(04-01-2018 09:31 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  JMUSteeler’s opinion on all things softball is one that I put a lot of weight on.

All I saw while MD was at JMU was him winning with two fabulous pitchers. Steeler told me once that college softball is all about pitching and MD always had great pitching.

JMU is lacking great pitching this year. When they hit, they win. When they don’t, sometimes the pitching isn’t enough to carry them through so losing a coach that seemed to be able to obtain great pitching is a loss.

I think JMU's pitching has been very strong this year (surprisingly so), but I'm curious how you would define "great" pitching. Does it have to be MG quality to be "great"? Or is Freshman Payton Buresch's numbers just pedestrian? (.094 era in 104 innings), or is a team era of 1.71 for the season not excellent?

Obviously, the team's pitching and hitting without MG in the lineup is definitely below the level of the last few years, but what team wouldn't miss an All-American of her caliber? I'm just thinking perhaps some of us have grown a bit jaded by the quality of what Ford and Good showed us. Next year (saying MG returns to form), the combo of Good, Alexander and Buresch should have the program solidly in the national rankings, with a real shot to make the softball national championship series.

The defections and injuries have definitely been a blow. The team still has a lot of talent but if a few players are having an off day, there just don't seem to be as much flexibility for shuffling someone into the lineup to make up the difference. The team is quite young overall this year - lots of frosh/sophs. They're having a really solid season thus far and the experience + added depth from recruiting next year should help raise the ceiling back up again: https://jmusports.com/news/2017/11/14/so...-2018.aspx

(04-02-2018 08:48 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  It’s a bit like Withers except with wins!

Steeler, did you really lose your entire travel team due to them quitting? That’s wild. So the atmosphere was just unforgiving due to keeping them out working in the brutal weather at the camp?

Just curious: is it typical for HS softball coaches to also coach a travel team? I’m not around the softball sub-culture much, but I don’t see it frequently in other sports. Not trying to get into your personal business too much, just genuinely curious.

It's becoming more prevalent in HS than it used to be, I don't necessarily like it. I transitioned from travel to join the HS staff, but the guy I coach for is a travel coach. You'd never know it when we are with our HS team, he never brings it up. Other coaches use it to recruit, and that I don't approve of. It's ok if it's done the right way.

What that camp told my kids was they weren't interested in playing the sport at the next level. If you're not, then what's the point of paying to travel up and down the east coast and attend college camps? That camp cost us $350 per player, only to have a ton of them quit the sport or at least quit playing travel ball (including my oldest daughter, who actually quit the sport). One of them walked away from an offer to play at VT. Thing is it's not like that everywhere.

(04-02-2018 10:17 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-01-2018 09:31 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  JMUSteeler’s opinion on all things softball is one that I put a lot of weight on.

All I saw while MD was at JMU was him winning with two fabulous pitchers. Steeler told me once that college softball is all about pitching and MD always had great pitching.

JMU is lacking great pitching this year. When they hit, they win. When they don’t, sometimes the pitching isn’t enough to carry them through so losing a coach that seemed to be able to obtain great pitching is a loss.

I think JMU's pitching has been very strong this year (surprisingly so), but I'm curious how you would define "great" pitching. Does it have to be MG quality to be "great"? Or is Freshman Payton Buresch's numbers just pedestrian? (.094 era in 104 innings), or is a team era of 1.71 for the season not excellent?

Obviously, the team's pitching and hitting without MG in the lineup is definitely below the level of the last few years, but what team wouldn't miss an All-American of her caliber? I'm just thinking perhaps some of us have grown a bit jaded by the quality of what Ford and Good showed us. Next year (saying MG returns to form), the combo of Good, Alexander and Buresch should have the program solidly in the national rankings, with a real shot to make the softball national championship series.

I think our pitching is pretty good, and goes to great with Good back in the rotation. I think Alexander might be the odd man out next year, though she's obviously in the lineup with that bat no matter what. Buresch has been a pleasant surprise, I was watching TN play GA last night and their FR pitcher has really struggled.

