[LUminary]

Not enough offense down the stretch. Would have been great to get 50th win and Super Regional showing, but fine season and a lot back for next season.

[JK37]

We rode the Dimartino horse all weekend, determined to do so until she died. Bats were never good all weekend.

[Chippy]

Maybe Dot should add some more power hitters less slap hitters. Groundouts for days.

We got two coming next year and Sweat coming back from injury. Madison Via needs to move up in the batting order next year.

[A Sea of Red]

Impressive run to Regional Final comes to an end

http://www.aseaofred.com/impressive-run ... to-an-end/

[flamehunter]

We rode the Dimartino horse all weekend, determined to do so until she died. Bats were never good all weekend.

Might've had something to do playing top 25 teams including 3 against #9 team in the country.
Edit to add: not the ending we hoped for but we definitely belonged there and were capable of moving to the next round.

[jimflamesfan]

Good season. Was hoping Hofstra would hold on yesterday, I think the story may have been different today for us!! Question: Do they do a final top 25 Softball poll at the end of the year? Do you think the 2 post season wins will be enough to move LU into the final top 25 list??

[JK37]

We rode the Dimartino horse all weekend, determined to do so until she died. Bats were never good all weekend.

Might've had something to do playing top 25 teams including 3 against #9 team in the country.
Edit to add: not the ending we hoped for but we definitely belonged there and were capable of moving to the next round.

I don’t disagree. And I also don’t make excuses. Just straight analysis: we rode Dimartino til she died. Watching her in final game was hard. Bats never got going. Did just barely enough in two wins.

Sure, we belonged. And it was a fun weekend with the two dramatic wins. So much returning makes next season highly anticipated. Should be preseason favorite in new league.

I guess you could say we were “capable” of going to Supers, because that’s why they play the games. But in back-to-back games with a chance to take it, we scored no runs. That was miserable.

[ballcoach15]

It's imperative that we go forward, on this trip to Regionals, not go backwards.

[Purple Haize]

Really? Going backwards shouldn’t be a goal?

[ballcoach15]

As I review the stats from tournament, there are 3 spots in batting order that went a combined 2-36. Next season we need more production out of these 3 spots.
Also, we need better pinch hitting, 0-7 for tournament.

[LUminary]

Question: Do they do a final top 25 Softball poll at the end of the year? Do you think the 2 post season wins will be enough to move LU into the final top 25 list??

Should be enough if there is one. If I recall, Hofstra was somewhere around 23 in most recent poll and LU ought to take that spot after this weekend. Also JMU and another team or two in that 20-25 range had early exits this weekend.

[ballcoach15]

It would be good to be ranked in Final Poll.

[flamehunter]

We rode the Dimartino horse all weekend, determined to do so until she died. Bats were never good all weekend.

Might've had something to do playing top 25 teams including 3 against #9 team in the country.
Edit to add: not the ending we hoped for but we definitely belonged there and were capable of moving to the next round.

I don’t disagree. And I also don’t make excuses. Just straight analysis: we rode Dimartino til she died. Watching her in final game was hard. Bats never got going. Did just barely enough in two wins.

Sure, we belonged. And it was a fun weekend with the two dramatic wins. So much returning makes next season highly anticipated. Should be preseason favorite in new league.

I guess you could say we were “capable” of going to Supers, because that’s why they play the games. But in back-to-back games with a chance to take it, we scored no runs. That was miserable.

You sound like a coach.

[ballcoach15]

Had absolutely no clutch hitting with runners on base. "short game" was MIA. SC's outfield was shaky on defense if we could have challenged them with hard hit balls, or balls in gaps.

[JK37]

I think USC gets beat good next round.

[JK37]

I don’t disagree. And I also don’t make excuses. Just straight analysis: we rode Dimartino til she died. Watching her in final game was hard. Bats never got going. Did just barely enough in two wins.

Sure, we belonged. And it was a fun weekend with the two dramatic wins. So much returning makes next season highly anticipated. Should be preseason favorite in new league.

I guess you could say we were “capable” of going to Supers, because that’s why they play the games. But in back-to-back games with a chance to take it, we scored no runs. That was miserable.

You sound like a coach.

What do you know about it?

[flamehunter]

I don’t disagree. And I also don’t make excuses. Just straight analysis: we rode Dimartino til she died. Watching her in final game was hard. Bats never got going. Did just barely enough in two wins.

