Idk, man. If anything, winning this series away vs. the No. 4 team in the country without your ace would suggest otherwise. This team is really good and winning without your ace to open conference play will do loads for this team's confidence.
I wasn't one who said it, because it's an over-reaction to say "never" about any athlete early in their career. However, I watched her really struggle in her appearances in Phoenix. It wasn't just the control issue; she got hit hard, too. Be that as it may, one of my favorite things about UF softball is that we get to witness the ups and downs as these players improve right in front of our eyes. Today's performance was obviously one she'll build on.
Hammock is a senior....so its only early in her uf career. She has really good stuff....but she just struggles to hit her spots. That leads to free bases or just grooving the pitch to get a strike when the wildness hits. She is a good change of pace option, but walking 2 in the bottom of 7 had anybody watching holding their breath.
Did you see CTW's beaming grin ear to ear when he went to the circle after the 3rd out? He patted her on the back - very celebratory!!
So much for Warren Nolan's computer predicting the Gators would get swept. I'm also looking forward to rtins67 next post. This is the guy that said Florida had no chance against A&M without Rothrock. I'm not sure we will be hearing from him for a while or maybe never. I'll bet that brings tears to your eyes.
Hammock's jubilant smile following the great catches by Falby and Otis was telling. Her relief at finally being able to contribute at an SEC level had to feel good. Hopefully, we'll see a more confident pitcher moving forward.
Nolan’s computer actually predicted Florida would sweep TAMU. (Technically, it predicted a 61% Florida would win each game, so it really predicted Florida would win 2 of 3 games).
I looked at Warren Nolan's several times before the series started and it changed its prediction multiple times. IF you looked at each day the 3 games were played each time, one time is showed TAMU winning 2 of 3, then another time TAMU sweeping and then anohter time Florida winning 2 of 3. I neve saw it predicting a Florida sweep, but it wouldn't surprise me. There are a lot of good things about Nolan's website, but that winner's prediction thing is meaningless, IMO. Just fooder for conversation, which is good I guess.
That’s really interesting, Ocala. I looked more and saw similar variation over time and day. Not sure why a model’s predictions would bounce so wildly at this point in the season. Currently, Florida is expected to beat Texas 3-2 on Saturday, lose 5-4 on Sunday, and then get walloped 8-3 on Monday. There is clearly something wrong with the predictive function, as expecting those three outcomes to be so different is unfathomable. Massey’s model is acting more sensibly, predicting a toss up in each game of the Texas series. Massey Ratings - University of Florida Gators
Another amazing call by The Florida Coach in yesterday's game, pulling Ms. Otis in the 7th and pinch hitting for her. She's an All-America, 1st team All SEC who's hitting about .400, isn't she? The pinch hitter, Ms. Comia is a freshman who has had about 30 total college at bats and has never faced an SEC pitcher in a real game, much less the last inning of a one run game. Believe she got behind in the count at 0-2. Next pitch is about ankle high which she reaches for and hits just over the reach of the shortstop for a single that advances the runner at 2nd, Ms. Shumaker to 3rd. Ms. Walsh, up next lifts a "can of corn" to deep center, knocking in the run. An extra run in the last inning really takes some presure off of your pitcher, doesn't it? I think it does.
Agree - And then Korbe makes the great catch to end the game. Shows she is a total team player who never lost focus.
Warren Nolan’s statistical model, at this time of the year, is using data built from game results and team records from the preseason and has little value. It will improve over the season and likely predict series results fairly accurately. Individual game winners on predicted split series are just statistical guesses. Scores are worthless. This is all complicated by the frequent computer adjustments which are designed to make the predictions look better. You can probably do better than WN by looking at the SEC series each week and predicting series winners and sweeps.
The models just don’t have enough good data this early in the season. They get more accurate later in the season. It’s still trying to predict the future and that is generally a futile experiment, but this time of year the data is just bad. Too many cupcake games and crazy outcomes to reliably predict off of.
Hello Everyone! Probably not the right way to go about this but I am new here! I'm a massive Gator softball fan from the UK who has taken the plunge to plan a once in a lifetime trip to Florida around a softball series! I'm super excited to to head over and finally be part of the enjoyment in person! Any advice for an international fan's first live fast pitch softball game and the general UF/gators experience?
