Softball 2024

[triplec2195]

We're now 4-2 in the CAA.

[stuball888]

First off I see that Julia has 5 of our 6 wins. We better find another starting pitcher and fast
She is not ready to pitch like Olivia Galati did in her senior year
Second Julia is a pitch to contact pitcher so for her to be effective she need the best defensive players behind her
Third and yes we need to score run because the rest of the staff has not established themselves as reliable pitchers

[triplec2195]

Yeah all so very true but after seeing Apsel pitch a few games she throws hard. A lot of soft contact fly balls in the infield etc. She gets K's as well. IDK what the actual status of Venturini is. They either shut her down last year after she pitched a 1 hitter against NC A&T or she was injured either way she was having a very good year up to that date. She now seems like she's trying to rehab from an injury and has been wild walking a lot of hitters. I'm imagining that they are trying to get her straightened out because if she's right she can pitch better then Apsel who has been great. Coach has been making moves and pinch hitting for some of the players that are slumping. It's a learning process with a lot of new hungry to play kids.

[triplec2195]

So we lose yesterday to UMBC 2-10 get 4 hits strike out 7X. Starting pitcher Anna Butler gives up 8 runs all earned. Need I say more. Today we start Pisapia against George Washington and she gives up 5 E/R and doesn't get out of the first inning. A pathetic showing for this team where you could point to the lack of good pitching but we are very inept offensively. We lose 0-10 and only get 3 hits. Use all our pitchers except Haley Venturini who was our best pitcher last year. The mystery still exists as to why she has been so ineffective?

[triplec2195]

We lost the first two games to Monmouth on the road a heartbreaker in the 1st game 1-0 as Apsel pitched another good game getting no run support and the second game 3-7 as we don't get good pitching. We salvage the last game 5-3 behind Apsel who clearly is having a very strong season. She needs to pitch every game lol. A lot of in game adjustments by Coach Clarke who continues to pinch hit for Nicole Cancel at 2nd who is a good defensive player but who hasn't hit a lick yet hitting under.100. She brings in Iaquinto to play 2nd who I thought played the outfield and she gets 2 RBI hit in this game. Also starting Chelsea Villar in left over Kayla Wilson. Villar has power upside so we'll see if she can help offensively. Lily Yepez has been out of the lineup with Tyler Douglas starting in rightfield. Yepez had started every game in right field but has struck out 20X in 57 at bats hitting .246. Don't know if she has been benched or maybe she's hurt?

[stuball888]

I dont know how effective Julia would be pitching every game
As teams see more of her they can adjust to her pitches
Galati threw 5 to 6 different pitches and had pin point control
She was atrong as an ox and had no trouble pitching 3 games in two days in the CAA
during her senior year
Julia is not at that point yet

[triplec2195]

She's going to pitch 2 out of 3 in every series we just need to fill in that Gap in the middle game which I'm still holding out hope Venturini will be back to solidify this rotation. We also need to find the right offensive blend in this lineup. We have now put Iaquinto in to play second and Villar to play left. Villar had impressive stats in H.S. so with some more at bats we might realize some upside from her bat in the lineup. Also Morse needs to shakeoff the sophomore jinx and get her bat going. Also right field we switched out Yepez and Tyler Douglas is playing out there. Not sure about that move.

[stuball888]

we will have Julia pitch two out of 3 games until the CAA tournament
Then Adrienne has no choice as she will have to pitch her every game in the tournament
Its been about a year since Hailey Venturini injured her shoulder
at this point if she isnt going to pitch you might as well redshirt het

[HUSID80]

Not ONE of Newsday's top 100 softball plyers has committed to Hofstra...plenty of D1 commitments on the list.

https://www.newsday.com/sports/high-sch ... 065ae5ed99

[triplec2195]

To put this in the proper perspective we have 3 position players who are seniors and 1 Manto who's a graduate student.We know she can't play after this year. If the other 3 seniors stay on as graduate students the only possible positions we would have to fill would be pitching. Apsel is a senior and probably the best pitcher in the CAA. She currently has the lowest ERA in the league. Not getting any commitments on Long Island might be indicative of the fact that we don't have many positions to fill on this team that has a lot of freshmen. Freshmen that are waiting in the wings if Vaillancourt doesn't come back(Sultan), if Catanzarita doesn't return (Palacio,Sandas, Brennan). We have freshmen waiting in the wings to fill every hole that we might have here. The fact that we haven't gotten any kids from Long Island is probably just that remember we currently have 7 players on this team that are all from Long Island.

We need pitchers and in the past we have been very adept at recruiting strong pitchers. If Haley Venturini wasn't rehabbing some kind of nagging injury we might have the best pitching in this league and our record would look a little different. Apsel can't pitch every game....... or can she??

[triplec2195]

we will have Julia pitch two out of 3 games until the CAA tournament
Then Adrienne has no choice as she will have to pitch her every game in the tournament
Its been about a year since Hailey Venturini injured her shoulder
at this point if she isnt going to pitch you might as well redshirt het

As for Venturini Stu she has pitched in relief and started one game mostly with bad results. I've been to a few games this year and have seen her warming up so I have to believe we will see her before the season is over. Fingers crossed.

[stuball888]

There are three pitchers in high school who are seniors who have very credible stats.
One is from Bellmore JFK where our former player Krista Thorne is their coach

[triplec2195]

We beat UNCW YESTERDAY 4-1 who had only 1 loss coming in and is in second place behind Delaware 10-1. We're in 4th at 6-4. We got two 2 run home runs from Catanzarita who drove in all our runs and Apsel did the rest scattering 5 hits with 3 strike outs. With Apsel on the mound we are tough to beat if we can plate a few runs.

[stuball888]

So we beat UNCW 6-0 today as Julia Apsel pitches for the second straight day
Welcome to Olivia Galati 2.0
Actually when Adriene Clarke went on that tear in the NCAAs she also pitched every game
Go with the hot hand
She only threw 65 pitches in 6 innings today so I guess she will be on the mound tomorrow.
Anna Butler pitched a scoreless 7th inning today
Hitting is starting to come around as I guess the tinkering with the lineup is starting to pay off.We are now middle of the pack in the CAA in hitting 3rd in pitching and 1st in fielding
Also in 4th place overall in the standings at 7-4

[triplec2195]

This team is playing with confidence and why not when you have Apsel on the mound you have a good chance to win especially if you can plate a few runs. Really liking what I'm seeing now from this team.

[triplec2195]

So after pitching Apsel on consecutive days do they dare pitch her in three consecutive days?? Will be interesting!

[stuball888]

Yes take that to the bank
She only threw 65 pitches yesterday and 6 innings

[triplec2195]

So Apsel does start this game pitches 5 innings gives up 5 hits 1 run and strikes out 5. Butler pitches 2 scoreless inning. We sweep UNCW win 6-1. We’re hitting the ball and getting great pitching from Apsel. Starting to roll in this league.

[stuball888]

Team appears to be coming together
We still leave quite a few runners in scoring position on base
Against better pitching (Delaware Campbell) that could come back and bite us in the behind
Still a sweep on the road against the second place team in the CAA is nothing to sneeze at.

[triplec2195]

We start a three game series with NCA&T TOMORROW.They come in with a 2-10 record 8-23 overall. If we don't sweep this team it will be very disappointing. We're starting to hit the ball and show some power and getting great pitching from Julia who right now is probably the best pitcher in this league. Good things should happen.