The article quotes CTW as saying: “Olivia is a dynamic player who brings power and consistency to our lineup. Her ability to hit for both average and power will be crucial in our quest for SEC dominance and beyond.” Where is this coming from? Here is CTW's quote on Kara: "We're really excited to add Kara Hammock and her family to our program." Walton said. "Kara brings in a lot of experience and her style of pitching is something we need in our program to get back to the Women's College World Series and compete for a national championship." It seem as though the article writer had the last name correct and made up everything else. Is Florida Fastpitch not a legitimate site? I almost sent a message under the "Contact" area with a question about the article. But, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't me having the delusion.
You are not having a delusion. The writer of the article is the one who seems to be delusional. The author seems to have made up alternate facts or we have a fandom recruit that no one seems to know about except the author of the article.
One of the 247 writers posted the exact same update for two different players, word for word. Didn’t even bother to change the name in the first sentence when he reused it for another kid. They’re just lazy, and all they care about is generating clicks.
I saw it. She has played AU every year and has been a very solid player every year. Some bombs that had people gasping.
Since it was confirmed here that I was not delusional, at least as far as the Fastpitch article is concerned, I emailed them. They wrote back the following: From:info@floridafastpitch.com Sat, Jun 22 at 2:36 PM Thank you for bringing this to our attention, it has been updated and corrected. We apologize. Staff It is an entirely different article now. No mention of the totally fabricated original article including made-up quotes from CTW!
I have seen Taylor Shumaker hit a couple hundred times by now. As I have said, she mostly hits to dead center or center right with many oppo to left. Also as I have said, she swings to contact and not to the fences. Problem is the parks can't hold her. Her swing, and I can't shake the feeling, reminds me of the swing of only two people. Short, compact, dynamic. Amanda and Jocey.
It's crazy, but Shumaker is the lowest rated player in our 2024 class by all the services I've seen. Gabia Comia is our highest rated at #3 by MaxPreps, with Layla Lamar #4, Katelynn Oxley #5 & Townson Thomas at #12. Taylor is not even listed in the Top 50 by some services. We shall see how it all plays out in the fall, but @rickjs1 has been high on her for a couple of years and he watches a ton of travel ball and follows pre-college players a lot closer than most of us softball fans.
Rankings are B.S. Mia was always forever since she was 14 ranked 1 or 2. How did that play out? I'll be honest in something I've said privately but never said publicly, and there are some here who can confirm. Before the season started, I said Mia would be decent but I didn't expect a lot more. I did not expect under the Mendoza line. I don't care if Taylor is ranked #200 by these idiots. I know what I have seen for three years and I have never seen any better. Jocey will confirm that. Kai Minor, who plays with her and we wanted and is headed to Oklahoma says the same thing. And others. They know. These talking heads, in most cases, don't have a clue what they are talking about. None of them have watched her closely for three years as I have. And this is no disrespect to Comia....she isn't in the same ballpark.
The Batbusters are in the championship bracket in a good tournament in Oklahoma. They won today, as usual. Taylor went 2-3 with a double and her average dropped. I'll wait for the end of the tournament to update her stats.
Hannah Sipos played for us in 2019 and 2020. She was a great 3rd baseman but struggled mightily at the plate. To her credit, she became our designated bunter. We sucked at bunting like we do now. Her 2-year batting average was .165. Mia hit .164 this year and thus below the Sipos line. This is no knock on Hannah. She came to a game last year and sat in front of me. She is very nice and approachable. She is now in Physical Therapy School at FAU, and I wish her all the best.