Before I post this, I just want to say this, and this is just my opinion, and I do not intend to throw no 18–22-year-old under the bus. Being a baseball coach for over 25 years. The baserunning on this softball team is absolutely awful. I mean these are girls who have played softball in rec ball, travel ball, AAU softball and the baserunning and the decision making on running the bases is like worse than the bad news bears and that really is bad. Partly the blame goes on the coaches for making bad base running decisions. Whoever that man coach who is coaching third base is needs to go back to learning on when to send a runner and when not to send a runner. We have a runner on third base, and I have always been taught if the ball is hit on the infield whether it is on the first base side of the infield you do not send a runner because 99 times out of a 100 the runner is going to be thrown out. That happened several times against the team USC was playing Friday night. That game should not have been that close. Thanks to the bad decisions by the coach from the opposing team to leave their pitcher in the game USC got lucky and we had 2 base hits, and then fortunately one of our players had her first home run of the year a 3-run home run and USC won 7-4. I know baseball and yes softball goes by the basic fundamentals of baseball. Ashley Chastain Woodard had a good year last year, cannot take that from her but she really needs to work on the fundamentals of base running, when and when not to go and she needs to put a coach on third base who knows what in the world he is doing. That guy coaching third base is absolutely awful. If he coached a softball team that my daughter was part of, I would not let her play for this man. I did see where between innings Ashley talked between innings with the man had had who was coaching third base. There is no excuse for basic base running fundamentals. At times our players on the infield look like they are seeing a ufo and at times their fundamentals are bad. I know the players we have are the best we can put out there. After 50 games the errors we make are head scratching. Again, this goes back to basic fundamentals. Hopefully they can correct some of these basic fundamentals. Ashley has the 9th rated recruiting class coming in next year hopefully things will go better with the basic fundamentals of softball. I think they will.
USC-Softball view point
- Thread starter rgamecock1
- Start date
Fundamentals is one of the hardest things for players to latch onto as it requires repetitive practice and performance for it to become a natural mental and physical reaction. Coaching/practice is critical to execution of fundamentals.
The 3rd base coach is one of the most critical positions on the team and ACW needs to make a change if needed.
The 3rd base coach is one of the most critical positions on the team and ACW needs to make a change if needed.
See where Karley Shelton has hit the transfer portal. Karley to her credit was an adequate second baseman. Not a program changer. She could have gone anywhere after she graduated early from high school. Tip of the hat to her because after the coaching change, she stayed, where most of the players on that roster of 24 left leaving Ashley Chastain with only 7 players. Tip of the hat for her loyalty and to her credit USC almost made the wcws world series in Ashley Chastain first year. This year at times she played really well and at other times you would scratch your head. Best of luck to where Karley goes. I mean the NCAA selection committee did USC softball no favors by putting them in the Los Angeles regional. USC did win 2 games in that regional with the team playing really good at times. But they did make the field of 64 which is good to be included in the field of 64. So best of luck to Karley and the other girls who entered the transfer portal. USC has a class that is ranked 9th coming in for next year. I expect to see the young lady who was the Gatorade player of the year playing shortstop and the current shortstop being moved to third base. USC has 3 highly ranked pitchers coming in so with two pitchers entering the transfer portal USC should be ok. Only time will tell. Best to all these girls who played softball at USC and I wish the seniors only the best in life.
Head-scratcher to me as to why she would leave in her senior year. She was a good player, a starter and a captain - but not someone that I would think other teams would be dying to throw money at and poach. A second baseman in SB is not going to command a lot of high dollar NIL money, so it's odd to think she would leave for a better offer, especially since she is from nearby Lexington and now it will be much tougher for family to come watch her play. Oh well. That's how it is these days.