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2018 Softball

LinusPF

HR MVP
Nov 14, 2009
2,154
1,013
113
Season is less than two months away!
Schedule
Starting lineup?
1B - Liz Deshields / Devyn Cantu
2B - Lea Thompson / Daniella Ibarra
SS - Aralee Bogar / Ashley Hamilton
3B - Mallory Kilian / Sarah Kurtz
LF - Cheyenne Pratt
CF - Allie Wood
RF - Havyn Monteer / McKenzie Schneider
C - Angela Schmiederer / Devyn Cantu
P - Allison Doocy / Kenzie Ihle
DH - Brooke Rozier / Devyn Cantu
 
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Looks like Katie Taylor isn't returning for her senior season. Her bat wasn't terrible when she first arrived, though the BA sank over time. At the time she transferred in she was our best alternative at SS. Best of luck to her.
 
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That's Crankermo, I suspect he'll be dropping by as the season gets closer.
 
Interesting situation. Mostly new administration at Missouri, and their overall success across sports in the SEC has been up and down. Do they try to compete with Florida and Alabama, or hire somebody to calm the waters (eg. Nebraska football post-Pelini).

As for us, hard to imagine a better candidate to get Iowa softball relevant again, IF you're willing to put up with the baggage (and I'm not saying we should).
 
Considering there is a total of ONE male softball coach in the Big Ten and know how pleasant and well liked Earleywine is. I don't see him moving to any big ten team. As much as I wish we could move away from this staff. It will not be him.
 
Yeah, I've been reading about his antics on the Ultimate College Softball forum for several years. And yet he somehow managed to get good players to join the program despite his reputation. It would be nice to field a team where half the starters are not hitting .200 or below.

For those who have interest, here's a link to the EE firing thread on Ultimate College Softball. Lots of stuff discussed; registration not required:

http://robocoach.websitetoolbox.com/post/earleywhine-fired-9633945?&trail=30
 
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Season kicks off in a couple days and can't wait. Excited to see what this year has to offer. Added some more pieces that will give us more flexibility. Now we just need a injury free year and let's see what we can do
 
Hawks win their first game of the season 3-0 over UIC. Doocey with 8 K in a shutout. Bogar with two hits and three SB.
 
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Another outstanding effort by Doocy in gm 1 and some timely hitting got the job done.

Game 2 Ihle came in and did a great job keeping us in the game. Killian had a nice game a the plate. Shaw got her first game out of the way and I expect better things going forward for her.

See what we have for ULL tomorrow.
 
OTOH, I'd take going .500 for the rest of the season ;)
I guess going .500 against the likes of University of Illinois at Chicago and Eastern Ill. is acceptable.. I expect a Big Ten School to hammer these type teams. If you cannot beat them how will you compete in the Conf.
 
I do agree that POWER 5 programs should dominate mid majors, especially lower tier mid majors and they should be held to that standard. Having said that just because you lose to one it isn't a death sentence either.

Let's see what we do today.
 
I guess going .500 against the likes of University of Illinois at Chicago and Eastern Ill. is acceptable.. I expect a Big Ten School to hammer these type teams. If you cannot beat them how will you compete in the Conf.
Fair point, but we all know what the situation is.
 
I guess going .500 against the likes of University of Illinois at Chicago and Eastern Ill. is acceptable.. I expect a Big Ten School to hammer these type teams. If you cannot beat them how will you compete in the Conf.
Yeesh! Ill Chicago won their conference and beat Missouri in the tournament last year. E. Illinois had a good record last year, beat Illinois and lost by only one to Lafayette last night. May be time to be critical later, but Friday was a decent day.
 
Come on Linus, we have been on this Train before. I have been following Iowa softball since Gayle Blevins, and This is just not good. I will wait and see just as I have the last few years and the results usually are the same, still bad. Only slightly better last year. I hope This changes but I dont see it happening. There are bright spots on the Iowa Roster but way to many misses. And coaching is poor. IMHO.
 
Today was a disappointment. Up 4-0 in the bottom of the 6th and end up losing 6-4. Just a tough loss. ULL simply kicked our teeth in
 
Obviously this will be an up and down season. They look like they have potential but are young. Should not loose those kind of games but of course it happens. As Linus said I was jumping the gun some with the Negative, and was right I was being a little negative. I have hope.. Its tough being a college athlete and I know those girls are working hard.
 
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Dr,

As a parent of an athlete I would much rather have fans that care and get upset than fans that don't care or pay attention. I don't think it's too much to ask for your school teams to compete.

Today was a rough day. We all knew ULL was going to be a tough one. Take what we learned from this weekend and hopefully improve this week and get ready for A&M.
 
