(SB) Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

Penner poses a good question. Having scanned the Gator SB stats as far back as they're posted, there's a pitching stat noted as BK. And I'm assuming BK logically stood for a balk. Prior to 2012, there are multiple Gator pitchers over the years with BK stats. Most notably among them was Brombacher in 2010 with (17). However, the 2010 NCAA Softball Rule I found online doesn't include the word balk. A riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

I also found the rule that was enforced on the held pitch. Which was correctly ruled as a ball on the batter. The qwerk in the rule is, the pitcher not having released the ball, doesn't mean it's a dead ball. And since the pitcher didn't release the ball, any runner that advances is deemed to have left early and ruled out. Such a bizarre play, I'm not sure it's worthy of a NCAA SB Rules Committee review.

 

What I found says that if the illegal pitch is thrown, it’s a delayed dead ball. If the illegal pitch is not thrown, it’s an immediate dead ball. Both award a ball to the count and a free base to any runners, unless there is a hbp or the batter makes contact and reaches.

What Johnny found is that there’s also a code of conduct violation and the runner cannot be duped into leaving early with a “not thrown illegal pitch”. This rule should have priority, and eliminate the “runner leaving early” call. The runner should have been awarded a base and the hitter should have a ball added to the count.

If I’m getting the info correctly, what actually happened was a ball was added to the count AND the runner was called out for leaving early. I don’t believe these two things can ever happen on the same play because leaving early is an immediate dead ball. If the runner left early, there is no pitch, so there can no longer be an illegal pitch. Both of these things should be superseded by the code of conduct violation though.

 

Where is the emotion and swagger from yester year?

 

Gators now tied for 4th in conference with Tennessee & Mississippi State. Somewhat disappointing. I thought they would be doing better at this point in the season.

 

Considering all the struggles things could be much worse but yeah I get the disappointment. Thankfully pitching can/will improve. Offense seems to be waking up, hell they’d already be on fire if they’d just stop hitting so many pop ups. Defense is just bad, other than starting Comia at SS I don’t know what can be done. Comia will make mistakes but she’s the future and experience now will pay dividends in the future.

 

Me too! Texas A&M has the easiest schedule while Texas, Oklahoma and Florida get to beat up on each other and probably eliminate each other.
By the way, aTm has a bright future with 10 freshmen and Ariel who will be Sophs next year. Trish Ford appears to be the best recruiter and portal snatcher this year.

 

If you had known Rothrock was essentially a non or negative factor in SEC play what would your expectations have been?

 

Has there been any formal conference explanation on that crazy illegal pitch and runner leaving early play or is it just up to fans to search a rules book and hypothesize? Wasn't there a statement from the league after the last deadball blunder call? I can't remember whether they release explanations on these or I am just reading opinions from posters. If they think they called that right then there will be a lot of fake windups with no release to get a runner off base....I suspect it starts with the Volunteers as I seem to remember them liking Busch leage stunts like stealing a base on the throw back to pitcher.

 

They don't generally release an official explanation unless they're pressured to do so. I'm not sure anyone other than us is still talking about it.

 

Honestly, I thought that having Erin Coffey as a graduate assistant that our infield fielding would improve. It seems that she has been nonexistent as a graduate assistant. I haven’t seen much of her in the dugout. Last year, Charla was the first base “coach” as the graduate assistant. I would have thought that Erin would have at least filled that role. This is just my observation.

 

Coffel isn't listed with the coaches, her title along with Kate Young is Graduate Manager. I'm not sure what her exact role is, but it may be more off field than coaching

 

Softball America just came out with this week's rankings.
1. A&M
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas
4. FSU
5. Arky
11. Gators

 

Speaking of.....why do we have a player coaching 1B?

 

How can this possibly come out when Oklahoma is currently in extra innings with Alabama in the deciding game of the series?

UPDATE: ESPECIALLY WITH ALABAMA NOW WALKING OFF OKLAHOMA TO WIN THE SERIES!!

........We're gonna need our A game this weekend.

 

Interesting to note UF has already played 11 games against those top 5 teams. Rothrock only appeared in 2 of those 11 games. She threw 10 innings and gave up 10 runs (8 earned). Safe to say we have played those 11 crucial games without our true ace.

 

Nice to see Oklahoma lose a series...not nice to see it vs Bama right before we play them.

 

That Bama freshman, Vandagriff, walks off against Oklahoma to take the series. The kid is the spitting image of Taylor as a lefty in size and speed. Only her 4th HR and low 20's in rbis but the kid appears elite.

 

Gonna have our hands full with Alabama. Especially if the pitchers pitch how they did against Oklahoma. Gonna have to lean towards Alabama to win the series as of today.

 

Walk off homerun in the 8th. Florida has better hitters than both teams. In eight innings of play both teams combined for two walks and one error. Walks and errors have really hurt the Gators.