Softball - Page 2

Speedy17 · 06-10-2015, 01:39 PM

The interesting thing from Gasso's last interview with James Hale after the season - is on the KREF Podcast - was the fact that she stated Erin, Kady, and Paige would be the leaders. Gasso did not expect a problem.

Again, on defense, I don't believe it is necessarily the players but rather Gasso is the key. She will absolutely not accept an average defensive team. She is all about it and she will drill this young team until you don't want to hit the ball anywhere.

I am going to be interested in where Finney and Paige play when they are not pitching. Yes, Paige was the DP and hit incredibly - she has a ton of power. However, Finney is actually a big time slugger as well.

How about these HS stats in 25 games? Finney batted .774 with 17 home runs and 54 RBI. She cranked 13 doubles and three triples, scored 35 runs and drew 25 walks, striking out just once. She finished the season with an .846 on-base percentage and a 1.903 slugging percentage and concluded her prep softball career with a state-record 38 home runs. By the way, she did the same thing in Summer Ball.

By the way, that Bishop Gorman team from Wichita is ranked #1 in the nation by Max Preps and #2 in the Nation by USA Today.

Speedy17 · 06-10-2015, 02:01 PM

Here is a nice article on Finney.

Brittany Finney’s (Near) Perfect Season (5/31)

It doesn’t get much better—or more dominant—at the high school level than the season that Brittany Finney of Bishop Carroll High of Wichita, Kan. turned in this year.

Brittany Finney (7 ) and Bishop Carroll won the school’s 5th straight 5A Kansas title. Friday afternoon, the senior headed to the Univ. of Oklahoma capped off an All-American season by pitching the Golden Eagles to a fifth straight state championship and, appropriately, she won the 5A State title game by pitching a no-hitter in Carroll’s 10-0 win over Blue Valley West.

In the latest FAB 50 high school rankings, Carroll is ranked No. 7 in the nation and can only go up as teams still playing rated higher could lose in playoffs this week.

In her high school career, Finney played on teams that went 90-6 and she herself compiled a 56-4 pitching record.

Not perfect, but pretty darn close, although the last two years have been perfect for Carroll, which went 50-0 after Finney transferred in prior to the start of the 2014 campaign.

Last year, she split pitching duties with Jessi Haffner, now at Oklahoma State, but this year it was all Brittany in the circle and she showed why she is one of the elite pitchers in the country as she gave up only three earned runs all season while going 14-0 with a 0.30 ERA and 11 shut outs, six no-hitters and two perfect games.

“I go into every game expecting us to win,” Finney told the Wichita Eagle after Friday’s game. “I don’t expect anything less. We just had to push through every single game that we had. Every game, it was just a new opportunity to show everybody what we’ve got. Each win was just that much more important.”

To cap off the playoffs, the standout player—who plays for the So Cal-based Explosion club team which finished tied for 7th at last year’s PGF 18U Premier Nationals—pitched every inning for the Golden Eagles in the three playoff championship games and Finney threw 24 strikeouts in 20 innings while allowing only one earned run on seven hits.

The senior also homered in each of those games and totaled 17 home runs for the season, which gave her 38 for her career—a Kansas high school state record.

Finney also holds the state marks for career RBI (140), hits in a game (5) and home runs in a game (3).

The soon-to-be Sooner hit a remarkable .774 this year with an on-base percentage of .846 and an astronomical slugging percentage of 1.903.

While Finney was shutting teams down in the playoffs, the Golden Eagles’ offense made sure she got plenty of run support.

Carroll beat Shawnee Heights in the semi’s 7-2 and in the final game put three runs across in the fifth inning, including a Finney solo shot, and then plated five more in the sixth inning to shut the game down early and give the powerhouse team from Wichita another state title.

According to her father, Gary, Brittany will be starting at OU on June 8 and he and the family will be moving to Wyoming this week as part of a job change.

“It’s a tough time,” the star pitcher’s father states, “but I guess she needs to become the great person I know she will be. Maybe softball has helped her to get there.”

sybarite · 06-10-2015, 02:18 PM

A 1903 slugging percentage is rather difficult to achieve. If you get a single with every at bat, you have a 1000. If you get a double with every at bat, you would have a 2000. Thus, this is about like never making an out and getting nine doubles and a single in every ten at bats. Five home runs in ten at bats would also be 2000. That is why Lauren's 960 career slugging percentage is so astounding, even more so than her home run record. It is an overall hitting percentage: consistency and power. It would have been over a 1000, but she only had 811 as a junior when she was injured.

scrybe · 06-10-2015, 02:24 PM

Sounds like Brittany Finney is a real stud (metaphorically speaking).

