Ranking the 2010-2011 USF Sports Teams

As many of you know, this time of year is torturous for us bloggers. The lack of news combined with the anticipation of a new season makes for a long summer. I've spent a good amount of this time reflecting on the past year in USF athletics and ranking them in order of how well they performed. You can check out what I thought of our 15 sports teams this season after the jump.

The Great Twitter Scare of 2011

It seemed like just your average Tuesday night. Sitting on the couch watching the Marlins game, thinking the day in USF Athletics was over. I'm sure many of my fellow twitter members felt the same as I did: another pretty normal, uneventful night in the world of USF sports. That was until about 10 p.m. when our beloved school newspaper, The Oracle, posted a tweet that would turn on the panic meter for the next 45 minutes:

See how the rest of the night unraveled after the jump

Exorcise Those Demons

Can someone please tell me why the Big East continues to keep DePaul around? Seriously, if anyone has a legitimate answer to this question, I would love to hear it. Maybe it's because they're a private school with a good amount of money. Maybe it's because they're in a huge television market in Chicago. Those are really the only two explanations I can think of. Yesterday, USF Softball coach Ken Ericksen withdrew his girls from the field after concluding that the safety of his team was in jeopardy. I'll have quite a bit more to say after the jump, but first enjoy this Family Guy clip I've been using to illustrate the way DePaul went about this whole situation:

Vidivodo.com : stewie playing chess Etiket: stewie griffin brian play

My Day at the USF Softball Doubleheader

I got up at 9:55 this morning, rolled out of bed, and immediately put on my USF shirt and hat. I grabbed something to eat on my way out to the car, and drove to campus, excited to finally see a USF team in contention for a league title this late in the season. After finding out yesterday that Sara Nevins would be starting both games today, got to the park at around 10:30 hoping see a no-hitter. I guess I forgot that we were going to be facing the 23rd ranked softball team in the country, one whose only losses this season are to teams that have won national championships and are still national powers. Even with that considered, I was confident when I settled into my seat, ready for game one.

Game one started exactly as expected. Sara Nevins walked out to the circle and was dialed in from the beginning. She struck out the first three batters on 14 pitches to get the Bulls a quick trip back into the dugout. Gina Kafalas got hit by the Notre Dame pitcher Laura Winter's first pitch, and Janine Richardson drew a walk, but that was pretty much the highlight of USF's game. Unable to capitalize on the first inning baserunners, the ladies took the field again. Nevins was still in the zone, though, pitching perfectly through the first four innings of the game, only to be matched by Winter's outstanding performance. In the top of the fifth, though, things began to come apart. After a one-out single by Sadie Pitzenberger broke up the perfect game and stole second, Nevins struck out the next batter. It looked like the Bulls were going to be able to escape unharmed until Erin Marrone popped up what looked to be a routine fly ball. Gina Kafalas came in to chase the ball down, but Kelly McCarver was tracking it from left too. The two collided, and the ball fell to the ground allowing Pitzenberger to score. That was the only damage done by the Irish's offense, but it appeared to be all Winter needed. Since the first-inning walk to Richardson, Winter was perfect, retiring all remaining 19 batters in order. Like I said, when I woke up this morning, I hoped to see a no-hitter. I wasn't expecting Notre Dame to be the one pitching it.

Final score: Notre Dame 1, USF 0.

And don't worry, I kept track of the scoring again:

Here's my scoresheet for Notre Dame and for USF

I also kept track of pitch counts and pitcher stats, but I figured this was good enough.

Game two came around at 1:15, and Nevins was handed the ball for her second start of the day. After 107 pitches in game one, it was clear that Nevins wouldn't be around long. the first and second innings went very well for both pitchers, but the third was where things started getting bad. Alexa Maldonado had a leadoff single, and a walk put two on with one out. It appeared that things may not be too bad when Sadie Pitzenberger slapped a ground ball to short, but Janine Richardson misplayed it and it turned into an RBI. The fourth was even worse, when a leadoff single allowed Marrone to come aboard, which was followed by what would be Nevins' last batter. Brianna Jorgensborg bunted to advance the runner, but an errant throw by Nevins rolled all the way into the corner of right field, and Jorgensborg turned a sacrifice bunt into a bunt home run. After 57 pitches in the second game for a grand total of 164, Nevins' day was finally done. By this time, I was pretty much ready to go, seeing how the offense couldn't produce all day. But I had to be strong and finish watching so I could write about it here, so I stuck around. Capri Catalano was able to close out the inning without further damage. Offensively, the Bulls still hadn't found a hit. It wasn't until the bottom of the 6th with two on and one out that Janine Richardson finally recorded USF's first hit of the day, breaking a 13.1 inning hitless streak. The bases were loaded at this point, but Stephanie Medina flew out to left field, followed by an inning-ending groundout by Laura Fountain.