I hear you. Thanks for the insight. I actually think we’ve met in P-Lot before!

(04-02-2018 10:46 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  I hear you. Thanks for the insight. I actually think we’ve met in P-Lot before!

Yep, and didn't you have a connection to West Point, VA at one time? My wife went to HS there, I grew up in New Kent.

Yessir, WP raised! NKHS always had outstanding 1A softball teams back when they were in our class.

(04-02-2018 11:14 AM)HyperDuke Wrote:  Yessir, WP raised! NKHS always had outstanding 1A softball teams back when they were in our class.

After JMU I taught English at New Kent for 2 years, in that second year I coached the softball team (it was my first softball coaching gig). We went to Regionals, and I had a great time coaching those ladies.

In high school I played baseball, and in my senior year there was a stud freshman softball pitcher named Kerry Cobb (who went on to become an All-American at CNU). I challenged her to an at bat, and she struck me out on 3 riseballs. My respect for softball started there.

(04-02-2018 10:17 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-01-2018 09:31 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  JMUSteeler’s opinion on all things softball is one that I put a lot of weight on.

All I saw while MD was at JMU was him winning with two fabulous pitchers. Steeler told me once that college softball is all about pitching and MD always had great pitching.

JMU is lacking great pitching this year. When they hit, they win. When they don’t, sometimes the pitching isn’t enough to carry them through so losing a coach that seemed to be able to obtain great pitching is a loss.

I think JMU's pitching has been very strong this year (surprisingly so), but I'm curious how you would define "great" pitching. Does it have to be MG quality to be "great"? Or is Freshman Payton Buresch's numbers just pedestrian? (.094 era in 104 innings), or is a team era of 1.71 for the season not excellent?

Obviously, the team's pitching and hitting without MG in the lineup is definitely below the level of the last few years, but what team wouldn't miss an All-American of her caliber? I'm just thinking perhaps some of us have grown a bit jaded by the quality of what Ford and Good showed us. Next year (saying MG returns to form), the combo of Good, Alexander and Buresch should have the program solidly in the national rankings, with a real shot to make the softball national championship series.

Great pitching was Ford and Good. JMU has good pitching this year and 8 losses already because of it. Not criticizing the current staff just recognizing how great Ford and Good were.

(03-06-2018 05:24 PM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 12:49 PM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 12:22 PM)Dukester Wrote:  Up to #27

Hard to make a case for Cal to be so much higher than us, but it is what it is.....

sadly, our schedule after Hawaii is really light the rest of the year.

The best "name" remaining on the OOC schedule is North Carolina, but they are not having a good year. Elon beat them twice.

the season ender against Hofstra could be our best resume builder left

I'm sure we'll drop a few games here and there...it happens in baseball/softball...but I expect a pretty gaudy record by year end.

45-5 or so. That might be good enough for a 18-22 ranking, but that's it.

Speaking of Elon, 2 local valley girls have started every game this year as freshmen at Elon. I was bummed when they did not end up at JMU, for whatever reason. When Elon comes here, they will have a ton of Broadway and Turner Ashby folks rooting for them. Oh well.

After being away for a few weeks and catching up on here, I did see some of the more recent comments about the departed coach. I love the Softball program and have been to many games. I love the winning streaks and having a top notch team. I think there was a price though. I study coaches and players. It takes a super thick skinned player to handle some of the coaching "style" I witnessed. Here's a teachable moment I recall. On a windy day, a fly ball is hit deep to left. Is it catchable at the wall or is it a Home Run or is it one that will bounce high off the wall? What to do? Our shorter left fielder decides if it's not a HR it is best to prepare for the carom high off the wall and turns her back to home plate and gets ready. As it turned out it was catchable at the wall. She misplays the carom into an error. When the inning ends, she is met by an irate charging coach coming out of the dugout area well out in the outfield, gesticulating anger in the face of the kid for many painful seconds. At least it was painful for me to watch. I always thought: These are some brave kids. I witnessed similar moments many times and I cringed a lot just about every game, thinking my daughter could not have played here. I prayed for the team to play the perfect game to minimize these events. (I contrast this to our WBB program where I often see brief feedback conversation between a controlled Head Coach and a subbed-out player exiting the floor.)