SoonerNorm · 06-10-2015, 02:59 PM

Even though I believe we may not be as good defensively and perhaps not as productive on offense, I do think we may have a better year because of pitching. I think Finney will give us that other pitcher we were missing this year. Patty didn't have many pitching options this year but she will next season. That will make a significant difference against the good teams.

Speedy17 · 06-10-2015, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SoonerNorm

Even though I believe we may not be as good defensively and perhaps not as productive on offense, I do think we may have a better year because of pitching. I think Finney will give us that other pitcher we were missing this year. Patty didn't have many pitching options this year but she will next season. That will make a significant difference against the good teams.

The old saying goes, "Good pitching will beat good hitting any time, and vice versa". If I had a choice I would always take the good pitching.

SoonerNorm · 06-10-2015, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speedy17

The old saying goes, "Good pitching will beat good hitting any time, and vice versa". If I had a choice I would always take the good pitching.

You bet!

Speedy17 · 06-10-2015, 05:37 PM

http://www.flosoftball.com/2014/10/20/pic-week-1020/

Here is a neat picture. Glad they went to the KSU game even though OU lost rather than the Baylor debacle.

sybarite · 06-10-2015, 05:57 PM

OU was 49-9. That isn't exactly a bad year. Our losses were revealing:

4-8 at Arizona State when Shelby walked a batter. Two ground balls followed. Then, we intentionally walked two batters to load the bases!! Kemp hit a walk-off grand slam.

4-5 to Arizona at Palm Springs when we had allowed two unearned runs. A walk-off home run by Fox in the bottom of the seventh got Paige, who had had one of the errors that led to the two unearned runs.

5-6 Georgia at Palm Springs when Georgia scored the winning runs with infield hits to third and short (bunt and grounder). We hadn't learned to field bunts yet.

0-1 at LSU when Paige and Hoover both tossed two hitters. The one hit by LSU was a home run by Bell who had fouled out to catcher and struck out before hitting a solo shot.

2-10 At LSU, so what.

0-8 to Baylor in Norman? We had two singles? Bad, bad day.

2-4 to Kansas in Lawrence when Brickey and Chavez hit two-run home runs, the last being a walk-off. They were one for five in other at bats against Paige with three strikeouts. The problem, we blew chance after chance to win in regulation.

In our losses, was it pitching or hitting that let us down the most? We scored 4-4-5-0-2-0-2 in our regular season losses. Our 385 hitting didn't seem to work all the time.

sybarite · 06-10-2015, 08:21 PM

The USSSA Pride swept four from Dallas Charge in McKinney, Tx. Now, they get twice in Kansas City (Thur and Fri) and twice in Columbia (Mon and Tue).

Michelle Gascoigne shut out the PA Rebellion on a two-hitter, 5-0. Dallas Escabedo pitched for the Rebellion.

scrybe · 06-11-2015, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sybarite

The USSSA Pride swept four from Dallas Charge in McKinney, Tx. Now, they get twice in Kansas City (Thur and Fri) and twice in Columbia (Mon and Tue).

Michelle Gascoigne shut out the PA Rebellion on a two-hitter, 5-0. Dallas Escabedo pitched for the Rebellion.

Gascoigne is another (past, present, future) Sooner stud.

tycat947 · 06-11-2015, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scrybe

Gascoigne is another (past, present, future) Sooner stud.

+1! It was bad for her, in a way, that Keilani was here at the same time as Michelle! Still LOVED that finals game she pitched! And so glad she is a Sooner!

sybarite · 06-11-2015, 04:35 PM

The Pride is back on TV tonight at 7:00, same channel. In the last game, Lauren finally got another hit, 1-3. Shelby was only 1-4 which is a slump compared to her start. I think she is 8 for about 14.

Wrong. It's 8:35. Although the sooner twitter says it is televised on CBS sports, I can't find it.

SoonerNorm · 06-13-2015, 12:12 PM

http://m.teamusa.org/USA-Softball/Te...Back-in-action

SoonerNorm · 06-15-2015, 12:04 PM

Rookie leaders in Avg. minimum 15 AB's Shelby Pendley .409; Kaitlyn Richardson .375; and Cheyenne Cordes 370.

sybarite · 06-15-2015, 05:14 PM

The pro site didn't post the stats on the USSSA games until today (for the last two games). The Pride lost to Dallas 5-2 before winning once again 6-0. They are the "home team" in Columbia, Mo tonight against Dallas. There is another game in Columbia tomorrow.

