A #20 ranking and that schedule gives us a chance at hosting a Regional and even a Super again. Top 16 definitely attainable, just need a winning record against the ranked teams and domination against the playoff teams (and domination of the CAA of course). I think they are 36-10 against the P5 the past few years, we need some more of that. Our pitching will be there.

Missouri softball was among the programs receiving a postseason ban from the NCAA for academic fraud today. Missou is appealing, but there might be one less program competing with us for a potential spot in the tournament and/or hosting duties.

The opening weekend ESPN event in St. Pete, FL, is starting to release TV/streaming coverage a little bit at the ESPN coverage page. Still more to come, but so far involving the Dukes...

Feb. 15, Fri, 5:30pm, vs Oregon -- to be streamed live via ESPN-3
(earlier game that day in the season opener against Cal at 12:30pm is yet TBA)

Feb. 16, Sat, 4pm, vs Tennessee -- to be streamed live via ESPN-3
(earlier game that day vs Florida Atlantic at 1pm is yet TBA)

Feb. 17, Sun, 1pm, vs Kentucky -- to be streamed live via ESPN-3

*I guess it is possible the Cal and FAU games may go without any streaming/TV coverage

I usually don’t follow NCAA softball until the playoffs when games are shown on ESPN. But from an outsiders perspective it feels like this team should be primed to make a deep playoff run in 2019.
Pitching pitching pitching matters the most in this sport by far and JMU is stocked with dominant arms.
Of course, Megan Good leads the pack and will go down as the greatest JMU player of all-time.
I propose changing her name from Megan Good to Megan Great.

(02-02-2019 03:28 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  I usually don’t follow NCAA softball until the playoffs when games are shown on ESPN. But from an outsiders perspective it feels like this team should be primed to make a deep playoff run in 2019.
Pitching pitching pitching matters the most in this sport by far and JMU is stocked with dominant arms.
Of course, Megan Good leads the pack and will go down as the greatest JMU player of all-time.
I propose changing her name from Megan Good to Megan Great.

You could argue the first month is the most important part of the season. It will set the stage for post season.

This team is every bit as loaded as the Super Regional team, probably even a little better with the option of a legit 3rd pitcher. Good & Buresch are elite pitchers, and Alexander is VERY good. We should hit for power & average, this team would not be out of their league in any P5 conference right now. Not sure how strong our D will be, that might be the issue (and it has been in the past). The other problem is we're set up to be a power hitting team, but the dimensions at our field favor that while the larger stadiums turn those 2 out, 2 run HRs into deep fly ball outs. That's why it's important for us to win enough to host, the more home playoff games we play the more I like our chances. Too bad we lost a probable All-American in Raine Wilson to Duke, with her in that lineup we'd add .400 hitter with power AND a top tier defensive player.

Why did we lose Raine?

(02-05-2019 11:15 PM)JMUNation Wrote:  Why did we lose Raine?

From what I remember Mickey did not play her as a freshman. Transferred to duke and hit almost 400 last year.

Edited response - suffice it to say running her off was a mistake, I'll leave it at that. And it was WAY more than a playing time issue.

I got to talk with Coach after yesterday's presser. She spent a lot of time answering a ton of questions I asked. It was an opportunity I appreciated. One of the things from last year is how many players played hurt, in addition to the list of players lost to injury. It was not known to most of us or at least me. Coach almost apologized for not letting people know about them, but said she didn't want the information out there that she had people on the field that had shoulder injuries that affected their throwing etc. I told her, good for you! none of the other coaches talk about injuries either. There were a number of surgeries in the off season. Overall the team is pretty healthy. When I asked her about our fielding, she is hoping/coaching for improvement. But pointed out that we are still a young team. ( 8 Fr, 7 Soph, 7 Jr and Megan )

I went to practice and watched a scrimmage of sorts. The three pitchers rotated an inning a piece then repeat. I thought Buresh's change of speed pitches were very effective and she looked sharp. The highlight was she twisted Megan into a pretzel-like swinging strike three with Megan charging the mound afterwards. It was a great way to acknowledge a great pitch and it shows that the team chemistry is good. Why not have a laugh when you are working hard!

