Texas Tech is 12-4 and their offensive production is actually superior to Cal's numbers. Someone stated that the Bear's schedule has been relatively soft but the Red Raiders has been even easier. Their stats have only been updated through 11 games and their offensive numbers are prolific. TT has six pitchers and they all seem solid.

23 Softball Overall (PDF) - Texas Tech Red Raiders

Their fielding stats do not impress. Cal & Texas Tech matchup closely on paper. Both teams have yet to play a home game on the season. Both offenses score 7+ rpg and outscore their opposition by 4-5 runs per contest. This game should be interesting! The team that gets the best pitching and defense probably will prevail.

Elon Butler looks overmatched at the plate. She swings at a pitch up at eye level and then takes strike three right down the middle of the plate without swinging. First strike out by TT pitcher.

Haley Archer is getting her pitches up and giving lots of fly balls hit solidly. She normally gets mostly ground balls.
Texas Tech has 25 HRs so she had better get her sinker (drop) ball working...

B3rd-Bears awaken with a solo HR from D'Asha Saiki and a second run driven in on a double by Mika Lee.
TT changes pitchers as a result.

Top of the 5th, Haley seems to be on her game with three softly hit groundouts. Cal still leads 2-0.
GO BEARS!

S71 you sure seem to put a negative spin on things. You went on and on about injuries yet Sona is playing today. Yes we still have Sonia and McDade out, but it's seems we've found a solid trio of starters. Yeah we have 22 errors in 15 games, but the opposition has 20. What's coach going to do when McDade and Sonia are available? I'm just asking you to tone down the negative spin you put on virtually every sentence you write about concerning Cal sports.

Archer with the complete game Shutout, 3-0 Bears. The Bears I believe are 14-2. Great start for the Golden Bears Softball team. Coach Spencer has them rolling. Great job by the team. When they get healthy they maybe a walking Giant. Go Bears!

CC2-I'm not going to change at age 74 so don't read my posts. You're incorrect that Sona Halajian is playing. She is out and so is Tatum Anzaldo. Haylei Archer found her drop ball over the last three innings and racked up a career high 7 strike outs. Bears finish 5-0 for the Mary Nutter Classic for a 14-2 start to the season.

GO BEARS!

Just woke up from a nap. Seems they did OK. No errors.

wvitbear-you put your finger on the key to victory: good infield defense!

From watching hundreds of games in youth baseball, there are more good fielders than good hitters.

I did not expect Archer to shutout an offense like TT. Great Job, Bears. Imagine when we tighten up our defense and get all of the injured players back?

Another thing. I think some people were confused at Coach Spencer hiring someone young and inexperienced like Mueller. The way she gels with players, has produced home run results Cal hasn't seen in awhile…it shows you just need to trust the people in power.

Schroeder71 said:

---

CC2-I'm not going to change at age 74 so don't read my posts. You're incorrect that Sona Halajian is playing. She is out and so is Tatum Anzaldo. Haylei Archer found her drop ball over the last three innings and racked up a career high 7 strike outs. Bears finish 5-0 for the Mary Nutter Classic for a 14-2 start to the season.

GO BEARS!

---

Yup. I meant Sophie Medillon who played 1b last couple games. Hitting .360 with 6 HRs. No dropoff there. Tatum Anazaldo hit .388 with 4 HR all year. Both her and Sona have been out since Feb 11. Despite the rash of injuries, poor fielding and your trashing of Elon Butlers hitting style, the team is 14-2 and should be ranked top 20.

You are just a youngster Schroder. I'm 76 and 77 soon but I still get out and travel about.

CC2-I want Elon Butler to succeed. After all, she's from San Jose and Archbishop Mitty for goodness sakes. EB went 3 for 4 in the initial two games (weak opponents) of the Mary Nutter but finished 0-11 in the final three against stronger teams. She needs to get her OB% above .300. Bears have ten players doing that already.

If she doesn't improve her hitting numbers, I would guess that Tatum Anzaldo will claim left field when she returns.
2023 California Softball (PDF) - California Golden Bears Athletics (calbears.com)

Elon Butler, Tatum Anzaldo and Acacia Anders are all athletic and are natural shortstops. Any of them could be placed in the outfield if need be to add their offense to the batting order. I think that it's possible for Cal to have nine starters that hit .300 BA%. Mika Lee is doing a solid job in RF but when Sona Halajian is healthy, they'll need to get her bat in the line-up, too. Maybe she'll DH when she is not pitching. GO BEARS!