(04-02-2018 11:25 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 10:17 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-01-2018 09:31 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  JMUSteeler’s opinion on all things softball is one that I put a lot of weight on.

All I saw while MD was at JMU was him winning with two fabulous pitchers. Steeler told me once that college softball is all about pitching and MD always had great pitching.

JMU is lacking great pitching this year. When they hit, they win. When they don’t, sometimes the pitching isn’t enough to carry them through so losing a coach that seemed to be able to obtain great pitching is a loss.

I think JMU's pitching has been very strong this year (surprisingly so), but I'm curious how you would define "great" pitching. Does it have to be MG quality to be "great"? Or is Freshman Payton Buresch's numbers just pedestrian? (.094 era in 104 innings), or is a team era of 1.71 for the season not excellent?

Obviously, the team's pitching and hitting without MG in the lineup is definitely below the level of the last few years, but what team wouldn't miss an All-American of her caliber? I'm just thinking perhaps some of us have grown a bit jaded by the quality of what Ford and Good showed us. Next year (saying MG returns to form), the combo of Good, Alexander and Buresch should have the program solidly in the national rankings, with a real shot to make the softball national championship series.

Great pitching was Ford and Good. JMU has good pitching this year and 8 losses already because of it. Not criticizing the current staff just recognizing how great Ford and Good were.

Our team ERA is currently 18th in the nation. Not getting in an argument of good vs. great but 18th out of 296 teams puts you among the top 6% in the nation.

I won't get into it about pitching yet, but I feel we've made more errors than usual. Maybe someone can look it up.
My take on pitching. It seems once our defense commits an error, our pitchers tend to lose focus and give up the big hit. Yes, these are not earned runs, and our era is low, but our pitchers need to close out the inning without letting those runs in.

(04-03-2018 08:47 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 05:24 PM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 12:49 PM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 12:22 PM)Dukester Wrote:  Up to #27

Hard to make a case for Cal to be so much higher than us, but it is what it is.....

sadly, our schedule after Hawaii is really light the rest of the year.

The best "name" remaining on the OOC schedule is North Carolina, but they are not having a good year. Elon beat them twice.

the season ender against Hofstra could be our best resume builder left

I'm sure we'll drop a few games here and there...it happens in baseball/softball...but I expect a pretty gaudy record by year end.

45-5 or so. That might be good enough for a 18-22 ranking, but that's it.

Speaking of Elon, 2 local valley girls have started every game this year as freshmen at Elon. I was bummed when they did not end up at JMU, for whatever reason. When Elon comes here, they will have a ton of Broadway and Turner Ashby folks rooting for them. Oh well.

After being away for a few weeks and catching up on here, I did see some of the more recent comments about the departed coach. I love the Softball program and have been to many games. I love the winning streaks and having a top notch team. I think there was a price though. I study coaches and players. It takes a super thick skinned player to handle some of the coaching "style" I witnessed. Here's a teachable moment I recall. On a windy day, a fly ball is hit deep to left. Is it catchable at the wall or is it a Home Run or is it one that will bounce high off the wall? What to do? Our shorter left fielder decides if it's not a HR it is best to prepare for the carom high off the wall and turns her back to home plate and gets ready. As it turned out it was catchable at the wall. She misplays the carom into an error. When the inning ends, she is met by an irate charging coach coming out of the dugout area well out in the outfield, gesticulating anger in the face of the kid for many painful seconds. At least it was painful for me to watch. I always thought: These are some brave kids. I witnessed similar moments many times and I cringed a lot just about every game, thinking my daughter could not have played here. I prayed for the team to play the perfect game to minimize these events. (I contrast this to our WBB program where I often see brief feedback conversation between a controlled Head Coach and a subbed-out player exiting the floor.)