Sure, we belonged. And it was a fun weekend with the two dramatic wins. So much returning makes next season highly anticipated. Should be preseason favorite in new league.

I guess you could say we were “capable” of going to Supers, because that’s why they play the games. But in back-to-back games with a chance to take it, we scored no runs. That was miserable.

You sound like a coach.

What do you know about it?

Just a Flames fan who doesn't want to spend the next 8-9 months thinking "if only" but rather what a great season we had and that we are heading in the right direction. I'll let you coaches figure out how we can continue to get better. I lived long enough to know that my blood pressure can't handle fretting over the small stuff like sports. However, if coaches need help I'm always available for some great advice! Send me a PM if you ever need any

[ballcoach15]

I said last night I would not say "if only", but this morning I have replayed both games in my mind several times.

On the play at 2B in 2nd inning, the runner was out. Amber had ball in her glove and runner slid into glove. ball never came completely out of glove. Her throwing hand did grasp ball late in the play. Plus she blocked the base.

Not to mention umpire was out of position to make proper call.

[Cider Jim]

ball never came completely out of glove. Her throwing hand did grasp ball late in the play.

Ballcoach, have you seen the streamed replay? No way the umpire could have seen it from his angle, but in the replay, it sure looked like the ball was bobbled between Bishop's glove and her throwing hand.

[ballcoach15]

Yes, I watched replay probably 15-20 times. Runner slid into glove with ball in it. ball never came out of glove until she took it out. It was a bang-bang play, key to play in my opinion was the base was blocked , thus runner should have been called out.

The umpires were good all weekend except for 2 or 3 plays, and the same Umpire was involved with each.

[CentFla]

I don’t follow the softball team but are there anyone besides the Bishops that have any pop in the bat? Team really can’t hit.
In short, no!

Not sure what your standard of pop and being able to hit is... but, the team led the big south in hits, doubles (4 players >12), triples, and the least K's. They had a 19 game win streak, that doesn't happen unless you can hit.

Some games you will have timely hitting.. some games you won't. It's a game of failure. The same group that struggled this weekend hit close to .400 last weekend at big south. A few that did well this weekend struggled at big south. It happens. There were some hard hit balls that just didn't find that gap and yes, they were grounders. There was a stiff headwind and lots of change-ups.. which typically induces pop-ups... you have 0 chance on a pop-up. So, what adjustment do you make, you get on top-mid of the ball. Get the ball into play. ("coach" should know that)

This team won the big south regular season, big south conference, and beat 2 top 20 teams that have been to regionals several times.... This team did something only 32 teams out of 295 did, they played in a regional championship... don't lose sight of the fact in 2014 the RPI was 257. I think some of ya'lls expectations might be just a little too high...

It stinks to lose, but, what they accomplished was pretty amazing.

[Jonathan Carone]

How much of our lack of hitting this weekend was due to the fact we’ve been seeing Big South pitching all season? I know we played some good teams out of conference early in the year, but we haven’t faced any pitching anywhere near what we saw this weekend in a month or so.

[CentFla]

How much of our lack of hitting this weekend was due to the fact we’ve been seeing Big South pitching all season? I know we played some good teams out of conference early in the year, but we haven’t faced any pitching anywhere near what we saw this weekend in a month or so.

No question, there is a level of experience they get playing SEC schools over and over during conference. The other part, which is somewhat luck/fortune, with one swing of the bat, they beat Hofstra in the 7th. They were losing until a walk and a missed pitch that got hit for a homer. On a side note, that was the same player that struck out looking against LU the day before. It happens. With one swing of the bat they beat LU in the first championship game. Amber hit a missile to right-center with Autumn on, but was a few feet short of going over and caught. If she hits it softer, it's a base hit. They just didn't fall.

I wouldn't say there was a lack of hitting as much as there was a lack of timely hitting. It's symantics I know.. for the stat guys.. we averaged 5.75 hits per game and 5.75 hits per game against us. Against USC we had 17 hits, they had 19, we had 7 walks they had 3. So, we had more base runners.

[ballcoach15]

Next season we need to play several SEC schools, throughout the season. Including last week of regular season.

[Chippy]

Timely hitting was missing. I think we were 3-31 with RISP with a grand total of 1 RBI in our 4 games. I think USC was 8-25 with @ 9 RBIs. I'm sure the exact numbers are available but this is what I think ended up based on where we were and USC was before the last game.