Softball Looking At The Death Of A Season
by mlmintampa on Jun 2, 2009 10:41 AM EDT
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PrintThe Gators 8-0 loss to Washington in Game 1 of the Women's College World Series Championship Series means more than putting UF in a 0-1 hole. For the first time all season, the Gators have to question their mortality. Never before had a team so thoroughly dominated the Gators. Washington looks like they can handle the Gators at every position, and UF responded by recording only two hits, striking out 12 times, committing two errors (including one epic error which swung momentum in the 3rd), and looking nothing like a team that has won 63 games. To use a more recent analogy, the Gators looked like the Cavs in Orlando.
No matter what happens in Game 2 tonight (or a possible Game 3), this is the most successful Gator season and that should not be forgotten. But you don't get this far to earn credit. No one remembers that the 2001 Mariners won 116 games, the 1998 Vikings were 15-1, and eventually the 2007 Patriots will be a footnote too. In the grand history of Florida Athletics, 63 wins for 2009 Softball will just be a round number.
Tonight we will truly see what The Best Dressed Women In Gainesville are made of. Do they fall into a shell, letting another Pac-10 team roll to a National Championship (it would be the 1st for Washington, 22nd for the Pac-10)? Or do they rally back, finding ways to hit against the best pitcher in the Nation?
To be honest, it's a little bit uncomfortable for me to be critical of this team. Friends of mine have played for the team, and I got to cover the team for AM850. But let's be realistic for a moment. When you think of Florida's great Volleyball and Gymnastics programs, you remember they've never won an NCAA title. As good as Baseball has and will be (it was huge beating annual boogie-man Miami in the regionals), they will be 3rd place in the state without a championship. I don't want Softball stuck in that same mindset. With death looking them square in the face, Florida must respond.
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It was an ugly one...
The epic fail in the 3rd was devastating to watch and it didn’t get much better from there. I have my fingers crossed that they can pull it together and come out tonight playing like the team they have been throughout the season instead of that shell-shocked team fumbling around last night. It was pretty sad.
Relax everyone
First of all, don’t ever compare the softball, volleyball or gymnastics program at UF to the dreck that is the baseball program. The gymnastics team’s national title will come soon enough, now that the Wicked Witch of the South (Yoculan @ UGA) has retired.It is difficult competing against a team laden with olympians every season. I think now it is only a matter of time before Coach Faehn brings the hardware to Gainesville. The Gator gymnastics team goes to the NCAA championships every year and often finishes in the top 6 – and always in the top 12. The baseball team isn’t close to that level of consistency. You can’t judge success solely on the basis of national titles. Afterall, UF has only won 20 total in the history of all sports.
The lady Gators volleyball team has won 18 straight SEC championships. Name another sport in which UF dominates the SEC like that. You would have to go back to swimming in the 60s, 70s and 80s. They have made it to the Final Four 7 times since 1992. Coach Wise has built a winning machine at UF.
As for softball, Coach Walton has done a fairly decent job with the program in his 4 years – wouldn’t you say? He took the team to their first WCWS last season and their first championship series this season. While the current team does have 7 seniors – only 4 of them start and there are no juniors, meaning that this team isn’t going to fall off the cliff next season.
Let’s have a little faith in these ladies – we all had negative thoughts after the Ole Miss game this past football season and that turned out alright for us. The softball team had a bad night – that is obvious. But if Nelson can bounce back and pitch like she did in games 1 & 2 of the WCWS, then we have an excellent chance to force a third game.
Maybe this is just UWash’s year. But at least for me, I still believe and can guarantee that this team will fight to the very end – go ask Alabama.
By the way, the best pitcher in the nation is Stacey Nelson.
Go Gators!!
The Ole Miss analogy is right on – the top of the 5th against Bama and the top of the 3rd against Washington both gave me the same feeling of incredulous horror as the third quarter against the Rebels… a sudden cascade of freakish plays and mistakes ruthlessly capitalised on by the opponent.
What concerns me is that the offence has been moribund ever since the end of the regional – four runs in two games against Cal, three against Arizona, one against Michigan, six against Bama (but needing the most freakish of plays going our way for a change) and then shut-out by Washington… Sure, top-end softball will produce a lot of low-scoring games, but other teams have been hitting the ball this tournament.