I thought the same, but I've heard that Kenny could cut loose in practice, but was very controlled during a game.
My daughter played high school and travel ball for a coach that did a lot of theatrics, throwing clipboards, hand gestures, etc.(He could not talk due to throat cancer). She and a few teammates loved the guy. She stated he only got that way when he knew and they knew the play should have been made. She had some more subdued coaches that she didn't care for. Go figure.

sorry about the bold, messed up.

(04-03-2018 09:43 AM)JMU83 Wrote:  I won't get into it about pitching yet, but I feel we've made more errors than usual. Maybe someone can look it up.
My take on pitching. It seems once our defense commits an error, our pitchers tend to lose focus and give up the big hit. Yes, these are not earned runs, and our era is low, but our pitchers need to close out the inning without letting those runs in.

The team has committed 42 errors thru 32 games. Last year, as a reference point, the team committed 42 errors over the entire season (over 60 games). As Steeler has pointed out though, with less Megan Good striking out seemingly everybody, more balls in play means more chances for error. Having said that, it still should be a concern for Coach LaPorte and the team.

(04-03-2018 09:52 AM)Wear Purple Wrote:  

(04-03-2018 09:43 AM)JMU83 Wrote:  I won't get into it about pitching yet, but I feel we've made more errors than usual. Maybe someone can look it up.
My take on pitching. It seems once our defense commits an error, our pitchers tend to lose focus and give up the big hit. Yes, these are not earned runs, and our era is low, but our pitchers need to close out the inning without letting those runs in.

The team has committed 42 errors thru 32 games. Last year, as a reference point, the team committed 42 errors over the entire season (over 60 games). As Steeler has pointed out though, with less Megan Good striking out seemingly everybody, more balls in play means more chances for error. Having said that, it still should be a concern for Coach LaPorte and the team.

Fielding is what makes a good team great. Those errors are going to kill us if we make the postseason.

It was if MG and further back, J. Ford, could easily shrug off almost anything bad that may happen including things they did like walking a batter. I think Ford created that characteristic in MG. Question: Did MD recruit Ford or was she already committed to JMU? For all I know, she may have already been a Duke by the time MD arrived (too lazy to research).

(04-03-2018 09:51 AM)JMU83 Wrote:  

(04-03-2018 08:47 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 05:24 PM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 12:49 PM)Duke Dawg Wrote:  

(03-06-2018 12:22 PM)Dukester Wrote:  Up to #27

Hard to make a case for Cal to be so much higher than us, but it is what it is.....

sadly, our schedule after Hawaii is really light the rest of the year.

The best "name" remaining on the OOC schedule is North Carolina, but they are not having a good year. Elon beat them twice.

the season ender against Hofstra could be our best resume builder left

I'm sure we'll drop a few games here and there...it happens in baseball/softball...but I expect a pretty gaudy record by year end.

45-5 or so. That might be good enough for a 18-22 ranking, but that's it.

Speaking of Elon, 2 local valley girls have started every game this year as freshmen at Elon. I was bummed when they did not end up at JMU, for whatever reason. When Elon comes here, they will have a ton of Broadway and Turner Ashby folks rooting for them. Oh well.

After being away for a few weeks and catching up on here, I did see some of the more recent comments about the departed coach. I love the Softball program and have been to many games. I love the winning streaks and having a top notch team. I think there was a price though. I study coaches and players. It takes a super thick skinned player to handle some of the coaching "style" I witnessed. Here's a teachable moment I recall. On a windy day, a fly ball is hit deep to left. Is it catchable at the wall or is it a Home Run or is it one that will bounce high off the wall? What to do? Our shorter left fielder decides if it's not a HR it is best to prepare for the carom high off the wall and turns her back to home plate and gets ready. As it turned out it was catchable at the wall. She misplays the carom into an error. When the inning ends, she is met by an irate charging coach coming out of the dugout area well out in the outfield, gesticulating anger in the face of the kid for many painful seconds. At least it was painful for me to watch. I always thought: These are some brave kids. I witnessed similar moments many times and I cringed a lot just about every game, thinking my daughter could not have played here. I prayed for the team to play the perfect game to minimize these events. (I contrast this to our WBB program where I often see brief feedback conversation between a controlled Head Coach and a subbed-out player exiting the floor.)

