(SB) OGT-Florida vs Missouri 3/19/2023 1:00 pm SEC+

​

 

I’m curious if Mizzou had broken the Gator graph signals? Their hitters were on every one of the Gator pitchers and their swings were dialed in the whole weekend. Curves, risers, drops it didn’t matter. They had comfortable swings all weekend.

 

Maybe? Could just be they were pissed about being shutout last weekend and/or our pitching isn’t great. Like many have noticed two strikes come easy enough but nobody has a strikeout pitch on our staff. Also our pitching is just flat out predictable. Really miss Jen Rocha.

 

Need Delbrey to get healthy and shine.

 

i get coach rocha was a great pitching coach,but all the teaching in the world won't make your pitch faster or move much, either the pitcher has it or they don't

 

That's hilarious.

 

​

 

​

 

Respectfully disagree. No matter how good a player is in high school/travel ball the jump to college, especially in an elite program like Florida is huge. There’s so much scouting done and the batters are so good a player has to evolve over her career and a great pitching coach helps with that. You can absolutely tweak mechanics to increase velocity or even reduce velocity in some instances to increase movement. Then there’s adding new pitches to your arsenal, scouting batters, pitch calling to attack batters weaknesses. Can’t disregard the value Rocha brought to the program imo.

 

If a pitcher doesn’t have anything to work with from the beginning then I understand where you’re coming from. Can’t forge steel from a pile of poo lol. There’s also the recruitment perspective as well. If you’re a super talented young pitcher which college do you choose? Go where the best coaches are that are going to bring out the best in you or just go wherever?

 

Aren't we getting two dominant pitchers next year?

 

yes, but they will be freshmen. I think he, also, needs to try to get an experienced, quality pitcher from the portal. Bender and Hightower will be gone for sure. Trlicek can come back as a 5th year senior. That leaves Delbrey & Gigante. You can;t rely on 2 freshmen being your aces in the SEC.

 

Barnhill's dad once mentioned to me that Rocha never tried to teach Kelly a change-up, which she learned once turning pro. He also pointed out that under Rocha's tutelage, Kelly's best year was as a sophomore and she didn't improve after that. He also said that Katie Chronister came in average and left average. From what I gathered from the conversation, he was none to high on Rocha. I figure he has a much better basis for an opinion than I do.

 

Well a father might be biased. I’m sure I am. Barnhill had a phenomenal rise ball but never learned a new pitch in her time in Gainesville. I don’t know the reason behind that. But Hannah Rodgers, Lauren Haeger, Delanie Gourley, Alesia Ocasio all got better under Rocha.

 

Chronister came in average and left average, totally agree with that. My point is a great pitching coach is a great thing to have. That said I don’t expect a pitching coach to be Gandalf and make miracles.

 

In Barnhills freshman and sophomore years there were also other great pitchers on the staff. If Kelly got in trouble CTW could throw someone else in and protect her. Once she became the ace and had no backup she was exposed. A testament to how great her rise ball was it took SEC teams/batters a full 2.5 seasons to figure her out. But once they did the ball left the yard often.

 

I would agree on Barnhill not getting better after her soph year which was great. However I thought Chronister actually got better and was a solid contributor by her senior year.

 

We have permission from Olivia to use Gigabyte.

 

Katie's Mom told me that the only time she was healthy at UF was her senior year.

 

She definitely helped the team her senior year. Seems like a great young lady, like almost all of the players we've had over the years.