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Softball update

Bethlehemjohn

Athletic Director
Gold Member
Jul 6, 2001
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RPI is now 58 with 5 games left. They are currently 1-4 against top 50 teams and 15-11 against top 100. Their remaining games are at home against #148 Kent, at #30 Ohio State and at home for 3 against #39 Louisville. If they can beat Kent and go 2-2 against OSU/UL and then have a good showing in the ACC tournament, they can make the NCAA tournament.
 
RPI is now 58 with 5 games left. They are currently 1-4 against top 50 teams and 15-11 against top 100. Their remaining games are at home against #148 Kent, at #30 Ohio State and at home for 3 against #39 Louisville. If they can beat Kent and go 2-2 against OSU/UL and then have a good showing in the ACC tournament, they can make the NCAA tournament.
Let's goo young ladies !!!!!! HTP/forever!!!!!
 
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So if I’m reading the standings correctly, one win for the team this weekend clinches at least a tie with UNC for the Coastal title because they’re done with conference play? And we own the tiebreaker against UNC?
 
Everything Louisville gets up in the air is going yard. Pitt seems to have taken their foot off the gas after getting up 7-1. I thought a key play was the pinch runner trying to go from 1st to :rd on a wild pitch. She slowed down rounding second and was an easy out at 3rd. That not only might have cost Pitt a couple of runs, but Louisville had another pitcher warming up and might have pulled the reliever. Pitt hasn’t come close to scoring since. They need to get their bats going again. Louisville has all of the momentum.

Amazing thing is that all but one of their HRs have come from the bottom of the order.
 
Pitt with 2 in the bottom of the 6th. Walk to Zeremenko. Gray hit a looping liner to right. The RF mistimed her dive and the ball skipped off her glove and rolled to the wall for a triple. Gray then scored on a wild pitch.
 
Pitt wins 9-8 as Dawson retires 3 in a row. ACC Coastal Champions!!!

Question is: Is Pitt better off as a 2 seed, probably facing a Duke pitcher who is the best pitcher in the ACC not pitching for FSU. Or playing against #6 seed BC?
 
Small crowd today, maybe because it was a Friday day game. Really no excuse for not having a good crowd tomorrow: weather is supposed to be warm, no competing games. Pens don’t play until later in the day.

I still can’t believe it was more than 4 years ago that I was spending the weekend in Santa Barbara and read that Pitt was playing at UCSB (it was February so they couldn’t play in Pittsburgh obviously). It was only about a 5 mile drive right up the coast, so I decided I would go to see a game, figuring they would get Mercy Ruled. I ended up watching all three games and they ended up sweeping UCSB and ultimately making the NCAAs.

I remember thinking that freshman McKayla Taylor had one of the nicest softball swings I had seen in a long time for a right handed hitter. She’s now Pitt’s all-time RBI leader. I don’t really remember Zeremenko playing. I remember Erin Hershman pinch running. Kayla Harris pitched a few innings but was not impressive. She ended up having a great run in the NCAA regionals until the Michigan game. Those are the 4 players we lose to graduation.

Obviously, they are going to miss Taylor and Zeremenko a lot. Top two hitters in the order, and 1 and 2 all-time in RBIs. Hershman is easily replaceable on offense 2 years ago she hit over .330 but last year she hit .202 and this year is hitting under .230) but she still is a very good defensive CF. Harris should be relatively easy to replace as she has never repeated the success she had in that NCAA regional, but Aprile hasn’t done well recruiting pitchers. Have to hope the pitcher from Illinois can be an ace even as a frosh. (Michigan’s freshman pitcher has been their ace since she set foot on campus so it can be done.)

I was told Aprile still has one scholarship and wants to find a transfer who is a pitcher. Dawson will be a senior next year and she has improved a lot but is not who you prefer as your ace. Rahrbach has been pretty awful as a transfer from Coastal Carolina, and Brittany Knight has pretty much missed the entire year with injuries.

But, considering where this program was 5 years ago, it has been a fun ride.
 
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Small crowd today, maybe because it was a Friday day game.


There may have been a small crowd anyway, but the game was scheduled to start at 6:00 and this morning they changed it to 3:00 because thunderstorms are rolling through western PA right now. They knew if they started at 6 they'd never get the game in. It's not too hard to imagine that some people may have been planning on going to the game after work, but when they bumped the start time up three hours those plans would have gone out the window.
 
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You’re not getting big crowed for 3:00 Friday starts. Hopefully the weather is nice tomorrow and Sunday & so are the crowds.
 
Yeah. They moved the game up 3 hours this morning due to bad storms coming in.

Great win though.
 
Yeah. They moved the game up 3 hours this morning due to bad storms coming in.

Great win though.

Man that was stressful, so glad we held on. It’s crazy seeing a pitcher taken out and come back in and finish the game.
 
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