Archive for the Softball Category
Although it’s not yet confirmed, indications are that Sara Pickering will follow new FSU Head Coach Lonni Alameda to the Seminole Softball team as an assistant coach. UNLV Bio: Sara Pickering
Looks like Lonni is bringing her whole crew.
Florida State University is prepared to announce Lonni Alameda as the new Head Coach of Seminole Softball. Alameda heads to Tallahassee after coaching UNLV since June of 2003. Alameda posted a 132-118 157-158-1 record during her tenure there. The Rebels started off last season hot, defeating highly ranked opponents to go 9-1-1, but finished 25-40-1 overall and 5-15 in the Mountain West Conference. Prior to UNLV, she spent eight seasons at Stanford as an assistant coach, where she produced three All-American pitchers as the pitching coach.
Let the comments begin…
UPDATE:
News from the Las Vegas Review Journal: UNLV Loses Softball Head Coach
UPDATE:
Official Word from Seminoles.com - Florida State Hires Lonni Alameda To Head Softball Program
Of interest from the article on Alameda - “To Alameda, academics are just as important as on-the-field production. Since taking over the program, the Rebels have had 58 Academic All-MWC honorees. Over the past five years, the team has had 10 or more honored four times, including 11 softball student-athletes in 2008. The softball program has had 21 MWC Scholar-Athletes selected, as well.
During her tenure at UNLV, Alameda also stressed the importance of community service and had players volunteer their time at the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation and Child Haven while participating in breast cancer walks and blood drives.”
Seminoles.com has a new Doak Campbell Stadium Improvements photo gallery.
Jonathan Hannah ain’t gonna be a Nole over at ChantRant.
Buster Posey won the Golden Spikes. Gee, ya think?
Jordi is still in the running for FSU Softball Head Coach.
ScalpEm.com is invited to be a part of the Blogpoll. I’m accepting, but those Michigan boys had better not ask me to donate to the Rich Rod Regret Fund when it starts.
He has all of the qualifications… see what you guys think.
Operators are standing by…
It’s pretty safe to say that Louie Berndt won’t be Head Coach next season.
Hell if I know. But I’ll go out on a small limb and assume it won’t be Louie Berndt at this point, since she was in the first round of candidates. Maybe I’m wrong, who knows.
Whatever the case, the Noles need to get someone at the helm immediately. Recruiting is in full swing, and FSU needs a lot of help.
Usually I don’t deal in rumors… but all indications are that FSU will have a new softball coach by Wednesday, and an announcement will be made a day or two later.
Take it with a grain of salt.
However, the Noles need to name somebody ASAP, since it’s important for recruiting and the Seminoles have a lot of them to fill.
Hey everyone, I’ve been on vacation eating my slacker jacks, so here’s a bunch of info and some thoughts about FSU sports.
Walter Dix is the fastest man alive. Okay, well he’s one of the fastest if not THE fastest, but in Beijing he might be the fastest and win the gold, considering he beat the current gold medal winner a few days ago. I think there are some “Walter Dix” is so fast comments ready to be made, a la Chuck Norris.
Walter Dix is so fast he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head. Ponder that one for a second.
Speaking of track, the FSU Track team is amazingly kick ass. They have won 3 national titles in a row, they signed their head coach to a long term deal and they are sending kids to the Olympics. Pretty awesome, and it’s a team that needs more recognition.
Buster Posey is ALL EVERYTHING. He keeps winning awards. He won the Johnny Bench Award and the Brooks Wallace Award recently.
In some very scary and sad news, the FSU Football Team is likely to be without Offensive Lineman Evan Bellamy. Bellamy was rushed to the hospital last week with a blood clot in his leg. Now MORE THAN HALF of the offensive line on scholarship is freshman. Drew Weatherford, you have my condolensces because you’ll be spending a lot of time on your back, again.
On a brighter note, EJ Manuel might be the real deal. I like what he has to say, let’s hope he lives up to 1/10th the hype.
In softball related news, I was introduced to a great website for info, Ultimate College Softball. There hasn’t been a ton of rumors about JoAnne Graf’s eventual replacement, but I’m hopeful for David Deiros from FGCU. We shall see.
In non-related news, the Danny Ford Is God Mustache / Beard / Dang I Should Have Entered Because Mine Is Just As Ratty As Theirs Contest is going well so far. Check out the recent update.
By Bill Kristoph
The 2008 FSU Softball season turned out to be what most fans expected, good by many standards, mediocre by FSU standards. It’s been the same story for a couple of years (basically Tiffany McDonald’s entire career at FSU), if the Seminole offense wakes up, then the Noles win. All too often though, the FSU bats are seemingly dead, or they die at the wrong time. Fight, Fight, Fight for F-S-U goes the fight song, but the Noles didn’t show it very often. When trailing after 4 innings were 3-24, after 5 innings they were 3-22 and after 6 innings, 0-21.
The biggest issue of the 2008 season though, was the pitching staff behind TMac. Hopefully local Tallahassee talent Sarah Hamilton picks up the pace next year, after a solid, but inconsistent, debut and Terese Gober rebounds from an ugly sophomore slump. It would be nice to see Melissa May return to the form of her first two years too, when she was a solid lefty for the Noles. Who’s to blame for the downright mediocre pitching performance? For now, the finger has to be pointed at Barbara Sherwood, not directly due to her coaching, but maybe due to 2008 being a “getting to know each other” season for her and the pitching staff. Casey Hunter had similar ups and downs her senior season when the Noles changed pitching coaches too.
On the offensive side, the slumps spilled over to Monica Montez too, who batted 90 points lower than her ACC Freshman of the Year performance in 2007. Basically, Brittany Osmon, Whitney Buckmon and Carly Wynn carried the team. Wynn (pictured above) is the only one of those returning. She’ll be the only .300 hitter returning from the 2008 Seminoles.
The 2008 season was, to quote Dennis Green, “Exactly what we though they were.”
Looking ahead to 2009:
On the bright side, the middle of the infield has a year under its belt. Freshmen Kristie McConn and Ashley Stager need to step up next season in the field and at the plate. Carly Wynn returns with a glove that gets everything in the outfield, a great bat, and good speed on the bases. Robin Ahrberg and Jessica Gilmore will anchor home plate again, splitting duties at catcher and in Ahrberg’s case, providing some pop in the batter’s box. And, if Allison Collins can improve her consistency at the plate, her power will be welcome in the lineup at designated player, while she waits behind Ahberg and Gilmore at catcher.
Most importantly though, between now and the start of the 2009 season let’s hope the Noles find some fight. Maybe a viewing of 300 is in order for the team?
The 2008 Seminole Softball ended over the weekend at the Tuscaloosa Regional. The Noles managed a victory over Chattanooga, but lost to Jacksonville State twice, 5-4 and 10-1. Pitching was the story again for the Noles. Tiffany McDonald was solid in the Game 1 loss to Jacksonville State and she struck out 17 in the extra inning victory over Chattanooga. The Noles couldn’t put it together in the 10-1 loss though. The story was the same all season, if McDonald wasn’t out there, the Seminoles were iffy on the mound, at best.
I’ll weigh in tomorrow with thoughts about the overall season.