OT: This SU softball team is special

[Orangeyes]

The 25th ranked Syracuse University woman's softball team swept a doubleheader against Seton Hall at the Skytop complex yesterday afternoon. There was a very good crowd considering it was a chilly, windy, although sunlit day. The first game was a pitcher's duel until SU unleashed back to back solo home-runs by dh Jasmine Watson and catcher Lacy Kohl in the bottom of the 6th. SU added an insurance run in the inning to go up 3-0. Jen Caira, who gave up 2 hits on the day, finished off the Pirates with a one-two-three 7th inning. In all she had 11 strikeouts, the Hall pitcher had 10.

With the game scoreless in the 4th inning centerfielder Lisaira Daniel's made the play of the day. One of Seton Hall's players stroked a sinking line drive to the gap in left-center field. Daniel's went full out parallel, extended her glove as far as she could, hit the warning track very hard. Daniel's laid there for a moment after absorbing the impact and eventually raised her glove showing she had control of the ball for the out. The crowd came to it's feet in recognition of a catch as good as you'll witness at any level.

In the second game junior Stacy Kuwik pitched a masterful 5 inning gem. Freshman leftfielder Julie Wambold plated two runs with a blast over the fence in the 4th. In the 6th inning with a 3-0 lead, Leigh Ross decided to give Lindsay Taylor some work. The freshman got roughed, up yielding a three run blast that hit high atop the scoreboard in left field to tie the game at three.

Stacy Kuwick was re-inserted in the 7th inning and pitched three more masterful inning's. In all she had 12 K's, many on a wicked breaking ball. Slick fielding Carey-Leigh Thomas delivered a game winning blast to right center field to end the game. That homer was welcomed by the freezing fans sitting in the shadows of the stadium. Everyone left with a smile on their face.

SU play's at noon today against Seton Hall in a single game. Admission is free, there is a concession stand where you can grab a hot dog, pop corn or nacho's and cheese.

SU coach Leigh Ross talks about the games & second game hero, freshman thirdbasemen from the St. Regis Nation, Carey-Leigh Thomas talks about her walk-off HR that won the game.
http://www.suathletics.com/news/2012/4/6/SB_0406121411.aspx

If the men's lacrosse & the men's football team's have you down come check out this team. They won't disappoint you.

 

[SUFan44]

I don't know about special... They have one pitcher who has a change up that if you figure it out, can be hit (see St. John's, who is awful). Seton Hall isn't even a D1 program at this point.

South Florida is the class of the league this year, with Louisville always proving tough as well. Notre Dame also is up there.

Syracuse is good, don't get me wrong. But they're not what I would consider "special". They're a good solid team.

 

[NKR1978]

The fact that SU softball is ranked in the top 25 is pretty amazing in that softball is the last sport at SU that i would ever expect could be ranked.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

 

[Orangeyes]

This team is special, they are only one of two teams north of the Mason-Dixon line, outside of the west coast, who are ranked in the top 25. The other team, #22 Michigan they defeated 4-2 earlier this year when they were ranked 14th. They also beat Baylor 2-1, the Bears were ranked #10 at the time.

Earlier in the year Jen had mono so she got off to a slow start. Every batter in the lineup is capable of taking it out of the park and their defense is steller.

Besides Jen, Stacy is a good pitcher. Lindsay is a true freshman she has some growing to do.

SU Fan44 are you local? Have you ever taken in a game in person?

There was something strange in the air at St. John's, there were 19 homeruns hit in the three games.

 

[omniorange]

I don't know about special... They have one pitcher who has a change up that if you figure it out, can be hit (see St. John's, who is awful). Seton Hall isn't even a D1 program at this point.

South Florida is the class of the league this year, with Louisville always proving tough as well. Notre Dame also is up there.

Syracuse is good, don't get me wrong. But they're not what I would consider "special". They're a good solid team.

It's Louisville, USF, then SU, imho.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[Orangeyes]

I don't know about special... They have one pitcher who has a change up that if you figure it out, can be hit (see St. John's, who is awful). Seton Hall isn't even a D1 program at this point.

South Florida is the class of the league this year, with Louisville always proving tough as well. Notre Dame also is up there.

Syracuse is good, don't get me wrong. But they're not what I would consider "special". They're a good solid team.

Louisville (32-2) is ranked #9 in the nation. A closer look at the Cardinals shows they built their record mostly on cupcakes. Thirty of their games were played against teams well out of the top 25, several in the 100's, Akron at 223 and one unranked opponent. They only played one ranked opponent outside of the Big East, Michigan who we also beat. Louisville went 1-2 against DePaul in conference. The Demons are ranked #15.
http://www.uoflsports.com/sports/w-softbl/stats/2011-2012/teamgbg.html

Louisville's ace is the same pitcher as last year. Our record against them in 2011 was 5-0.
In addition, SU beat them two years in a row, in Louisville for the Big East Chammpionship.

