Already 2 errors by the Dukes. Gotta clean it up. Hopefully, it won't hurt us against these gals.

UVA scores two.....Dukes up 6-4 at the end of 5. This is not Jubas' night....three errors for her tonight. Samuels got hit in the head by a pitch last inning but seems to be okay. She stayed in the game after getting bandaged up and changing her jersey. Hope she really is okay.

A couple of great JMU defensive plays keep UVA scoreless.....score remains 6-4 in top of the seventh.

Good job of working out of that jam in the btm of the last by CC. Good road win, Dukes. Now, let's get home and get ready for a huge series against Hofstra.

Dukes win 6-4!!!

(04-23-2018 06:55 AM)EvanJ Wrote:  

(04-21-2018 04:50 PM)Wear Purple Wrote:  Hofstra swept their DH at home over Drexel in easy fashion today (9-0 & 11-2, both in 5 innings). Setting up to be a big weekend series at JMU in a week.

Hofstra is ranked Number 25. You might get ranked if you beat Hofstra. The polls come out on Tuesdays. In the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll, which is the only one of the three polls on the NCAA's website, you're third in Receiving Votes, and looking at how other teams did I don't think you will enter the poll. It would be special to have a CAA series between two ranked teams. Assuming the tiebreaker is head-to-head, Hofstra (15-0) will clinch the regular season if they win 2 out of 3. You're 13-2 and that would give Hofstra a 3 game lead with 3 games left. The Massey Ratings favor Hofstra with a 55% chance against you.

Fielding is a problem for you. In the NCAA statistics through April 18, you have the highest percentage of runs allowed that were unearned.

Last year 42 errors in 60 games. This year 52 errors in 44 games. 47 unearned runs given up!

(04-26-2018 10:48 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(04-23-2018 06:55 AM)EvanJ Wrote:  

(04-21-2018 04:50 PM)Wear Purple Wrote:  Hofstra swept their DH at home over Drexel in easy fashion today (9-0 & 11-2, both in 5 innings). Setting up to be a big weekend series at JMU in a week.

Hofstra is ranked Number 25. You might get ranked if you beat Hofstra. The polls come out on Tuesdays. In the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll, which is the only one of the three polls on the NCAA's website, you're third in Receiving Votes, and looking at how other teams did I don't think you will enter the poll. It would be special to have a CAA series between two ranked teams. Assuming the tiebreaker is head-to-head, Hofstra (15-0) will clinch the regular season if they win 2 out of 3. You're 13-2 and that would give Hofstra a 3 game lead with 3 games left. The Massey Ratings favor Hofstra with a 55% chance against you.

Fielding is a problem for you. In the NCAA statistics through April 18, you have the highest percentage of runs allowed that were unearned.

Last year 42 errors in 60 games. This year 52 errors in 44 games. 47 unearned runs given up!

Not excusing errors by any stretch, they should be fielding better than this....averaging more than an error a game.

Having said that I really don't think the defense is 'really' any worse than last season it is just a by-product of Good being injured and being exposed more b/c:
1. Good got a lot more strikeouts (so less opportunities for errors)
2. Good yielded far fewer well hit balls (which are easier to field)
3.Good could more effective clean up a mess by herself (see first 2 points) to get out of a jam thereby fewer unearned runs.

Having said all that, this pitching staff 'should' be loaded for bear next year.

Fielding percentages are almost 1, so I made up a statistic called error percentage, which is 1 - fielding percentage. Your error percentage is 64.0% higher than last year. Strikeouts don't affect fielding percentage or error percentage, and there's no way of measuring how hard it was to field balls in different years. Your errors per game are up 68.8%, so the error percentage increase is a little lower than the errors per game increase.

Hofstra trailed 2-1 at Stony Brook before winning 5-2 to extend their winning streak to 17. It ended Hofstra's streak of leading after 5 innings in 25 consecutive games including losses when Hofstra led after 5. Stony Brook has a worse RPI than every CAA team except Drexel. It was the fourth time in the 17 game winning streak (which Hofstra says is the second longest active winning streak) that Hofstra won by 5 or fewer. The statistics stopped working with 2 outs left because Stony Brook uses Sidearm Sports, which I don't like as much as Stat Broadcast that the CAA uses.

