Women's Softball

[dawgomatic]

What has happened to our women's softball program. Several years ago we had a nationaly ranked program, but have not been competitive for a long time. It seems now we routinely lose by scores of 11-1 or so. I assume it must be a lack of investment.

[dawgomatic]

Well, I guess I have my answer. There's no interest in women's softball.

[markay714]

Interesting you should ask. I was in a meeting with a gentleman from Houston. He heard I was a Tech fan from someone else in the meeting and he mentioned that he had a friend who was an assistant coach. I said I'd read online that they hadn't won any games. He basically gave me the run down on the wins they've had - and the big losses.

I do remember when I was a student it was really fun watching a competitive program play some really long late entertaining games - hate to see us decided fielding a team is all we care about in way too many sports. Hope I'm wrong, but it'd be hard to prove it sometimes these days.

[firedog]

I think the program went downhill after Galloway? retired. Sarah Dawson seems to have a good squad this year with several ranking high in the WAC in certain stats. The softball team is using the visitor's baseball locker room as their locker room, and was getting water off the field a week or two ago with a shop vac and cups, I heard.

[JAY]

galloway was in cruise control the last 2 or 3 years he was there. the team got worse and he seemed to be going through the motions. some off the field incidents made tech realize it was time for him to go. sarah didnt inherit much to work with and she was pretty young, she was learning on the job.

they were on track to have a breakout season last year, even though they had lost a few seniors. the their top returning pitcher from vancouver, washington got homesick and didnt come back and her top two returning hitters decided to transfer to schools in texas where they were from because tech didnt have the degree program they wanted. 2-3 other underclassmen quit because they didnt get to play much. i forgot the exact numbers, but she basically lost half her team or more, something like 10 or 11 out of 20.

they obviously went in the tank the 2nd half of last season, but those young players that they had are better and they have a lot of youth again this year, only one senior. their top pitcher has been hurt this year, when she comes back they will be better. this is the first year sarah has had a good hitting coach. the first one was young, and although she was a great hitter in college, she couldnt teach it real well. last years coach improved the power numbers a lot, but the agvs plummeted. this coach is from lsu and so far has them hitting very well, we just need the top pitcher to come back and hold some teams down.

i think sarah will have a breakout year next year, losing all of those players et her back two years, this year will be another rebuilding year, but they return all but one like i said. she has gotten better just like bicknell and richard but with even less support than they get. i think JO hired her because she was a great college player (just like he did with the soccer coach), because young coaches without experience dont cost as much. JO could have looked to former tech players who are coaching well at smaller schools, but he doesnt care about softball at all. we can talk about wanting mike maconathy all we want for mens basketball, but knowing JO, we would hire an assistant from our staff or some 28 year old former player with 2-3 years experience as an assistant.

come watch a softball game and see for yourself. there arent more than 50-100 there on a good day.

[JAY]

actually out of these 22:

http://www.latechsports.com/roster.p...l&season=03-04

only 9 came back:

http://www.latechsports.com/roster.p...sport=softball

9 returnees, plus 6 freshmen and a sophmore transfer.

this year, they return 10 + 8 freshmen:

http://www.latechsports.com/roster.p...sport=softball

[roughedge]

Everything just kind of fell apart for softball last year as Jay described. Nothing you can do about injuries, kids getting homesick or transferring to other schools. The talent level has increased tremendously this year. There will be at least two freshmen starting this year--Danielle Sheridan leads the WAC in batting average and Emma Barnes is great hitter with amazing speed. We also have two promising freshmen pitchers, Courtney Avery and Krissi Oliver. Batting averages are up throughout the team.

Yes, they have been blown out a few times already this year but they have also blown out other teams. The scoring is way, way up over last year. The ladies worked much harder in preparing for this season than in years past, both as a team and individually. I believe we will see some success this year.

I agree that softball gets very little support from Tech. My daughter and I haven't missed a home game in three years. I have never seen JO there. However, I have seen other Tech coaches and players and Asst. AD Stacy Gilbert there. Everything that has been done to improve Lady Techster Field has been done by supporters or the team. The wood & chain link backstop was replaced last year with brick and netting, paid for mostly with donations from BB&Br's. This year, volunteers painted the batting cage and all the old Tech blue. Signs listing playoff and College World Series appearances were purchased.

Back in the days of regular playoff appearances, attendance at Lady Techster games was often over 400-500. Now 80 is a good crowd. I think this is a team with a promising future that we can get excited about. But we have to show up!

This weekend family and I will be going to Thibadeau to see them play and take in a couple of Mardi Gras parades.

[10cDawg]

"last years coach improved the power numbers a lot, but the agvs plummeted."

Last year's coach did a lot of improvement to the team's hitting. She helped the team shatter the 20 year homerun record, they broke the doubles record, and place 3rd on the all-time season hits list. However, they did strike out a lot last year. Hopefully, the girls can take what they learned last year and what Coach Connor is teaching and improve even more. It is also hard for a team to win games when their starting pitcher gives up 33 homeruns a season. Hopefully, the team can put their hitting and pitching together to win more games.

[roughedge]

The first home game is against ULM rescheduled because of field condtions this week to TUES, Feb. 28 at noon. Might be a good day for a long lunch...

[tech fan]

I hope for the best but am not optimistic. Too bad, as it has nothing to do with the players.

[CENTEXDOG]

this is another sport without support from adm. Don't start saying kill this or others because oates cares not. Don't ever let him or those that appeared to be his plants in other "lack of support threads" win.