The South Florida Bulls reside at #16 in the polls with a 33-5 record. They are a team I would be concerned about. We were 0-3 against them last year at their place. They have played three ranked opponents so far, getting a split with #3 Florida, beating #22 Michigan 2-0 and downing #17 Florida St. 2-1. They have, however, played at least 13 games against teams in the 100's, 200's and unranked.

This year we get the Bulls at our place for three games starting on May 5th.

Last year the Bulls lost in the first round of the Big East Tournament 2-0 to Louisville.
http://www.gousfbulls.com/SportSelect.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=7700&SPID=2928&SPSID=36725

Notre Dame (17-10) is ranked #42 They have played four ranked teams and are 3-3 against them. They split with #25 Oregon St, swept #22 UNC, lost to #10 Washington and lost to #22 Michigan.

Last year UND beat us twice at our place, 9-2 & 7-4

They were 46-11 overall and 19-1 in the Big East regular season. Beat Providence 6-4 & lost to Louisville 6-0 in the big East Tournament.
http://www.und.com/sports/w-softbl/sched/nd-w-softbl-sched.html

It's funny how USF & UND had our number but both lost to UL who we dominated.

In last years' Big East Conference with our "pitcher who has a change up that if you figure it out, can be hit" we knocked off Pitt 2-1, DePaul 2-0 and Louisville 1-0.

Louisville a team who faced Jen on five occasion's last year, managed 1.6 runs per seven innings against her.

SU (23-9) Has played eight ranked opponents going 3-5 against them.
http://www.suathletics.com/schedule.aspx?path=softball&schedule=250

 

[SUFan44]

This team is special, they are only one of two teams north of the Mason-Dixon line, outside of the west coast, who are ranked in the top 25. The other team, #22 Michigan they defeated 4-2 earlier this year when they were ranked 14th. They also beat Baylor 2-1, the Bears were ranked #10 at the time.

Earlier in the year Jen had mono so she got off to a slow start. Every batter in the lineup is capable of taking it out of the park and their defense is steller.

Besides Jen, Stacy is a good pitcher. Lindsay is a true freshman she has some growing to do.

SU Fan44 are you local? Have you ever taken in a game in person?

There was something strange in the air at St. John's, there were 19 homeruns hit in the three games.

Went to SU, not local anymore but I will say that know a lot about collegiate softball.

Not saying they aren't special in terms of the east coast and the Northeast, in particular. They absolutely have the best team in SU history up to this point. But a look inside SU's wins over ranked opponents reveals that Baylor hasn't exactly set the world on fire since and pitched their #2 in the game. Michigan is a good, solid win but they also threw their #2 pitcher. So did UNC.

Listen, a win is a win is a win. Syracuse is a good, solid team. And special for the SU program, yes. But they are not a special team in terms of collegiate softball, IMO.

 

[Orangeyes]

The hundreds of fans that watched on Friday & Saturday would disagree with you. Special to me is defined by effort, fundamentals, power, hustle, togetherness, results, coaching, defense, attitude towards the fans, attitude towards each other, coaches and officials of the game. You won't see them try & show up their opponents.

After yesterday's game my granddaughter was standing by the dugout, coach Ross spotted her and signaled her to come over. She remembered her name after having met her just once in the fall. Leigh asked her if she'd like to run the bases. That has been a tradition for Bella since she was two years old after she would attend her brother's tee-ball games. Coach spent a lot of time with her. Later Bella went to the pitcher's mound & played catch with her father. A few moments later Jen Caira went into the circle knelt down and had a conversation with her. They were laughing and joking. Almost every player on the team gave her a high five.

I don't know why you have to respond in a negative fashion and try minimizing what this team has accomplished. SU has only been playing D1 softball for a decade. The point of my post was to make people aware that there was a very good representative of the university who plays at a high level which they can be proud of. If they have a chance to come out to the complex they would have a very good time. They don't have to be number one in the country to be special. They don't even have to be in the top 25, but of course they are. You'll probably say that LSU started their backup in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year where SU won 1-0.

A buddy of mine who played in the Houston Astro's organization stopped by yesterday. He thanked me for giving him a head's up. He said he'd be back for the next game. A new fan was born. All I'm asking people to do is to check this team out. To see for themselves how much fun it is to watch and interact with these girls.

