Softball Super Regional.

8,528 Views | 44 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Belton Ag
Colt98
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I figured we needed to start a thread for the upcoming weekend, and clean up the threads on this so we can have one place to talk about this weekend. Should be an awesome series. I love the match up, and our chances. I know we play Friday afternoon, but don't know the time. Here's to hoping our pitching continues to dominate and our hitters continue to get hot.

Getting an inspired Harrington back should help too.
Colt98
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Lets take a look at Tennessee regional performance.

Beat Longwood(RPI 123) 5-0
Beat USC Upstate(RPI 40) 7-3, 1 out away from loosing 0-3, before 3b error and 7 unanswered runs.
Beat Longwood 3-0

They didn't just dominate on offense, but there pitching only allowed 3 runs.

Aggies:
Beat TxSo(RPI 280)14-0 in 5 innings
Beat TxSt(RPI 29)3-1, Rupp is easily one of the top pitchers in the country, TxSt 2nd best team in Texas this year
Beat tu(RPI 36) 3-1,

We played a tougher schedule in our regional
GEA89
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Basically if we hit the ball we will win as our pitching will be there for us.
BQ_90
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GEA89 said:

Basically if we hit the ball we will win as our pitching will be there for us.
well it wasn't there for game 2 and 3 vs Tenn couple weeks ago. We won the first game pretty easy, then blew a lead late in the second game, then the pitching melted down in game 3.

we scored runs against them but our pitching couldn't stop walking batters.

I think the supers will come down to pitching.
GEA89
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Sam is on fire, she will lock it down. Mark my words.
Colt98
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I think we left over 20 runners on base in the Tenn series. I think are pitching is focused and ready to go. I also think Harrington will be extremely focused for the series. Like I said earlier, I'm super excited for the series and Friday can't get here fast enough.

Our girls have played very good on the road this year excluding one series to a team that made their Super regional. Like coach said yesterday in her presser. That she thought next year our pieces would fall in line for a big run, but this year has shaped up to give them the belief that we can do it with our young team. I 100% agree with this. The post season is a completely new season. What happened to us at the end of the season is in the past. Moving forward we have what it takes to make it to OKC. So lets go out and prove it!
aggiewilliford
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I think it's a clean slate and they will get down to business.
Justanotherposter
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GEA89 said:

Sam is on fire, she will lock it down. Mark my words.

Her and Lexi both. The only thing is Sam is kind of shaky in the beginning and had a problem with getting behind in the count. If Trinity does play in the Supers, I think she'll be good.
coloradoag69
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Having Harrington available and effective will be critical. UT can hit the ball regardless of who is pitching. We need to limit the walks and errors that give them "unearned" base runners.

I'm hoping that the biggest change from the former series is the re-emergence of Tori Vidales and Keeli Milligan as offensive forces. Frankly, other than the pitching collapse in game 2, those missing offensive pieces were critical.

Unless the pressure gets to us (unlikely) or we just become very unlucky, we'll score against UT. But if Vidales and Milligan get hot, we could score a whole bunch of runs. That would take some pressure off the pitching.
Texags Meltdown
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When do we know dates and times?
Basketball and Chain
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Texags Meltdown 2k17 said:

When do we know dates and times?

http://www.ncaa.com/scoreboard/softball/d1/2017/05/26

Looks like the first game is Friday at 5pm CT
Mark Fairchild
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I also am encouraged by Vidales' hitting the ball. I believe the team will be focused and ready to win! BTHOut
Gig'em, Ole Army Class of '70
Belton Ag
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Here's how I see it:

Tennessee has a batting average of .318, and as a team that's 2nd in the SEC in overall batting average. They don't have a ton of power in their lineup, their best long ball hitter is Gregg with 14 home runs which is more than double that of the next player on the list with 6. They have some good slappers that like to put pressure on infield defenses. Overall they have 460 hits on the season with only 127 going anything more than a single and they only have 39 home runs on the year (compared to A&M's 56). By contrast A&M has only given up 13 home runs all year which is phenomenal, lead the SEC in doubles allowed with only 21 and have yet to give up a triple all season, and we field at a .980 clip (which is a tad misleading because it was much higher but we've recently committed a few errors more than we did to start off the year). On paper all of that should favor the Aggies, but Tennessee will be at home which will help their hitters, and if they're disciplined and lay off the rise ball and if the ump's strike zone is tight it could get hairy. Show and Smith are up and down sometimes and have struggled with locating pitches at times.

With all of that said I think it's reasonable to think that A&M should be able to limit Tennessee scoring-wise and keep the game close.

As far as the offense goes, Vidales absolutely needs to remain hot. She had Tennessee's number in that last series and it would help if Milligan could continue to find her way on base like she has been with Vidales behind her. One thing I've noticed is that Vidales seems to heat up when the others cool off and vice-versa. If Sartain can get back into the her groove, those two make a toxic 1-2 punch for opponents.

Something to think about: Texas A&M has had very few 7-6 type final scores this season. It's either been them blowing teams out or winning 3-1 or the like. The only game they won like that this year was early on when they beat SFA 8-7, but that was an 8-2 game going into the 7th and before a pitching meltdown. They lost 6-8 to Tennesse and 9-11 to ULL, but rallied in both games after being down. They haven't had a game all year where they just went toe to toe with an opponent and slugged it out and outscored them. It may very well come down to a game like that this weekend, where they may give up 7 runs and may have to produce 8 to win it. We'll see if that happens.
CapCityAg89
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Not specific to our super, but how amazing is it that the SEC will have at least 2 and as many as 6 of the 8 teams in the WCWS?!!
BQ_90
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UT Killed us with bunts in gsme 2 and 3 at College Station. Add that to walks and we gave them runs. Can't give them free base runners
Belton Ag
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BQ_90 said:

UT Killed us with bunts in gsme 2 and 3 at College Station. Add that to walks and we gave them runs. Can't give them free base runners
Yep. The infield is going to have to play in and be ready. Not having Cuyos for games 2 & 3 hurt in that series, but she's back and can hopefully help.

