From a dominant 2024 regular season showing to a heartbreaking WCWS early exit- Cal Softball looks ahead to an ACC future and potential facilities boost.
The pitching situation is interesting. The Bears return four players who pitched last year in addition to those two freshmen, although the four returners only accounted for about a third of the total innings last year:
Ashanti McDade 23.2 ip, 17 h, 14 bb, 9 k, 0 hr. She kept the ball down, but had a lot of walks and not many strikeouts.
Anna Reimers 37.1 ip, 31 h, 11 bb, 24 k, 8 hr. Good K/BB ratio, but gave up a lot of gopher balls.
Ryann Orange 36.2 ip, 33 h, 29 bb, 37 k, 2 hr. Kept the ball down, struck people out, walked too many.
Annabel Teperson 25.2 ip, 33 h, 9 bb, 22 k, 2 hr. Gave up a surprisingly high number of hits considering her high strikeout rate and low home run count.
Hopefully two of the six pitchers will develop into quality starters this year. At a minimum, the Bears will have a lot of serviceable innings-eaters.
Re: Cal Softball, I think pitching is a major question mark with Archer and Roelling gone. The Fall Ball pitching dominance really doesn't necessarily mean that much given the level of the compeition.
Mya McGowan is a highly touted pitching recruit but she won't arrive on campus until 2025. Could she somehow graduate high school early to help the team this season?
There was a moment when I was very excited this past spring about Softball's Randi Roelling and Baseball's Trey Newmann flashing brilliance as freshmen for the Bears on the same night. However, the new college sports reality is that both are gone to Georgia and TCU, respectively, via the portal.
Oct 30Liked by Avinash Kunnath, Piotr Le, Justin Buechler
Welcome, Justin! I’m going to miss Pac-12 games being played in Southern California, but hopefully the softball and baseball teams will play some non-conference contests near me.
The pitching situation is interesting. The Bears return four players who pitched last year in addition to those two freshmen, although the four returners only accounted for about a third of the total innings last year:
Ashanti McDade 23.2 ip, 17 h, 14 bb, 9 k, 0 hr. She kept the ball down, but had a lot of walks and not many strikeouts.
Anna Reimers 37.1 ip, 31 h, 11 bb, 24 k, 8 hr. Good K/BB ratio, but gave up a lot of gopher balls.
Ryann Orange 36.2 ip, 33 h, 29 bb, 37 k, 2 hr. Kept the ball down, struck people out, walked too many.
Annabel Teperson 25.2 ip, 33 h, 9 bb, 22 k, 2 hr. Gave up a surprisingly high number of hits considering her high strikeout rate and low home run count.
Hopefully two of the six pitchers will develop into quality starters this year. At a minimum, the Bears will have a lot of serviceable innings-eaters.
Welcome to WFC Justin!
Welcome aboard, Justin!
Re: Cal Softball, I think pitching is a major question mark with Archer and Roelling gone. The Fall Ball pitching dominance really doesn't necessarily mean that much given the level of the compeition.
Mya McGowan is a highly touted pitching recruit but she won't arrive on campus until 2025. Could she somehow graduate high school early to help the team this season?
There was a moment when I was very excited this past spring about Softball's Randi Roelling and Baseball's Trey Newmann flashing brilliance as freshmen for the Bears on the same night. However, the new college sports reality is that both are gone to Georgia and TCU, respectively, via the portal.
Nice write-up, thanks!
Welcome, Justin! I’m going to miss Pac-12 games being played in Southern California, but hopefully the softball and baseball teams will play some non-conference contests near me.