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.
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.
