Posted by: Alan () on Wed Jun 4 10:08:50 2003

Anybody watch the Women's College World Series?
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> 19 Homeruns, a new tournament record - the old record was 7.
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> Veronica Nelson, Cal 1b, hit a couple despite being walked almost every other time. Is she rotational? How can you be that big/heavy and rotate your lower body quickly?
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> Mims/UCLA hit some bombs too. It looked like she was more throw the hands. Anybody disagree?
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> The monster shot of the tournament was from the freshman from Louisiana - Danyele Gomez - she hit the base of the 300 foot fence off of Osterman- the best pitcher. Power, no doubt.
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> Texas got two homeruns from Poppe and Hall.
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> Maybe the game is going to change. Any comments?

Hopefully the game will change for the better and keep the lively bats and balls.

Another thing that could help is the umpires need to reel in the strike zone (like major league baseball)they still call way too many outside pitches off the plate for strikes. I think this is because the umpires have got it in their mind that the women's game is all defense and pitcher dominated, so they feed into it by calling the game that way. I also think that since most of the umps are men they have it in their mind that the women can't hit as well as men and this also keeps the games lower scoring unnessarily.

By the way I want to note something the best hitter in college softball Taria Mims does. She sets up in the back of the box which is counter to the "old school" softball thinkers (I'll surely hear about this from someone on this website). In fact in the first at bat of the title game I saw her rub out the back line of the box and place her back foot as far back as possible. What I noticed throughout the tournament was the extra distance from the pitcher gave her greater command of the strike zone. The "old school" theory says the farther back you move the greater the pitchers ball moves and the more difficult it is to hit. She kind of blows that theory right out of the water.