Why are some D3 teams better than others?

[Orange Socks]

Imagine trying to compete for a player that is considering going to ETBU and your D1 school. Their clubhouse and facilities are pretty impressive. They can compete with most D1 programs with sub par facilities. Makes it a whole lot easier to bring in top talent dontcha think? It's not even fair.

https://goetbutigers.com/galleries/softball/etbu-softball-clubhouse/1179

 

[clarity]

Pitching, Pitching and more pitching. This is true in all of softball and yes I am stating the obvious. At any level, these players can hit. They have been hitting all of their lives. If your pitchers/defense can hold a team to 3 runs a game consistently, they have done their job. If you lose, your hitting let you down.

The D1 teams are gonna get the D1 talent, which we already know. If a D3 coach can recriut a D1 type pitcher, they can do pretty good. What if they can get 2 D1 type pitchers? Well, they have a pretty good chance of winning their conference, and quite possibly getting out of their regional. I sat through many D3 games and got to watch various teams and their pitching staffs in a pretty solid conference. Many pitchers don't have the stamina to last an entire game, and they have to use up 2-3 pitchers in their games. Remember they play 3 games series for the most part. By the 3rd game, there are no secrets. I witnessed a pretty succesful pitcher that was pretty dang good. (NFCA PofWeek and all american)This team would pitch her the 1st and 3rd games of the series hoping to guarantee 2 wins out of 3 games. I saw another team that had 4 starting pitchers and would utilitze a rotation. Ultimately, one of the pitchers(she's pretty good but not as good as the other 3) was left out of the rotation going into the last several weeks of game series. I found out that pitcher is transferring to a school down the road. Recruiting is not easy for D3 coaches, and they have to be patient, but some can recruit side by side with some of these mid major D1 programs.

I am getting ready to watch the D3 championship game between TLU and Va Wesleyan. https://www.ncaa.com/game/5843689 today. Va Wesleyan won the first game. I am rooting for TLU, since DD's former teammate is on that team. After watching many of these games over the past week, most of them have been pretty close for the most part. Yes, there have been a few blowouts, which in softball can happen in matter of minutes. What I have seen is the pitching has been pretty solid for most of these teams. Now if you combine awesome pitching with awesome, yet timely hitting, you can go deep.

Thanks for the link. We're watching. Nice to see some illegal pitches actually called. Of course 100% of the VA Wesleyan pitches have been illegal, but only 5 have been called. Gotta start somewhere!

 

[Orange Socks]

Thanks for the link. We're watching. Nice to see some illegal pitches actually called. Of course 100% of the VA Wesleyan pitches have been illegal, but only 5 have been called. Gotta start somewhere!

I came back on here to comment on those Illegal pitches. She is catching some serious air! And it appeares that she is out of the pitching lane too, which is harder to call. Congrats to her and the whole team for their D3 Championship Season. Lots of great softball around the country.

I know that a B12 pitcher(well decorated HS and TB player) has entered the portal after her Jr. year. She pitched a bunch her freshman year, not so much last year (covid) and None this year. A pitcher dad told me that a pitching coach said that she was having issues with illegal pitches. Not sure what was said between coach and player. My mind wonders and my scenario goes somethig like this. Hey kid, until you fix your crow hopping, you will not pitch for us. You have been called too many times and I told you it could be an issue when you were in HS. You are welcome to stick around, but I have freed up your scholly money for my freshman stud that is coming in.

 

[Itsabouttime]

Definitely pitching is bigger at D3. No secret why VW won 3 out of 4 years and Tufts won 3 in a row.

 

[Orange Socks]

Definitely pitching is bigger at D3. No secret why VW won 3 out of 4 years and Tufts won 3 in a row.

Interesting to see TLU's pitching staff stats 2019 vs 2021. They won it all in 2019. 2 pitchers getting the most of the innings combined for 192 innings. Those same 2 pitchers only pitched 43 innings this year.

 

[MNDad]

I came back on here to comment on those Illegal pitches. She is catching some serious air! And it appeares that she is out of the pitching lane too, which is harder to call. Congrats to her and the whole team for their D3 Championship Season. Lots of great softball around the country.

I know that a B12 pitcher(well decorated HS and TB player) has entered the portal after her Jr. year. She pitched a bunch her freshman year, not so much last year (covid) and None this year. A pitcher dad told me that a pitching coach said that she was having issues with illegal pitches. Not sure what was said between coach and player. My mind wonders and my scenario goes somethig like this. Hey kid, until you fix your crow hopping, you will not pitch for us. You have been called too many times and I told you it could be an issue when you were in HS. You are welcome to stick around, but I have freed up your scholly money for my freshman stud that is coming in.

The Big 12 and other P5 schools can’t take away scholarships for athletic performance. They can tell her she’ll never play and hope she quits. I’m not certain if they can cut a player if they still honor the scholarship, but I would assume that’s allowed. It would be interesting to see if that scholarship would still count for the 12 allowed.

Iowa State has a freshman pitcher that struggles with illegal pitches. She does great warming up, but in games she has a tendency to leap. Its kinda like the yips. She started two of the games in the Regionals and was pulled after two batters both games. Hope she gets it figured out.

 

[The Man In Blue]

Not really the “why” but the “why are people surprised?” — Because too many people mistakenly think D1/D2/D3 refers to the caliber of play.

 

[Tatonka]

Imagine trying to compete for a player that is considering going to ETBU and your D1 school. Their clubhouse and facilities are pretty impressive. They can compete with most D1 programs with sub par facilities. Makes it a whole lot easier to bring in top talent dontcha think? It's not even fair.

https://goetbutigers.com/galleries/softball/etbu-softball-clubhouse/1179

Man, that'd leave a nice impression on any recruit!

 

[Eric F]

Not really the “why” but the “why are people surprised?” — Because too many people mistakenly think D1/D2/D3 refers to the caliber of play.

That's how it's sold to young players and their parents in the TB world.

 

[The Man In Blue]

That's how it's sold to young players and their parents in the TB world.

Yes, because D1 is going to provide for my daughter's entire college bill ...

(The rolleyes are for those parents, not you Eric!)