At some time you had to pull Nunley right?

[JJsqueeze]

A few things:

Nunely ran out of gas around the 4th or 5th inning. Lawson had a game plan and it ultimately failed, but everyone here has to admit that Kentucky went much farther then they should have, and it probably all has to do with having Nunely in the circle.

If you put in the slowest pitcher you have available, she would have been rocked. The teams in the WCWS are not your typical HS or basic travel team.....they are the best of the best. If they know a pitch is going to come in slow, they will destroy it. These kids totally know how to adjust.

Nunely's dad was not upset that his daughter was getting gassed or that she was being abused by keeping her in the circle. He was pissed about the errors and big hits. In the 8th inning Baylor leads off with a double and the camera catches the dad walking away and picking at his rear. This guy turned his back on his daughter and my guess is she saw it. When Baylor won the game, the camera catches this guy with his hands on his hips with a pissed off look on his face. How about some applause for having a great run???? Show some pride.......

Dad was acting like a jerk....they should have pulled her sometime in the 6th or between innings...but I understand where the coach was coming from, she was trying to give Nunley what she had earned and that was to take the team as far as she could. In the end I think she did some harm by letting Nunley stay in there. If they had lost with another pitcher then Nunley would not have to go into next season with her last thought being that collapse, she could have gone in just remembering how she performed great and took them far and she could be a little bitter at her coach for pulling her with the game on the line.

 

[RetiredCoach]

Perhaps being the father of two pitchers, I especially hate to see a pitcher get run into the ground. I really think that KU's coach is a moron. She made at least two major mistakes. The first being, apparently, not having anyone else available to pitch int the WCWS. The second being, when up by 7-0, not at least giving Nunley a rest and putting someone else in there to see what they could do. If they had won, it wouldn't have been Nunley's last game. Rest that poor young lady, coach. If really necessary, you could have put her back in and she may of still had some gas left in the tank.

 

[maksoftball]

I heard the commentators say when asking the coach about pulling Nunley, she said "No way...she would be pissed at me...she's the reason we got this far...". So, in other words, the coach let the player run the game. I couldn't believe a D1 college coach would let the pitcher have the say so. They might have had a chance if they had another pitcher warming up. I guess they thought that because they didn't use another pitcher the entire post season, then Nunley was only choice. Whatever. Poor coaching all around, in that respect.

I felt really bad for Nunley, but she should have relented at some point to give her TEAM a chance. But I will say their team did well offensively, and that helped back up Nunley. It was obvious that when Nunley started faltering, so did her defense...

I hated how they kept going to the dad. It's such a private moment watching your daughter suffer. Made me feel really uncomfortable.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

As I went to sleep with an aching right shoulder last night, I thought about Nunley and the others. Sure. You want to do it all at 20, but you do eventually pay. I am sorry that games are this important that we pitch these girl past exhaustion.

I saw craziness around here to win a 10U tourney, so I can't imagine what it is like at the top D-1 level.

 

[Sweet Lou]

To play devils advocate if the 2B field the ball cleanly we're talking about the gutty performance by Nunley and the good decision of the coach to leave her in for the 7th.

But I agree at some point she should have been pulled. Probably right about the time it became a 7-5 game maybe even a batter or two before that. But coach is probably saying, she just needs one more out...

 

[Indiana]

I also felt uncomfortable when the camera kept going back to the dad. I interpreted the walking away and hands on hips more as anguish for his daughter than overbearing anger. We've all been there in some capacity - as pitcher's parents, as the parent of the kid who is up with 2 outs, winning run on second, heck even just watching DD in the school spelling bee.

As far as taking her out... I don't know - you can either look like a hero or a goat with that decision.

It's a grueling tournament, that's for sure. We've necked down to the top few pitchers and hitters in the entire country. It seems to me that at this point there are only a handful of pitchers who have the talent to hold down these hitters - and those pitchers end up pitching marathons.

 

[Rocketech1]

It's unfortunate that teams don't have a closer to bring in in these type of situations. Is the pitching talent so watered down that teams only have 1 real pitcher? Bringing in a fresh pitcher the last inning or two to give the offense a different look might be wise in most situations.

 

[marriard]

It's unfortunate that teams don't have a closer to bring in in these type of situations. Is the pitching talent so watered down that teams only have 1 real pitcher? Bringing in a fresh pitcher the last inning or two to give the offense a different look might be wise in most situations.

This confused me - Kentucky stats suggest they had at least 3 other pitchers who threw a decent # of innings this season. I didn't hear the commentators suggest that none of them were available.

I could go into a whole long diatribe about why we do a crappy job of developing enough softball pitchers but I think everyone has heard it before.

 

[CatchTheFever]

I had a bigger issue with the way they had the outfield playing in when they were up by 2 with runners on first & second. The goal of the OF should have been to keep everything in front of them. The only way they tie the game with just 1 hit is for the ball to get over their heads.

 

[alabama_lowlife]

I was thinking the same thing. You have 2 outs and a 2 run lead! WHY would you play the outfield in? No way they score from 1st on anything hit in front of them. She probably catches that ball if they're at normal depth anyway.