[bnarver]

My pet peeve against softball: Pitching is everything.  A team with 1 top-notch pitcher and mediocre hitting can easily make the tournament and may even make it to the WCWS.  Cat Osterman's experience at Texas is a good example.  Texas was 24-29 in 2001.  Cat shows up in 2002, and Texas goes 50-13 in 2002 and 49-9 in 2003.  She redshirts in 2004 to train for the Olympics with the US National Team.  Texas goes 24-25.  Cat returns to Texas as a Junior in 2005, and Texas goes 49-13 in 2005 and 55-9 in 2006.  Without Cat, Texas goes 35-20 in 2007 and 29-23-2 in 2008.

The rigors of baseball demand that a team has at least 2 very good pitchers if they even want to make the tournament.  I think softball needs to make a rule that pitchers must skip a game between appearances.  This would force teams to have more than just 1 great pitcher.

[bnarver]

My pet peeve against softball: Pitching is everything.  A team with 1 top-notch pitcher and mediocre hitting can easily make the tournament and may even make it to the WCWS.  Cat Osterman's experience at Texas is a good example.  Texas was 24-29 in 2001.  Cat shows up in 2002, and Texas goes 50-13 in 2002 and 49-9 in 2003.  She redshirts in 2004 to train for the Olympics with the US National Team.  Texas goes 24-25.  Cat returns to Texas as a Junior in 2005, and Texas goes 49-13 in 2005 and 55-9 in 2006.  Without Cat, Texas goes 35-20 in 2007 and 29-23-2 in 2008.

The rigors of baseball demand that a team has at least 2 very good pitchers if they even want to make the tournament.  I think softball needs to make a rule that pitchers must skip a game between appearances.  This would force teams to have more than just 1 great pitcher.