Ok S71, I agree. Now that we have a few days between games, tell me what's going on with Women's tennis. Team is 3-3, with an unlikely loss to USD. Seems like 3-4 matches have been canceled.

Ccajon2 said:

---

Schroeder71 said:

---

CC2-I'm not going to change at age 74 so don't read my posts. You're incorrect that Sona Halajian is playing. She is out and so is Tatum Anzaldo. Haylei Archer found her drop ball over the last three innings and racked up a career high 7 strike outs. Bears finish 5-0 for the Mary Nutter Classic for a 14-2 start to the season.

GO BEARS!

---

Yup. I meant Sophie Medillon who played 1b last couple games. Hitting .360 with 6 HRs. No dropoff there. Tatum Anazaldo hit .388 with 4 HR all year. Both her and Sona have been out since Feb 11. Despite the rash of injuries, poor fielding and your trashing of Elon Butlers hitting style, the team is 14-2 and should be ranked top 20.

---

That's pretty optimistic even with the strong start. We've yet to face a sure-fire tournament team and, while Archer, Reimers and Teperson look to have improved over last year, Sona was hit hard in her early action. We may have the hitting to become a ranked team, especially if Medellin, Saiki and Thomas continue ro hit well, but we'll see much better pitching in league play than we've seen so far. We'll need all the offense we can muster and that means we must have Sona and Anzaldo in the lineup. I don't believe we've had Bishop, one of our better hitters the last couple of seasons, in a game yet. Is she hurt? Gone?

59bear said:

---

Ccajon2 said:

---

Schroeder71 said:

---

CC2-I'm not going to change at age 74 so don't read my posts. You're incorrect that Sona Halajian is playing. She is out and so is Tatum Anzaldo. Haylei Archer found her drop ball over the last three innings and racked up a career high 7 strike outs. Bears finish 5-0 for the Mary Nutter Classic for a 14-2 start to the season.

GO BEARS!

---

Yup. I meant Sophie Medillon who played 1b last couple games. Hitting .360 with 6 HRs. No dropoff there. Tatum Anazaldo hit .388 with 4 HR all year. Both her and Sona have been out since Feb 11. Despite the rash of injuries, poor fielding and your trashing of Elon Butlers hitting style, the team is 14-2 and should be ranked top 20.

---

That's pretty optimistic even with the strong start. We've yet to face a sure-fire tournament team and, while Archer, Reimers and Teperson look to have improved over last year, Sona was hit hard in her early action. We may have the hitting to become a ranked team, especially if Medellin, Saiki and Thomas continue ro hit well, but we'll see much better pitching in league play than we've seen so far. We'll need all the offense we can muster and that means we must have Sona and Anzaldo in the lineup. I don't believe we've had Bishop, one of our better hitters the last couple of seasons, in a game yet. Is she hurt? Gone?

---

She was injured the fall ball games I attended. Oh how nice it would be to have everyone healthy.

Massey has Cal at #24 FURDS exact same 14-2 but #8. SOS weighs heavily in the ratings.

Ccajon2 said:

---

Massey has Cal at #24 FURDS exact same 14-2 but #8. SOS weighs heavily in the ratings.

---

Furds beaten #13 Georgia twice..in Georgia to boot. Their only losses were to #1 Oklahoma & #16 Duke. Definitely a tougher schedule than Cal

CC2-The cancelled games were rained out home matches. The team seems to really miss the one senior that departed from last year's team. She was the 6-1 Swede, Julia Rosenqvist. Also, the #4 singles player from the prior year, Jada Bui, transferred. She missed last season due to injury. The team is relatively intact and is replacing the four year starter with a freshman, Berta Passola Folch. I will be surprised if this group can pull it together and play as well as last season's team. I'll keep my fingers crossed. GO BEARS!

Schroeder71 said:

---

CC2-The cancelled games were rained out home matches. The team seems to really miss the one senior that departed from last year's team. She was the 6-1 Swede, Julia Rosenqvist. Also, the #4 singles player from the prior year, Jada Bui, transferred. She missed last season due to injury. The team is relatively intact and is replacing the four year starter with a freshman, Berta Passola Folch. I will be surprised if this group can pull it together and play as well as last season's team. I'll keep my fingers crossed. GO BEARS!

