Some Historical Context for State Baseball and Softball

[Dawgg]

Making the not so bold prediction that baseball misses the NCAA tournament, this would mark the first time since 2010 that neither the baseball nor the softball team made it to the NCAA tournament. Before that, you'd have to go back to 1995, which occurred during the 1986-1997 period where State didn't even field a softball team. So if you skip that era, you go back to 1986 when both teams missed the tournament and before that, it was 1982, the softball team's first year of existence.

So, counting only seasons when State fielded both teams, this is only the 4th time since softball began in 1982 and 2nd time since softball returned in 1997 (1982, 1986, 2010, 2023) that both teams have missed the NCAA tournament. No other way to say it but a pretty disappointing showing for both teams this year.

For reference here are the NCAA appearance years for each:
Baseball: 1949, 1953, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021

Softball: 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022

 

[eckie1]

Vic and Fanning in WBB
were the only women’s coaches that I think we can say overachieved for their careers here. Most other women’s sports have been roller coasters with revolving doors as head coaches for their history.

No excuse to be having seasons like this in baseball, though. I’ve resigned myself to the possibility of sLem being back for one year…. It gonna be a massive gamble to keep him, and his pitching coach hire will be one of the most impactful in our history.

 

[Dawgg]

Vic and Fanning in WBB
were the only women’s coaches that I think we can say overachieved for their careers here. Most other women’s sports have been roller coasters with revolving doors as head coaches for their history.

No excuse to be having seasons like this in baseball, though. I’ve resigned myself to the possibility of sLem being back for one year…. It gonna be a massive gamble to keep him, and his pitching coach hire will be one of the most impactful in our history.

This is a side topic, but would you say Fanning ‘overachieved’? She had a number 1 WNBA pick and a number 2 WNBA pick on the same team and couldn’t get past the second round of the NCAA tournament. In 17 seasons, she made it to the sweet sixteen once.

 

[eckie1]

This is a side topic, but would you say Fanning ‘overachieved’? She had a number 1 WNBA pick and a number 2 WNBA pick on the same team and couldn’t get past the second round of the NCAA tournament. In 17 seasons, she made it to the sweet sixteen once.

We were the worst WBB program in the SEC before Fanning came to town…. She never did much in the postseason, but she made us a somewhat respectable program. That was a big achievement. And, since LT hired her, he probably just said make the NIT every now and then like he told Stansbury.