(04-26-2018 10:56 AM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(04-26-2018 10:48 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  

(04-23-2018 06:55 AM)EvanJ Wrote:  

(04-21-2018 04:50 PM)Wear Purple Wrote:  Hofstra swept their DH at home over Drexel in easy fashion today (9-0 & 11-2, both in 5 innings). Setting up to be a big weekend series at JMU in a week.

Hofstra is ranked Number 25. You might get ranked if you beat Hofstra. The polls come out on Tuesdays. In the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll, which is the only one of the three polls on the NCAA's website, you're third in Receiving Votes, and looking at how other teams did I don't think you will enter the poll. It would be special to have a CAA series between two ranked teams. Assuming the tiebreaker is head-to-head, Hofstra (15-0) will clinch the regular season if they win 2 out of 3. You're 13-2 and that would give Hofstra a 3 game lead with 3 games left. The Massey Ratings favor Hofstra with a 55% chance against you.

Fielding is a problem for you. In the NCAA statistics through April 18, you have the highest percentage of runs allowed that were unearned.

Last year 42 errors in 60 games. This year 52 errors in 44 games. 47 unearned runs given up!

Not excusing errors by any stretch, they should be fielding better than this....averaging more than an error a game.

Having said that I really don't think the defense is 'really' any worse than last season it is just a by-product of Good being injured and being exposed more b/c:
1. Good got a lot more strikeouts (so less opportunities for errors)
2. Good yielded far fewer well hit balls (which are easier to field)
3.Good could more effective clean up a mess by herself (see first 2 points) to get out of a jam thereby fewer unearned runs.

Having said all that, this pitching staff 'should' be loaded for bear next year.

Actually I think it's more about fielding percentage. Most of the errors are in the infield. Compare last year's fielding percentages of the four infield positions to this years; they were much higher than this years. Moran and Prince were very good fielders and perhaps Tolle.... at first base. This year we essentially have three new infielders and the percentages are not so good. Anyway I hope for some error free games this weekend so we can take that out of our analysis .

Since it is such a beautiful day the Wife and I have decided to take a ride down to the Valley and catch the games today. Hope to see a nice crowd against the Dukes main CAA rivals in Hofstra.

Go Dukes!!

Brian

http://gohofstra.com/news/2018/4/27/soft...h=softball is Hofstra's preview.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/h...SB_JMU.pdf is Hofstra's Game Notes.

http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=202969 will have statistics.

Up 4-2 after 2 innings, thanks to 3 home runs!

9-8 walk off win on a HR by Alexander

(04-28-2018 03:06 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  9-8 walk off win on a HR by Alexander

Good win. CC should be CAA POTY

(04-28-2018 03:07 PM)Wear Purple Wrote:  

(04-28-2018 03:06 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  9-8 walk off win on a HR by Alexander

Good win. CC should be CAA POTY

I agree. She's most deserving.

Excellent win. Must sweep this weekend to move into 1st, but can't sweep unless you win the first.

JMU's win also broke HU's 17 game win streak, and the win was a quality win in that HU has been ranked (over-rated IMO), but still HU has been ranked.

I think CC will start the second game.

Dukes win 6-3 to tie the conference standings up. Should be a fun game tomorrow.

Sweep ‘em Dukes!! Get the brooms out.

(04-28-2018 05:45 PM)Wear Purple Wrote:  Sweep ‘em Dukes!! Get the brooms out.

Oh yes! Even though each team has a conference series yet to play, tomorrow is for all the marbles.

BATS ALIVE! TEN HRs today! Prior to today, if I read the stats correctly, Hofstra had given up 18 HRs all year. Team has had a number of injuries with Hannah File, on crutches now joining the list.

Wife and I attended the first game and had a great time watching. Nail biter to the end to say the least!! Watched the second game on the wifes Ipad while driving home. Home run bats were certainly the order of the day today!!

As jmuroadwarrior mentioned above we saw Hannah File on crutches today. Also wondering where Cambry Arnold has been of late. She played in most games the first half of the season but has been absent since then. Is she hurt or something? Aside from Megan Good who else is on the shelf with an injury?

Go Dukes!!

Brian