Over the past four decades I have played, coached and umpired softball and pretty much know the game inside & out. I have traveled the country playing & coaching in national tournaments against some of the top teams in the nation. One of my players worked himself into being one of the top five players in the country and ended up with big time equipment endorsements. I think I have and my buddy does too, a good sense of the quality that is before our eyes. In one form or the other I have been involved in thousands of games.

To me, this is a special team.

You can see the tail end of Daniel's great diving catch
Video From Friday's Twin Bill

Here is the link from yesterday's game

Softball Run Rules Seton Hall, 12-1

 

[Orangeyes]

Kelly Sacco on the first softball game in the Dome

Syracuse Softball Plays Their First Ever Game in the Dome

Jen Caira feature from last year

 

[Orangeyes]

SB | Dominant pitching by Kuwik helps carry Syracuse to 3-game sweep‎


SB | Offensive outburst caps 3-game weekend sweep over Seton Hall‎


Stacy Kuwick SU Student Athlete

 

[Orangeyes]

I don't know about special... They have one pitcher who has a change up that if you figure it out, can be hit (see St. John's, who is awful). Seton Hall isn't even a D1 program at this point.

South Florida is the class of the league this year, with Louisville always proving tough as well. Notre Dame also is up there.

Syracuse is good, don't get me wrong. But they're not what I would consider "special". They're a good solid team.

South Florida faced Jen three time this weekend and in 15 innings got 2 hits off of her. The last 7 innings they were no hit. If not for wanting to get freshman Lindsay Taylor some work against a good team, SU could have swept all three, Stacy Kuwick started that game. SU beat Notre Dame in South Bend 2 out of 3.

Louisville ended up the class of the league but has lost to SU 6 times in a row over the last 2 years. Jen is The lady known as The Card Killer. She has also been tough on USA softball, "Jennifer Caira and Canada seem to have America's number at the World Cup of Softball"

It will be interesting to see what happens this week at the BET.

 

[texascpa]

I just hope some of the games are televised on the net like they were last year.

 

[SUFan44]

South Florida faced Jen three time this weekend and in 15 innings got 2 hits off of her. The last 7 innings they were no hit. If not for wanting to get freashman Lindsay Taylor some work against a good team, SU could have swept all three, Stacy Kuwick started that game. SU beat Notre Dame in South Bend 2 out of 3.

Louisville ended up the class of the league but has lost to SU 6 times in a row over the last 2 years. Jen is The lady known as The Card Killer. She has also been tough on USA softball, "Jennifer Caira and Canada seem to have America's number at the World Cup of Softball"

It will be interesting to see what happens this week at the BET.

Syracuse is playing very well right now. Caira got through a bit of a hiccup against St. John's and has been quite impressive. I'm mildly surprised at how the Orange is hitting, also. Much improved.

I stand corrected. Syracuse, at this point, is all but assured of an NCAA Tournament berth barring a first-round upset in the BET. And even then I think they'll be OK with a bid (Although St. John's has hit Caira before, and is a tremendous hitting team).

 

[TexanMark]

Does Syracuse have a chance to host a subregional if they win the Big East Tourney?

 

[dasher]

I don't think so.

 

[Orangeyes]

Does Syracuse have a chance to host a subregional if they win the Big East Tourney?

No, for several reasons. The first is that Syracuse doesn't have a second softball diamond with the same conditions as the main field. Something that is a must as the teams are not allowed to practice on the main field.

Secondly, the capacity at the stadium, is too low. If you watch any of the games from the Pac 12, SEC, ACC, Louisville and Notre Dame you can see how much larger their seating areas are. Many have bleachers past the fence in the outfield or have hills where folks bring folding chairs & blankets and have a great view. The other day Alabama had 3500 for a senior weekend, regular season game. Our seating capacity is probably in the neighborhood of 400.

 

[OttoMets]

No, for several reasons. The first is that Syracuse doesn't have a second softball diamond with the same conditions as the main field. Something that is a must as the teams are not allowed to practice on the main field.

Secondly, the capacity at the stadium, is too low. If you watch any of the games from the Pac 12, SEC, ACC, Louisville and Notre Dame you can see how much larger their seating areas are. Many have bleachers past the fence in the outfield or have hills where folks bring folding chairs & blankets and have a great view. The other day Alabama had 3500 for a senior weekend, regular season game. Our seating capacity is probably in the neighborhood of 400.

I think we can't even host the Big East for that reason. Plus the lack of facilities up at Skytop.

 

[kirbivore]

They lost to St. John's in the BET quarters. NCAA bid in jeopardy?