You asked. The details are involved and complicated.
Patti inadvertantly got herself in a bind. Usually, the DP hits and the pitcher only does that. But the DP, unlike the DH can hit for anybody. Wodach is nursing still some wrist/hand issues with her throwing hand, and she threw okay today, but I think they want to be careful having her swing the bat and messing with her throwing hand. So they DP'd for her at catcher. So they hit Parker, which is fine, though Paige clogs up the bases. We have most of the team who could outrun Paige going two bases than Paige can, one. She might have trouble scoring from second on some doubles, especially with two outs. She is painfully slow.
Patty needs Wodach in the lineup, because Dalton is not going to throw out many true base stealers, and Baylor has a bunch of them.
I thought Patty got impulsive today, and I believe it unnerved her team a little. First, after Dalton, batting leadoff, took called strike three in her first two at bats, Patty who is trying to get her batters to be more agressive pulled her from the game to start the fourth inning. She went to Hatifled, her only senior and removed Dalton.. That messed with the pre game switch plan, if she changed pitchers. Lowary doesn't hit.
So, to have the DP hit for Lowary, she had to swap pitcher and catcher at the same time, when she decided, with just the third base runner Parker had given up, in the sixth, to bring in Lowary, she had to bring in back up catcher Hannah Sparks, who isn't hitting a buck fifty, I don't think. She couldn't bring Dalton in, because she couldn't replace Wodach in the lineup. She could only return Dalton by removing Hatfield. That's the way the re-entry rule works.
And when Hannah was due up, with a runner on late, she replaced her, with Parker, whom she'd replaced in the batting order.. That meant Wodach could only return by replacing Lowary. She didn't want to go there, so her only available catcher was re-entering Dalton, but that meant that Hatfield had to leave. Hatfield is kind of the key to the shift, because she can play infield and outfield reasonably well. But Dalton had to catch. It meant that the only real outfielder she had available was playing Aviu, her starting DP.
I'm a rulesnik. But I've never totallly understood all the nuances of the college DP rule. Still not sure how Aviu could play the field, and Lowary not have to hit. And how Paige could keep hitting as the DP, and Lowary still pitch.
And I still contend that it would all work better if they left Arnold and short and Clifton at second on the shirt, and bring the outfielder in to play in the 3-4 hole.
I understand why they'd hit for Wodach, rather than the pitcher. But if they're going to do that, it's a bad idea to pull Dalton before the game is half over. I don't think they'd thought through all of the scenarios.
It's funny in retrospect, but I wondered if they'd use the shift against Friudenberg or not. She surely has a bat quick enough to pull the ball, which would be a disaster. with a runner at second and two outs, no score, they threw the first pitch with the shift, then figured they'd go back to normal. She pulled an inside pitch foul for the first strike, confirming the decision to no-shift her. The irony is that the little flair she hit that scored the first run, would have been a ball you or I could have caught if we were playing where the extra infielder is in the shift. Which is why they play it. But the shift was off, allowing her to tie it.
The back and forth shifting during the game, is because they were concerned about a couple of things. I suspect they understood there'd be times when Aviu played shift shortstop. She did early in the year when they first used it. But she also has a lot more experience playing right, rather than left. And it's not a small thing, especially in this kind of game. So they originally had Aviu in left, because when Dalton went behind the plate, Aviu was replacing Hatfield defensively. And she'd been playing left, then shifting up to short. But Mendes can play both corner outfield spots equally well. And if they're shifting, she's going to be in center. And when they're not shifting, then leftie hitters are much more likely to hit to leftfield, so her speed over there makes a lot more sense.
Besides. Screwing with Michelle Smith's scorecard is a worthwhile thing.
