I stumbled on a video of what happened at Louisiana (wasn't looking for it). Again, for those that missed my earlier post, a torrential rain storm came in during the 7th inning with Cal leading 1-0 but Cajuns with runners on. Cal coach, probably fairly, pleaded for a delay in the game but umps refused (because Louisiana was threatening?). Cal pitcher could not grip the wet ball and threw two straight wild pitches bringing in the tie run. Then all hell broke loose. I believe the Cal catcher was ejected and, at the time watching it I couldn't figure out why, and again can't figure out why as she clearly backed away from a confrontation when challenged by a Louisiana player. Anyway, this is what happened.
Louisiana playing now at Mississippi State. Lexie did not start but came in during the second inning. Gave up a walk, ground out, walk, double...and was pulled and is out of the game.
Lineup is up. Ava pitching. Baylee in right. Avery in flex. The rest pretty much the same with some movement up and down in the lineup.
Ava pitched well! Six inning, 1-hit shutout with 5 Ks. She faced 20 batters but I couldn’t find the number of pitches. Very good outing!
Weather is going to impact this weekend's games. Friday should be OK, but it's supposed to rain all day Saturday and not clear up until mid-afternoon Sunday.
It's still early but going into the game we had the 5th lowest era in the country. sec rank is 2nd. LSU is 1st.
Spent her freshman and sophomore year at OU winning championships... transferred this year to Nebrask to go home. You can't watch a game on ESPN without them mentioning her.
Great hame by Ava last night. The only trouble I could see when we get into the tougher schedule is she stays over the plate a lot. But she'll adjust I'm sure.
Agree - She's more of a pitch to contact pitcher it seems and not leaving balls over the heart of the plate will be key against better teams. The thing I've been most impressed with about both her and Rothrock is that they have multiple pitches already and can keep hitters guessing a little bit more than our more recent pitchers did. No matter how talented these 3 freshmen are, they're still freshmen and we'll probably see ups and downs from all of them during the course of the year. Hopefully, on most off nights we can outscore our opponents.
Pitching to contact isn’t a bad thing as long as you’re hitting your spots and the ball has movement. If you can keep them from squaring the ball up, being a strike thrower is a good thing. Pitch counts have a better opportunity to stay low. Just play good d. Pitchers who live off throwing junk and hoping players will swing at the ball out of the zone will struggle mightily against teams with disciplined hitters.
After having attended our first six games my biggest surprise has been the play of Ariel Kowalewski at third base and at the plate. Sat with Sandman at last nights game and he agreed with me. AK has been crushing the ball and hit two hard line drives right at defenders last night or her .333 batting average would be even higher. Also her play at third base and backup catcher has been outstanding.
Yea pitch to contact isn't necessarily bad just tas long as she doesn't leave too many meatballs. Really like what we've seen so far. Jsut need to get the bats going. Almost feels like everybody's trying to hard offensively.
