Dukes bringing it today so far. Won G1 of the DH over Towson, 9-0. Now up 4-0 in the btm of the 1st in G2.
I think there was some chatter that Towson may be a program to step up in the CAA this year to contend with Hofstra and the Dukes.
10-5 Dukes in the 5th in game 2!
JMU gets the sweep over Towson, 5-4. Nice!
Gutty comeback in yesterday's game. I love how they never give up. Towson's pitcher #20 had the Dukes flustered for most of the game until Mrozek got her home run in the sixth inning. It was coldddddd but fun to watch. Dukes will spend the end of this week in Wilmington and then come home for a series against Delaware the weekend of April 7. Nice to start conference play 3-0.
OOC done for most part. At large chances if we happen to drop CAA Tournament?
(03-29-2018 03:10 PM)Navyduke 07 Wrote: [ -> ]OOC done for most part. At large chances if we happen to drop CAA Tournament?
The Good Gals have a lot of quality wins on the resume. I'd think if we win the CAA regular season, we have a great shot at an at large bid if we drop the CAAT (pity the thought).
Doubleheader at UNCW will be streamed live via UNCW. Nice!
Windy day in Wilmington. Dukes jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st, but gave up 3 in the btm of the 2nd. With 2 outs, our CF misplayed a fly ball which led to the 2 go-ahead runs. They gave the UNCW batter a hit (triple), but it was definitely misplayed as she ran in too far and the ball sailed over her head. We get runners on 2nd and 3rd in the top of the 3rd with no outs and can't get any runs in. Frustrating start so far to Game 1. Dukes down 3-1 in the btm of the 3rd. Seahawks getting some good swings in on our freshmen star pitcher, Buresch.
Game 1 final: UNCW 6, JMU 4.
Game 2 underway.
Good Gals run-rule the Hawks in Game 2, 9-1. CC Alexander moves to 12-3 on the season. She went 3 for 4 and moved her batting percentage to .448 on the season.
The Dukes take the rubber match against the Seahawks 11-3 in 5 innings. Payton Buresch was the winning pitcher and goes to 12-4 on the season.. Move to 24-8 on the season and 5-1 in conference.
Go Dukes!!
Brian
Hofstra is up 7-0 in the 5th at Elon in G1 of their DH today.
A bit off topic, but nobody has chimed in on how Mickey Dean is doing in his first season at Auburn. To date his team is something like 32-6, and ranked 10th. They got swept in a three game series by #8 LSU, otherwise the Tigers have been playing well.
(03-31-2018 07:12 PM)Longhorn Wrote: [ -> ]A bit off topic, but nobody has chimed in on how Mickey Dean is doing in his first season at Auburn. To date his team is something like 32-6, and ranked 10th. They got swept in a three game series by #8 LSU, otherwise the Tigers have been playing well.
Well he inherited an SEC team that was 49-12 and lost in the Super Regionals last year, so despite the staff issues Auburn had last year they were very good without Mickey. He's doing a nice job with pitchers (go figure), and I doubt he'll feel inclined to alienate so many players on that squad since they were all SEC caliber recruits.
He'll do well early on, he's a good game and preparation coach. As a person, he's easily my least favorite JMU coach in history and since he's at another school I really don't care if he succeeds or fails. In fact, I lean towards hoping he fails.
Check out the Duke Softball roster/stats, you may recognize the name of the offensive leader for that ACC squad if you were paying attention.
Never heard anybody say anything negative about Dean while he was here. I thought he was generally regarded as a good guy.
(04-01-2018 09:02 AM)JMUska Wrote: [ -> ]Never heard anybody say anything negative about Dean while he was here. I thought he was generally regarded as a good guy.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion (obviously), but I guess some might not have liked his ways. MD's record at JMU was impressive (I think the team's win total improved each year), and he put JMU on the national map softball wise. Don't know how those facts can be diminished. Personally I don't wish anyone failure, and I think JMU's program would be better served if he was still the HC.
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. This being said, there seemed to be an undercurrent of negativity that suggested the treatment of student athletes was not in line with JMUs mission of being the national model for the student athlete experience. I feel like this is what Steeler is alluding to but maybe he can elloborate? There were quite a few players with eligibility that left after last year. I thought that was strange for a program that has had the success JMU has had.
(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. This being said, there seemed to be an undercurrent of negativity that suggested the treatment of student athletes was not in line with JMUs mission of being the national model for the student athlete experience. I feel like this is what Steeler is alluding to but maybe he can elloborate? There were quite a few players with eligibility that left after last year. I thought that was strange for a program that has had the success JMU has had.
I'm coming from the unique perspective of having dealt with Mickey as both a travel coach and high school coach, and what I'll tell you is the dichotomy of Mickey Dean is very difficult to explain. I won't play amateur psychologist, so I'll simply tell you that I watched him alienate more young players from the sport than I saw him develop. No question he's one of the best pitching coaches in the country, his development of Megan Good might be unparalleled (though she certainly deserves a lot of credit).
As a travel coach, I made the mistake of taking my 2nd year 14U team to his camp several summers ago. We were the youngest team there, though only by a year or so. What I wasn't told was that Mickey had made the decision that summer to "show these kids what college softball was all about." It was the most miserable experience of my young players' softball lives, 12 hour days in July that included vomiting and blisters from hot turf. We had a national tournament to play the following week, and had the worst performance we ever had. Most of those players no longer wanted to play the sport, most quit within 12 months and when asked specifically said D1 softball no longer was of interest after experiencing that camp. The other coaches there (CNU, Radford, Georgetown, Liberty, Norfolk St, Longwood) recognized it was a problem, but couldn't really do much about it.
However it was the experience of one former player that I've known since she was 7 year old that permanently changed my opinion. This is a kid who had D1 athletics on her radar from a very early age, that I coached in Little League, travel and won 3 state championships with in high school. I won't share her story, it's not my place. I'm just glad she got out of a terrible situation relatively unscathed, and has turned that experience into a shot at another D1 school. Her experience also cost JMU a shot at several other D1 players, I can name 3 that are STARTERS AS FRESHMEN at other schools that wouldn't give JMU a shot.
A lot of successful coaches leave detritus and hard feelings in their wake. W's are valuable, but not at all costs. I made my thoughts known to the Duke Club at the time, but he was gone a few months later so it didn't really matter. I'm a big fan of our current staff, and that's all that matters now. But I carry a lot of guilt for playing a role in convincing the player I mentioned above into playing at JMU, though on some levels I think she understood what she was signing up for.
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.