Surprised at the mistakes by Tennessee

Watching the Tennessee v Auburn game, and I have to say I'm surprised at the miscues Tennessee is making. Saw the SS let a ball go through the wickets in a play that would get most 12U players yelled at. Also saw them run themselves into not one but two senseless double plays. The second one in particular was odd. Soft hit to right field with bases loaded. runner on first takes a short lead, as she should. Then, as the ball is about to be caught, she takes off toward second for some unknown reason. Easy DP.

I haven't seen them that much this season. Is this typical? Or is it the pressure of an elimination game?

Having seen TN play a number of times through the years usually their defense is solid. They usually have great speed and take chances on the base pads to put pressure on the defense.

IMO they are not as talented as they have been in previous years and they compensate by taking chances they would not have taken in previous years JMO.

Having said that, they improved much over the year and went farther that I thought they would yearly in the season.

Things that impress me when I watch softball on TV: Pitching, hitting, athleticism.

Things that don't: Defense

Yep... worst one I seen was in the CWWS against Bama.... Had'm in the 11th. They switched out the sisters all year about every game. The younger one pitched whole game, and didn't switch to face LC....

I have been surprised by the number of defensive errors on routine plays that I have seen in the WCWS. Also the number of leadoff walks drives me crazy. In the Auburn vs. Florida game I think the Auburn pitchers walked the lead off batter in every one of the extra innings. That is playing with fire and they finally got burned. Winning run was a walk that moved to 2nd on a wild pitch and scored on a bloop single to RF with 2 outs.

I think TN's youth and inexperience finally caught up to them. They played WAY over their level the last half of the season IMO. I think the future looks very bright for them. We need a pitcher however.

gophert said:

I think TN's youth and inexperience finally caught up to them. They played WAY over their level the last half of the season IMO. I think the future looks very bright for them. We need a pitcher however.

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Mattie Moss will be there next year. My DD has played against her a couple of time this year. She is a legit 68-70 MPH flame thrower and should provide some immediate help in the circle.

JAD said:

Mattie Moss will be there next year. My DD has played against her a couple of time this year. She is a legit 68-70 MPH flame thrower and should provide some immediate help in the circle.

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Does she still leap on every pitch?

JAD said:

Mattie Moss will be there next year. My DD has played against her a couple of time this year. She is a legit 68-70 MPH flame thrower and should provide some immediate help in the circle.

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Thats good to know. I have not followed the new class very closely other than Brittany Edmondson. She came out of our travel ball organization so it's nice to see hard work pay off.

riseball said:

Does she still leap on every pitch?

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Did not pay attention to be perfectly honest. I usually notice skippy replants more than leapers.