NCAA Softball Selection -- Does the committee love the B1G?

[mikegarrison]

May 28, 2021 22:44:09 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 27, 2021 23:21:31 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

In the NCAA postseason, usually the #1 ace pitcher is all that really matters. Coaches ride their best horses almost all the time.

UCLA went against their ace, and instead goes with the #2 pitcher and she 1-hit Virginia Tech to force the if-necessary game. What do you do now in game 3? Go with your #2 again, or go back to your 2x NPOY?

As expected, VTech's ace stuck in the whole game even after two early home-runs. They just don't have a backup.

Probably they start Garcia (unless the coach knows something we don't, like Garcia is injured or sick or something).

[trojansc]

May 28, 2021 23:34:10 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Probably they start Garcia (unless the coach knows something we don't, like Garcia is injured or sick or something).

I dunno, do you start a pitcher who gave up 6R and 9H in 4 innings, or a pitcher who has given up just 2 hits over 9 innings in two days now? It wasn't a fluke performance either with a bunch of hard hit outs.. Virginia Tech barely touched Faraimo.. I'm just not sure.

[trojansc]

Oklahoma's coach says she had no knowledge of the 'controversy' re: batters box until she walked into the post-game interview.

[mikegarrison]

May 29, 2021 1:17:02 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 28, 2021 23:34:10 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Probably they start Garcia (unless the coach knows something we don't, like Garcia is injured or sick or something).

I dunno, do you start a pitcher who gave up 6R and 9H in 4 innings, or a pitcher who has given up just 2 hits over 9 innings in two days now? It wasn't a fluke performance either with a bunch of hard hit outs.. Virginia Tech barely touched Faraimo.. I'm just not sure.

Do you go with your best pitcher who is now rested, or the pitcher that they just saw, who is now more tired?

I guess it all depends on whether you think it is a match-up kind of deal or just that first game was a fluke.

[trojansc]

May 29, 2021 1:57:57 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Do you go with your best pitcher who is now rested, or the pitcher that they just saw, who is now more tired?

I guess it all depends on whether you think it is a match-up kind of deal or just that first game was a fluke.

It's tough. I imagine either of them could have a pretty short leash tomorrow whoever gets the start. It's also weird because Faraimo is not a typical #2, she's the ace on most top teams, and then, Garcia is not 'just' a #1. She's like the best in the country. The eye test was clearly not even close between the two performances, but, this is an elimination game, so you have to make the right decision. Lots of pressure on coach.

Many people actually thought Garcia was going to get the start again today. Maybe there isn't a game 3 if that's the case.

[bbg95]

May 29, 2021 2:28:42 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 29, 2021 1:57:57 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Do you go with your best pitcher who is now rested, or the pitcher that they just saw, who is now more tired?

I guess it all depends on whether you think it is a match-up kind of deal or just that first game was a fluke.

It's tough. I imagine either of them could have a pretty short leash tomorrow whoever gets the start. It's also weird because Faraimo is not a typical #2, she's the ace on most top teams, and then, Garcia is not 'just' a #1. She's like the best in the country. The eye test was clearly not even close between the two performances, but, this is an elimination game, so you have to make the right decision. Lots of pressure on coach.

Many people actually thought Garcia was going to get the start again today. Maybe there isn't a game 3 if that's the case.

I agree that it's a tough call, but I think I would go with the hot hand in Faraimo and have a quick hook if it looks like she doesn't have it.

[bbg95]

May 28, 2021 16:45:24 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 28, 2021 16:38:02 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Regarding the plate situation (if it really wasn't regulation), I don't really buy the argument that it "affects both teams." That's true as far as it goes, but that doesn't mean if affects both of them equally. My question is why didn't the NCAA verify the dimensions before the game started and not sign off until it was in compliance? At this point, I'm not sure they can really do anything about this game, as I doubt it won't count. Hopefully, they'll verify the dimensions before the next one. Anyway, Washington made the final out of the game by sending a runner home when down by two. Ouch.

I agree re: not affecting both of the teams equally. One throws inside much more than the other. Anyways, I don't know exactly what happened, but UW's Coach (Tarr) did bring it up, and supposedly the umpire did not choose to measure. 

Yeah, Washington sending that runner in the last inning made absolutely no sense. Especially because it's not like 1st+2nd are advancing to 2nd+3rd on that play anyways, so it means absolutely nothing.

So I read some discussion on this on that softball forum you've mentioned. I think one person made a pretty good point that a tight box actually would likely benefit a pitcher who likes to throw inside more than a pitcher who likes to throw outside. Ordinarily, the inside pitcher might have to throw in off the plate to jam batters, but with a tight box, she can just throw on the inside corner to either get called strikes or jam the batter. Meanwhile, a pitcher who lives on the outside may find that batters can get good contact on outside pitches that they wouldn't ordinarily get and may be forced to throw further off the plate, which leads to more walks because those pitches are now balls. Now, I don't think there's any excuses for having a non-standard box, but I think the argument that this definitively benefited Oklahoma is a bit dubious. Yes, they won. But they're also the No. 1 seed for a reason.

As for sending the runner and recording the final out of the game at home plate when down two, I read an interesting thread in which it seems that this is actually a pretty rampant issue in softball in general. In MLB, if a third-base coach made that decision, they would be pilloried and probably even fired if it happened in a key postseason game. But according to some of the posters in this thread, this seems to happen all the time in softball, and there are other things that rarely happen in baseball that happen all the time in softball too. I find that interesting, as I think a lot of the strategy should be pretty similar. The smaller dimensions of the park likely affect some decisions, but it should still be obvious not to send that runner if there's even a 5% chance she's thrown out.

[bbg95]

Georgia has runners on second and third with no outs. A double off the wall inexplicably didn't score the runner from second due to very poor baserunning. Fortunately for them, the next batter hit a single down the right field line to push the run across and take a 1-0 lead. 

[trojansc]

May 29, 2021 11:21:20 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Georgia has runners on second and third with no outs. A double off the wall inexplicably didn't score the runner from second due to very poor baserunning. Fortunately for them, the next batter hit a single down the right field line to push the run across and take a 1-0 lead. 

They finished 3-15 in their last 18 SEC games. Incredible what they've done in the postseason.

[bbg95]

May 29, 2021 12:40:57 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 29, 2021 11:21:20 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Georgia has runners on second and third with no outs. A double off the wall inexplicably didn't score the runner from second due to very poor baserunning. Fortunately for them, the next batter hit a single down the right field line to push the run across and take a 1-0 lead. 

They finished 3-15 in their last 18 SEC games. Incredible what they've done in the postseason.

Yeah, they're now up 6-0 and are cruising. They've hit some real bombs in this game.

[bbg95]

Oklahoma has a team OPS of 1.314? Wow.

[trojansc]

May 29, 2021 14:03:32 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Oklahoma has a team OPS of 1.314? Wow.

The 4 runs they scored yesterday against Washington match their *season* low. That's unheard of in softball. I actually think it is a record.

[bbg95]

Oklahoma up 4-0 after Washington lifted their starter, and the reliever gave up a two-run shot to left center.

[trojansc]

Not looking great if you want to watch softball on Sunday. That's one reason I'm not crazy about the new format (over 3 days vs. 2)

[trojansc]

Wow. Mizzou up 5-0 on James Madison (4 runs are unearned as an error would have got JMU out of the inning). But, they are clearly all over Alexander after getting just one hit all game yesterday.

You have to take out Alexander, and just hope she can rebound for tomorrow.