---

give them time. right now limted matches and practice time makes it tougher. they went to florida to play miami and NCS. and lost but the weakness is in the #5 and #6 singles spots. so the doubles #3 team suffers as well and we don't win the double point as well against strong teams. the two sophs are playing well but perhaps not as well as last year. Cal also does not have valentina. i don't know what has happened with her. with julia and valentina in last years lineup. it moved katja and hannah down to #4 or # 5. Jada was injured and did not play. haley does not seem to be playing as well either. when one is not able to practice and then play actual matches, you lose your sharpness and intensity. once they are able to do that, they will get better. Are they top 10? no. top 25 yes.i have watched them play and i can say this cause I am a high level senior tennis player. only thing that is keeping my tennis going is i get to play indoors once a week. otherwise i would not be playing any tennis. i have had 3 singles tournaments rained out and 3 league matches as well. yes my game is suffering, but other players are as well. Cal will need at least two strong high level players for next year. cal does not recruit well in the USA. they get their strong players usually from other countries. Can;t tell you why. it is what it is. Cal fights with stanford and UCLA and the eastern schools for the high level US players. only jessica did they win that battle.

LodeBear-I appreciate your response. I am a diehard Cal fan that follows several different sports. Unfortunately, I never played tennis but instead played boy's team sports (football, basketball, baseball, fastpitch softball, track & field) growing up. Your expertise is needed here so feel free to contribute any time. There was another major tennis fan here for several years, but she (or he) moved back east.

Cal will lose three seniors, won't they? Giavara, Ivanov & Richardson so they will have three available scholarships to fill with the right people. It's too bad that Jada Bui departed. She played #4 singles two seasons ago and she would have had an opportunity to play this year.

Have you heard anything about potential recruits, either domestic or foreign? The women's team has been competitive most years so Cal fans have high expectations for their performance.

Cal just lost another 4-3 heart-breaker to #5 Michigan. The match was very close but results are not going the Bear's way this season (3-4 record).
Cal Rally Falls Short Against Michigan - California Golden Bears Athletics (calbears.com)

GO BEARS!

Schroeder71 said:

---

LodeBear-I appreciate your response. I am a diehard Cal fan that follows several different sports. Unfortunately, I never played tennis but instead played boy's team sports (football, basketball, baseball, fastpitch softball, track & field) growing up. Your expertise is needed here so feel free to contribute any time. There was another major tennis fan here for several years, but she (or he) moved back east.

Cal will lose three seniors, won't they? Giavara, Ivanov & Richardson so they will have three available scholarships to fill with the right people. It's too bad that Jada Bui departed. She played #4 singles two seasons ago and she would have had an opportunity to play this year.

Have you heard anything about potential recruits, either domestic or foreign? The women's team has been competitive most years so Cal fans have high expectations for their performance.

Cal just lost another 4-3 heart-breaker to #5 Michigan. The match was very close but results are not going the Bear's way this season (3-4 record).
Cal Rally Falls Short Against Michigan - California Golden Bears Athletics (calbears.com)

GO BEARS!

---

Hi Schroeder. yes cal has been good with tennis through the years. every so often they get a team that has a chance to win the NCAA title. well i still coach girls basketball and tennis. can still play tennis with players but not basketball any more. used to play club basketball, softball and volleyball when i was younger. tennis since junior high school. Yes Cal loses 3 seniors. the websites for tennis recruiting are available to check out players and teams and commitments. Cal generally recruiting out of the US, so those recruits are not in the database. Stanford, UCLA and USC always out recruit Cal with US players. and now other PAC 12 teams are doing the same. I don't know who they are recruiting unless US players as the data base shows teams being favored. i wil get the website for you. i have not looked recently. it is in my computer somewhere. next year, jessica, katja and hannah with the freshman at 4. hopefully they can get one top player to be in the top 4. and two more in 5 and 6 singles. thiel can complete and hopefully she will be better next year. this team can compete. they will be better as the season goes on.

LodeBear-I found TennisRecruiting.net and the Bears picked up a junior from Harker Academy (from Los Gatos).

Player Overview - Sophie Hernandez (tennisrecruiting.net)

She is ranked nationally #26 (similar to Makenna Thiel @ #24 in 2021) in the Class of 2024. She won't solve next season's problems unless she seeks an early entry in January, 2024. Many student athletes have done that...

The 2021 Class for Cal was three recruits from the US: #2 Jessica Alsola, #5 Katja Wiersholm & #24 Thiel.
You're correct, however, that Cal usually has multiple foreign players.