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Seems we have a whole new team coming in. Anyone know any of these girls? I know a few of them and have heard about a few more.

please tell us all you know, that is why this is here, to get us all up to speed who we dont know.

Welcome to the board!

Well I'll give it a shot:

Mindy Chancy - played 3rd on a good HS and summer team in OK
Jennifer Collins - good pitcher, not overpowering but has a good mix of pitches, also has alot of infield and some outfield experience, great baserunner, makes things happen when she gets on
Lyndsey Harris - pitcher with Juco experience
Janae Owens - another Juco
Mandy Huffman - another Juco
Kati Billingsley - Colorado girl, dont know much else
Tiffany Swanson - good hard hurler, swings the bat good too, 5A Pitcher of the Year in OK
Chelsea Lensing - SS from FS Northside with good all around quickness
Hannah Ambrose - dont know much, another Tulsa area girl, most from there know the game well
Brittany Bearden - Juco from GA, sorely needed catcher
Ashley Ray - all stater from Sheridan AR, SS in HS
Audra Finley - another Sheridan girl, played 3rd
Catherine Jones - SS from Nashville AR
Keatha Tollett - C from Nashville
Mallarie Stone - awesome pitcher until she got hurt Jr year, rehabed and showed signs of a full comeback late in her Sr year
Lauren Tracy - pitcher from Pottsville AR, not sure if she was recruited as a pitcher or what
Julianne Mathews - 2nd base/cf from state champ Fayetteville, can hit from either side, good slapper with good speed, not afraid to lay it out to make a catch, and has made several

that's some good info and insight on what fans can expect in this years' class. Is this all the signees or will there be more after the summer semesters?

Have heard of a couple others that might walk on and of course there are at least a few returners from this past season. Does anyone have an idea who is coming back?

Nope, sure don't. But you'd think if you knew so much about who all is coming in, you might be able to find out fairly easily who is coming back.

But do we really want them to be coming back?

Well, based on last year's results ... probably not just too many.

I'd say you definitely want Christy Holford and Maegan Bell back, and Amy Sperle. Devin McWayne would be right there, and Jamie Terry. Jessica Maland would get to stay, too.

After that, just do whatever.

I'll agree with Holford, Bell and Sperle. As far as Terry, McWayne and Maland, they had 35 errors between them, too many errors on the left side. I'm thinking with at least 7 infielders coming in, someone is gonna have the hitting AND a better glove/arm.

I have no idea on the capabilities of the newcomers. As for the E3, as we'll heretofore refer to Terry, McWayne and Maland, I just included them based on the fact they're some of your better returning bats. If the newcomers can supplant them, then that's fantastic.

I didn't realize UCA had 26 more errors than its opposition this season. That's a good way to lose games.

If you want to see a disturbing stat, look at the stolen bases against our catchers. 84 successful steals out of 87 attempts. Think about the implications of that. 84 singles or BBs or whatever become a runner in scoring position.

Well, when the bases are 12 feet apart, its not to hard to steal a base.

Well yeah, 60' makes it easier than baseball, but our 3% success rate of catching base stealers was still far short of the 20% rate of our combined opponents.

On the flipside, the shorter basepath means second and third base are both closer to home in softball than in baseball, meaning it's a shorter throw – which would seemingly negate a considerable amount of the effect of the runner having shorter distance.

Well considering a sprinter hits about 20-22 mph and a catchers throw would be in the 50s, a longer basepath would be to the advantage of the catcher.

Math aside, even an 80% success rate for steals seems a bit high to me. Baseball runners have maybe a 10' leadoff and they can make their move well before the pitch leaves the pitchers hand. I sure don't see any catchers in baseball getting burned that often.