NCAA SB Final: Louisiana 5, LSU 8

[JMV JustMyView]

I said pitching will carry you so far, if you don't hit and score, how do you expect to win.

By limiting runs and getting a few timely hits.

[JMV JustMyView]

Louder for the people in the back.

Pitching lost us the game.

[LifeTimeCajun]

Pitching lost us the game.

Extra innings in game 1 was the biggest contributing factor on sundays second game.

[Cajun90]

Please re read my post. I did not say we will not ever get to host. I said it is getting almost impossible for a G5 team to host, especially the Cajuns because nobody wants to play us. Where did I said we were always sent to BR? Yes I agree with Lamb pitching the first game and starting the second game. She was the best we had Sunday. If good hitting eventually catches up to good pitching then why did our good hitting team that seen the pitcher for the 6th or 7th time in the same day after almost 200 pitches not win game 2?

While we certainly need to play high caliber teams don't buy into this "we need P5 teams for RPI". It absolutely helps but historically our RPI has been hurt for other reasons. P5 teams have an advantage because even the bottom end of the conference usually does okay OOC and have the rest of the conference to lift them up. Biggest thing we can do is limit exposure to the really bad W/L teams OOC. Playing a three game series against an historically bad team in a historically bad conference is way worse than not playing a game against the LSU's of the world.

[JMV JustMyView]

While we certainly need to play high caliber teams don't buy into this "we need P5 teams for RPI". It absolutely helps but historically our RPI has been hurt for other reasons. P5 teams have an advantage because even the bottom end of the conference usually does okay OOC and have the rest of the conference to lift them up. Biggest thing we can do is limit exposure to the really bad W/L teams OOC. Playing a three game series against an historically bad team in a historically bad conference is way worse than not playing a game against the LSU's of the world.

You need P5 teams for rpi if you want to build a schedule to try and host a regional.

[Balanced_view]

You need P5 teams for rpi if you want to build a schedule to try and host a regional.

you guys are throwing out the focus of my entire post( multi post now) and locking in on the Rpi, which the post was not about. Its all good.

[JMV JustMyView]

you guys are throwing out the focus of my entire post( multi post now) and locking in on the Rpi, which the post was not about. Its all good.

I didn't see where any of us were speaking to you about rpi?

[RaginDave]

You need P5 teams for rpi if you want to build a schedule to try and host a regional.

I don't think this is 100% true, you definitely need some P5 teams, but we should be working with schools like James Madison, Liberty, Wichita State, UCF, Western Kentucky, Kennesaw State and others that are traditionally Top 50 RPI teams that should want to play against us.

I know it takes 2 to tango, but you would think these teams would like an RPI boost vs us and we could use the same, rather than playing Memphis or Buffalo or teams that completely destroy your RPI.

I know we took a hit with Houston, who traditionally is pretty good and had a season ending RPI of 130. But their are Top 50-75 RPI teams that we need to be working with that are not P5 teams.

[Turbine]

You need P5 teams for rpi if you want to build a schedule to try and host a regional.

This is absolutely not true unless you want to do brain dead scheduling. Then yes P5s will support you more often than not.

What is unacceptable is actually doing brain dead scheduling. Including a St. Peters, or a North Alabama, those types are a no no. If you go that route, then yeah, you need P5s to counter balence those mistakes.

What you would really need to do, is find programs that win and consistently win.

jmo

[Mark Hemphill]

does this apply within a certain period of time? I generally agree with you about pitching but to me it has limits, dont forget what my original point was.

for instance, Summer is dominant, but she faced lsu at least 20 innings this season. who has the advantage the higher the innings go, hitters or pitcher? Another, Lamb had a shutout after 7 innings, but hitters started making better contact late in the game, and continued to get more comfortable into first 3 innings of 2nd game. those are just example from our team with lsu this year, but im sure you can find the same type of thing all across the college softball level.

Let's compare apples to apples. Lamb was tired. She had just pitched 7 innings and was trying to give it a go with 45 minutes rest on a pretty warm day. The odds were high that she was going to give up hits in the 2nd game. In regards to Summer, she is a great pitcher and I don't know anything and I am not trying to start a rumor so please don't quote me here as me saying I know something because I don't but could there have possibly been some undisclosed underlying issue health wise that might have been in play with her and she tried to work through it? Now, to answer your question, if the pitcher is truly dominant pitcher and remains healthy for each contest, the advantage is always with the pitcher in my opinion no matter how many times a team faces said pitcher. You have to remember that just like hitters, elite pitchers are constantly working to improve their game. They are working on different spins, throwing from different angles, different speeds, etc. The hitter is always at the disadvantage because he/she is reacting to what the pitcher is throwing. I have been fortunate to talk at length with some of the best hitting instructors working today. Every one of them has said that the old adage "good pitching beats good hitting" is true but they placed the caveat 99% of the time on that statement because there is that elite 1% of hitters who will have more successes than failures against a dominant pitcher. The point of my original post was that as a team, at least at the college level in softball, you will not have enough good hitters to counter a truly dominant pitcher no matter how many times you see them in a season. You might be able to catch a dominant pitcher when they are having an off night or when they are trying to pitch through some type of issue like a muscle strain or a blister and then you can have multiple hitters have success against them (see above about Summer). There just aren't that many pitchers in the game right now like a Montana Fouts who can totally control a game from the circle. She makes up for the weaknesses in the lower part of Alabama's lineup and she dominates the weaknesses of the opposing teams bats. This is why every coach gladly offers up one of those ultra valuable and precious 12 athletic scholarships to a truly dominant pitcher.