Final Score: Notre Dame 5, USF 0.

My scoresheets for Notre Dame and for USF

I'd like to say I took something positive away from this doubleheader, but there really wasn't anything that looked good all day. The only thing that was remotely encouraging was Nevins' perfect game going into the 5th, but we already knew she could do that. We can only wonder what would have been different if Lindsey Richardson had been healthy for the game, but nothing good can come out of the "what if" game. The offense was, no pun intended (maybe a little), offensive, not being able to record a hit in more than a game and a half. Obviously Notre Dame didn't get ranked #23 in the nation for just no reason, but if USF expects to compete with teams of this caliber they have to be able to manufacture hits and capitalize on baserunners. Defensively, the ladies looked confused at times, even though there were no pre-game position changes. Now, the Bulls have a few days off before going to Chicago to complete their season at DePaul, who still lead the conference. As it looks right now, they're going to have to sweep the Blue Demons and hope Notre Dame drops a bunch of games in these final weeks of the season if they have any expectations of a #1 seed in the Big East championship tournament in Clearwater. Despite the losses today, this softball team has given us a great season, and hopefully we get to see some more of them in the postseason.

USF Softball Preparing for Judgment Week

With the five biggest games of the season just over the horizon for the Lady Bulls of the softball team, everything seems to be falling right into place for head coach Ken Ericksen. There are many emotions stirring in the clubhouse this week approaching a season-defining doubleheader tomorrow at home against Notre Dame, but the most prevalent is excitement. Coach Ericksen has seen success in the past in USF's Conference USA days, but this team has something special about it.

Mostly Successful Week for Bulls

Over the past week, there were several USF teams in action. Right here in Tampa, the softball team had a three-game conference series against Connecticut, which they wound up sweeping. The lovely ladies of USF Volleyball held their tenth annual find raising golf tournament across the street at River Hill Country Club on Friday, which was enjoyed thoroughly by the guys at Voodoo Five all day. Up in Indiana, the track team spend a couple days competing in the Polytan Invitational Tournament, where they wound up winning winning five events as well as improving on some personal bests. The baseball team didn't have quite as much success, however, as they bring home a 1-2 record from their three-day stay in Louisville. USF Golf had the Big East tournaments during the week, and while they competed beyond expectations, expectations were low to begin with.

The USF Softball team had yet another conference sweep, this time welcoming UConn to the new softball complex. As I wrote before, the Bulls had a great Friday, dominating a doubleheader and allowing only three runs all day. Sara Nevins got her eighth save, taking over the outright spot for most season saves in USF history. They completed the series sweep Saturday afternoon with an 8-0 run-rule victory and another Nevins gem. She has now not allowed a single run in her last 41.1 innings pitched.

While the doubleheader was going on, down the road at River Hill CC the girls of USF Volleyball were holding their annual fundraiser scramble tournament. With nearr 100 prizes for raffles and plenty of supporters on the course, the day was a complete success. I'd tell you how much they raised, but I figured I'd just let them do that:

It's always great to see a fundraiser go well for any of our teams, so congratulations to the volleyball team on a great job on the course once again.

Out of the state, half of USF's track team went to Bloomington to compete in the University of Indiana's Polytan Invitational while the other half was in Baton Rouge for the LSU Alumni Gold competition. In Indiana, USF's 'A' team took the gold in the 4x400, while individually Jared Thomas won the discus. At LSU, the first-place finishers included Denise von Eynatten (pole vault) and Marqueshia Stallworth (triple jump). In addition to the victories in competition, the athletes achieved 11 personal bests and posted 27 Big East qualifying times.

The success wasn't unlimited, though, as the baseball team took a trip up to Louisville, there they lost two of three, dropping their first conference series since losing to West Virginia in the conference opener. USF dropped a late lead in game one, before getting blown out in game two. Saturday, the Bulls answered with a 10-5 victory thanks in part to the help of a grand slam by Andrew Longley.

The golf teams were playing in the Big East tournament at Innisbrook, where hopes for a championship win were pretty low. USF golf has underachieved in recent memory, but actually competed surprisingly not-too-horribly. The men's team tied their best-ever Big East showing with a fourth place finish, highlighted by a fourth-place individual finish by Robby Carl. The lady golfers earned a third-place finish, only shooting a higher final day score than eventual champion Notre Dame.

