The Gators are 37-10, 12-6 in the SEC. FSU is 36-10, 15-3 in the ACC. Florida is ranked #13 by D1 Softball, FSU 16th. FSU is 14th in RPI, Florida is 16th. Florida is 10th in the DSR rankings, FSU is 12th. Florida's SOS is 27th, FSU's is 26th. FSU comes in with a 10 game winning streak. They have significant wins over Stanford, Duke, NC State (3) and Louisville (2). Their losses have been to Charlotte, UCLA, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida Gulf Coast, Alabama, Duke (2), Texas and Louisville. They have a team batting average of .344, Slugging % .588, 68 HR's, 176 BB's and only 104 K's, with 72 stolen bases in 84 attempts. Fielding is at .973. Team ERA is 3.60, 1.38 WHIP, 31 HR, 118 BB, 222 K's, .253 BA against. Pitching has been FSU's issue this year, as it has not been up to the high quality standards we've seen over the last 6-7 years. But they are still a very good team and this is a big game for both teams jockeying for post season seeding.
Very evenly matched records. Our conference scedule as been much tougher than theirs is about the only difference.
I wish TW would use more than one pitcher tonight. He has a tendency to let these girls pitch until they run out of gas.
I just had this conversation yesterday. Start tonight with Rothrock for 2 innings, then 1 inning with Miller, then 2 with Brown and close it out with Wooten knowing that Rothrock can reenter at any time. then switch Rothrock with Brown game two mix it up and no one gets tired and the other team cannot set up on one pitcher. recent teams we’ve played have sent 3-4 sometimes 5 pitchers at us.
I don't mind the concept, but you know we will all lose our minds the second a pitcher gets pulled and the next one in the circle gets shelled. It's inevitable
Rothrock & Brown are so used to just overpowering the opposition, they are still learning how to hit their spots. They both are far advanced in having an array of different pitches they can use, but when they get into trouble it's been 2 things - walks/HBP and home runs. They miss their spots and then lay one right in the hitter's zone. They are both going to be excellent and in many ways already are, with Keagan a little more advanced than Ava at this point, IMO. But there is a huge learning curve between high school & travel ball to high level D1. And they are not given the luxury of having a more experienced pitcher or two with whom to share innings. They are being called on to pretty much carry the load as freshmen and are doing an admirable job. It will be interesting to see how Caches Walton & Dobbins handle it down the stretch and into the post season.
Apparently the Taylor Swift factor is at work. As I drove by KSP at 3:20 p.m., there were already at least 50 people in line, waiting for the 5PM opening of the gates.
FSU Line Up Spot Pos # Player Bats Avg 1 lf 6 Kaley Mudge L .357 2 3b 42 Jaysoni Beachum R .447 3 dp 8 Kalei Harding R .352 4 ss 3 Isa Torres L .392 5 2b 9 Devyn Flaherty L .309 6 cf 4 Jahni Kerr L .336 7 rf 1 Hallie Wacaser R .277 8 c 77 Katie Dack R .260 9 1b 12 Amaya Ross R .318 10 p 10 Mimi Gooden R UF Line Up Spot Pos # Player Bats Avg 1 cf 27 Kendra Falby L .401 2 lf 33 Korbe Otis R .451 3 ss 17 Skylar Wallace L .383 4 c 8 Jocelyn Erickson L .396 5 dp 15 Reagan Walsh R .395 6 p 0 Ava Brown R .264 7 3b 47 Ariel Kowalewski L .293 8 2b 11 Mia Williams R .183 9 rf 29 Katie Kistler L .333 10 1b 2 Avery Goelz L .185