SB Final: Louisiana 3, ULM 1

[CajunVic]

Because we distribute our pitching around, votes for our pitchers may have been diluted.

[ninacajun]

I have an extra ticket for both games today if anyone is interested. Probably for tomorrows game as well.

[SlickRick]

Because we distribute our pitching around, votes for our pitchers may have been diluted.

Conference 2022: Sam was 12-1 with 1.97 ERA and 66 SO's in 44.1 innings.
Conference 2023: Megan 8-1 with 1.48 ERA and 69 SO's in 56.2 innings.

But, because we have a pitching staff and not a true ace, we don't have the numbers the other clubs have. Nester pitched over 200 innings this season while Sam has 124 with the most innings. Anyway, it's just painful for a team playing the weakest schedule by far in the conference, and they get the most players on first team.

[RaginDave]

Conference 2022: Sam was 12-1 with 1.97 ERA and 66 SO's in 44.1 innings.
Conference 2023: Megan 8-1 with 1.48 ERA and 69 SO's in 56.2 innings.

But, because we have a pitching staff and not a true ace, we don't have the numbers the other clubs have. Nester pitched over 200 innings this season while Sam has 124 with the most innings. Anyway, it's just painful for a team playing the weakest schedule by far in the conference, and they get the most players on first team.

Don't forget that Ms. Lamb and Ms. Heath were pretty outstanding as well, Lamb as a closer and Heath as an extra arm to help when needed. We might be the only team in the country that handles our Softball pitching staff like a baseball staff, probably because of who the pitching coach is.

[CajunVic]

People just don’t understand the committee . . .

[cjr3888]

EDIT: Tickets taken.

I have 2 tickets for today if anyone wants them.

[RaginDave]

Almost the best case scenario for the Cajuns/SBC in the softball tournament. The 4 teams left are:

RPI

10 Louisiana
40 Texas State
41 USA
51 Marshall

with the loss yesterday Troy slipped behind Marshall, so your top 4 SBC RPI ranked teams are in the semifinals. All are at or above Top 50 teams, meaning if UL keeps winning, they will play 2 more Top 50 RPI teams, in Texas State tonight and the winner of Marshall/USA, assuming if Marshall wins the will move up inside the Top 50.

[VObserver]

Don't forget that Ms. Lamb and Ms. Heath were pretty outstanding as well, Lamb as a closer and Heath as an extra arm to help when needed. We might be the only team in the country that handles our Softball pitching staff like a baseball staff, probably because of who the pitching coach is.

It is becoming increasingly common. Note that ULM used 2 pitchers last night, even though the first was still fairly effective when they pulled her. I didn't talk to their coach, so I don't know their reasoning, but since she was pulled exactly when she had gone through the lineup once, I suspect it was an attempt to keep our hitters off balance by giving them a different look.

Just for gits and shiggles, here is an interesting statistic: Pitching Appearances/Games Played for the last six teams remaining in the tournament [before last night]

ULM: 134/57 = 2.351
Louisiana: 130/57 = 2.281
Troy: 103/53 = 1.943
Texas State: 100/57 = 1.754
Marshall: 79/53 = 1.491
South Alabama: 74/52 = 1.423

Clearly, ULM and Louisiana have a quicker hook than the other four, though perhaps not for the same reasons. Still, these higher numbers seem to indicate a more "baseballish" approach to handling pitchers, while Texas State and Troy are somewhere in the middle and South Alabama and Marshall are clearly softball teams.

These numbers may be meaningless, in that we only know the pattern used by our coach, which is baseballish, and not of any of the others.

[SlickRick]

Marsha against Olivia Lackie.

[VObserver]

If South Alabama scores 3 or more they win. They might even win with 1.

In our game, it may be a case of whoever reaches 1 first wins, though I do like our hitters a lot more than Texas State's. Their pitching staff is very good and is capable of shutting us out.

We are also capable of run-ruling them if we get on a roll. One of their fans said that they think they have to score 6 to guarantee victory, since 5 seems to be the highest common opponent's score in their losses. He and I agreed that scoring 6 might be extremely difficult for them.

[BeauCajun]

Lots of fly ball outs last night. At least we’re hitting the ball. ULM’s defense was better than this past weekend.

[Cajun Monkee]

Great job by Sam! You better get to her early or she usually gets stronger and is lights out. She was throwing harder in the 7th than in the 1st, 68 or 69 at the end.

Yeah, after that 2nd inning, she retired 15 of the last 16 batters she faced, and 12 of the last 12.