Wouldn't Ava protect our ace arm pretty well? I like Olivia a lot from a potential standpoint, but she hasn't really had a good outing since February and you can't just say "she'll be fine" in an NCAA tournament game where winning is crucial. She took a loss vs USF just last month.
Yep, and while the first game should be the easiest, you do not want to lose and have to dig out of the losers bracket. Most teams still run their ace out in game one. Lots that don’t live to regret it. I like the idea of starting Ava. If she shuts them down and/or we jump out to a big lead, you can run out Wooten or Liv. If she struggles and/or the game is tight, you get Keagan in there quick.
That's my thought as well. It's always a risk, but pretty common in 1 vs 4 games unless that 4 seed happens to have a true shutdown ace that can level the playing field
Andrew just reposted the release from Floridagators.com. Nothing original from him at at all but something is better than nothing. Big question to Andrew would be how many Gator softball games he’s actually attended this year.
Andrew is not covering softball at all this year. He posted that story or made sure it got posted as a courtesy. GC has no reporter covering softball as an assignment.
Not that this matters now for the NCAA tourney, but the coaches poll gave a big middle finger salute to the selection committee: NFCA The coaches didn't adjust Duke downward to reflect the committee decision to not give a top 8 seed to Duke. Well done coaches. I watched part of the Duke 6-3 win over FSU in the ACC tourney championship game. They pass the eye test regardless of them playing fewer Q1 games than the committee likes. I'd have had Duke as a top 8 seed over Missouri. ESPN.com USA Softball Poll: ESPN.com/USA Softball Collegiate Top 25 Poll - USA Softball Duke in the top 8. NCAA released RPI: DI Softball Rankings - NCAA Women's Softball RPI | NCAA.com Duke in the top 8. KPI: Faktor (faktorsports.com) Duke in the top 8. It appears to me that the folks on the selection committee had a hard on for Duke, used one metric they didn't like to drop the Blue Devils out of the top 8 and down to 10. Unless Duke had been warned about this metric by the committee in the past, I don't think this downgrade was warranted. The committee should be required to watch the ACC tourney final as continuing softball education to learn how to not eff up a team that had so many good accomplishments. Now, watch Duke go out and lose their regional.
Back to the discussion of how Coach Walton handles our pitching in the Regionals. I think the way he handled the SEC tournament gives us a clue. He's going to ride Keagan Rothrock and use Ava Brown in a pinch or to give KR a breather if she has a game where she starts giving up free passes or throwing a ton of pitches.
I wonder if it could have anything to do with still not wanting an event to be held in NC after they didn't adopt the recommended pandemic guidelines back in 2020. I don’t remember and haven’t looked to see if they’ve hosted since then but just a thought.
I'm sure TW is not taking this game lightly. FGCU is not half bad. They have a couple of decent pitchers and they did beat FSU & USF in the regular season.
I doubt the selection committee would play politics like that. I would say Duke's stadium could have been an issue, but Duke hosted the ACC tourney and everything looked fine on TV.
I won’t be surprised by a start by ava or keagan. I would be somewhat surprised by a wooten or liv start.
It is only 190 down the lines and 220 in CF. It has only 500 seats and will accommodate 500 more in grassy areas. The NCAA surely wants a standard-sized stadium and more seating in Supers.