I am thinking Kate Gordon will have a monster year. Meeks is doing well and competing for more time. Some solid hitting across the lineup. Yet I feel for the freshman facing these three pitchers.

(02-06-2019 08:25 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  I got to talk with Coach after yesterday's presser. She spent a lot of time answering a ton of questions I asked. It was an opportunity I appreciated. One of the things from last year is how many players played hurt, in addition to the list of players lost to injury. It was not known to most of us or at least me. Coach almost apologized for not letting people know about them, but said she didn't want the information out there that she had people on the field that had shoulder injuries that affected their throwing etc. I told her, good for you! none of the other coaches talk about injuries either. There were a number of surgeries in the off season. Overall the team is pretty healthy. When I asked her about our fielding, she is hoping/coaching for improvement. But pointed out that we are still a young team. ( 8 Fr, 7 Soph, 7 Jr and Megan )

I went to practice and watched a scrimmage of sorts. The three pitchers rotated an inning a piece then repeat. I thought Buresh's change of speed pitches were very effective and she looked sharp. The highlight was she twisted Megan into a pretzel-like swinging strike three with Megan charging the mound afterwards. It was a great way to acknowledge a great pitch and it shows that the team chemistry is good. Why not have a laugh when you are working hard!

I am thinking Kate Gordon will have a monster year. Meeks is doing well and competing for more time. Some solid hitting across the lineup. Yet I feel for the freshman facing these three pitchers.

terrific info...thanks for sharing!!

(02-06-2019 08:25 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  I got to talk with Coach after yesterday's presser. She spent a lot of time answering a ton of questions I asked. It was an opportunity I appreciated. One of the things from last year is how many players played hurt, in addition to the list of players lost to injury. It was not known to most of us or at least me. Coach almost apologized for not letting people know about them, but said she didn't want the information out there that she had people on the field that had shoulder injuries that affected their throwing etc. I told her, good for you! none of the other coaches talk about injuries either. There were a number of surgeries in the off season. Overall the team is pretty healthy. When I asked her about our fielding, she is hoping/coaching for improvement. But pointed out that we are still a young team. ( 8 Fr, 7 Soph, 7 Jr and Megan )

I went to practice and watched a scrimmage of sorts. The three pitchers rotated an inning a piece then repeat. I thought Buresh's change of speed pitches were very effective and she looked sharp. The highlight was she twisted Megan into a pretzel-like swinging strike three with Megan charging the mound afterwards. It was a great way to acknowledge a great pitch and it shows that the team chemistry is good. Why not have a laugh when you are working hard!

I am thinking Kate Gordon will have a monster year. Meeks is doing well and competing for more time. Some solid hitting across the lineup. Yet I feel for the freshman facing these three pitchers.

That Senior Class is devastating if 100% healthy.

Roadwarrior

Thanks for the added info. Also watched the presser yesterday and think this years team could be great!!

Brian

Not trying to self-promote, but Coach LaPorte was so much fun to talk to this week and you all will probably enjoy the longer form:
http://jmusportsblog.com/?p=10783

The NCAA D1 Softball season actually opens up this weekend, FWIW. The Dukes' season opener down in St. Pete is against Cal. They play 5 games this weekend and then face Texas on Thursday in St. Pete the day before we open with them. So, the Bears will have 6 games under their belt before we even get our season rolling.

Same for Oregon (6 games) before we face them later that Friday in Game 2 of our season. That is a bit of an advantage for those teams I'd think - i.e., getting some of the nervousness out, playing time for newbie freshmen, time to tinker with lineup, etc.

Wonder if the girls have any scrimmages (w/ other schools) like Men's basketball does? That would help out I would think.

(02-06-2019 02:03 PM)olddawg Wrote:  Wonder if the girls have any scrimmages (w/ other schools) like Men's basketball does? That would help out I would think.

They do in the fall, I don't think they do in the spring.

(02-06-2019 02:03 PM)olddawg Wrote:  Wonder if the girls have any scrimmages (w/ other schools) like Men's basketball does? That would help out I would think.

Go back to the prior page of this thread. We had a discussion on this.

