OT: Pitt Softball

[Pitt_Boss]

Pitt fired their softball coach today after a miserable 5 year run. I have to admit, this is one area where I am disappointed in Lyke. Given Pitt's recent interest in strengthening the non-revenue sports and, more importantly, Lyke's background in collegiate softball, I had expected her to nail the softball hire and instead she hired a middling MAC coach.

I know many will say softball is a tough sport for Pitt to succeed due to location and weather, and while those are factors, I don't buy it. Those factors are bigger in baseball, but for softball you can build a program with facilities and hiring the right coach. Minnesota is a perennial Top 25 team. Duke and Clemson started programs less than 10 years ago and regularly ranked. Central Arkansas (!!!) is in the current Top 25, as is Wichita State.

I don't know much about softball or softball recruiting, but if a coach can get players to Minnesota, Wichita, and Central Arkansas, I have to think the right person could sell Pitt.

Also, looking at the current rankings, I see Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, etc are ranked. I guess women are smarter than men - looks like the softball players value academics. Not suggesting we are Stanford, but Pitt's academics are good enough to sell...everyone can't go to Stanford.

 

[Chescat]

Pitt is able to have a top
10, (top 5?) volleyball
program. The players
come here from California,
Texas, etc. etc., along
with elite transfers from
top programs. Many of
them are excellent Deans
List types. Softball? Well,
is Pittsburgh a volleyball
locale? Hardly. Get the right
coach and this can and
will happen.

I don't know anything about
softball. recruiting and the
same goes for volleyball. I
do know Coach Fisher is the
main reason for the success
of his program. The same
can happen for softball, or
for that matter all of our
athletic programs, IMO.

 

[Ruffsdale Panther]

Softball starts with pitching, just like youth leagues, you have to have a top pitcher with out that you are screwed. So hopefully with the HC, they will be able to find that.

 

[mike412]

Softball starts with pitching, just like youth leagues, you have to have a top pitcher with out that you are screwed. So hopefully with the HC, they will be able to find that.

Everyone know that. Apparently except Hermanek. She recruited very few pitchers. There apparently are horror stories from the families of two top WPIAL pitchers who she didn’t really recruit. One ended up at VT and one in the Big Ten. Both are far better than anyone Hermanek recruited.

Her best pitcher this year was recruited by Aprile. She has brought in dreck from the transfer portal. There have been very good pitchers in the portal the last two seasons from top programs where they simply were stuck behind two even better pitchers. She didn’t sign any of them, but instead signed a transfer from Siena or somewhere like that. First, we needed to bring in three pitchers, not one. Second, the pitcher she brought in was absolutely terrible. I don’t know what her ERA was because apparently Hermanek didn’t provide those statistics to the SID, but it had to be over 10.

I watched her pitch one game. I played competitive fast pitch softball when I was younger and I watched a lot of good women’s team because there were more of them than men’s teams. I never saw a pitcher in all those years, man or woman, with less on the ball than her.