Softball: How Important Is Pitching?

[mike412]

As the VT series demonstrated, it’s just about everything in college softball. VT’s ace pitched complete games in 3 of the 4 games this weekend. She gave up one hit in each game. She pitched 5 innings in a shortened Friday game because of the mercy rule. After sitting out the opener Saturday, she shut out Pitt one 1 hit in the second game, then repeated that 1 hit performance on Sunday.

Abby Edwards won for Pitt on Saturday and was the losing pitcher on Sunday. She pitched decently. She is a decent pitcher but on a good team would maybe be the 3rd option. Edwards was recruited by former coach Holly Aprille. To be fair, so was Brittany Knight, who has been uniformly terrible all year.

The three “pitchers” recruited by the current coach. Well, I put the word in quotes for a reason. Two of them have ERAs over 9. The third started for the first time Saturday. She lasted 1 1/3 inning and gave up 5 runs. I can’t compute her ERA.

The salvation? Of the 6 players signed for the 2021-22 class, one is a full time pitcher. She pitches in Class D in upstate NY. That has been the recruiting pattern since Holly left — trying to find a gem among HS pitchers who pitch in low level high school leagues. It hasn’t worked yet. Maybe, next year’s newcomer will be the next Lisa Fernandez or Jenny Finch. The odds are very much against it.

Piss poor recruiting has taken the program from being an NCAA qualifier under Holly to its current status as one of the dregs of the ACC. Thanks Heather. This one is in you!

 

[greekpanther]

Time for Heather to make a move?

 

[Cleanup hitter]

31-74 in 2 1/2 years Greek panther. Approximately 24 mercy losses in those 74 losses. To add salt to that wound 25% of those run rule losses are to mid major programs. When you also consider she had 90% of the players Coach Aprile had in the acc tournament the year before and she still managed to lose 41 games in 2019 it looks like a no brainer to me. No improvement from players year to year under current staff. Brittany Knight won as many games by herself in 2017 under Coach Aprile than the current hire did in the entire 2019 season. Also Mike 412 Coach Aprile took zero pitchers from the Pitt program when she was forced out. The pitcher that did leave went to Kentucky and she left during the 6 weeks it took to find a replacement for the coach they ran off. Coach Aprile had this program ready to take the next step in its progression and it’s now a raging dumpster fire. This was purely change for change sake.
Hopefully Pitt sees the same regression in the program and cleans house!!!

 

[Chaos]

31-74 in 2 1/2 years Greek panther. Approximately 24 mercy losses in those 74 losses. To add salt to that wound 25% of those run rule losses are to mid major programs. When you also consider she had 90% of the players Coach Aprile had in the acc tournament the year before and she still managed to lose 41 games in 2019 it looks like a no brainer to me. No improvement from players year to year under current staff. Brittany Knight won as many games by herself in 2017 under Coach Aprile than the current hire did in the entire 2019 season. Also Mike 412 Coach Aprile took zero pitchers from the Pitt program when she was forced out. The pitcher that did leave went to Kentucky and she left during the 6 weeks it took to find a replacement for the coach they ran off. Coach Aprile had this program ready to take the next step in its progression and it’s now a raging dumpster fire. This was purely change for change sake.
Hopefully Pitt sees the same regression in the program and cleans house!!!

Might be looking at another mercy loss today if things don't turn around quickly.

 

[Bethlehemjohn]

As the VT series demonstrated, it’s just about everything in college softball. VT’s ace pitched complete games in 3 of the 4 games this weekend. She gave up one hit in each game. She pitched 5 innings in a shortened Friday game because of the mercy rule. After sitting out the opener Saturday, she shut out Pitt one 1 hit in the second game, then repeated that 1 hit performance on Sunday.

Abby Edwards won for Pitt on Saturday and was the losing pitcher on Sunday. She pitched decently. She is a decent pitcher but on a good team would maybe be the 3rd option. Edwards was recruited by former coach Holly Aprille. To be fair, so was Brittany Knight, who has been uniformly terrible all year.

The three “pitchers” recruited by the current coach. Well, I put the word in quotes for a reason. Two of them have ERAs over 9. The third started for the first time Saturday. She lasted 1 1/3 inning and gave up 5 runs. I can’t compute her ERA.

The salvation? Of the 6 players signed for the 2021-22 class, one is a full time pitcher. She pitches in Class D in upstate NY. That has been the recruiting pattern since Holly left — trying to find a gem among HS pitchers who pitch in low level high school leagues. It hasn’t worked yet. Maybe, next year’s newcomer will be the next Lisa Fernandez or Jenny Finch. The odds are very much against it.

Piss poor recruiting has taken the program from being an NCAA qualifier under Holly to its current status as one of the dregs of the ACC. Thanks Heather. This one is in you!

Pitching is everything and our pitchers are terrible.