I thought the same, but I've heard that Kenny could cut loose in practice, but was very controlled during a game.
My daughter played high school and travel ball for a coach that did a lot of theatrics, throwing clipboards, hand gestures, etc.(He could not talk due to throat cancer). She and a few teammates loved the guy. She stated he only got that way when he knew and they knew the play should have been made. She had some more subdued coaches that she didn't care for. Go figure.

sorry about the bold, messed up.

But of course your daughter's travel coach rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, got run out of 2 high schools and has folded more teams than I can count. In travel at least you can decide who you want to play for, not so much in school ball. And quite frankly a lot of that is true of college ball IF a coach decides to make your transfer difficult.

For example, part of the reason more young players didn't exit the program is MD refused to release them to in-state or in-conference schools. We had allegedly had several decide to stay over that, and one who had to turn down VT and UVA to go ACC out of state. Conference is one thing, in-state is ridiculous.

(04-03-2018 09:15 AM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 11:25 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 10:17 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-01-2018 09:31 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  JMUSteeler’s opinion on all things softball is one that I put a lot of weight on.

All I saw while MD was at JMU was him winning with two fabulous pitchers. Steeler told me once that college softball is all about pitching and MD always had great pitching.

JMU is lacking great pitching this year. When they hit, they win. When they don’t, sometimes the pitching isn’t enough to carry them through so losing a coach that seemed to be able to obtain great pitching is a loss.

I think JMU's pitching has been very strong this year (surprisingly so), but I'm curious how you would define "great" pitching. Does it have to be MG quality to be "great"? Or is Freshman Payton Buresch's numbers just pedestrian? (.094 era in 104 innings), or is a team era of 1.71 for the season not excellent?

Obviously, the team's pitching and hitting without MG in the lineup is definitely below the level of the last few years, but what team wouldn't miss an All-American of her caliber? I'm just thinking perhaps some of us have grown a bit jaded by the quality of what Ford and Good showed us. Next year (saying MG returns to form), the combo of Good, Alexander and Buresch should have the program solidly in the national rankings, with a real shot to make the softball national championship series.

Great pitching was Ford and Good. JMU has good pitching this year and 8 losses already because of it. Not criticizing the current staff just recognizing how great Ford and Good were.

Our team ERA is currently 18th in the nation. Not getting in an argument of good vs. great but 18th out of 296 teams puts you among the top 6% in the nation.

It's tricky in softball with the compact fields, while it's true we aren't given up a ton of earned runs we are giving up a lot more hard hit balls in play than we did with Ford and Good in the circle. You'll get more errors with more opportunities, and with our limited offensive options we've got to decide whether to play our best defensive or best offensive players. I believe it's likely why a player like Mitchell quit, she was a great offensive option but we couldn't seem to find a spot on the field for her. We've tried Mrozek, but she's not hitting up to her normal standards and made a lot of errors in limited chances.

I can relate, I'm on the staff of a 3 time defending state champion who went 25-1 last year and gave up 4 runs. Our starter left for the ACC with her 16 K's per game, our starter this year has 2 losses already on 5 unearned runs. Her ERA is pristine, but the D has to handle so many more chances than they did last year and it's hurt us. Same is true for Good vs Alexander or Buresch. We've given up 7 runs 4 times, including in losses to Longwood and BYU, and 9 runs. That would be unheard the past several years, last year the most runs we allowed in a game was 6.

