Thoughts after the first weekend!

The first weekend of college softball is officially over! It was an interesting weekend to say the least lol! So here are just a few thoughts of mine after the first weekend!

First off Washington! The Huskies went 5-0 this weekend! They had a fantastic weekend and we saw the freshman stepping up as well as the upper classmen! One thing that made me smile is the return of Hooch Fagaly!! She had a nice weekend! Really all the girls did! Kaitlin Inglesby picked up where she left off both in the circle and with her bat! She hit a homerun at very first at bat of the season! All around I think it was a wonderful opening weekend for the Huskies and they have so much to be proud of!!

Bama and OU also both had great opening weekends and won all of their games! Proud of those ladies as well!!

Now for some teams I was surprised by some good and some bad!

Arizona: I really hoped this was the season they would put it all together. I really hoped all the changes they made would make a difference. But this opening weekend didn't show that. As I discussed in a previous blog I'd heard for the last couple of months that both Shelby Babcock and Kenzie Fowler were 100% and looking good. I had my doubts as I stated also in my previous blog and it turns out my doubts were warranted. Kenzie is not 100%! Kenzie now has an issue with her back. She didn't pitch as much as I thought she would have what little she did pitch she was not successful. That is the issue with Kenzie. There is no lack of talent or lack of heart. Her body has just been abused way too much. She'll never be the college pitcher she could be and I think her chances at this point of being drafted to play with the NPF are pretty slim and even if she was she wouldn't have a long successful career. She is constantly hurt. I also think her pitching motion is harder on her body than a traditional pitching motion, especially on her back. I'm not really sure what the answer for Kenzie is but obviously what they have done so far isn't working. Shelby is still doing the same old things. She needs somebody to work with her every day over and over on her control. They need her to be able to carry some of the weight of the team and right now she just simply isn't getting it done. She walks way too many batters and then starts throwing way too many sweet pitches. She needs to figure out where to place her pitches and do it consistently. I think Arizona is in trouble and unless things improve a whole lot, they'll be lucky to make it to regionals. They have to Kenzie well and in order to do that Shelby has got to do her job, I just don't see either thing happening.

ASU:
I honestly thought this would be basically the same team from last year...it doesn't appear to be. Escobedo is struggling. I was shocked to see them drop 2 games this weekend! I think they need to remember that just because they are the defending NC team, doesn't mean these other teams are just going to fall down and let them win. Repeating is next to impossible and I don't think ASU is looking like the team right now to do so. I'm not saying that can't or won't change. But if this is the team that is going to play all season they are in for a rude awakening. They depend on Dallas too much. She threw 130 pitches in just the first 5 innings in their loss to Tennessee! You can't ask a pitcher to throw as much as they are asking Dallas to pitch and not expect there to be fatigue. She is going to be worn out by the end of this season. Not just because of this season but because of what she did last season on top of this season. They need Bach to step it up and be the senior leader they need her to be all the time, not just once in awhile. She needs to be able to take her share of the innings and get the job done. She has done a poor job of that the last 3 seasons and they need her to step it up.

Cal- WOW they are every bit as good as I thought they would be plus! In my mind they are without a doubt the number 1 team in the nation and my favorite right now to win it all in June! This is a group of extremely talented, well coached, and just all around amazing young ladies! I am interested to see what they do this season!

UGA- Although they dropped their game today, they seem to have put together a nice team! You won't hear me compliment a UGA team often lol. But they performed very well this weekend and they have found a strong leader in Razey! I think in the end their pitching is still going to be a problem but who knows lol.

This weekend also saw 2 other favorites drop game in Stanford(1 game) and Oregon(2 games). Should be interesting to see how they learn from these losses and bounce back!

Overall alot of good softball and alot of interesting games! Can't wait until next weekend and then the next weekend is the big Cathedral City Classic! Not only is this going to bring together most of the big names schools, there will also be some games with the USSSA Pride! Should be a great weekend and I would LOVE to be there but just too far and I am too broke haha! So I guess I will just follow from home lol! I will be back with thoughts after next weekend!

Go Huskies! Boomer Sooner! RTR Go Bama! And a new one go St. Edwards FTG! That is the school Cat Osterman is coaching at so I have to root for them!