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Dr,

As a parent of an athlete I would much rather have fans that care and get upset than fans that don't care or pay attention. I don't think it's too much to ask for your school teams to compete.

Today was a rough day. We all knew ULL was going to be a tough one. Take what we learned from this weekend and hopefully improve this week and get ready for A&M.
I know what your saying, my daughter also plays softball in college and be it only D2 (St Cloud St) she still has pressure and understands lots of people watch them play. And have opinions of how or what they should or should not be doing. I am a fan of all softball and watch many college teams because I have coached or my daughter has played with Alot of the girls playing in college now. D1 and D2. Ultimately I am and always have been a Hawkeye fan. I want them to be good. Its just frustrating as a coach/fan knowing the Hawks could have been so much better with a little better instate recruiting. I will stay positive for the girls and hope the rest of the season improves.
 
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Three separate innings had a runner on 2nd with no outs, and we didn't get any of them in. That allowed UIC to stay close. We had the chance to put them away.

I would have been happy with a 2-2 weekend.
 
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I didnt watch the games.. did they bunt at all in those situations to move the runner over to 3rd?.. I know they are already in scoring position, but with less then two outs and runner on third you have lots of options and puts pressure on pitching to not have any miscues. Playing small ball is not a bad idea alot of the time when your offensively challenged.
 
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I was just following along on Gametracker. Can't tell if they tried small ball and were unsuccessful, or whether they just failed to get hits.

Surprised that Schmiederer didn't get to play today. She and Thompson (injured?) are our 2nd & 3rd best returning hitters.

And why no Elizabeth DeShields this weekend? She hit .287 last year with Marshall.
 
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We wanted to drive down to Lafayette this weekend and watch (from DFW) but with the rainy forecast we did not attend, but followed the game on GameTracker. I don't feel like you get a true picture of the game just seeing the result of the plays on Gametracker so it would have been interesting to be there, but what jumped out to me was in the UIC game this morning. Shaw looked good through 4 innings, gave up a couple hits in the 5th without damage and then they started to hit her in the 6th. Looper needs to switch up pitching sooner. When they got the second hit (no one had scored yet) in the 6th you need to make a change. Not that she's not throwing well, but their batters are finding success and you need to mix it up. I think this is very important with a freshman. Leaving her in there you open her up to confidence issues if UIC continues to see success at the plate. Especially when you have Riding, Yoways, Ihle who all can come in and get outs. At this point, use them all. You need six outs before they score 4 runs. Mix them in. But Looper waits until they've put runs across and its a tight situation to switch. It's also tough on the pitcher you bring in to try and close in a tight situation. I'd think the pitcher would be more comfortable with a little cushion verses the pressure of coming in up 1 with bases loaded (or maybe two on- cant remember). In my opinion Looper has never been good at knowing when to mix things up.

After UIC brought in their ace we didn't get a hit and only one off of ULL. Today was frustrating.

Sorry, to rant. I know the team plays hard and I'd like to see them succeed. Here's hoping they come to College Station next week and turn it on verses very good Tulsa and A/M teams and Butler.

As always, Go Hawks.
 
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These forums are ALL about fans expressing themselves and I'm 100% ok with the constructive criticism because IMO it's legit. Like everyone else on here I want to see this program and these kids succeed. So please keep up the dialogue

We have a lot of things to correct from this weekend.Hopefully next weekend has some better results

All I can say is these kids want to win badly and are working hard to make their fans proud.
 
Doocey had a great game. After we won the first game I was hoping for a sweep, but doesn't look like the offense showed up in game two. Hoping we can we a couple more this weekend.

Go Hawks
 
Hawks start off the day beating Butler 8-0 in 5, Riding (!) went the distance. Look out Aggies, you're next ;)

Bottom of the 5th, Iowa 2, A&M 1!

Well, the Aggies escape our clutches 3-2 on a 7th inning walk-off HR. That would have been a really nice W.
 
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Nice win over Baylor yesterday. Too bad they had a light fiasco on Saturday, otherwise Iowa probably would have had another victory out there.
 
I know this isn't how things work, but if (when?) Looper is fired as head coach after this season, it would be nice if she could stay on as pitching coach. Her pitching staffs have been good.
 
For discussions sake, what if we win 25 or so games and finish .500 in the B10? Is that enough of an improvement for Barta to hand out a new contract? With Doocy pitching, we stand a chance whenever we can find a few runs for her.
 
I don't follow softball except for what you all post here. My thought on Looper is that nothing short of a complete dumpster fire of a season will bring about Barta firing her.
 
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