Overall, the weekend was full of South Florida sports, and it's always a pleasure when the teams give us something good to write about. Be sure to go out to the softball stadium on Wednesday for the Big East leading USF Softball team's final home series of the season against Notre Dame, who is currently second in the conference, and a weekend baseball series against St. John's. It's sad to see the USF athletics season coming to a close, but the end does bring the end of the semester for students, and the upcoming of a new athletics season to come soon.

Ladies Comfortable at Home Once Again

Another day, another two wins on the diamond for the Lady Bulls of South Florida. I had the pleasure of spending the day at the park, and it was a glorious day to be out there. In fact, if the people sitting down the aisle from me didn't keep getting up to walk out every 5 minutes and coming back 5 minutes later, I would say it was a perfect day. The guys from Voodoo Five were taking advantage of the outstanding weather at the USF Volleyball annual golf scramble tournament over at The Claw (link to come). I hope someday I won't be a poor college kid and actually have money to support our girls in a golf tournament.

But I digress...

As the guys from V5 were probably slamming back the 5th or 6th of their beers in the tee boxes, I was doing my part to support the ladies of our USF Athletics. The Bulls hosted Connecticut (17-20, 5-5 Big East) this afternoon, and Lindsey Richardson got the start for game one. After a bit of a rough start for USF, UConn didn't take long to load the bases with two walks and an error. Richardson kept cool, though, and struck out two in the inning to escape with no damage. The offense was uncharacteristically unproductive early in the game, failing to even get a hit until the third inning. After that, though, USF got back to their good old selves again, scoring two in the third inning with RBI by Ashli Goff and Kourtney Salvarola. The Huskies came back immediately with leadoff back-to-back solo home runs, but that would be the last we would see of Connecticut's offense for the game. USF was really in control for the rest of the game, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth. They also scored four runs in the fifth on only two hits in the fifth, as three UConn pitchers walked three straight batters with the bases loaded. Final score: USF 9, Connecticut 2. A game note: pitcher Sara Nevins got her 8th save of the season, moving her into first place outright for most season saves in USF history.

See what I spent the game doing after the jump.

That's right, I made my own scoresheet. I did one for Connecticut too, but I figured just uploading one would suffice. I apologize for the less than beautiful handwriting, too. The announcer was talking fast and I had to write everyone down.

Anyway, the Bulls didn't have much time to celebrate that big game 1 win, as they got started on the next game 30 minutes later. Richardson got back on the field for game 2, and this time she seemed just about the same. Connecticut made a few changes to the lineup, but it proved to not make much of an improvement as the Huskies only scored one run in the fourth on a sac fly to tie the game at 1, which was charged to Richardson. Sara Nevins came in to relieve Richardson, and at that point, the game was over. Nevins closed the fourth and pitched the next three innings nearly perfectly while getting a bit of run support, courtesy of an RBI single by Ashli Goff. Final score of game 2: USF 2, Connecticut 1. Another game note: Lindsey Richardson only got charged with one earned run in both of her starts today, but did not record a victory (Brittany Bowles got the win in game 1, Nevins in game 2).

The doubleheader sweep improves USF to 11-1 in Big East play, and boosts them into an outright spot,however temporary, for second place in the conference. They get a chance to move into first place tomorrow, but need some help as current first-place team DePaul is in New Brunswick this weekend to play Rutgers. Although the day in softball is over, this doesn't mean my day has to end. As I write this, I'm listening to Ronan O'Shea broadcast the USF Baseball game at Louisville and watching the UCF-UF baseball game on Brighthouse. It's a tough life, but someone has to do it.

Bittersweet Weekend for USF Softball

Looking at the past weekend for the USF Softball team, some might think it looked like a pretty good three games. The girls probably think differently. After being scheduled for a doubleheader at Rutgers and a three-game weekend series with Seton Hall, the Bulls are riding home 2-1 on the weekend. Taking a series against a conference opponent sounds like a pretty good week, but that one loss to Seton Hall snaps the team's ten-game win streak and drops the Bulls to third in the Big East standings.

Just How Great is USF's Softball Team?

It's quite clear by now that the USF Softball team has been having an outstanding season. What may not be so clear, however, is what's pushing the Lady Bulls to such success. Currently, they sit at the top of the Big East standings, undefeated in conference play, remaining as one of only three teams in the Big-Six conferences to have that statistic. Coach Ken Ericksen has done an excellent job of grooming these ladies in the past years and it is now paying dividends for him and the USF community.