Eagan hit .280 with 100 ab and 6 hr with 28 rbis. Dack, on a much, much better team and not needed as much, hit .305 with 131 ab, 11 hr and 37 rbis. I'll take Dack with no reservation.
44 of those AB's in ACC play had a .244 avg. With 2 hrs and .415 OBP. . Most of her success was against lesser competition. Egan was .281 in SEC 57 AB's with 3 HR and .474 OBP.. Very similar if you ask me if not Pal with an edge. We're not going to agree I can already see that. But saying fsu and ucf have done so much better in the portal than us is plain out false. Its been a commonly stated thing that florida has had a harder time with NIL. Oklahoma obviously has no restrictions. Also as far as last year and they year before I don't belive we had any scholarships to offer people to transfer. Whichever year Cottrill transferred we did, which I may be a year off but I would say that went to Wallace.
Lexie Delbrey is not the answer for a number 1 pitcher... or a pitcher that can hold up against SEC or post season play. This was clear last year. Samantha Bender was a ridiculous selection from the portal last year, Gigante is another 'this is why you don't recruit 9th graders' example, and Hightower has been deteriorating the last two years. Simple fact: Our pitching recruitment went way south when Rocha left. Another simple fact: Bosch didn't help any of these pitchers progress. And a last one: We haven't had a true #1 pitcher since Ocasio left. And, no, outside of her Freshman year, Barnhill was not a #1. She was a headcase, which may have had to do with our 'pitching' coach.
Well Bender was just a free player, and Gigante was recruited and signed after her senior year so what does she have to do with 9th graders? And to say KB was not a number 1 is just total silliness
Jen was the pitching coach until Kelly's senior season. Kelly probably had one of the best sophomore season in program history. I believe Kelly led the sec and the sec in multiple categories that season and top 10-20 in the nation. That's number 1 material at least in my book. I do agree she did get in her head a lot. which was unfortunate because once she got in her head she couldn't get out of it. I do praise Kelly for being strong in the circle during the SEC finals vs Alabama. Up by only a run bottom of the 7th and could've easily let the batter get on base. ( the one who kept hitting foul balls with 2 outs) but buckled down and got the strikeout and win. Tennessee easily could have won the supers in 2019 but once again buckled down and kept florida in the game until the offense finally came through. It's unfortunate what happened in OKC in 2019. I wish her career didn't end the way it did.
Jada cecil transfers from UC San Diego to UCLA. Really nice pick up. Big west freshman of the year and a sub 2 career ERA.
Former Middle Tennessee SS Laura Mealer is transferring to Tennessee. An all-CUSA and all-region 1st teamer in 2023, Mealer owns a career batting average of .371, with 22 home runs, 85 RBIs, 39 stolen bases, & 101 runs scored to her credit.
That's some revisionist history there. Kelly was never not awesome in her time at UF. She pitched 287 innings in 2019 -- Lugo pitched 71 -- and carried us to the WCWS. Her W-L record wasn't as good, but she was the entire staff. We took every first pitch and played small ball. She got rocked in OKC -- I was there to watch it -- but it's totally unfair to call her anything other than exceptional at UF. I think the only pitcher I'd take over here is Haeger, and I'm not even sure about that. Kelly's 1.61 ERA was only slightly worse that Haeger's 1.53, and Lauren pitched 60 less innings. When we were at out non-championship best, we had platoons. In 2018 we had Kelly and Aleshia. 2017 we had Kelly and Delanie and Alicia. In '19 the entire staff -- hell, practically the entire team -- was Kelly. And we still made it to the WCWS. Hardly the kind of thing an non-#1 could do.
Wow, talk about a bad take.. Kelly was pretty much dominate a majority of her career. Yes people started figuring her out and she was still pretty damn dominate. The only thing I wish was that she would have developed some kind of off speed pitch. I remember towards the end of her career them talking about a curve or screwball she'd been working on (could be wrong). If she would have had an off speed pitch that was half as good as her rise, she would have been unhittable. But, yes she was a #1 and a great #1 at that.
Wanted to mention Gourley.. She's one of those pitchers that just had the ability to calm the storm. She was always just so chilled like nothing ever effected her. She doesn't get enough credit for her play. Would kill to have a lefty like that to call on when there's a storm a brewin'. I think if Jen Rocha would have stayed and coached Rylee, she would have been a lot like that. Obviously just speculation.
Gourley walked on campus with a wipe out change up. Rylee never had a pitch to generate strike outs like that. She
My transfer that I gave to Tim is still waiting for a call. She is the best player on her MAC team and can play multiple infield positions. She is better than Pal at the plate with more power. Hope we give her a call.
If we do not land any impact/starters in the portal, is that a sign of Walton having faith in the unproven freshmen or just not getting the job done? We have needs that obviously will need to be filled, but they might not be filled with big impact players.
