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The Raiders beat Marian, once more, today to earn another trip to the NAIA Softball World Series–their 6th trip in 7 years. Looks like Massey knows more than the coaches once again.
The timing made for some nice icing on Coach Harlee‘s birthday cake. Here is a photo from Harlee’s birthday six years ago.
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Not to take anything away from Haley Loffer, as she had an excellent season and deserved to land on the All-American first team, but there is not a softball coach in the universe that would have taken her season over Riley Donovan’s. The NAIA writes about their selection of Loffer being the Player of the Year saying Loffer had “an impressive slash of .404/.564/.770, one of the best in the nation.” Guess whose was the best in the nation? Riley’s at .491/.570/.977! The only one of those that is even close is OBP.
In the announcement, they also marvel at Loffer’s run production. However, if you add up Loffer’s runs and RBIs, they add up to a number that is 39 fewer than Riley’s!
Loffer can steal bases so maybe total bases is a better way to compare? Riley led the nation in total bases at 169. Loffer came in 13th with just 124.
The NAIA could have been honest and said that since Riley won it last year, they weren’t going to give it to her again no matter how well she did. Instead, they did an injustice.
For full comparison stats (including the 16 players who had a higher slugging percentage than Loffer), click here.
What was Riley’s slash in 2022 when she did receive the NAIA Softball Player of the Year Award? .481/.592/.973 So Riley improved on two out of three of those apparently most-important stats, and that isn’t good enough to award her the well-deserved honor again?
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After the 2023 postseason awards for NAIA softball come out next week, SOU will need to build a new Raider Stadium with four columns. That’s the only solution…
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Details here.
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You can watch Wednesday’s game at 2 PDT at Oak Tree or on ESPN3.
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The question that most people must be asking after seeing who won Player of the Year is how can the reigning National Player of the Year, who is having a very similar season as last, not have received the award? I have no idea. You’ll have to ask the coaches.
The article states that it’s because Loffer has the most walks and runs scored. However, Riley has a much higher batting average, more hits, almost twice as many RBIs, seven more HRs, more than 120 points higher in slugging percentage, and 20 more total bases in the exact same number of games. Total bases is a far more important stat than runs or RBIs as the latter two have a lot to do with where one bats in the lineup. Another way to neutralize the fact that Loffer leads off and Riley hits third is to add runs and RBIs. Again, Riley exceeds Loffer by a decent margin (120 for Donovan vs. 108 for Loffer).
Maybe it was defense then? In conference play, Donovan’s fielding percentage was .991; Loffer’s was .936. Hmmmmm…
This seems like an effort on the coaches’ part to “spread the awards” instead of awarding them to the most deserving.