the other tourney in Florida which brings in quite a few top program matchups. Besides, the SEC at this time is the deepest conference in the nation. We get Oklahoma and Texas in the 2025 season to boot.
Volleyball has already beaten #8 Penn St. 3-1 and USF 3-2 in Tampa, plus #2 Stanford in Palo Alto 3-0, then plays #5 Minnesota Sunday on ESPNU in their first home match.
CTW said he has tried to get more quality teams to come, but they don't want to. Also, it costs money to bring in teams. He talked about Clearwater. He said the facilities are not good, and several injuries have occurred. An interesting note about Francesca. She could not command a good salary since she has minimal coaching experience. CTW is supplementing her salary from his camp earnings. He also said that she only said yes when he asked her to come.
Michelle Smith seems to be a driving force behind that Clearwater Invitational. She's been one of the most honored softball players of all time, is a legend in Japan and is my favorite ESPN softball analyst. To me, her influence and the respect she has is what brings in most of those highly-ranked teams every year. Plus the fact that ESPN televises the games to give teams early national exposure against quality competition. Personally, I would love to see the Gators playing down there. P.S. - Good for Enea - she's always come across as class and grace personified, plus a true Gator in all respects.
I look forward to your thread. We had too many negative off topics and disagrees in the baseball threads this year as well. Some only seem to target others regardless of the post. In the end it will only reduce the amount of info and opinions that gets shared from practices. I hope others can respect those that want to share their insight and help promote all our Gators.