hssportsfan

What do you expect, we are talking about teenage girls. Throw in softball dads stirring the pot behind the scenes and you've got at least two different kinds of drama. I'm not sure which is worse.

My take on the field: 1. Trinity - No Contest! Best pitcher and catcher/hitter in the field. 2. Grace - Tough draw putting the top two together in the first round. Grace is really good. Lost to Soddy 3-2. If Laycee Walker can stay healthy and pitch all the way they could battle back for another shot at Trinity out of the loser's bracket. 3. East Robertson - Played a good schedule including Riverdale, Columbia Acad, Goodpasture, and Greenbrier. Eye opener was the stomping of Forrest in the Region final. I'd like to see a rematch of that one. 4. Forrest - With a young team they didn't play the schedule they have in the past. Some even wrote them off after losing to both Cornersville and Marshall County. That would have been a mistake as it seems being the third best team in Marshall county is still plenty good enough to make the state tourney. Forrest always seems to be ready come sectional and state tourney time. Never count them out. 5. South Fulton - Admittedly don't know much about them. Schedule looks solid and could move as high as #3. 6. Friendship - Raise your hand if you thought they would make it this far. Parlayed a tough schedule which included beat downs to teams like Davidson, Summertown, Soddy, Cornersville, and Goodpasture combined with a pretty weak district/region into yet another state tourney berth. I'm guessing the schedule toughened them up enough to get it done in the sectional when it counted. Props to Friendship for playing the big dogs when it would have been easy to back off on schedule strength. 7. Unaka - Region 1 and 2 teams usually struggle at state. 8. USJC - See #7.

Sometimes coaches specifically request tough pools. Looks like yet another tough pool for the Coffee County tourney. If you can keep from getting frustrated it should help in the long run.

Marshall County is playing well. Allthough them blowing that pool game against poor old Shelbyville forced the Cornersville matchup in the first round. Looked like a semifinal game.

Day 1: The pitching duels went about as expected. Refroe/Thomas in the Trinity - Huntingdon game both pitched really well and it came down to a couple of errors and a big hit when Trinity needed it. Look for Huntingdon to battle back out of the loser's bracket for a possible rematch. Cornersville - Grace was a duel as well, as it took 10 innings for Cornersville to scratch across a run with both Cole and Walker pitching excellent games. Grace had a chance to win it but Cornersville's CF gunned one down at the plate. Forrest did their thing with Stinnett pitching her usual excellent game and getting help by pressuring Midway into some errors with the short game and Forrest's blazing speed on the basepaths. Friendship was really the surprise of the day with their hitting. I thought they might have a tougher time against Fadnek and Coalfield. Friendship's tough schedule may be paying off and Coalfield may have had some jitters for the first time on the big stage. I look for Huntingdon and Grace to both win today and continue to make some noise out of the loser's bracket. In the winner's bracket Friendship will likely find it tougher to keep the bats hot against the Trinity pitching and the Marshall County teams will duke in out what should be a good one.

My take on the field: The Favorite: Trinity - Overwhelming favorite. Ever since Forrest pulled off the miracle shocker last year these ladies have seemed to be on a mission. They are 42-1 and if anyone beats them it will be an even bigger upset than last year. Chance to hang around awhile: Huntingdon - With Thomas and their improved hitting they can play with anyone. Tough to put the two best west TN teams together in the 1st round, but they could give Trinity a good game then fight back out of the losers bracket. Forrest - Defending champs had to work hard to beat Houston County and Summertown just to get here. However, you have to think they have a chance because of experience, Stinnett, and more team speed than most 1A teams. Cornersville - With Cole and good hitting could play late into the week. Experience from last years run and playing well of late might help, but Grace may be tougher opening game than some expect. Grace Academy - The rest of the state might become familiar with Lacye Walker's name by the end of the week. Team is loaded with freshmen and sophs and has played well with some of Chattanooga's elite softball programs. Could be the next private softball power to rise up. We'll see: Friendship - Made it back even in a rebuilding year. Will scrap with anyone, and if they get some breaks could make some noise. Not sure that they can play as late into they week as they usually do. Midway and Coalfield - Usually the Region 1 and 2 teams have a tough time of it at the state tourney. However, these teams are a little more tested than some in the past and both have quality pitching. I'm sure they would love nothing more than to win a game or two for all of the Upper East Tn teams and prove they can hang. It will be interesting to see them.