Edit: Charge beat the Pride tonight, 4-1. Lauren had a hit batsman. Pendley had a walk. I don't think they did anything else. I only caught the last two innings on ESPN3.

sybarite · 06-16-2015, 12:29 PM

I think the Pride and Charge are on ESPN3 tonight at 7:05.

NMSooner'80 · 06-18-2015, 09:00 PM

Kinda strange to see OSU hire an ex-OU baseball player as its new softball coach. Used to be that Silo Tech would disqualify anyone with OU ties from coaching there.

I wasn't too shocked to see the DOK bring up an obscure thing that Patty Gasso hasn't apparently congratulated Kenny Gajewski for being named the Pokette head coach. I doubt they even considered the possibility that maybe Gasso really doesn't even know him very well. But it makes a better "story" to make it look like coach of the Evil Sooners was blowing him off.

tycat947 · 06-18-2015, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NMSooner'80

Kinda strange to see OSU hire an ex-OU baseball player as its new softball coach. Used to be that Silo Tech would disqualify anyone with OU ties from coaching there.

I wasn't too shocked to see the DOK bring up an obscure thing that Patty Gasso hasn't apparently congratulated Kenny Gajewski for being named the Pokette head coach. I doubt they even considered the possibility that maybe Gasso really doesn't even know him very well. But it makes a better "story" to make it look like coach of the Evil Sooners was blowing him off.

Agreed! Patty may be out of the country on vacation or whatever. Of course, KG may be trying to stir up controversy for gathering visibility of the sheep program.

It's NOT surprising however, that aggie hired a man for a women's program. I believe they have one woman head coach for their women's programs and before her hire, they were all men. I realize there is no requirement to have a woman coach for a women's program but why wouldn't they? If I were a female athlete at osu, I'd be concerned and disappointed.

SoonerNorm · 06-19-2015, 05:47 AM

If I were an AD I would hire the best person I could find for the job. Race, sex, nor age would matter.

Speedy17 · 06-20-2015, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NMSooner'80

Kinda strange to see OSU hire an ex-OU baseball player as its new softball coach. Used to be that Silo Tech would disqualify anyone with OU ties from coaching there.

I wasn't too shocked to see the DOK bring up an obscure thing that Patty Gasso hasn't apparently congratulated Kenny Gajewski for being named the Pokette head coach. I doubt they even considered the possibility that maybe Gasso really doesn't even know him very well. But it makes a better "story" to make it look like coach of the Evil Sooners was blowing him off.

Why would Patti Gasso care about who got the OSU job? Sorry, I don't think that I have ever heard an OU coach congratulate an osu hire in any sport nor have I heard an OSU coach congratulate an OU hire. I am just glad that OSU did not hire a former OSU baseball player named Tripp MacKay.

Gajewski has 3 years experience as an assistant softball coach and one as a baseball director of operations. Before that in 2011, he was selling turf for fields. He wasn't even the top assistant at Florida. It is not like he has really paid his dues like Walton as a softball coach. It is an interesting hire for osu.

sybarite · 06-21-2015, 09:46 PM

The Pride play at Akron, Monday, 6:00 PM, CBS Sports Network.

SoonerNorm · 06-24-2015, 09:52 AM

http://m.soonersports.com/mobile/Vie..._OEM_ID=31000&

NMSooner'80 · 06-24-2015, 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tycat947

Agreed! Patty may be out of the country on vacation or whatever. Of course, KG may be trying to stir up controversy for gathering visibility of the sheep program.

It's NOT surprising however, that aggie hired a man for a women's program. I believe they have one woman head coach for their women's programs and before her hire, they were all men. I realize there is no requirement to have a woman coach for a women's program but why wouldn't they? If I were a female athlete at osu, I'd be concerned and disappointed.

Just to clarify, I don't think Kenny Gajewski was the one trying to rip OU. I think the person who wrote the article wanted to make it a big deal that he hadn't heard from Patty.

sybarite · 06-27-2015, 12:39 AM

Chamberlain is off to a horrible start, hitting about 123. They have pinch hit for her a couple of times, and she isn't a starter right now. But, she may have gotten it off her back tonight. Tonight, Lauren hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the tenth to give the Pride a 4-2 win over the PA Rebellion. It was only her fourth hit of the year, and her first extra-base hit.

Although Shelby got off to a great start, she is now hitting about 290.