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

[n00b]

May 20, 2021 22:20:57 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

May 20, 2021 22:14:54 GMT -5 trojansc said:

I mean, this has been absolutely horrible. The BYU-Virginia Tech home plate ump blew a run-scoring play at home plate, that would have easily been overturned by replay. It wasn't a bang-bang play, he ruled she missed the tag when she clearly made it. There was also a staredown after an awful third-strike call where I thought BYU's player might get ejected. Even the NC pitcher announcer who admittedly likes expanded strikezones thought the pitch was both outside and too high.


Also, One of the best USA pitchers on the SIU Head Coach ejection:

So the "ump show" extends to softball also. I wish I was surprised. Of course, the worst-ever example of this in my opinion comes from the NBA when Joey Crawford infamously ejected Tim Duncan for laughing on the bench. Crawford got himself suspended indefinitely in the fallout, which was just.

I don't know nearly enough about softball to know what typically warrants an ejection. That amount of arguing balls and strikes definitely would've warranted an MLB ejection. And the associate head coach just seemed to want to pick a fight.

The calls very well could've been bad enough that the coach got tossed intentionally. To a non-softball person, the ejection and warning to the associate HC seemed legit.

[bbg95]

May 20, 2021 22:24:25 GMT -5 n00b said:

May 20, 2021 22:20:57 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

So the "ump show" extends to softball also. I wish I was surprised. Of course, the worst-ever example of this in my opinion comes from the NBA when Joey Crawford infamously ejected Tim Duncan for laughing on the bench. Crawford got himself suspended indefinitely in the fallout, which was just.

I don't know nearly enough about softball to know what typically warrants an ejection. That amount of arguing balls and strikes definitely would've warranted an MLB ejection. And the associate head coach just seemed to want to pick a fight.

The calls very well could've been bad enough that the coach got tossed intentionally. To a non-softball person, the ejection and warning to the associate HC seemed legit.

All right, maybe you're right. I wasn't watching. After the game is over, I'll check out the on-demand video to see if it was justified. I was more responding to what trojansc said about the umpiring in general. Though a first-inning ejection for arguing balls and strikes seems pretty extreme to me. But if the coach was trying to get ejected to fire up the team, as you suggested was a possibility, that's obviously a different scenario.

[trojansc]

Southern Illinois just tied the game at 4-all in the 4th inning. Wow. That 1st inning was HUGE.

ASU scored 3 runs in the 1st inning on *one* base-hit as a result of the horrible strike-zone. Yeah, as Cat Osterman, USA Olympic pitcher said, I probably would have been tossed too, on the bench or in the circle. But, other people are probably better at controlling their emotions in an intense postseason match in the NCAA Tournament on a Top 16 seed's home field. I'm good sometimes, but the setting matters.

At least the BYU-VTech game it probably didn't have as much of an impact on the game -- it didn't cause as much of an uproar from the coaches, otherwise BYU's coach would have been ejected. Maybe being down already helped that. Many softball fans were criticizing him for not 'backing his team'.

[n00b]

LETS GOOOOO

[trojansc]

Omg! That play at the plate to get ASU runner out.

This is a very very exciting match. It's a 4-seed vs. a 1-seed in the Regionals, but Southern Illinois is the best RPI #4 seed in the tournament, and better than 6(!) of the 3-seeds, including the 3-seed BYU in this very regional.

[n00b]

May 20, 2021 23:15:47 GMT -5 trojansc said:

Omg! That play at the plate to get ASU runner out.

This is a very very exciting match. It's a 4-seed vs. a 1-seed in the Regionals, but Southern Illinois is the best RPI #4 seed in the tournament, and better than 6(!) of the 3-seeds, including the 3-seed BYU in this very regional.

Interesting. I was checking Massey ratings, and they like the Salukis a lot less. #73 and only an 8% chance of winning this game.

[bbg95]

Watching the game now, the pitcher is really getting squeezed by the umpire. 

Edit: This led to a walk to load the bases and then a 2-run single to put ASU up 6-4. 

