MGoSoftball, Boo this man
That one was on the coaches I think. Poor baserunning, poor fielding, bunting foul with 2 strikes for the third out, etc. We outplayed FSU from the plate, but couldn't cash in when it mattered most. They had heads up baserunning and scored from first on that botched pop up, yet Romero only gets to second on that hit to the wall. No reason we should have lost that game, but we did.
I can't even imagine what she was thinking. The girl was going full tilt away from the bases, there's no way in hell she's throwing you out. Halfway, yes, but that she turned around and took those steps back toward first, it made absolutely no sense. Happens to the best of them, though. No one's perfect.
Agreed. She needed to be standing on second. If the CF makes the catch sprinting toward the wall, you're getting back to first in plenty of time. That also would have guaranteed her 3rd base and maybe a chance at home. Whole different ball game then.
Uhhh... How do you blame the coaches on Romero's baserunning blunder or the infield "double"?
You can maybe talk about it being a poor decision to bunt with 2 strikes. I won't pretend to know what's the smart move in softball with that pitcher in the circle and that batter at the plate just because I know a bit about baseball.
I'll trust Carol fuckin' Hutchins. You know, one of the best coaches in the history of our university.
Hutchins is a living legend, there's no doubt about it. But that doesn't mean she's infalliable. When players make mistakes, you don't know if that's their fault for doing it or their coach's fault for not drilling it into their brains not to. Today there were a solid handful of bonehead mistakes, so that seems to suggest to me that it's on the coaches. I didn't say we have bad coaches, because that's the farthest thing from the truth, but when it's mental mistakes that blows the game, I tend to put that on the coaches.
I don't think it was in poor form. We had it after the Wisconsin game, SDSU game, and ASU games as well.
but I'm certainly looking for people to blame!
To be fair, of course, MGoSoftball is one of our better sources for information on games and the state of the program and its players and is not in the typical cadence of blame when it comes to losses in varsity sports on MGoBlog. This is a site with a distinct culture and we do have to blame things in the right order.
where do I direct my bitterness? I feel very embittered.
I do not even know who is this Al of which you speak.
I don't know. With great power comes great responsibility. It's like being the QB. You want the credit when you win? You need to take the blame when you lose. MGoSoftball - you get at least 40% of the blame on this one.
I am too old to know why that would be. I haven't had a single problem with their service.
Damn, I was hoping you could tell me about something that I am missing.
You also predicted a sweep when the second game was tied 0-0. FSU promptly hit four homers.
Don't be too hard on yourself, I was watching game 3 at the gym before reading any of this and my only thought was, "if they lose this game it will be one the more unlucky losses that I've seen on a diamond."
FSU ties it up on a fluke bobble/runner interference(not really, but close) and Michigan smokes a ball down third with runners in scoring position and the 3rd basemen stabs at it and it sticks. M didn't play a perfect game by any means but some of that was just plain bad luck.
I love this softball team, guys.
Actually it was my fault guys.
I don't think it was really a blunder by Romero. If she catches the ball and she's standing on 2nd then she might get doubled up.
the girl is running full tilt towards the wall. It is not physically possible to get that ball back in time to get someone who is halfway to 3/4s of the way to second, and probably not even standing on second. Even Willie Mays's throw took a bit of time to make it in. Romero didn't stay halfway - she took steps back to first, which was definitely a blunder.
No college softball player is making that throw. If Romero is standing on second base when the CF catches it, she's most of the way back before the CF is able to turn around and throw. And even then it's a long throw.
It's Brady Hoke's fault, yo!
says me
she can't get the running game going
All about Borges no?
As this game was happening, I was watching my daughter's 12U team get thoroughly pummeled by a better coached and better prepared team. Our catcher let 6 runs in with passed balls. We got one run (happily by my daughter, at least one redeeming moment of the game) to their 15, and the game was called in the 4th, slaughter rule. This is only the beginning of the season. So as much as I hated hearing about this game today, there are others more worthy of my softball sympathy/blame.
do you think posting about it online is productive in any way? i trust you will be volunteering to coach next year.
I can't coach; I'm a parent. They have paid coaches. It's a travel league.
she will simply try out for a different travel team next year. Still nothing productive about bitching here.
Romero was positioned to tag at first and advance to second in case the ball was caught. If she had run to second and the ball was caught, there would be people complaining that she should stayed close to first so she could tag on a caught fly ball.
It's not worth dwelling over either way.
That's not true - she didn't do either. And you don't tag up at first to run to second on a fly ball to center. Even if she had attempted that, she may have been thrown out since that throw is short. Point is, she hung around in the middle and did nothing. Had she gone to second and waited, she may have been home.
Baserunning mistakes really kill me. It's probably the most overlooked part of the game and the least covered in practices (in relation to hitting & defense). Baserunning hurt the M baseball team the other day and it hurt softball yesterday. As others have said, she needs to read the CF- she was clearly going to need a miraculous play to catch that ball (momentum away from the infield had she caught it) and Romo needed to be in position to score if the ball hit the ground: probably 2-3 steps PAST 2nd.
there was another play where they had a pinch-runner on second with a grounder to her left that went to the CF- that girl needs to have enough speed to scpre there, IMO.