I normally bash the black jerseys...
when basketball/baseball wears them. I have no such qualms about softball, though.
Visit bloggingthebracket.com, SBNation's bracketology/hoops rambling site!
by Chris Dobbertean on Jun 2, 2009 8:32 PM EDT up reply actions
Because they can pull it off.
Well, they can pull off almost anything.
I’ve seen a football jersey where all the blue was replaced with black – looked like a freakin’ Halloween jersey. And I saw it the day before a Cocktail Party, the year after the orange sleeves. Scarred the hell out of me.
Ugh...
bloops and dinky hits are killing us. Need to string together the hits and get the Huskies out.
2 issues
1) Where do they get these umpires? The girl last night had a strike zone the size of Alaska. If you give a pitcher like Lawrie strikes that are 9 inches out of the zone, then she is absolutely unhittable. It is too bad that Nelson was off last night and couldn’t enjoy the same calls. Tonight’s ump was equally bad – he was all over the place and completely inconsistent. At least last night’s ump called the same pitches balls and strikes consistently. Tonight, it sometimes seemed that pitches right over the plate were called balls and some way outside were called strikes. It was equally bad for both teams so it didn’t give either an advantage, but come on NCAA, can’t you get the best umps for the title series?
2) I’ll bet Coach Walton would really like to have that play back where he held the runner after she was halfway home and the throw wasn’t even close to the plate. When that play happened, I immediately felt that it could be the difference (since both pitchers had settled down) and as it turned out – it cost us the game as she was stranded at third. It was a colossal coaching error in what otherwise was a coaching masterpeice.
Washington deserves the title – they outplayed us, but I was happy to see our girls fight to the very end especially after last night’s debacle.
Go Gators.
Gator's Softball
Washington beat Florida in all 3 games they played this year. They are the better team head to head and I can accept that. Danielle Lawrie is just too tough for them and Lawrie even got a couple of key singles against Stacey Nelson in game 2. Lawrie is the best pitcher as well as she has moved ahead of my fave Nelson now because she has beaten Stacey in all 3 games this year. But how on earth does Lawrie get the strike calls in the WCWS that she does that are inches out of the strike zone and Nelson the best pitcher in college softball the last 2 seasons doesn’t? It’s ridiculous. How about that called third strike on Corrie Brooks last night in game 2 with the Huskies leading 3-2 in the top of the 5th inning. The Gators had the bases loaded with 2 outs and the count was 2 balls and 2 strikes. Lawrie threw a pitch a good 3 inches off the inside corner and it was called strike 3. It was arguably the worst strike 3 call I have ever seen in softball or baseball. Stacey did not get these called strikes. Is college softball so concerned about the SEC’s progress in softball that suspicious strikes are called against SEC teams? It was fairly evident during the WCWS. What a shame. The Gators are a great team but they were beaten by a tougher team that played better in the clutch. But that home plate unpiring left a bad taste in my mouth. I wonder what coach Walton thinks of that caled thrird strikes to Brooks today. It was an awful error by the umpire at the key point in the game. The Gatorrs may not have scored there becuase they didn’t do much in the clutch but Brooks had that opportunity stolen from her. Credit the Huskies no doubt about it. But the home plate umpiring was not fair and I hope it was an accident. Again Lawrie deserved Player Of The Year although it hurt me that Stacey didn’t win it when she could have this year and last year. But Lawrie’s body of work.this year was incredible. She deserves POY, WCWS MVP and to be a national champion. But someone from Florida should complain to college softball officials about what the Gators were put through from the umpires and the SEC for that matter too. The WCWS nearly had 4 SEC teams in their Final Four and I believe that unnerved some people. The SEC should complain about such outrageous umpiring against the Gators and the other SEC teams so this does not become a pattern in the WCWS. I’m a realist and not a crybaby. I dare anyone to tell me that called third strike against Brooks was anthing close to a strike.
I expect Megan Bush to step up big next year and be a Player Of The Year candiate. :)
I will miss Stacey and her senior teammates so much. They brought class and winning to the University of softball and they deserve the love that comes their way.
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