Knox, Smith, Otto and Kennedy will have to have career years for us to have a winning record. One injury to any one of them and or one pitcher, we are doomed.
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Knox needs to cut down on her strikeouts, Smith needs to return to her freshman form, Otto, Marceaux, Hart, Liscano, Norwood and Williams need to match last year. We return more than you think offensively. Also, there are two or three freshmen who are promising prospects offensively.
Now, pitching is another story. We have Hoover, who is a serviceable # 3 and everyone else is either a major project or unknown quantity.
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I already commented on this post, but I will comment again. If Aly doesn't have a system or know how to run a program as a head coach then why hinder a program by taking on the role of head coach? That is doing this program an injustice. I stated in the first post of this thread that 2027 is a make or break season. Three consecutive seasons of no post season and this program is all but forgotten and DONE. This ship will sink like the LA Tech WBB program did. It's post season or bust!Comment
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We cannot have a winning record with this pitching staff on paper. Plain and simple. So disappointing that we struck out on every good pitcher that we contacted in the portal.Comment
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Mackles, Favors, and incoming freshman together have 28 innings of experience. How do you know they struck out on every pitcher in the portal. Do you have a list of who made campus visits?Comment
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Because of conversations that I have had.Comment
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There is no real evidence that they even talked to pitchers that we had a realistic chance of signing. We obviously would not be able to sign a proven quality pitcher from a P4 team; and it appears that either we did not approach quality pitchers from lower rated conferences [like the two from SLU that signed with Baylor] or were late to the party and missed out.
Alternatively, we did approach some of those pitchers and were rebuffed because of lack of funds. Given the state of our pitching staff, there is no reason that we should have been unaware of the costs associated with signing a quality pitcher, nor is there any reason that we made no public attempt [like the $150K challenge that baseball did] to raise more funds for that purpose.
Like it or not, failure to prepare for the costs of recruiting quality players is 100% on the coaching staff, and most particularly on the head coach.Comment
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My comments in my previous post are not intended as a slight to the players we did sign from the portal; both are good prospects to contribute here, but neither is proven in any way to be the kind of players we need at this point. Had we signed one of the SLU girls [or similar] and a proven position player [preferably a catcher or corner infielder] this portal class would be very solid. Without the proven players, our portal class is an unknown and unknowable quantity; at least until it is too late to rectify any shortcomings.Comment
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An additional thought has occurred to me. With the change in NCAA regs allowing 5 for 5, it is possible that Bethany Noble returns for next season. If she does return, it gives us another experienced pitcher who would definitely help.Comment
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