(02-06-2019 08:43 AM)Dukester Wrote:  

(02-06-2019 08:25 AM)jmuroadwarrior Wrote:  I got to talk with Coach after yesterday's presser. She spent a lot of time answering a ton of questions I asked. It was an opportunity I appreciated. One of the things from last year is how many players played hurt, in addition to the list of players lost to injury. It was not known to most of us or at least me. Coach almost apologized for not letting people know about them, but said she didn't want the information out there that she had people on the field that had shoulder injuries that affected their throwing etc. I told her, good for you! none of the other coaches talk about injuries either. There were a number of surgeries in the off season. Overall the team is pretty healthy. When I asked her about our fielding, she is hoping/coaching for improvement. But pointed out that we are still a young team. ( 8 Fr, 7 Soph, 7 Jr and Megan )

I went to practice and watched a scrimmage of sorts. The three pitchers rotated an inning a piece then repeat. I thought Buresh's change of speed pitches were very effective and she looked sharp. The highlight was she twisted Megan into a pretzel-like swinging strike three with Megan charging the mound afterwards. It was a great way to acknowledge a great pitch and it shows that the team chemistry is good. Why not have a laugh when you are working hard!

I am thinking Kate Gordon will have a monster year. Meeks is doing well and competing for more time. Some solid hitting across the lineup. Yet I feel for the freshman facing these three pitchers.

That Senior Class is devastating if 100% healthy.

She is healthy. The question mark is, can she return to her All American form after not pitching for over a year and a half. It's been a long time. She looks good. But has some rust. The injury is not the issue, the long layoff is.

Just a fun observation when the infield huddles on the mound with the pitcher. Megan towers over Meeks. Meeks is competing at third. She can hit that's for sure. There is a definite CRACK when she bats the ball.

A look ahead to the Softball Dukes' 5 opponents this upcoming opening weekend in St. Pete...

Fri, 12:30pm, no streaming - California (3-2) opened their season this past weekend at Louisiana-Lafayette winning their first 3 over Fordham, Incarnate Word, and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi before losing both games of a doubleheader against the host Rajun Cajuns (5-0 and ranked #13 in this week's NFCA poll). Cal will face Texas on Thursday the day before we open with the Bears. The Bears are receiving votes in this week's NFCA poll and would be 29th.

Fri, 5:30pm, ESPN-3 - Oregon (5-0) is ranked #19 in this week's NFCA poll. The Ducks played in a weekend event in Tempe, Arizona, winning all 5 games over Kansas, Cal State Northridge, Missouri, Bradley and Seattle. None of these teams were ranked or receiving votes in the NFCA poll. The Ducks will face #8 LSU earlier in the day on Friday.

Sat, 1:00pm, no streaming - Florida Atlantic (3-2) hosted their own event this past weekend losing to #10 Georgia and #24 Indiana (who defeated Georgia) while winning games over St. John's, Virginia and Bethune-Cookman.

Sat, 4:00pm, ESPN-3 - Tennessee (5-0) enters this weekend's event ranked #6 in the NFCA poll after winning all their games at an event hosted by Coastal Carolina this past weekend. They defeated the hosts as well as Illinois-Chicago twice, Boston U. and Rider. They gave up 4 runs across those 5 games and won collectively over the weekend 49-4. The Dukes lost our only matchup against the Vols in the Knoxville NCAAT Regional last year, run-ruled 13-3 in 6 innings. UT only faces 1 team this upcoming weekend who is not at least receiving votes in this week's NFCA poll. That is a later game Saturday against Utah after playing us. I imagine we will see their ace. My guess is we'll counter with The (Megan) Good/Great One.

Sun, 1:00pm, ESPN-3 - Kentucky (2-3) had a rough opening weekend at an event hosted by the University of Houston this past weekend. Yet, even at 2-3 they are still ranked #18 in this week's NFCA poll. They lost their first 2 games to Illinois and then to host Houston before defeating Soft Doucheston State and Houston. They finished up the weekend on Sunday with a loss to Oklahoma State, who is #20 in this week's NFCA poll.

While it will be snowing at JMU over the weekend, the weather in St. Pete looks great...clear days throughout the weekend and temps in the mid 70's...hopefully the Good Gals come back home with at least 3 wins.

Go Dukes!!