(SB) OGT:Game 3 UF@LSU April 28, 2025 7 pm SEC N

The greatest opposition to this team is themselves. They can and should beat everyone.

 

Lol

 

I do and they were devastating

 

We can’t win the regular season title but we can prevent Oklahoma from getting it. Postseason is all that matters now, jostling for positions.

 

Brutal loss. Shumaker, Otis, Erickson, Williams, Cahalan and Brown have to to step up if we're going to anything in the post season. Keagan can't do it on her own in the circle either and while we have more depth this year, Rothrock & Brown carried us to the national semifinals last year and we've got to find players who can rise to the challenge this year.

 

Hey, I’ll be the first to admit that unfortunately I get a case of road rage after any of our Gator teams take a beating like they did tonight. And don’t mean to take it out on the ladies, that wasn’t my intent. But I will say it again, we need to get Keagan right before we get into the postseason because if the hitters are not hitting as you say, she’s our only pitcher that’s going to win those 2-1 type games. That’s my opinion, you have yours.

 

Brown looked good in game 2. There is no doubt we will need more than Keagan. She pitched well in both games. Should of had a shutout in game one if Shumaker calls off Williams on the dropped blooper that led to 4 runs with two out in inning. Tonight she also pitched well until she appeared a little fatigued in the 6th.

 

Rothrock is fine, IMO. Otis, Erickson and Walsh are having down years when compared to last year. Shumaker, Cahalan and Williams have problems against SEC pitching, although Taylor's average in SEC games is pretty good. Last year we relied on Keagan and Ava in the circle, but our defense was much better and we had Skylar Wallace, plus Otis and Erickson were having AA years. This team has a great SOS & RPI, but I see them not making it to the WCWS unless significant improvement comes from several aspects of our game.

 

I agree. I’m just upset as well. Time to get right is running out. Have that player meeting and get right now.

 

Harsh assessment but I agree. The talent is there to go all the way. Will they is the question.

 

As I mentioned earlier upthread, I believe they should have started the 6th inning with a relief pitcher. Keagan was showing signs of being done towards the end of the fifth, and I genuinely thought we would see the relief pitcher start the 6th, but as always seems to happen, they left it just that little bit too long and it all went bad very quickly. It is becoming predictable to me, and that's bad because I know literally nothing about pitching.

I remember last year, post season, amd there were signs Keagan was flagging, I mean they worked her pretty hard, but they persevered with her when Ava was more than capable of coming in to relieve, and maybe Liv too, and in one of the pressers after a rough game (I forget which one now) CTW said Keagan wanted the ball, and of course she did! But when he could see it wasn't working, they should have switched. I just remember feeling really bad for her.
It seems like they still haven't quite learned that lesson yet.

Anyway, my original point is really that by leaving Keagan in just that little bit too long, the pressure was too much for Red last night coming out to that situation, and then poor Liv too.
It could have been a different story if Red had started the 6th.

 

Completely agree with above assessments. That being said your chances of winning is practically zero when you score three runs in two games.

 

"Keegan was showing signs of being done towards the end of the 5th"

Here is Keegans 5th.....
Ground out on 1st pitch
Infield single on 3rd pitch
Foul out to 1b on 1st pitch
Fly out to rf on 5 pitches

This was primarily against the top of the order (9,1,2,3). Where exactly did she appear to be done? To me that's an extremely strong inning. And given what we saw from Liv and Red i can only imagine the outrage if Keegan had been pulled to start the 6th after a shutdown 5th

 

I think some of this is on the coaches….

Be more aggressive at the plate (see LSU yesterday). Quit taking the first or second pitch that are right down the middle for strikes. Batting from behind leads to swinging at marginal pitches.

Move Mia to DH. Surely we have another person who can play 2B that can field better than what she has shown.

Use Anna as a relief pitcher more often. The Hammock and Miller experiment needs to end. Go with Rothrock, Brown, and Red for the rest of the season.

 

I appreciate perspective, and your understanding of the stats, as like inside, I have absolutely no clue about pitching, I am extremely new to softball, it's not a thing where I am!.

With that said, I honestly can't explain my perspective to you, other than to say its a subtle change that I notice in her, and it's no more than a feeling to me, but it's one I have had often enough, right before it all turns quickly in the next inning, for me to trust it.
It may be that there's a look on her face, or a shift in her body language, I don't know, it may be that it just looks to me that she isn't doing as consistently well as in previous innings, I honestly couldn't tell you. I will try to pay more attention to it next time and see if I can pinpoint it, and let you know.
It must be something like that because I can't call any pitches at all, haven't even quite worked out yet how to tell if it's a strike or not! I can tell the difference in pitchers though re quality, I can tell you which of our pitching staff I would rate from top to bottom, but again, I probably couldn't explain to you why.

So to kind of answer your question, I wasn't saying that Keagan suddenly started pitching badly, it was just different, and I expected a different pitcher to start the 6th. I personally don't think my feeling was wrong, as it did go south, and that's all I can say in explanation really.
I'm sorry it's not a more technical reply, but I'm not able to provide one

 

That's absolutely fair....I can respect a gut feel or sense in forming this type opinion. I would add, the coaches are often doing the same thing. Sometimes that gut is right, sometimes it's wrong....by fans and coaches.
I will say this....Keegan's first batter was Edwards, and clearly they were going to be very careful and not let her beat us. That was essentially an unintentional intentional walk. Next batter wasn't a great job by Keegan, but I think the inning "went south" with Red rather than Keegan. The ump surely wasn't much help either given that all 3 pitchers struggled to get strikes called.
Ultimately it's all hindsight, and we still don't really know what the right move was. Part of the fun of baseball/softball

 

Quite the meltdown at the end from what had been a well played game up to that point. I get the frustrations but some of the second guessing here is over the top. After all LS U is a good team and deserves some credit.

On the positive side, we had some hard hit balls, but LSU played some great defense. Also, for all those that wanted Holtorf benched awhile back, she had an excellent game imo.