As far as the walks go... it's just something that comes with the territory when it comes to Show and especially Smith. They give up walks.
Chapa96
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Game 1
May 26 - 6PM ET - ESPN2

Game 2
May 27 - 6PM ET - ESPN2

Game 3
May 28 - 3PM ET - ESPN
Colt98
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I had forgotten about cuyos not playing in the tenn series. With her back out defense has been back on track. So that is a big positive.
GEA89
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BQ_90 said:

UT Killed us with bunts in gsme 2 and 3 at College Station. Add that to walks and we gave them runs. Can't give them free base runners
Not trying to make light of your comment but the most basic way to prevent losses in softball and baseball is free base runners.Whether it be walks or errors they are all equally as bad. Walks obviously are more common and a part of the game but it is really lead off walks that are the worst.
HoustonAg2106
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GEA89 said:

BQ_90 said:

UT Killed us with bunts in gsme 2 and 3 at College Station. Add that to walks and we gave them runs. Can't give them free base runners
Not trying to make light of your comment but the most basic way to prevent losses in softball and baseball is free base runners.Whether it be walks or errors they are all equally as bad. Walks obviously are more common and a part of the game but it is really lead off walks that are the worst.


Lead off runners score almost 40% of the time
Colt98
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Yep, lead off walks are a killer in softball. That runner probably scores 70%(edit-the 40% number is probably closer to being right, but it just seems like that lead off walk scores every time) of the time(with out a hit mind you) if the offense does there job. Heck that is what cost my daughters HS team in the playoffs this year. First game we blew them out, our pitcher had zero walks. Second and third game in the series our pitchers gave up a total of 5 hits in 2 games but had 8 walks(4 being lead off and all 4 scored) and we lost both games by one and two runs.

The more I think about this Super Regional the more I like our chances, with respect to our previous series with them. I like the fact that the SEC tourney was in Knoxville, that's a plus for the team. I like the fact that we dominated this past weekend in the circle and on defense, and we were able to scrape runs together against solid pitching from both TxSt and tu. This week seems to be going by very slow.
CajunAggie
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Gig 'em, ladies!
BQ_90
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GEA89 said:

BQ_90 said:

UT Killed us with bunts in gsme 2 and 3 at College Station. Add that to walks and we gave them runs. Can't give them free base runners
Not trying to make light of your comment but the most basic way to prevent losses in softball and baseball is free base runners.Whether it be walks or errors they are all equally as bad. Walks obviously are more common and a part of the game but it is really lead off walks that are the worst.
well it was the combination that killed us. we walked batters then they moved them around on bunts.

my point was we hit fine in that series and we put up runs, even though we did strand a ton of runners.

Pitching killed us in that series. and it must be way better this weekend if we want to win it.
Belton Ag
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It's going to be very dependent on how the ump is calling the game. Both Show and Smith like to hit the corners up high and if the ump isn't giving it they need to be able to adjust. The times when they struggle the most seem to be when the umps aren't giving them the corners and they start hanging the ball in the zone and giving up hits. I'd like to see Sam use her changeup more, she throws that pitch so well when she's on.

None of our pitchers are strikeout pitchers, they're going to put the ball in play and rely on the defense to make the outs. That's the other part of the equation besides walks. That left side is going to have to be on point, they're going to have to take some risks and not swallow the ball when they could get outs but at the same time not make bad throws. It's a lot to ask but it needs to be done in order to win.

As far as this series goes, I'm less worried about pitching and defense than I am about the offense.
Wooahhhh
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I thought it was 78% of the time they scored.
Colt98
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I was going to say 98%
Lance in Round Mountain
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Looking forward to the Super Regional. I wish it was being played at TAMU. Sucks that TAMU is the #9 seed and UT is the #8 seed.
Lance in Round Mountain
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    A little tidbit.... UT 3rd baseman (Chelsea Seggern) is from Thrall, TX. She chose Tennessee over Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Texas Tech. Chose Tennessee because she believes they give her the best chance at winning a national championship. (Source: UT softball web page)
HiddenAg2
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Evans really needs this series win and a WCWS appearance. 2 appearances in 20+ years is not acceptable at a blue blood school in the sport.
Aggies2009
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Lose A Few said:

Looking forward to the Super Regional. I wish it was being played at TAMU. Sucks that TAMU is the #9 seed and UT is the #8 seed.
The SEC is just a powerhouse conference
rojack
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Gig em Lady Aggies. Continue your winning ways.
JADE
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All of the super regional games are on ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU. Florida/Bama games are all on ESPN, and Auburn/OU and Texas A&M/UT are only on ESPN & ESPN2. I wonder if some of the Sunday games shift up from ESPNU if the 3rd games aren't necessary.
BanderaAg956
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Lack of hitting puts pressure in pitching and lack of pitching puts pressure on hitting!

Poor defense puts pressure on both.

You want to beat UT, pitch well, hit well, make no errors!
Justanotherposter
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Trinity will be pitching in the Super Regional
Cardiac Saturday
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Hoping for Aggies vs Ducks someplace along the way....getting tired of the traditional powerhouses in the game (Chokelahoma, Fl., Az. , UCLA, ASU, Tide etc) winning it all every few years....
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