 

[Cleanup hitter]

Here’s some acc stats to consider while your blaming the pitchers for all of Pitts woes:

In 2018 when they were 16-6 overall and Costal Division Champs they had a 3.23era which was 7th in conference, 3rd in conference with 18 errors .973 fldg %, and 4th in conference with a .285 team avg.
Fast forward to 2021: 5-20 conference record
6.42era last in Acc, last in Acc with 34 errors .947 fldg % and 11th in the Acc with a .238 team batting avg.

So as you see when you compare 2018 (their last truly competive season) to 2021
(shaping up to be possibly the worst in school history) the numbers tell a slightly different tale. The tale being if you can just be an average pitching team but play good defense and hit consistently your odds of being successful as a TEAM go way up. That’s the recipie for success at Pitt. Pitt will never have the next Jenny Finch or Lisa Fernandez so they better figure out who can help them have the best fielding and hitting teams possible along with someone that can work with pitchers to keep games close.

 

[mike412]

In my dreams, I want the next Michelle Smith as our next pitcher. The problem is that it’s much easier for an Aussie to fly to LA than Pittsburgh. On the other hand, Steven Adam’s made it from New Zealand here.

The other problem is that UCLA let Smith pitch there even though she never attended a class. She was the female Barry Zito, who actually bragged about the fact that he never went to a class. He enrolled for the Spring Semester, pitched every Friday, and then dropped every class before finals. I’m not sure Pitt would do that.

Unfortunately, with this coach we are never going to get a chance at assembling the kind of pitching staff we had under Aprile. You are right that it wasn’t a great staff, but it was good enough to keep us in games. And, occasionally one of them pitched a great game like the one against Michigan.

I don’t know how highly touted that VT pitcher was coming out of HS, but she is the best I’ve seen this year. And, I can’t imagine her having chosen VT if she was offered by the perennial powers. So, there is a chance of getting a good pitcher. But, this staff had gotten nothing.

What worries me is that the coach definitely should be fired, but her prior relationship with Lyke might prevent it.

I happened to be vacationing in Santa Barbara when Holly took her first team there to open the season. It was an easy drive, so I thought I would take in the first game. I ended up watching the entire series because I was so impressed with Aprile. I believe it was Taylor’s first game for Pitt and she was the star recruit of that class. Her entire HS team was at the game, as were at least 50 other potential recruits from San Diego and Orange County. Aprile was working them all weekend while still doing a hell of a coaching job. It was one of the more impressive things I’ve ever seen.

 

[Chaos]

In my dreams, I want the next Michelle Smith as our next pitcher. The problem is that it’s much easier for an Aussie to fly to LA than Pittsburgh. On the other hand, Steven Adam’s made it from New Zealand here.

The other problem is that UCLA let Smith pitch there even though she never attended a class. She was the female Barry Zito, who actually bragged about the fact that he never went to a class. He enrolled for the Spring Semester, pitched every Friday, and then dropped every class before finals. I’m not sure Pitt would do that.

Unfortunately, with this coach we are never going to get a chance at assembling the kind of pitching staff we had under Aprile. You are right that it wasn’t a great staff, but it was good enough to keep us in games. And, occasionally one of them pitched a great game like the one against Michigan.

I don’t know how highly touted that VT pitcher was coming out of HS, but she is the best I’ve seen this year. And, I can’t imagine her having chosen VT if she was offered by the perennial powers. So, there is a chance of getting a good pitcher. But, this staff had gotten nothing.

What worries me is that the coach definitely should be fired, but her prior relationship with Lyke might prevent it.

What's her prior relationship with Lyke? Thanks.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

What's her prior relationship with Lyke?

They both worked for MAC schools at the same time.

 

[Black Panther]

Time for Heather to make a move?

She may have to now.Seems she let Holly go just to make a move when it wasn’t needed or warranted.Somtimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.

 

[Chaos]

She may have to now.Seems she let Holly go just to make a move when it wasn’t needed or warranted.Somtimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.

I wondered if Holly left because Lyke was meddling, similar to Barnes/Dixon.

 

[Chaos]

They both worked for MAC schools at the same time.

Oh, I thought maybe they had worked together. So it wasn't a close past relationship then. Time to cut losses.

 

[mike412]

They both worked for MAC schools at the same time.

I think it was a little more than that. My understanding is that they became friends when Lyke was at OSU and Hermanek was at Ohio. Then, supposedly Lyke tried to hire her to coach at EMU when she became the AD there.

I mean, she had a decent record at Ohio, but she has conclusively proven she can’t coach or recruit at an ACC level.

 

[greekpanther]

Something tells me this her last go round!

 

[Black Panther]

I wondered if Holly left because Lyke was meddling, similar to Barnes/Dixon.

Possible.

 

[greekpanther]

Possible.

This is all speculation, of course, but could Holly had made a decision to leave while she was a hot commodity (more $) along with the fact a new AD was coming aboard.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I mean, she had a decent record at Ohio, but she has conclusively proven she can’t coach or recruit at an ACC level.

Yeah, that's pretty clear at this point.