This is true. Sully might see this as a chance to jumpstart Cags also. He’s been scuffling a little bit. Maybe this gives him some confidence at bat and pitching.
2023 Baseball & Softball Thread
- Thread starter ocalaman
- Start date
Just an FYI for UF softball fans. We ended the season with 20 players on the roster. 8 have graduated and are moving on. 3 (Lexi Delbrey, Sam Roe & Christina Wellen) are in the Transfer Portal. That leaves 9 players on the team: Avery Goelz, Reagan Walsh, Skylar Wallace, Emily Wilkie, Olivia Gigante, Kaila Pollard (hurt much of the season), Kendra Falby, Katie Kistler, Baylee Goddard (missed all year with an injury) and 6 incoming freshmen. And there is speculation that Gigante will transfer out, leaving us with only 2 pitchers, both incoming freshmen. Lots of work for Tim Walton to do in the next couple of months.
Ocala,
DAMN !
What happened ?
Sorry - don't follow women's sports much.
Thought Walton & softball were cruising along.
This was the worst season in the Tim Walton era and there are obvious issues. Personally, I think he needs to fire both of his assistants because player development is not happening. When Kenny Gajewski left to take the head job at Oklahoma State and then Jen Rocha left to become associate head coach at Oklahoma several years ago, the program slowly started to decline. Lexi Delbrey was the #2 pitching recruit in the 2021 class and she had a solid freshman season, but regressed big time this year. Rylee Trlicek was the #2 pitching recruit in the 2019 class and she was having a great freshmen season until COVID shut it down. She hasn't improved at all and chose not to return for a 5th, COVID year. Roe was the #2 rated recruit in the 2022 class, enrolled early and shared catching duties last tear with Emily Wilkie. But this year Coach Walton gave the catching job to an infielder who had never been a catcher, a senior with a career BA under .200. Roe was relegated to DP duties. We finished 5th in the SEC in 2022, but got hot in the post season and made it to the WCWS. Pitchers were Delbrey, Hightower, Trlicek & Natalie Lugo, a 5th year senior. He didn't recruit or sign from the portal a quality pitcher and so this season was the same 3 as last year minus Lugo. Hightower was burned out after a couple of years of nagging injuries, Trlicek was the same and Delbrey got less and less effective. The season ended a total mess. 11-13 in the SEC, the first time in something like 19 years not hosting a regional. Lots of work to do to get this program back where it's been for a long time.
Ocala,
Thank You !
Excellent update for someone like me (& I suspect many other posters on this board) who does not follow Softball !
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I think Walton will figure it out and get us back on track. Just one year removed from the WCWS so not hitting the panic button.
Jen Rocha was the big loss. Need a new pitching coach. We were just in the CWS last year so it isn’t all doom and gloom but some changes do need to be made sooner rather than later so that it doesn’t get worse.
Langford and Cags won’t see better pitches than that in batting practice. Good lord. 86 mph fastballs and hanging sliders.
They might want to tell Cags to take a few first pitches. He swings at every one. Usually they’re good pitches but he seems like he needs to get into some rhythm.
Well I guess we need to hope 2 runs will hold up. At this pace we may not score again. Lordy these guys look tight at the plate.
High school level speed, plus junk off speed has our timing off and they just haven't adjusted. A little dicey for the #2 team in the country to be struggling like they are. Good thing Cags has pitched well.
Starting cags has been brilliant. I guess Sully didn't count on nobody hitting the ball. Problem is we will have to go into our good portion of the pen. Was hopeful we could hold off on that, but not with this close score. Hopeful we can get 1 more inning out of cags.
We've got a couple of decent bats on the bench, Sully may want to consider giving them a shot at the plate.
Cags was awesome. I bet part of the thinking was for him to get the taste of his last start out of his mouth, so mission accomplished. Now we just need to drive some baseballs.
The 1st game against Vandy I believe we only had 4 hits. We did hit the ball better the 2nd time we played them. Need to snag a run here. This thing too close for comfort.
9, 4, 11, and 5 are out hits the last 4 games. Not great especially if you take out the 11 hits against Vandy that mostly came after the game was already out of reach. Bats better wake up.
This play is incredible. Rivera had a few of them. Thomas is real solid at third as well.
A win is very preferable to a loss. Ask Auburn and Okie St.
Sportsmediawatch.com is showing the following for 6 pm today:
Tennessee/Clemson ESPN2
Texas/Miami ESPNU
Kentucky/Indiana SECN
Maryland/Wake Forest ACCN
Florida/Texas Tech, East Carolina/Virginia, Duke/Rider, Iowa/Indiana State, South Carolina/N.C. State - ESPN+
We're the #2 seed and can't get national coverage. Disney trying to force everyone to pay for ESPN+.
Tennessee/Clemson ESPN2
Texas/Miami ESPNU
Kentucky/Indiana SECN
Maryland/Wake Forest ACCN
Florida/Texas Tech, East Carolina/Virginia, Duke/Rider, Iowa/Indiana State, South Carolina/N.C. State - ESPN+
We're the #2 seed and can't get national coverage. Disney trying to force everyone to pay for ESPN+.
Agree. I read last week that Disney is moving all the ESPN channels to streaming only at some point in the future.
Damn. That was a bomb by Tech dude. Need to get some runs. Tech closer is one of the best in college baseball, if they are up a run or two headed into the 8th could be lights out.
Bases loaded and he chases two bad pitches and hits into a double play. Sully needed to have him on the take until he got the first strike.
Well that sucks. 1 more inning to try and score and then we will see their closer. Hopefully we can hold them to just 3 runs.
LOL! They weren't accidentally SEC champs. I knew as soon as I saw Texas Tech in our bracket, we would be in for a tough one. They come in just like Oklahoma did last year, much better than they were seeded. Need to get something going this inning.
They are a good team. Way underseeded. Just Florida's luck...not that you care..lol
Well I seriously doubt we can come from the losers bracket. We don't have enough pitching. And with how little we are hitting right now good chance Ucon can get us. Bad timing to start slumping.
Gators will be joining noles on the couch soon enough...