[bbg95]

A wild pitch and a groundball now has ASU up 7-4, though they did get a runner caught in a rundown for the second out.

Edit: the ump called a pitch right down the middle a ball for some reason. If it's been like this all night, no wonder the SIU coach got ejected.

[trojansc]

May 20, 2021 23:37:27 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Watching the game now, the pitcher is really getting squeezed by the umpire. 

Edit: This led to a walk to load the bases and then a 2-run single to put ASU up 6-4. 

The Southern Illinois starting pitcher had a 42-208 Walks-Strikeout ratio in 188 innings pitched coming into this game. She only had 4 walks once in the season, and 5 in one other outing. Not a walk a ton of batters type of gal. About 1-2 a game per average. She had 4 walks in the first inning vs. ASU alone.

Wow, just as I type this, that changeup was completely missed AGAIN which would have got SIU out of the inning. The announcers are just stunned at this point.

[bbg95]

May 20, 2021 23:43:15 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 20, 2021 23:37:27 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

Watching the game now, the pitcher is really getting squeezed by the umpire. 

Edit: This led to a walk to load the bases and then a 2-run single to put ASU up 6-4. 

The Southern Illinois starting pitcher had a 42-208 Walks-Strikeout ratio in 188 innings pitched coming into this game. She only had 4 walks once in the season, and 5 in one other outing. Not a walk a ton of batters type of gal. About 1-2 a game per average. She had 4 walks in the first inning vs. ASU alone.

Wow, just as I type this, that changeup was completely missed AGAIN which would have got SIU out of the inning. The announcers are just stunned at this point.

If you're talking about that "ball" that was right in the center of the zone, that's one of the worst calls I have ever seen.

[bbg95]

This strike zone has been so laughable that I'm starting to think that the umpire bet the over in this game.

[trojansc]

May 20, 2021 23:47:23 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

This strike zone has been so laughable that I'm starting to think that the umpire bet the over in this game.

Jenny Ritter - former National Championship pitcher on a pitch called a ball : 'I don't know where else you can throw that. To me, that's almost too much OVER the plate'.

And this was with ASU pitching. It's certainly not a one-sided zone, this is just awful.

[bbg95]

May 20, 2021 23:55:46 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 20, 2021 23:47:23 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

This strike zone has been so laughable that I'm starting to think that the umpire bet the over in this game.

Jenny Ritter - former National Championship pitcher on a pitch called a ball : 'I don't know where else you can throw that. To me, that's almost too much OVER the plate'.

And this was with ASU pitching. It's certainly not a one-sided zone, this is just awful.

That particular pitch I think might have been a tiny bit low (it was definitely over the plate). But yeah, the strike zone in general has been ridiculous. And yes, I agree that it's been terrible for both, which is why I suggested that he bet the over rather than on one of the teams.

[trojansc]

May 20, 2021 23:56:58 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

That particular pitch I think might have been a tiny bit low (it was definitely over the plate). But yeah, the strike zone in general has been ridiculous.

Maybe, but that pitch was a change-up, which are tougher to judge and appear lower than they probably are when they actually cross the plate, so I'll take it as borderline at worst.

This is the only regional being played today, I imagine the viewership is very high among the softball community, especially being on ESPN3. Though it is now 1am on the east coast. Will be interested to see the reaction this gets.

(also, this was BYU-VTech missed call earlier)

[bbg95]

May 21, 2021 0:00:40 GMT -5 trojansc said:

May 20, 2021 23:56:58 GMT -5 bbg95 said:

That particular pitch I think might have been a tiny bit low (it was definitely over the plate). But yeah, the strike zone in general has been ridiculous.

Maybe, but that pitch was a change-up, which are tougher to judge and appear lower than they probably are when they actually cross the plate, so I'll take it as borderline at worst.

This is the only regional being played today, I imagine the viewership is very high among the softball community, especially being on ESPN3. Though it is now 1am on the east coast. Will be interested to see the reaction this gets.

There has been a fair amount of complaining on Twitter, with the umpire's approval rating being 0%.