I disagree as well. While you are correct that a rural team can travel to see better competition. That does not hide the fact that it is simply harder to have the collection of talent needed to go all the way from a rural area. It's proven over and over again every year. The results of the small metro area private schools like Trinity and Goodpasture combined with the dominance of the suburban softball giants like Soddy, Ooltewah, Brentwood, Beech, and Riverdale point very clearly where the best softball talent can be produced most consistantly. That doesn't mean that any of the above mentioned schools are not working very hard or that they are doing anything the wrong way. It also does not mean that any of the rural school should whine about it or use it as an excuse. To use a cliche, it is what it is. Anyone that would deny that metro area private schools or large suburban public schools don't have it a little easier than most rural schools in softball is not looking at the results.

I don't know about cancelling anything at this point. However, some tourneys better be finding a way to squeeze more games into the couple of dry days that we will hopefully get this week. Tomorrow(Tuesday) looks like most folks can play, after that it gets iffy. Wednesday looks wet, and Friday is looking like another rain day. That leaves Tues and Thursday to hopefully get everything in. I'd hate to risk pushing into Friday or Saturday with rain now back in the forecast for Friday.

No question they are working hard and they are getting better and better up that way. The problem is that historically the 1A teams from Regions 1 and 2 have gone into the state tourney and have been beaten up. Sometimes they came in with nice records and then teams from middle TN or the Chatt area would trounce them. Some of those teams that made the state from upper East TN wouldn't have even finished in the top half of some of the other TN districts. That creates some resentment from some teams that play in the tougher Regions. However, that seems to be slowly changing as softball gets better in NE TN, so keep your head up and keep working.

They use the raised seam balls in AL. Maybe a little more grip for the pitchers.

Mr. NoitAll, I enjoy your posts as you seem to really know your softball in middle TN, and you do a good job at keeping things lively around here. However, I have to slightly disagree with you on your continuing to call out some of these schools that choose not to play in tournaments. First, I fully agree that if a team has some good talent and a shot at playing into mid or late May then they will certainly benefit from playing the quality of competion and really good pitching that you can find in most tourneys. However, some of the A and AA teams out in the rural areas are lucky just to have a few girls who play league ball. These teams are not going to magically get better by playing in some tournaments. What good does it do these teams to get their brains beat in playing in them? Sure they might pick up a thing or two, but at what cost? If I woke up tomorrow as a coach at a rural school with no experienced softball players I don't think scheduling a bunch of tourneys is going to help my team. I would think you would be better served by coaching up as best you could what you have and encouraging your girls to play as high a level of summer ball as they could. Even more important if winning is what you are focusing on is to develop and encourage the younger girls in that community to play the game at a higher level. The pipeline is what its all about in baseball and softball. There is only so much coaching up that you can do at the high school level if the kids don't already have the skills necessary. BTW, 11A has proved to be a dogfight the last several years between Richland, C'Ville, and CA. I would expect more of the same. I think both CA and Cornersville's recent state success has been aided by simply having to fight to even get out of the district, unlike most of the other top single A teams. Cornersville has the Cole sisters as seniors, but I wouldn't count out Richland, they have been very competitive for several years and I hear they have a flamethrower waiting in the wings in middle school. Also have heard that CA has picked up a couple of young transfer softball players from the area that may help in the future. Plus, their pitcher is tough as nails and should keep them in most every game.

Unfortunately the weather looks terrible. Heavy rain/storms Friday and then a chance of rain and snow Saturday.

Regional final could be played Friday with the sectional on Saturday. Hopefully most will be able to get them in today, because tomorrow could be a washout.

The Cole twins are both good pitchers and complement each other well. They have a couple of others who haven't had much work, a senior lefty who has been hurt, and a tall younger pitcher who is a freshman I think. Who knows they might use them since this is not a district game? They definitely have some options when it comes to who is pitching.

Very well said dore, and sorry if I twisted your words. I guess I have seen too many bitter softball dads over the years who are never happy with high school ball. Its not an easy problem to solve. Many schools have only added softball within the last 20 years or so and there just aren't enough talented coaches to go around. Many are forced or strong armed into coaching because there is nobody else willing to do it. Then these folks sometimes have to endure the wrath of the "softball dads". Not a pleasant situation to be in. I wish they would move softball to the fall where the girls could come right out of summer ball and just play and have fun on the school team. I think sometimes the dads are bitter about the HS coaches getting the recognition even though most of the skills are learned before they ever get them. Most HS coaches will readily admit this. However, the newspapers and other local media only want to report on school teams, district races, and state tourneys even though there is a much higher level of ball being played on the travel teams without the publicity. Just the nature of the beast.