(04-02-2018 11:25 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 10:17 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-01-2018 09:31 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  JMUSteeler’s opinion on all things softball is one that I put a lot of weight on.

All I saw while MD was at JMU was him winning with two fabulous pitchers. Steeler told me once that college softball is all about pitching and MD always had great pitching.

JMU is lacking great pitching this year. When they hit, they win. When they don’t, sometimes the pitching isn’t enough to carry them through so losing a coach that seemed to be able to obtain great pitching is a loss.

I think JMU's pitching has been very strong this year (surprisingly so), but I'm curious how you would define "great" pitching. Does it have to be MG quality to be "great"? Or is Freshman Payton Buresch's numbers just pedestrian? (.094 era in 104 innings), or is a team era of 1.71 for the season not excellent?

Obviously, the team's pitching and hitting without MG in the lineup is definitely below the level of the last few years, but what team wouldn't miss an All-American of her caliber? I'm just thinking perhaps some of us have grown a bit jaded by the quality of what Ford and Good showed us. Next year (saying MG returns to form), the combo of Good, Alexander and Buresch should have the program solidly in the national rankings, with a real shot to make the softball national championship series.

Great pitching was Ford and Good. JMU has good pitching this year and 8 losses already because of it. Not criticizing the current staff just recognizing how great Ford and Good were.

To clarify, if great pitching was Ford AND Good (two AAs) how would you classify JMU’s pitching last year with just Good? Was it still great? Not dogging you, I’m honestly curious what defines “great” for you. Is your definition based on Ws (you seem to suggest that), or some combination of Ws and stats?

Clearly JMUs pitching isn’t as strong as it was with Ford and Good, or just Good alone, but I think the 8 losses this year (to date) is more complicated than just the fault of pitching. As already pointed out, hitting is sometimes absent, and fielding has also been spotty at times, and the losses aren’t “just” the lack of great pitching.

(04-03-2018 08:02 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 11:25 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  

(04-02-2018 10:17 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(04-01-2018 09:31 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  JMUSteeler’s opinion on all things softball is one that I put a lot of weight on.

All I saw while MD was at JMU was him winning with two fabulous pitchers. Steeler told me once that college softball is all about pitching and MD always had great pitching.

JMU is lacking great pitching this year. When they hit, they win. When they don’t, sometimes the pitching isn’t enough to carry them through so losing a coach that seemed to be able to obtain great pitching is a loss.

I think JMU's pitching has been very strong this year (surprisingly so), but I'm curious how you would define "great" pitching. Does it have to be MG quality to be "great"? Or is Freshman Payton Buresch's numbers just pedestrian? (.094 era in 104 innings), or is a team era of 1.71 for the season not excellent?

Obviously, the team's pitching and hitting without MG in the lineup is definitely below the level of the last few years, but what team wouldn't miss an All-American of her caliber? I'm just thinking perhaps some of us have grown a bit jaded by the quality of what Ford and Good showed us. Next year (saying MG returns to form), the combo of Good, Alexander and Buresch should have the program solidly in the national rankings, with a real shot to make the softball national championship series.

Great pitching was Ford and Good. JMU has good pitching this year and 8 losses already because of it. Not criticizing the current staff just recognizing how great Ford and Good were.

To clarify, if great pitching was Ford AND Good (two AAs) how would you classify JMU’s pitching last year with just Good? Was it still great? Not dogging you, I’m honestly curious what defines “great” for you. Is your definition based on Ws (you seem to suggest that), or some combination of Ws and stats?

Clearly JMUs pitching isn’t as strong as it was with Ford and Good, or just Good alone, but I think the 8 losses this year (to date) is more complicated than just the fault of pitching. As already pointed out, hitting is sometimes absent, and fielding has also been spotty at times, and the losses aren’t “just” the lack of great pitching.

It seemed that Good pitched more last year than the year before. She was great last year. No doubt hitting has not been there at times this year but last year with Megan pitching, the Dukes only needed one or two runs to win the game